The Singapore Mission

The Singapore Mission is said to be the most complex mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, covering an area larger than the continental United States until boundaries changed on 1 November 2007. It now comprises 5 countries: Singapore, Malaysia, The Maldives, Diego Garcia, and Brunei although active proselyting only occurs in Singapore and Malaysia. Since is creation in 1963, the Singapore Mission has had 13 Presidents and is currently led by Bryan Skelton, whose term as mission president ends on 1 July 2009.

History
The Singpore mission itself opened in 1974 under the leadership of President G. Carlos Smith. However, the history of the mission is closely tied to the history of the countries within the mission.

History of the Church in Singapore
In 1960, four members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were found to be living in Singapore. Latter-day Saints from the British military and from Hong Kong began holding Church meetings in Singapore in 1963. The first missionaries arrived there from the Southern Far East Mission in March 1968. That same year the Church established the first congregation in Singapore. The Southeast Asia Mission was created in November 1969. In 1970, when approximately 100 Latter-day Saints lived in Singapore, government officials restricted preaching and visas for missionaries. Progress continued through the efforts of local members, and by 1976, Church membership in Singapore totaled 309. The Singapore Mission was reopened in January 1980. Five years later, Church membership in Singapore was 960. By 1990 the Church had constructed three meetinghouses that served approximately 1,300 members.

In August 1992, Jon Huntsman Jr., a Latter-day Saint who had preached as a missionary in Taiwan, was sworn into office as the United States Ambassador to Singapore. By mid-1993 Church membership in Singapore totaled 1,750 in seven congregations.

History of the Church in Malaysia
When the Singapore Mission opened in 1974, with Malaysia a part of the mission, missionaries were rotated in and out of the country on 30-day tourist visas to comply with the law of the land.

After the government granted the Church recognition status in 1977, Elder and Sister Werner Kiepe were sent to Malaysia. They helped acquire the first property owned by the Church in Malaysia in the suburb of Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. Church membership was small with many members being American and Australian, temporarily working in the country, as well as some Chinese members living in the country.

A milestone was reached when two native Malaysian elders were called in 1981 to serve as missionaries in the Singapore Mission. In the same year, a district was organized. In 1986, the seminary and institute program was established. In 1990, King Syed Putra Jamallai, the Rajah of Perlis State in Malaysia, was honored during a visit at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii.

In 1995 Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited Malaysia and dedicated the country for preaching the gospel. Convert baptisms have doubled in 1998 over those in 1997.

Ground was broken for the first meetinghouse in East Malaysia at Koto Kinabalu on 16 April 2003.

History of the Church in Sri Lanka
Two Latter-day Saint missionaries, Chauncey W. West and Benjamin F. Dewey, arrived in Ceylon in May 1853. They briefly labored in Galle and Colombo but could find neither a hall in which to preach nor a person to listen to their message, thanks largely to the influence of anti-Mormon tracts and newspaper articles. They remained in the country only a short time before returning to India.

The Church’s next official contact with Sri Lanka was in August 1975, when two missionaries en route home from the Singapore Mission were assigned to stop in Sri Lanka to explore the prospects for initiating missionary work. They reported favorably.

In 1976, Clarence Long, a Latter-day Saint from Texas, visited Colombo on business and became acquainted with Reginald and Easvary Rasiah and presented them with a Book of Mormon. Their son, Rosignald traveled to the U.S. to work for Long and was baptized in Texas in June 1977. Reginald and Easvary Rasiah were baptized in August 1977, a few of their family members and others were baptized in ensuing months.

The Sri Lanka Branch (a small congregation) was organized in March 1978 with Reginald Rasiah as president. The Church was officially registered in March 1979.

In 1979, the Genealogical Society of Utah started microfilming Sri Lanka’s vital records. The Church and the Rotary Club in Columbo worked together to start a program to teach English as a second language in February 1982.

Several senior couples served in Sri Lanka beginning in the late 1970s. They did not actively proselyte, but taught those who requested more information about the Church. Missionaries were removed from the country at different times due to civil war. Sri Lanka had one branch and 135 members in 1990. Limited numbers of young foreign missionaries were allowed to serve there beginning about the late 1990s. This led to accelerated Church growth.

The first chapel in Sri Lanka was dedicated in December 2001. In 2003, membership reached 783.

Congregations

Singapore

West Malaysia

East Malaysia

Sri Lanka

Mission Presidents

Bryan Skelton

Gary Lee Larkins

Languages Spoken

Singapore
English
Mandarin Chinese

Malaysia
English
Malay
Iban

Sri Lanka
English
Sinhala
Tamil

Missionaries

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See Also

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