Sweden's first missionary memorialized
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GÄVLE, Sweden — Resulting from a collaborative effort by Church members on both sides of the Atlantic, the first missionary to Sweden has now been memorialized with a bronze bust on a granite pedestal in a park next to his family home in Gävle.
Elder John Erick Forsgren is well known to Swedish Latter-day Saints and former and current missionaries in Sweden as the sailor who joined the Church in Boston, Mass., in 1843, went west with the Latter-day Saints, and returned to his hometown of Gävle as a missionary for the Church. In Gävle, he taught and baptized his brother Peter, the first convert to the Church in Scandinavia, on July 26, 1850. He baptized others before being banished by the government, which did not approve of this new religious movement.
On July 26, Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Seventy dedicated the monument to Elder Forsgren before a gathering of Church members, missionaries and dignitaries. Carina Järveback, community chairman, accepted the monument on behalf of the city of Gävle, which owns Snusmajas Torg, the park in which the monument was placed.
In fair and warm weather, the ceremony "was a follow-up to last year's 150-year anniversary held at the same spot in pouring rain," noted Per Nilsson, national director of public affairs for the Church in Sweden.
That occasion, also held on July 26, was 150 years to the day since Elder Forsgren baptized his brother. The idea was conceived then to honor Elder Forsgren with a monument in the city-owned park next to the Forsgren home. Elder Forsgren's descendants in Utah arranged for the creation and shipment of the monument, while Church members in Sweden helped with monetary donations and arrangements with the city.
With Elder Rasband presiding, the monument dedication was conducted by President Gösta Körlof of the Stockholm Sweden Stake, Brother Nilsson said. Also in attendance were Elder Hans Mattson, Area Authority Seventy; President Ulf Arne Girhammar of the Stockholm Sweden South Stake; Allan T. Clarke of the Sweden Stockholm Mission, and their wives. The current owner of the Forsgren home was also present. Forsgren descendant Robert Welker offered the invocation.
Juhanni Heikki, Church director of public affairs in Gävle who arranged the ceremony with the help of volunteers, said Elder Rasband thanked the city for making it possible to commemorate a piece of history with the monument. Elder Rasband, first counselor in the Europe Central Area presidency, also remarked that it was a week of celebrating pioneers throughout the world, as Church members observed Pioneer Day July 24. He said that Elder Forsgren is an example of one man who had influenced many lives, but that that there are many missionaries today who, like Elder Forsgren, have left their families and loved ones to serve the Lord.
The community chairman, Ms. Jrveback, told the congregation that Gvle has the most sculptures of all the cities in Sweden, Brother Heikki said, and expressed the gratitude of the city for such a beautiful monument. Though not a member of the Church, she encouraged those gathered to follow in the footsteps of Elder Forsgren and challenged Church members to hold a celebration at the monument site every year.
Bishop Hàkan Palm of the Gubngen Ward addressed the congregation, as did President Körlof on the need for strong families in society, Brother Nilsson said.
Brenda Forsgren Hansen, a great-great-granddaughter of Elder Forsgren who sculpted the bronze bust along with her sister, Trudy Forsgren Iverson, told the congregation that the monument had come about mainly through Forsgren descendants in the United States but also through local members' donations, Brother Nilsson said.
In her remarks, she said that John's mission had influenced her personally in that as a missionary in the Scandinavian Mission he baptized a Mr. Srensen who later baptized a Mr. Hansen in Denmark. Mr. Hansen is the ancestor of her husband, Dusty Hansen.
"The stand is made of Utah granite, designed and made by Jeremy Forsgren, and the whole statue weighs 2,400 kilograms," Brother Nilsson said.
A play presented by local Church members depicted events in the Forsgren family. John was portrayed as leaving his home at the age of 9 to be a ship's boy. The play picked up events about 25 years later with John's younger siblings Peter and Kristina, Peter being gravely ill and Kristina caring for him. Peter reminds her of an experience she had earlier while sitting in church, having participated in devotional exercises and hymn singing. A man dressed in white appeared before her and told her she very soon would be visited by a man with three books, and that all who believed would be saved. She could not have known that the man would be her own brother, John, and the three books would be the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants.
The play further depicted John coming back after 25 years, relating the story of his conversion in Boston and his being the only Swede to have ever met the Prophet Joseph Smith, and about his subsequent enlistment in the Mormon Battalion. John healed Peter by the power of the priesthood before baptizing him.
The inscription on the monument base, written by Brother Heikki, relates the story of Elder Forsgren leaving home as a ship's boy, his conversion, his subsequent return to Gävle as a missionary, his baptism of Peter and Kristina, among others, his organization of the first branch in Sweden, and his death in 1890 in the United States.
