In 1874, Sjödahl moved to England and enrolled in Spurgeon's College in London, where he graduated with a degree in divinity in 1876.
In addition to knowing Swedish and Norwegian from his childhood, Sjödahl would also master the German, Icelandic, and Arabic languages.
Upon the completion of the translation, Sjödahl was asked by church president Wilford Woodruff to go on a mission to Palestine.
He learned to speak Arabic and preached in Palestine for one year, organizing a branch of the church in Jaffa.
Upon returning to Utah, Sjödahl became employed by the Deseret News newspaper in Salt Lake City.
When Doctrine and Covenants Commentary was first published in 1919 in Liverpool, it was a church-approved publication and only Smith was listed as an author.
Upon returning to Utah in 1919, Sjödahl became an editor for the church's Improvement Era magazine, in which he published more than 50 of his own articles.
In this work, Sjödahl advanced an early version of the "limited geography model" of the Book of Mormon, one of the first authors to do so.
Sjödahl was also the editor of the LDS Church's German, Danish–Norwegian, Dutch, and Swedish newspapers in Salt Lake City from 1919 until they ceased publication in 1935.