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South Asia 1982-1996

Church Growth in India Since 1982, and Church Beginnings in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan

Recent Progress in India

Once missionary couples started arriving in India, the Church there began to make significant progress. The Deseret News 1983 Church Almanac lists Church membership in India as totaling 198 in 1981. This figure was probably a bit low. Two years later the figure increased to 332. And by 1987 the number of members in India was seven hundred. New groups and branches were established in Erode and Rajahmundry in 1983 and in Bangalore in 1984.

Establishing Headquarters in Bangalore

The founding of the Church in Bangalore is instructive. When J. Talmage Jones first visited India in 1980, his impression was that he should establish a mission headquarters in Delhi, near the seat of government. But before his release in 1982, he felt that Bangalore was the better choice. Bangalore offered several advantages: a comfortable climate, smaller population (4.11 million versus 8.38 million in Delhi in 1991), considerable modernity (the city is called the "Silicon Valley" of India), and proximity to the Michael Anthony and his wife, Christine, have contributed much to the growth of the Church in India. He was among the earlier converts. (Courtesy Michael Morris) greatest number of Indian Latter-day Saints. But in early 1982 only one Mormon was in Bangalore, a young man named Michael Anthony.

Michael had been educated in an English-speaking school through the financial contributions of a Salt Lake City lawyer named Delvin Pond. During most of his early years, Michael did not know who his benefactor was, but Pond eventually supplied copies of the Ensign magazine, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon. Years passed and Michael gained a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. A letter from Alma and Marie Heaton in Goa brought him in contact with the Church in India. He was baptized by Elder Heaton on May 1, 1980, in the Arabian Sea at Panaji (Panjim), Goa. But he returned to his home in Bangalore and didn't have much contact with the Church until President Jones looked him up in January 1982.

At the same time, President Jones decided that Bangalore was a good future site for a mission headquarters. All that was lacking was members of the Church and mission leaders, apartments for missionaries and a mission president, and officers and offices from which to administer the affairs of the Church. Anthony and Jones took the first step and found an apartment for a missionary couple. Those assigned to live there were Richard and Eunice Metcalf from Australia. With young Michael Anthony they held the first sacrament meeting in Bangalore. President Jones called Elder Metcalf as district president for all of India, a move that made Bangalore the administrative center for the country. The Metcalfs were put in charge of Church records and finances for the sub-continent. They were the first of thirteen couples to serve in Bangalore between 1982 and 1992.