The French East Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints existed for the short span of nine years that began on 19 January of 1961 and ended with a reorganization and name change on 20 June 1970. There were three Mission Presidents who each served three years in this special area with their devoted eternal companions. President Henry D. Moyle, Jr. presided over the Mission from 1961 to 1964, President A. James Martin served from 1964 to 1967 and President J. Fielding Nelson from 1967 to 1970. 2011 marks the 50 year anniversary of it's beginning.
The French Mission that existed previously was headquartered in Paris and had included all of France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland. The headquarters of the new French East Mission was located in Geneva. The area of the Mission encompassed the french speaking part of southwest Switzerland along a rough line across Switzerland connecting Germany and Italy and approximately half of France roughly from the midway point of the France/Germany border to the midway point of the border of Spain between the tiny country of Andorra and the Atlantic (Bay of Biscay). The Mission was bordered on the south and east by Spain, the Mediterranean Sea and Italy. Major cities within those boundaries included Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Cannes, Toulon, Grenoble, St-Etienne, Clermont Ferrand, Dijon, Lausanne, Neuchatel and Geneva.
Prior to the creation of the French East Mission LDS Church missionaries had proselyted among the people of France intermittently for one hundred twelve years and had succeeded in building a membership of approximately 3,500 members in the entire country. The portion of those who were active met together in small branches in "salles" that were rented. Often the local Branch President was a foreign missionary who served only a few months. Transfers brought a frequent change in leadership. There were no chapels or Church-owned meetinghouses, no Wards and no Stakes of the Church anywhere in France in 1961.
The purpose of this project is to bring to light those persons and events that shaped and brought about the phenomenal growth of the Church in France. Like many early missions of the church around the world, the work was often quite difficult but also extremely rewarding. The French East Mission may well be viewed as the "Zion's Camp" of France.
Our intent is to start with what we know and can document from our records and experience and then utilize any additional information, stories or experiences others have (who wish to contribute) to help compile a complete and accurate history of the French East Mission (FEM) from 1961-1970.
We look forward to seeing where this project goes and hearing the fun and uplifting experiences you have about this wonderful mission and period of church history.
Sincerely yours,
Dub Lawrence and Corky Wright
My name is William Joseph "Dub" Lawrence and my companion in this endeavor is Roland Shan "Corky" Wright. We both served under the guidance of President A. James Martin between 1964 and 1966. We dug into trunks and boxes stored for more than 45 years and found hundreds of photos, letters, journals, slides, even tape recorded testimonies of members and missionaries. We were amazed at the volume of valuable untold history in our possession. With your help we can tell the whole story.
