The Bahamas consist of a chain of nearly 800 islands and lie north of Cuba. The inhabitants speak English and French Creole. During 1979 Latter-day Saint families moved to the islands and requested that missionaries be sent. These were the families of Larry and Marge McCombs and Albert and Karen Ballard. Full-time missionaries arrived during the latter part of 1979. One of the first converts was Alexandre Paul, the Haitian consul general to the Bahamas. The first branch was organized in 1981. As with those on other Caribbean islands, missionaries in the Bahamas were limited for a time, and visas were difficult to obtain.
By 1988 there were two branches in the Bahamas the English-speaking Nassau Branch (80 members), and the French Creole-speaking Soldier Road Branch (60 members). On 8 May 1988 the first meetinghouse in the Bahamas was dedicated on Nassau’s New Providence Island; it served both branches. At the beginning of the year 2000 there were 503 members on the islands in two branches.
[Year-end 2005: Est. population, 302,000; Members, 674; Branches, 3; District 1; Percent LDS, 0.2., or one in 429; North America Southeast Area; Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission; Source 2007 Church Almanac.]
SOURCES
Crockett, David R. Church History in the Bahamas. LDS Gems archives.
“From around the World.” Church News, 19 March 1988. 10.
Millett, Richard L. “The Work Spreads to the Other Islands of the Caribbean.” Manuscript.
1999-2000 Church Almanac. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1998. 275.
DAVID R. CROCKETT
From Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, eds., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 72. Used with the permission of the Deseret Book Company. Copies prohibited by law.