Missionary work in the Kingdom of the Netherlands began in earnest on 5 August 1861 with the arrival of Anne Wiegers Van der Woude and Paul Schettler in Rotterdam, Netherlands.1 Both men were converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had been living in the USA. Now they were back as the first full-time missionaries for the Church to be assigned to the Netherlands.
Elder Van der Woude was a native of Friesland, Netherlands, who had joined the Church in Cardiff, Wales, in 1852 and emigrated to Utah the following year. Elder Schettler, a Prussian, had been baptised eighteen months earlier in New York City.2 Together they were tasked with establishing a presence in the Netherlands and bringing others to Jesus Christ. On arrival in Rotterdam, the two men took time to pray and dedicate themselves to the Lord.3
The two intrepid missionaries worked to find people to talk to. Rebuffed by his relatives, Elder Schettler travelled to Amsterdam where he began his labours. Both men visited family members during the first few weeks of their mission. Some relatives welcomed them but could not accept the message they shared. Elder Schettler recalled:
My friends and relatives, who are in prosperous circumstances, received me very kindly; but in a few days, after I had preached to them a little of our doctrines, they found out that I had become a ‘Mormon,’ though I had never mentioned the word; and it was very difficult to prevail upon them to listen to sound reasoning from that very hour, because their minds had been prejudiced against us to a great extent, through the reading of the most vile and slanderous reports in Dutch and German newspapers.4
The young missionary’s family and friends could not accept the message he was trying to share, but some of them accepted books and pamphlets to read and he left them all ‘in pretty good feeling.’5
Meanwhile, beginning on 31 August 1861, Elder Van der Woude began spending time with his family in Friesland as he sought to find persons interested in the gospel message. On 18 September he preached to a crowd of people who had squeezed into a farmer’s barn. The people responded enthusiastically to his address and asked him to preach the following Sunday in another barn near to Broek-Akkerwoude.
Elder Van der Woude’s younger brother and sister-in-law, Gerrit and Baudina, and a third person, Elizabeth Wolters, were attracted by the message and sought baptism. A week later, on 1 October 1861, the Dutch missionary baptised the three individuals in a small canal in a rural setting. While the missionaries had the first taste of success the prospects remained limited.
‘There are many honest-hearted people this country who are seeking after the truth,’ wrote Elder Van der Woude, ‘but, owing to the prevalence of false reports…it is difficult to make much progress.’6
As in other countries, false accusations sought to dampen the missionaries’ efforts to spread the restored gospel, but they failed to stop the work.
Almost three months later, on 23 December 1861, Elder Schettler baptised the first three converts in Amsterdam, which included Hendrik Steeter, who also later served a mission and was an early pioneer in the Netherlands.7 In May 1862 a small branch of 14 members was formed and the congregation began to grow. Those first six converts baptised in 1861 set the foundation for the expansion of the mighty work that would follow. There were times of slow growth and hardships would follow, but the Dutch Saints pushed forward in faith.8 Today there are more than 9,000 Latter-day Saints living in the Netherlands among twenty-four congregations. In 2002 the Hague Netherlands Temple was dedicated 141 years after Elder Van der Woude and Elder Schettler arrived to preach to family and friends in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
John P. Lillywhite, ‘The Netherlands Mission,’ The Improvement Era, Vol. 32, No.2 (1928), p. 141.
Fred E. Woods and Jacob Olmstead, ‘“Give Me Any Situation Suitable”: The Consecrated Life of the Multitalented Paul A. Schettler,’ BYU Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2002), pp. 108-26
‘News from Holland,’ The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. 23, No. 38 (1861), p. 614.
Ibid
Ibid
Letter from A. W. Van der Woude to George Q. Cannon, 18 October 1861, published in ‘Correspondence,’ The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. 23, No. 47 (1861), pp. 759-760.
Frank I. Kooyman, ‘Nederland en het Mormonisme, 1861-1936,’ De Ster, Vol. 41, No. 15 (1936), p. 242.
‘News from Holland,’ The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, Vol. 23, No. 51 (1861), p. 822.