Mission (LDS Church) - History of Missions - United States and Canada - Post-Second World War Expansion

Post-Second World War Expansion

In 1945 there were the following missions in the United States:

• Northern California (organized 1942)
• Navajo-Zuni (organized 1943)
• New England (organized 1937)
• Spanish-American (organized 1936)
• Texas (organized 1931)
• East Central States
• North Central States
• Northwestern States
• Western States
• Central States
• Southern States
• Eastern States
• Northern States

In May 1945 the Texas Mission was renamed the Texas Louisiana Mission. In October 1947 the Central Atlantic States Mission was formed from the East Central States Mission. This mission was headquartered at Roanoake, Virginia. In 1970 this mission was renamed the North Carolina-Virginia Mission. In 1974 it became the Virginia Roanoake Mission. It was renamed the Virginia Richmond Mission in February 1992 and currently has its headquarters in Richmond.

In 1949 the Great Lakes Mission was organized, consisting of Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The West Central States mission was organized in 1950, consisting primarily of Montana and Wyoming. There was then a break until a new mission was organized in the United States. There was no new mission organized in the United States for almost eight years after this. The general plan of having "states" in the various mission names was expanded when in 1955 the Texas-Louisiana Mission was renamed the Gulf States Mission.

In March 1958 the West Spanish-American Mission was organized. In October 1960 the Eastern Atlantic States Mission was organized with George B. Hill as president. This mission included the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware and southern New Jersey. This was the last new mission formed with "states" in its name. The next month the Florida Mission was organized with Karl R. Lyman as president. In February 1961 a new Texas Mission was split off from the Gulf States Mission.

In 1964 the Cumorah Mission was organized from the Eastern States Mission. Headquartered in Rochester, New York this showed that the "states" naming of missions was doomed. This mission would be renamed New York Rochester in 1974. This year also saw the organization of the Northern Indian Mission, organized from the Southwest Indian Mission, formerly the Navajo-Zuni Mission. This was the heyday of separate missions organized to proselyte with specific linguistic and ethnic groups. The California South Mission was formed in June 1966. 1967 saw two new missions that showed that "states" no longer made sense with missions since it was becoming true that missions often covered no more than one state. The Ohio Mission was organized from the Great Lakes Mission and the Texas South Mission was organized from the Texas and the Spanish-American missions. 1967 also saw the rest of the Spanish American Mission put in the Western States and Texas Missions. A decision had been made to have missionaries assigned to missions by area and not language. The full effects of this decision would not been seen for a few more years. On the 1st day of 1968 the Pacific Northwest Mission was organized. This made it so the Northwestern States mission was essential Oregon and adjacent parts of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest Mission was Washington with neighboring portions of Idaho.

Salt Lake City was first included in a regular mission in 1975. This was with the organization of the Utah Salt Lake City Mission.