More converts to Church of Jesus Christ in 36 months than total membership in 1940

SALT LAKE CITY — The number of new members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the last 36 months exceeded the total number of church members alive during the 110th anniversary of the church. Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke during the Saturday Afternoon Session of the 195th General Conference. He shared that nearly 900,000 converts had joined the church within the last three years. "There is clear evidence that faith in Jesus Christ is increasing in our day," Elder Cook said. "... there has been a remarkable increase in converts and convert participation." He then compared the number of new converts to the number of previously baptized members of the church living in 1940, just over 860,000 members. Elder Cook, 85, was born in 1940, along with two other members of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf. While teachings from the mid-1800s encouraged members of the church to gather at a central location, current teachings encourage members of the church to bloom where they were planted and grow the church in their local communities. There are currently more than 17 million members of the church across the world, a massive increase from the humble beginnings of just six members in a log cabin in upstate New York.

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