Nearly 200 years after Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the religious body has eclipsed the United Methodist Church in U.S. membership.
And with Methodists in schism, the gap will likely widen.
The Salt Lake City-based religious body last month reported domestic membership of 6,804,028 million in 2022, including 35,405 in Arkansas.
United Methodists are reporting 5,714,815 members as of 2021, the most recent year available. Arkansas membership was estimated at 113,133.
With the departure of more than 4,000 United Methodist congregations since Jan. 1, 2022, including more than 100 in Arkansas, those figures are expected to drop considerably when new numbers are released.
In recent decades, Latter-day Saints had already surpassed the nation's largest Presbyterian and Lutheran bodies.
For now, only Roman Catholics (66.5 million) and Southern Baptists (13.2 million) are more numerous in this country.
Statistically, the church is strongest in the Intermountain West, particularly in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, while also enjoying tremendous success in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii.
It has made inroads elsewhere in the country, as well, including Arkansas and the rest of the South.
One of the church's apostles, David A. Bednar, is a former University of Arkansas, Fayetteville business professor.
A Latter-day Saints temple, the first ever in Arkansas, has been built in Bentonville and will be dedicated Sept. 17.
Between 2011 and 2021, its Natural State membership rolls increased by 21.1%, outpacing every state but North Dakota and Texas, church data show.
Last year, membership in Arkansas rose by 1,378. The 4.5% increase was highest in the nation.
Worldwide, church membership recently surpassed 17 million.
Part of the growth is the result of extraordinary proselytizing efforts. The church had 92,350 missionaries in 2022, including 62,544 full-time teaching missionaries. During the year, 212,172 converts were baptized into the church.
Aaron McArthur, a history professor at Arkansas Tech University at Russellville and a Latter-day Saint, said the door-to-door witnessing has deep roots.
"Almost from the very beginning, the church has sent out missionaries. It's an expectation. It's not, 'If you feel like it, you should consider going on a mission.' It's just your responsibility to go," he said.
McArthur was a missionary himself in the 1990s, assigned to the Arizona Tempe Mission.
The work was hot but satisfying, he recalled.
"I literally was helping people to be happier, to find more satisfaction, to find more peace," he said.
Some of the people he encountered weren't interested in hearing the message.
"That's fine. You know, everyone has their agency, but I feel like I fulfilled my duty. I feel like I did it for the right reason. I feel like I brought about a lot of good," he said.
Latter-day Saints tend to be active members of their congregations.
"The data says that Latter-day Saints are incredibly devout. The rate of them that go to church every week is incredibly high. Probably about 4 million Latter-day Saints go to church every week in America," said Ryan Burge, an Eastern Illinois University political science professor who studies and writes about religious demographics.
Latter-day Saints also tend to have larger families and are "twice as likely to have children as atheists or agnostics," he said.
The ability for the church to retain its young people has also been crucial, he said.
"It's always easier for a religion to grow by keeping the next generation," he said. "Conversion is hard. Retention is easier."
The Bentonville Arkansas Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will be open to the public, except on Sundays, between June 17 and July 1. Additional information and tickets can be obtained by going to bentonvilletemple.churchofjesuschrist.org/.