Brazil
A new stake was created last Sunday in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The stake in Campo Grande was divided and a second stake for the city organized (which becomes the third stake in the state as well). The Campo Grande Brazil Monte Líbano Stake includes four wards and one branch. This brings the total number of stakes to 229 in Brazil.
The original Campo Grande Brazil Stake was organized in June of 1991. It appeared like the stake would be divided in 2001 when there were nine wards and one branch. The new Campo Grande Brazil Monte Líbano Stake is one of the smallest stakes created in recent years in terms of the number of congregations. The recently created stake in Kinshasa last month also had four wards and a branch. It is likely that the two stakes in Campo Grande will have more congregations added in the coming months and years.
Guatemala
The first new stake created in Guatemala in 10 years was created last Sunday. The Totonicapán Guatemala Stake was created from the Nahualá Guatelmala District and a portion of the Quetzaltenango Guatemala El Bosque Stake. The three branches in the Nahualá Guatemala District became wards and three wards and two branches were taken from the Quetzaltenango Guatemala El Bosque Stake. The new stake will be nearby the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple, which is currently under construction. The new stake brings the total number of stakes in Guatemala to 39 and districts to 18.
We will likely see more new stakes in Guatemala, created mainly from districts. The Church has recently had a drop in the number of wards and branches in Guatemala primarily due to many branches being discontinued since 2000 as well as several wards discontinued last year. The number of congregations in the country fell from 451 in 2000 to 418 at the end of 2008. This drop in congregations was likely attributed to smaller branches combining to created stronger branches in districts so that they could become stakes (the number of wards increased in Guatemala from 239 to 241 - indicating that very few branches in stakes had become wards during this time). Unfortunately we have not seen any districts become stakes happened as of yet with the exception of the Totonicapán Guatemala Stake.
Membership usually increases by about 5,000 members a year in Guatemala and currently stands at 215,000.
9 comments:
That just made my day. I wonder why it took so long for Rick to find out about those stakes, he usually has stuff up on his site during the early part of the week, not the latter part. The year is not even 3/4 done and we have 38 more stakes. At this rate we will have 14 more stakes created this year, oh, by the way, I am so happy to here about those new districts in India-hopefully it won't make it longer for stakes to be created in Bangalore or Hydrabad.
I believe the correct total of stakes created so far this year is 42 with 2 discontinued, for a total of 40.
I'm very glad the pace has picked up so much. We are on track to having the most new stakes in one year since 1998.
I can only find two stakes in Mato Grosso do Sul with the creation of the second stake in Campo Grande. Where is the third?
Also, do you know how many congregations the other 2 stakes in this state now have?
I believe that there have only been 40 new stakes created this year with two stakes discontinued. I imagine that we will have around 60 new stakes created this year with the pace at which we have seen new stakes created. Missionaries in Brazil are reporting that the Boa Vista and Castahal Brazil Districts are on the verge of becoming stakes and this may occur before the end of the year. We also have a large number of big stakes in Africa, Utah and Mexico City currently which could be divided in the near future. I will be making a post of likely stakes to be divided outside the U.S. in the next day or so.
The third stake in the Mato Grosso do Sul province is in the border town of Ponta Pora. This stake only has five wards and the remaining stake in Campo Grande also has five wards.
Matt and Andrew, so sorry, you are right--40 new stakes with 2 dissolved. So is the most recent stake Campo Grande Brazil Monte Libano number 2856? That's what I'm showing.
How can there be a stake creaed with only four wards? Is this information right? Are there other similar cases?
To: Andre
Yes, stakes can have as few as 4 wards--there's one in Calif. now that has 4 (3 English and 1 Sp. ward)--El Centro Calif. Imperial Valley Stake.
Also, if I remember correctly, when the pioneers first settled Ariz., sothern Colorado, Alberta, Mexico, etc. those stakes often had only 2 or 3 wards to begin with.
Make that "southern"--sorry! Haste makes waste!
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