Sunday, June 12, 2011

New Stakes Organized in Utah and Venezuela; New Districts Organized in Malaysia and Papua New Guinea

Utah

A new young single adult (YSA) stake has been organized in Utah.  The Alpine Utah YSA Stake was created for YSA units in the Alpine area and became Utah's 55th YSA stake.  There are now 556 stakes in Utah.

Venezuela

A new stake has been created in Venezuela.  The San Cristobal Venezuela Pirineos Stake was created from a division of the San Cristobal Venezuela Stake and includes five wards and one branch.  The San Cristobal Venezuela Stake at present also has five wards and one branch.  Congregational growth and the maturation of branches into wards has occurred rapidly in San Cristobal as a year ago there were only five wards and five branches in the stake.  Since the departure of North American missionaries in 2005 membership and congregational growth rates have plummeted in Venezuela but several new stakes have been organized recently as branches have become wards and a few new wards have been organized.  There are now 32 stakes and 8 branches in Venezuela.

Malaysia

A new district was organized in East Malaysia.  The Bintulu East Malaysia District was created from a division of the Miri East Malaysia District and includes three branches in Bintulu.  The district in Miri currently includes two branches and two groups.  It is unusual for a new district to be organized from a preexisting district and the original district retaining only two branches.  This may indicate that additional branches will be organized in Miri in the near future.  The growth of the number of LDS districts in East Malaysia has been rapid since 2000 as districts were organized in Kuching (2003), Miri (2008), and Sibu (2009).  There are no seven districts in East Malaysia and none appear close to becoming stakes within the near future.


Papua New Guinea

A new district has been organized in Suki, Papua New Guinea from a single branch that once pertained to the Daru Papua New Guinea District (which became a stake a couple Sundays ago).  Four additional branches were organized from the Suki Branch: The Kiru, Eniawa, Pukaduka, and Sapuka Branches.  Phenomenal, unprecedented congregational growth has occurred in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea since late 2010 when the Sogere Papua New Guinea District was organized from a single branch that has divided into nine branches at present.  There are now two stakes and nine districts in Papua New Guinea.

8 comments:

Deivisas said...

Elder Holland Visits Mongolia as churchmembership there surpasses the 10,000 membership mark.

http://lds.org/church/news/elder-holland-instructs-mongolian-saints-missionaries?lang=eng

Isawan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Isawan said...

Elder Carl B. Pratt announce the changed for Bangkok stake Pakkret district as the followig details.-
Created (Split) Chaengwattana branch from Bnagkok ward and changed Pakkret-Nonthaburi Thailand district to Bangkok Thailand North District and move Bangkhen, Donmuang, Rangsit and Chaengwattana branches to new district; therefore only 9 units are in Bangkok Thailand Stake as the following.-
1. Asoke ward
2. Bangkok ward (English speaking)
3. Bangnaa ward
4. Bangkapi ward
5. Srinakharin ward
6. Thonburi ward
7. Bangkhae branch
8. Sapansung branch
9. Samut Prakarn branch
Bangkok Thailand North District contains the following units.-
1. Bangkhen branch (Changed from ward to branch)
2. Chaengwattana branch (English speaking unit split from Bangkok ward for those members who lives in Nonthaburi area)
3. Pakkret branch
4. Bang Bua Thong branch
5. Don Muang branch
6. Rangsit branch
7. Ayutthaya branch
8. Lopburi branch

this is most likely to prepare a second stake in the country.

Matt said...

Interesting news. Thanks Isawan for the congregation information. Hopefully a second stake will be organized soon. I've heard that the Bangkok Thailand Stake has faced some major administrative challenges over the years which have necessitated training and involvement from the mission president. Hopefully this is an indication that local leadership has matured and stabilized.

Nellie said...

Matt,
there was vocal apostate in Alberta (who shall remain nameless) who took a lot of people to hell with him. I searched your blog and apparently membership in Alberta/British Columbia did not take any hits. Can you confirm whether the Church is still growing there.

Isawan said...

forgot to mention that the Bangkok North District was officially created last Sunday, June 12th. And yeah, hopefully it will become stake soon, a few of the branches in the district are already qualified to become wards (Bangkhen, Rangsit & Pakkret) but the rest still need a while to grow.

TempleRick said...

I believe the Alpine Utah YSA Stake is the 55th in the Church, with 52 in Utah and 3 in Idaho. There will be several more in Idaho after the BYU-Idaho stakes (Rexburg) and University of Idaho stake (Moscow) are converted. This conversion will also take place at BYU-Hawaii (Laie) and Arizona State University (Tempe).

Ricardo Prins said...

The Rio de Janeiro Brazil Engenho de Dentro Stake was organized today. It was created from the Rio de Janeiro Brazil and Rio de Janeiro Brazil Andaraí stakes.