November 13, 2025, 10:29am MST
From the time the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in Poland in 1977 until Poland’s liberation from communist rule in the late 1980s, missionaries were not legally allowed to convert in the country.
In an effort to remain law-abiding and share the restored gospel, church members established the church’s Information Bureau in 1979. Missionaries were allowed to share the gospel with people who requested information or entered private property.
Later, the building also served as a meeting place for the Saints of Warsaw until a chapel was built in the city in 1991.
On August 25 of this year, the information office was renovated and dedicated as the Church’s official visitor center, with Elder James W. McConkie III, a General Authority Seventy and second counselor in the Church’s Europe Central Area Presidency, presiding over the dedication ceremony. Guests from genealogy, humanitarian and cultural organizations also attended the dedication ceremony.
In his dedicatory prayer, Poland Warsaw Mission President Gregory D. Roney dedicated the visitor center as a “gathering place to recognize the history of the Church here and to invite all to come to know more deeply the Beloved Son of (God).”
promote the gathering of israel
In an article published in the Church’s European Newsroom, President Roney said the visitor center “will help facilitate the ‘gathering’ in new and extraordinary ways.” We do so through both missionary work and family history work.
According to President Roney, the visitor center, which is a short distance from Warsaw University and the presidential palace, is located on Nowy Świat, one of the busiest streets in the Polish capital.
Many of the center’s visitors are simply pedestrians invited by missionaries on the street.
President Ronnie said interest in genealogy is what draws so many people to the visitor center, which now houses the Family Search Center on the upper floor.
Church digitization efforts across Europe are giving individuals access to millions of historical records through AI-powered tools.
bridge between generations
In addition to being “ideal for missionary work,” as Warsaw Branch President Dariusz F. Dressler put it, the visitor center also preserves history.
In his dedication prayer, President Ronnie prayed that the visitor center would help people “connect history with heaven.”
He later explained that many of the church’s Polish pioneers learned about the church through the old information bureau, and Polish members appreciate the way it honors its history.
One of the ways the center connects history and heaven is through exhibits on the history of Polish churches on the lower level of the building.
A timeline on the wall shows milestones in the development of the Polish church, including the country’s dedication to evangelization, the translation of the Book of Mormon into Polish, and the first chapel built in Warsaw.
During the center’s dedication, Elder McConkie called it “a place of learning and a bridge between generations,” later adding that it is a place that “connects the past with the present.”
