New Stake In El Salvador

A new stake was created a couple Sundays ago in El Salvador. The new stake is the Paraíso El Salvador Stake, which was created from the Santa Ana El Salvador Modelo Stake. The new stake has five wards and becomes the 17th stake in El Salvador and the third in the city of Santa Ana. The last time a new stake was created in El Salvador was back in 1996. The growth of the Church in El Salvador has recently increased from a decade or so of little growth in terms of both membership and the number of congregations. Last year membership in El Salvador increased by the largest percentage since 2000 at 3.52%, or adding around 3,500 members since the end of 2007. Five new congregations were also organized last year.

I do not think that we will see many new stakes organized in El Salvador until we have more congregations created in the already established stakes. I do not know how close the districts in San Vicente and Usulutan are to becoming stakes, but I imagine that they will be likely locations for future stakes in the country. I think we might see a new member district or two created in El Salvador in the near future in locations such as Chalatenango or Armenia, where we have multiple mission branches of the Church.