First Stake in Sicily
Missionaries report that the first stake in Sicily will be organized on June 26th. Two districts functioned on the island until they were consolidated into one in 2009 in preparation for a stake. Once organized, Italy will have seven stakes and five districts. The Italy Catania Mission will be discontinued this July, which has served Sicily and southern Italy.
First Branch in Djibouti Organized
The first independent congregation of the Church in Djibouti was recently organized. The new branch is primarily for US military based on the country although there are a few native members according to member reports. It does not appear that the Uganda Kampala Mission has ambitions on missionary work in Djibouti in the near future, but may be a possibility in the coming years.
New Version of LDS Maps
In the past couple weeks, the Church launched a new meetinghouse locator site. The new version of LDS Maps retains the functions of the previous meetinghouse locator site, but also allows users to search congregations worldwide by name. The new site also allows users to obtain information on what stake, district, or mission congregations belong to. Check it out at https://beta-maps.lds.org/.
3 comments:
I like being able to see area and mission boundaries in the new version of LDS Maps. It is interesting that the Europe Area extends from Pole to Pole. This new version will also show ward and stake boundaries for your own ward, which is nice, but I hope a future version will allow us to also see stake and ward boundaries for all stakes and wards.
When I joint the Church in 1993, Italy, had 2 stakes, several districts, 4 missions, and no temple. Seventeen years later, with the new stake in Sicily the total number will be 7. The missions are going to be reduced at 2 (for a country of 60 million people), but a temple has been announced in Rome. In other words the Church in Italy is growing slowly but it is growing. Considering that we are talking about a Western European nation that is the center of the Catholic World these figures are not bad at all.
It is wonderful to see the Church mature in Italy. I hope that additional congregations get organized to expand the Church's outreach in this populous nation. Thanks for your comment!
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