Special report: Challenges abound, but migrants are ‘saving’ the LDS Church and building Zion in Europe

Frankfurt, Germany • Swiss Latter-day Saints sit side by side in the pews with Ecuadorians, Ukrainians worship with Polish members, Persian speakers join Austrians, and Ghanaians make up as much as a fourth of some German congregations.

Temples are built in villages squeezed between buildings, rather than set apart by lush lawns and parking lots.

A regional headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Frankfurt, Germany, resembles a Google campus, and the faith’s teens party with 20,000 Catholics and 70,000 Protestants at religious festivals. Latter-day Saints across the political spectrum, from far right to far left, all feel at home in the American-born faith, while women serve as advisers to the church’s male area authorities.

This is European-style Mormonism (think German apostle Dieter Uchtdorf) and, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not dying but growing.

That’s due partly to the waves of immigrants that have poured over the Continent in the past decade — and to the vision of the church’s European leaders to build bridges with folks of other faiths.

There’s new energy — and optimism — about the future of the Utah-based religion in the Central Europe region, which covers 37 countries, more than 503,000 members, nearly 40 missions, 1,318 congregations, 14 temples and 660 family history centers.

European immigrants journeyed to Utah and “rescued” the church in the 19th century “when it was struggling,” says Dinis (pronounced Dee-neesh) Adriano, communication director for the faith’s Central European area. Now people from other countries, he says, are “saving the church in Europe.”

Attracting converts

There are many multigenerational Latter-day Saints in Europe, whose grandparents, great-grandparents or great-great-grandparents were converted by mostly American missionaries.

They formed a strong foundation for the faith. Count Ralf Grünke, the assistant communication director for the Europe Central Area, among them.

Grünke’s Polish grandmother met a pair of Latter-day Saint proselytizers when she moved to a tiny German village in the 1950s. Members encircled the widow and her three children, going out of their way to support and sustain her.

The closest congregation was about 25 kilometers away, so it was quite a trek for the two “home teachers” who faithfully visited her on their bikes, Grünke explains on a recent “Mormon Land” podcast.

One had a wooden leg; the other was blind.

“The guy with a wooden leg would sing or talk the entire time while they were riding their bicycles,” the German Latter-day Saint says, “so that the blind guy would know where to go.”

Their service wasn’t just about making sure his grandmother stayed in the fold, but about listening and hearing her and building her up. It buoyed her until the day she died. That’s the faith and service Grünke inherited from his grandmother and what he hopes the church in Europe exemplifies.

Like his grandmother, many if not most of those who are joining the church are migrants from other nations, many from outside the Continent.

Grünke and his wife, Emily, who live in Frankfurt, recently invited two “sister” (female) missionaries over for dinner. The young women told the couple that they “are asking some of the members of the ward [congregation] to assist them in practicing their German and German pronunciation,” he says. “They both agreed that they had never taught in German.”

Most of those willing to hear their religious message, the young women told Grünke, “have been immigrants.”

Martin Bates, former superintendent of Utah’s Granite School District, currently presides with his wife, Donna, over the Alpine German-Speaking Mission, which includes parts of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

The church in Germany “is much more diverse than 40 years ago,” when he was a young missionary, Bates writes in an email. “Door knocking was never a high-return activity, but missionaries do it and meet people who want to learn more. … Our missionaries teach regularly, and many people, approaching half who are not native German speakers, choose to bind themselves to Christ through the covenant of baptism.”

The missionaries “face rejection, but most are pleasantly surprised that the stories they have been told about Europe and Germans are greatly exaggerated,” he says. “The language is hard, but most people are pleased to speak standardized German, especially when they see how much effort missionaries are putting in.”

Helmut Winterstein was bishop twice of a Hamberg ward — first from 1986 to 1990 and then from 2005 to 2010. In his first term, Sunday attendance ranged from 100 to 110; in the second, it had slipped to about 80 to 85.

“Some moved away, some died and some withdrew,” Winterstein says. “In my opinion, one reason is that the Germans are [prosperous] and think that they don’t need God. Others are turned away from faith because of the bad things that happen in the world (How can God permit this?).”

These days, attendance is about 40 people in the sacrament meeting, he says. “At present, there are more Africans joining the church than Germans.”

Immigrants are crucial to Latter-day Saint growth in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain, says Rita Dánielné Mester, a Hungarian convert who oversees publishing services for the church’s Central Europe office. “In bigger cities, the congregation is really mixed, but if you travel to the countryside, [immigrants are] really rare.”

They are even rarer in Eastern European countries, Dánielné Mester says. “In Hungary, there are no immigrants. But the church is growing there, and so we are just waiting for the temple to be built in Budapest.”'

Gaining converts through members is “much [more productive] than finding on any other channels — by missionaries online or whatever — because you see the life and how they live the gospel and how it makes them happy,” she says. “I think it was always and ever” the case.

The church is even growing in Turkey, says Julia Wondra, an adviser to the area authority, “mainly because of the internet because we don’t have missionaries there.”

After conversion comes the hard part — integrating new members from diverse backgrounds into long-established, homogenous congregations.

It is building Zion at its best — part of Mormon theology, practice and ethos — but never easy.

Creating communities — big and small

The global faith of 17.2 million members appeals to immigrants who have been uprooted from their homes, do not know the language of the host country, and are looking for a supportive network to help them navigate the changes.

The church attracts those “in search of a welcoming, new community and offers an example of inclusion and diversity,” says Wilfried Decoo, a longtime member, emeritus instructor at church-owned Brigham Young University and retired linguistics professor in Antwerp, Belgium. “Immigrant converts are often quickly involved in the services (prayers, talks, blessing and passing the sacrament, or Communion) and callings. A few integrate well if they are willing to learn the language and eager to become part of the local culture, and if they have a job and get settled.”

Though not insurmountable, many challenges remain.

“Cultural differences sometimes put tolerance to the test, such as exuberant lengthy testimonies and talks, constant need of translation, misunderstood doctrines, a lack of punctuality,” Decoo says. “These may seem minor issues, but they can accumulate.”

At the same time, “social groups often form along racial and nationality lines,” he says. “All are one during meetings but then split into their social groups.”

Local lay leaders are not always able “to handle social, mental and financial needs of immigrants,” Decoo says, “in particular if they are not legally in the country.”

Decoo attends the Antwerp Ward, which counts over 700 members on its records. About half are Belgians, he says, while the other half come from 62 countries, quite a few from Africa (mainly Ghana, Nigeria and Congo). “Most of these converts, baptized over the past two decades, are on the books,” he adds, “but cannot be located anymore.”

Regular church attendance runs between 120 and 130.

Jean Huysmans, also of the Antwerp Ward, pegs the percentage of baptisms the past two years at 70% immigrants and 30% Flemish/Dutch.

“Our foreign immigrants are accepted and included in our ward just fine. Many of them interact amicably with the Flemish and Dutch members,” he writes in an email. “Both Africans and Spanish immigrants have strong mutual ties, and new Africans or Spanish speakers are warmly welcomed by their compatriots.”

The “social and financial needs among immigrants are not greater than others, many of them have fine jobs and good incomes, Huysmans says. “There are always exceptions, but so are the Flemish and Dutch.”

He notes one concern: few immigrants in leadership positions.

“It has been tried a few times,” he says, “but the lack of Dutch language proficiency seems to make leadership positions very difficult.”

Unity with differences

Such divisions can be overcome, says Adriano, the church’s communication director for Central Europe, because these diverse cultures all have something in common: faith in Jesus Christ.

Latter-day Saints, he explains, just have “to make sure their ward communities are welcoming, that anybody new coming in will feel embraced by that and feel loved.”

Members must work on that, says Adriano, who hails from Portugal, is married to a woman from Spain, and lives in Germany. “We’re very judgmental — it’s something we need to improve.”

What about political differences?

Grünke, for example, served on a City Council and ran as an independent on the Green Party ballot.

“The political spectrum among Latter-day Saints being active in politics…is much broader [in Europe] than it is in Utah,” he says in the 2024 Deseret Book volume “Faith and Politics: Latter-day Saint Politicians Tell Their Stories.”

“I know Latter-day Saints…who are active in conservative parties, the Social Democrat Party, the former Communist Party, the Free Democrats, the Green Party … far right, far left, anything back and forth, if at all,” he says. “I don’t know any research on this issue, but I get the impression that on Continental Europe, church members tend to lean toward the political left.”

Of course, the church as an organization is “politically neutral,” he affirms, but encourages members to “get involved and follow their own convictions.”

Marrying fellow believers

It may be exciting for members to see this Latter-day Saint “melting pot” in Europe, but in small villages, cities and even whole countries, there are not enough members for the young to date and find spouses within the faith.

What can the church do to help kids stay in their own countries, Adriano wonders, rather than send them to BYU to find an eternal partner, especially when higher education in Europe is virtually free?

There is not yet a “critical mass” of young Latter-day Saints in Europe to pair them up, he says. There may be only 20 to 30 youths of marriageable age in any place “who share their beliefs and values.”

And so many look outside the faith or the Continent for spouses.

Church leaders are “looking into this,” Adriano says. “This process is just in its infant stages — looking at education and economics that will help the rising generation stay in their countries.”

In the meantime, the church sponsors For the Strength of Youth (FSY) conferences in Europe throughout the summer along with “Festinord,” a Latter-day Saint festival for young single adults from Nordic countries.

A feminist experiment

Three years ago, Julia Wondra of Vienna was in the first group of women to be chosen as “international area organization advisers.”

They were called to “mentor congregational officers and participate in leadership councils” in the region, to “provide women’s perspectives at all levels of councils.”

There are currently 93 serving around the world (though none in the United States).

“We work with the area presidency,” Wondra says, and “received our training mainly from the general boards in Salt Lake City.”

Wondra works with the leaders of the Relief Society for adult women, Young Women for teens, and Primary for children in Hungary, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The male leaders “are really absolutely open to women,” she says. “We tell them what is important to the sisters. It is a good connection. They are not higher than we are. We are on the same level. Women need to see that. Of course, we need equal rights. That’s important.”

But the women, Wondra says, need to “speak up.”

Male-female partnership

To Rita Dánielné Mester, the fight for gender equity is a generational one.

Dánielné Mester joined the church as a 17-year-old in 1995. She and her younger sister were living in a small Hungarian town about 300 kilometers from the capital when they met a couple of “sister missionaries.”

“I was a teenager with a lot of questions,” she recalls. “I already knew that the gospel was true when we started the conversations.”

Nearly 30 years later, Dánielné Mester is married with two young children, works full time at church headquarters in Frankfurt and supervises 90 employees and another 90 contract personnel.

“In most European countries, women have to work to have enough income for the family. Yes, to be self-reliant,” she says in a Zoom interview. “It is not just my generation, but my mother’s generation as well. Yeah, we work eight hours. We are full-time employees. And next to that, we are taking care of the household and the children. …Generally, women have more competencies in every kind of field.”

Duties of women and men in the family are changing, Dánielné Mester says. “Most of the men in my generation have a huge role in taking care of children, and they take their part of the housework as well. I really see that they treat us as equal partners.”

Dánielné Mester sees the same balance in the church.

In councils, women serve as “the problem organizer, the humanitarian coordinator, the FamilySearch adviser, and the communication volunteer,” she says. “So, really, we have a voice in the church in our area.”

No matter where or how she serves, Dánielné Mester says, “priesthood leaders have valued my opinion.”

Interfaith conversation and commitments

The biggest challenge to missionary work, according to those interviewed, is the church’s relative invisibility on the religious landscape.

Even highly educated Europeans draw a blank when asked what they know about Latter-day Saints and the church. If they have heard of “Mormons,” Adriano says, much of their information is incorrect.

The best move for the church, then, is to communicate its beliefs and practices widely, he says, while finding common ground with other faiths, particularly Christians.

That is why, for example, the church will have a booth at the world famous Frankfurt Book Fair, challenging visitors to read at least one page of the faith’s unique scripture, the Book of Mormon.

It’s also why Grünke said this about Latter-day Saints’ participation in last year’s “Kirchentag” faith festival:

The church “considers itself to be a restoration of the primitive Christian congregations and views believers from Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches with a sense of Christian connectedness. Its representatives have attended Protestant and Catholic festivals for many years.”

In recent years, the church sent representatives to the Hesse State convention of interfaith roundtables in Hanau, Germany; the Bielefeld (Germany) Ward co-hosted an interfaith tour of the city, and Latter-day Saints contributed classical music and a speech to a multifaith service to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the first session of the German national assembly at St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt.

One of the greatest ways to help Latter-day Saints “come out of darkness…and into the limelight,” Adriano says, “is really to engage in interfaith dialogue.”

And to participate together in big events.

Last summer, for example, when Lisbon, Portugal, hosted the Catholic World Youth Day, which attracted more than a million young people from around the world, Latter-day Saint youths joined an interfaith choir that sang in several events Pope Francis attended.

Most of the “big religions in the world are well represented in each country of the area,” Adriano says, “...and they play a vital role as a support system for immigrants who come to Europe.”

As a small minority, the church still hopes to establish an essential place on the religious landscape, says the ebullient Portuguese communicator, like salt in a scrumptious feast.

Pointing to the open spaces, colorful posters, foosball table and movable desks in his modern offices, Adriano oozes enthusiasm for a lively, international future.

Seeing both opportunities and endless challenges, he still declares it is the “best time” to be a Latter-day Saint in Europe.