The U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

has the sixth most members of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

in the United States. The LDS Church is the 2nd largest denomination in Washington, behind the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

History

The first known member of the Church moved to Washington in 1852, with missionaries arriving in Washington Territory from California as early as 1854. Enough converts were baptized along the Lewis River in the southwest portion of the state that a congregation was created in that area. Tensions escalated to the death of one member in 1911, who was given a secret burial at night. Members of the Church helped construct the

Oregon Short Line Railroad The Oregon Short Line Railroad was a railroad in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon in the United States. The line was organized as the Oregon Short Line Railway in 1881 as a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railway. The Union Pacific int ...

in the 1880s. By 1930, nearly two thousand members lived within the state with chapels located in the

Puget Sound Region The Puget Sound region is a coastal area of the Pacific Northwest in the U.S. state of Washington, including Puget Sound, the Puget Sound lowlands, and the surrounding region roughly west of the Cascade Range and east of the Olympic Mountains. ...

and in Spokane. Washington saw many members move to the state after the completion of the

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerh ...

and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to work in defense industries.LDS Church News - United States information: Washington
/ref> The first branch in Washington was created at Tacoma near the end of 1899, with its first stake being created at Seattle in 1938. Washington's

first temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by th ...

was built in

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

in 1980. There are now also temples in

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

and Richland and another to be constructed in Moses Lake.Washington - LDS Statistics and Church Facts , Total Church Membership
/ref>

County Statistics

LDS Seattle North Stake meeting house 01

List of LDS Church adherents in each county as of 2010 according to the Association of Religion Data Archives: Note: Each county adherent count reflects meetinghouse location of congregation and not by location of residence. Census count reflects location of residence which may skew percent of population where adherents reside in a different county as their congregational meetinghouse.

Missions

On July 26, 1897, the Northwestern States Mission was organized to search out

Latter Day Saints The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...

who had moved to Washington, Oregon, and Montana. On January 1, 1968, The Pacific Northwest Mission was created with Joe E. Whitesides as president. On June 10, 1970, its name changed to the Washington Mission and ultimately the Washington Seattle Mission on June 20, 1974. As of 2016, Washington is home to eight missions, three of which are east of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

, and five are on the west side.

Temples

Washington currently has three temples in operation. A fourth temple, the Moses Lake Washington Temple, was announced by President Russell M. Nelson in his concluding talk of the Sunday afternoon session of the 189th annual General Conference on Sunday, April 7, 2019, to be built in Moses Lake, Washington and is currently under construction. A fifth temple, the Tacoma Washington Temple, was announced by President Russell M. Nelson in his concluding talk of the Sunday afternoon session of the October 2022 General Conference on Sunday, October 2, 2022, to be built in Tacoma, Washington. In addition, members in the Bellingham Washington Stake are served by the Vancouver British Columbia Temple and members in and around

Vancouver, Washington Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, located in Clark County. Incorporated in 1857, Vancouver has a population of 190,915 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Was ...

are served by the

Portland Oregon Temple The Portland Oregon Temple is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) located on of land near the intersection of Highway 217 and I-5 in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The temple's architecture features six white spires ...

.Portland Oregon LDS Temple District
/ref>

References

External links

Newsroom (Washington)

ComeUntoChrist.org
Latter-day Saints Visitor site
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Washington, The * Christianity in Washington (state) Latter Day Saint movement in Washington (state)