August Höglund

August Joel Höglund (14 September 1855 – 12 December 1926) was a Swedish convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and was the first Mormon missionary to preach in Russia.

Höglund was born in Funbo, Uppland, Sweden and was trained as a blacksmith. Höglund joined the LDS Church in Gothenburg and in June 1878 he left Sweden with several other Swedish Latter-day Saints to emigrate to Utah Territory.

In 1889, Höglund married Anna Matilda Svensson, another Swedish Latter-day Saint who had emigrated to Utah, in the Logan Utah Temple. Höglund settled in Eureka, Juab County, Utah.

In 1895, Höglund was sent on a mission by the LDS Church to the church's Scandinavian Mission. When the mission president received a letter from a Finnish couple living in St. Petersburg requesting that someone be sent to teach them about the LDS Church, Höglund was selected for the assignment. He traveled alone and arrived in St. Petersburg on June 9 and became the first Mormon missionary to preach in Russia.[1] Höglund taught Johan M. and Alma Lindelof—the couple that had requested missionaries—for a day and a half and baptized them in the Neva River on 1895-06-11. After the baptisms, Höglund stayed approximately ten days with the Lindelofs to instruct them further in the doctrines of Mormonism. Höglund ordained Johan Lindelhof to be an elder in the LDS Church just prior to his return to Sweden, where he resumed his mission in the Scandinavian Mission.

Höglund died in Bountiful, Utah and was buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Notes
  1. In 1843, Joseph Smith, Jr. had asked Orson Hyde and George J. Adams to preach in Russia, but the trip never materialized.

References
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