Estonia was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel on 25 April 1990 by Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It was the first country in the former Soviet Union to be opened for missionary work. The first four missionaries arrived from the Finland Helsinki Mission in 1989. Shortly thereafter Estonia became part of the Russia St. Petersburg Mission. The first branch was established in Tallinn on 28 January 1990, with a missionary, Edler Hari Aho, as president.
Missionaries worked in Tallinn, the country’s capital, and Tartu, the home of the largest and oldest university in the Baltic countries. A district was created in Estonia on 27 August 1997 under the direction of the Europe East area presidency. In the year 2000 there were 339 members living in three branches of the Church in Estonia: Tallinn had separate Estonian-and Russian- speaking branches, and Tartu had a single branch.
[Year-end 2005: Est. population, 1,333,000; Members, 751; Districts, 1; Branches, 3; Percent LDS, .05, or one in 1,935; Europe East Area; Baltic Mission; Source 2007 Church Almanac.]
SOURCE
Browning, Gary. Russia and the Restored Gospel. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997. xvi-xxi.
MICHAEL MANOOKIN
From Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, eds., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 342. Used with the permission of the Deseret Book Company. Copies prohibited by law.