Joseph Fielding Smith, an apostle, dedicated the Philippines for the preaching of the gospel on August 21, 1955, and the first four missionaries arrived from Hong Kong in June 1961. Establishing the Church in the Philippines progressed more smoothly than in any other part of Asia because over 90 percent of the population were Christian, almost 50 percent used English to some degree, and Americans who were teaching a religion with American origins were generally popular. By 1967, the Philippines was made a separate mission with Paul Rose as president, and by 1973, over 13,000 Filipinos had been baptized. On May 20, 1973, Ezra Taft Benson, an Apostle, organized the Manila Philippines Stake with Agusto A. Lim as president. Four years later the Manila stake was divided into three stakes. The developing of experienced leadership and building of adequate meetinghouses have been a challenge, but members have had the full program of the Church, including seminaries and institutes since 1972. Selections from the Book of Mormon were published in Tagalog (1987); a missionary training center was established in Manila (1986); and on September 25–27, 1984, President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Manila Philippines Temple. In 1988 the First Presidency made Manila the headquarters for the Philippines/Micronesia area of the Church and assigned an area president to live there. Church growth in the Philippines has been the most rapid of all Asian countries, and over 80 percent of the missionaries in 1990 were local Filipinos. (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1–4 vols., ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 79.)
The Church in Chile
After Parley P. Pratt’s unsuccessful attempt to establish a Church foothold in Chile in 1851–1852, the Church did not officially come to Chile until Brother William Fotheringham moved to Santiago, Chile, in 1952, and requested that the Church send missionaries there. The first regular missionaries arrived in Santiago just two weeks before Elder Henry D. Moyle, then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, called Brother Fotheringham as the president of the first Chilean branch on July 5, 1956. It was made up primarily of expatriate members, the first local Chilean convert being baptized that same year.
The first mission in Chile was organized on October 8, 1961, with A. Delbert Palmer presiding. That single mission has grown to become six missions, with more than 50 percent of the missionaries called from the local members, many of whom have been prepared in large measure by their seminary and institute training. They are generally called to attend the Missionary Training Center in Santiago, the second such center in South America. The Church has grown rapidly in Chile, with almost 298,000 members on March 31, 1990. On January 1991, Carlos Cifuentes, one of those local converts, became the first native Chilean branch president and stake president. On September 15, 1983, the Santiago Chile Temple was dedicated. Eugene F. and Rae Stephens Jones Olsen were the president and matron. On March 31, 1990, Elder Eduardo Ayala, a former mission president in Uruguay, became the first native Chilean called to be a Seventy. (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1–4 vols., ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1399.)
The Church in Russia
During the 1988 commemoration of 1000 years of Christianity in Russia, it became apparent large numbers of Russians had preserved a heritage of faith despite more than seven decades of official Soviet atheism. Many of these Russians turned for spiritual nourishment to the centuries-old Russian Orthodox Church. Others sought renewal from Christian faiths brought to Russia in the 19th century.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, some Russians began to direct their spiritual quests toward a study of religious faiths just entering the country, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In October 1989 Dennis B. Neuenschwander (now of the Seventy), president of the Austria Vienna East Mission; and Steven R. Mecham, president of the Finland Helsinki Mission, were authorized to take the gospel into the Soviet Union. Within months, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles formally dedicated Estonia for the preaching of the restored gospel and offered a prayer of gratitude in a spirit of rededication in Leningrad, invoking the blessings of heaven upon the Estonian and Russian peoples. (Elder Francis M. Lyman of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had dedicated Russia in July 1903.) In 1990 the Church was officially recognized in Estonia and Russia.
In December 1989 President Mecham and the first full-time missionaries visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and the Estonian capital, Tallinn, to support members and teach investigators. By July 1990 the Church numbered 156 Soviet members: 80 in Leningrad, 43 in Tallinn, 26 in Vyborg, and 7 in Moscow.
Early Russian investigators and new members encountered daunting obstacles to embracing the restored gospel. Paramount was the common perception that joining another church implied a betrayal of Russian Christianity, which was embodied in distinctive images of the Russian Orthodox Church: cathedrals with gilded cupolas and icons, beautiful liturgical music and priestly vestments, and elaborate worship services. (Gary Browning, “Pioneering in Russia,” Ensign, June 1997, 25.)