40th Anniversary History Project
of the Grand Rapids Michigan Stake
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Introduction
In the first verse in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 1:1), Nephi says, "I make a record of my proceedings in my days." We likewise wish to make a record of the first forty years of the Grand Rapids Michigan Stake. It was created from the Lansing Michigan Stake by President Thomas S. Monson on March 2, 1975.
We recognize that, in order to move forward, we need to understand our past. We are grateful for those "Stake Pioneers" who exercised faith and made sacrifices to build the individual wards and branches in the Grand Rapids area. We hope that this website will not only provide significant dates and events but that the many faith promoting stories will inspire future growth.
We want to thank all those who participated in this project (see acknowledgments) as well as those who will contribute in the future. The benefit of having a website is that it can be added to as the future becomes the past. We particularly want to thank Kent Price who has spent countless hours in assembling the information and creating the website.
- Charles Stoddard