Tuesday, July 1, 2014

June 2014 Cumorah Newsletter

Click here to access our June 2014 newsletter for cumorah.com.

18 comments:

The Chatelain's said...

Where did that Chinese ward in Flushing Queens come from? I always knew that there was a version of Chinatown out that way. Nonetheless very impresses

Mike Johnson said...

The Loandjili Branch, Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission, was created on 29 June. There are now 3 independent branches in the mission:

Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission Branch
Loandjili Branch
Matadi Branch

Christopher Nicholson said...

I've been wondering for a while now, what exactly is a "mission branch"?

Will said...

A branch that is not a part of a stake or district, but reports directly to the mission.

Aaron and Kamyra said...

Usually member records that are not in any branch or ward come under the mission branch. If there is a group not a part of any district or stake the members sit in that mission branch also. There may be other reasons though also.

Erik said...

A Deseret News article was just published quoting Elder David F. Evans as saying that baptisms so far are up 15% compared to the same time period last year.

Isawan said...

Just some random info I received today, the number of convert baptisms in Thailand Bangkok Mission from January to June of 2014 is 1,055 baptisms. Very impressive!

The Opinion said...

If we look at last year reported convert totals and child of record baptisms then 15% increase on convert baptism would bring total to 450K between those two categories. Not bad for the first year.

Mike Johnson said...

The Riverton Utah Western Springs Stake was created on 29 June. There are 7 wards in the stake:

Castlewood Ward
Herriman Rose Ward
Riverton 19th Ward
Western Springs 1st Ward
Western Springs 2nd Ward
Western Springs 3rd Ward
Western Springs 4th Ward


The London and Tabwakea 2nd branches, Kiritimati Island Kiribati District, Marshall Islands Majuro Mission, were created on 18 June. There are now 5 branches in the district:

Banana Branch
Fanning Island Branch
London Branch
Tabwakea 1st Branch
Tabwakea 2nd Branch

Mike Johnson said...

There are 121 "mission branches," 4 "area branches," and 18 "district branches." Collectively, they are known as "administrative branches."

District branches cover areas inside the district and outside all of the regular branches in the district.

Mission branches cover areas inside the mission, outside of any stakes, districts, and direct report branches in mission.

Area branches cover areas inside the area, but outside of any stakes or missions in the mission.

These branches have one or more groups.

For example, in Australia only Brisbane and Perth missions have mission branches.

Aaron, the administrative branches do contain records of those in groups and are treated as a single congregation. The groups do not need First Presidency approval to create, as wards and branches require.

Now, almost every country in the world and every state in the US (I am not sure about counterparts in other countries like in Australia--one for Australia or one for each state) has an "administrative unit" or AU (sometimes called Address Unknown, but it really stands for administrative unit, which hold records that have been sent to Salt Lake because a ward or branch can no longer find them. Thus, we often see more members in a state or country than the sum of those in the congregations.

Last summer, we (my ward) began receiving records from the AU file on a quarterly basis as the last known location for the member. We received about 20 in July, about 3 in September, and none in January or in April, which tells me the AU file for my ward no longer has records. Of course, we might receive more this month.

My stake went up about 300 in membership during this period, many probably these records. Before that happened, I had commented that if the stake parachuted in 800 completely inactive members, we would be able to split, having met all other criteria for two stakes. So, when this started last July, I commented to my bishop that maybe this is the Church parachuting in those inactive members we need. We closed by 300, but then the closing has largely stopped. Last I heard, we are about 400 away from being able to split.

Mike Johnson said...

There is also an administrative branch in the Falkland Islands, owned by (i.e., directly reports to) the Europe Area and is inside the area covered by the Cape Verde Praia Mission. In other words, there may be missionaries assigned to the Cape Verde Praia Mission that serve in Falkland Islands.

Mike Johnson said...

Branches in Areas:
4 direct report to Area Presidency (2 Caribbean Area (both in Cuba) and 2 Middle East/Africa North Area)
5 Administrative Branches (Falkland Islands and four Area Branches)


Branches in Stakes
3915


Branches in Missions
488 Direct Report to mission
119 Administrative Branches ("Mission Branches")
2855 Branches organized into districts
18 Adminstrative Branches ("District Branches")


7404 Branches of all types


Note, 2 of the 121 "mission branches" are regular congregations and not administrative branches. The Iron Mission Branch, Cedar City Utah Stake, and the Mission Creek Branch (Correctional Facility), Gig Harbor Washington Stake, showed up in my initial search for mission branches, but are actually branches in stakes.

Mike Johnson said...

One more correction to make. There are several districts that report to the area and not the mission and I have not taken the time to isolate them from missions into the area columns. They are all inside either the Middle East/Africa North Area or the Asia Area. So, some of those branches in district really should have been included under areas in my above post.

Aaron and Kamyra said...

In the pacific area they announced that the area pres would send lost members back into ward and bran hes throughout the area each quarter all this year. My ward got 46 in feb, 25 in may and will get more next month. We have found about 8 of these and have sent most of the rest back. Last time this happened in 2010 they put 99 at once which was all the address unknown members tha the we had sent to them over the previous 10 years. So all wards and bran hes in our area are doing this. In 2010 we were told that address unknown members accounted for about 30% of members in new zealand and about 20% in australia. It would be more now.

Aaron and Kamyra said...

Just some thoughts on real growth and the missionary surge/wave.

Its working, evidence of this is in this blog and from my own ward, stake, area.

large amounts of ward and stakes being created. The large amount of districts compared to the last 5, 10 years. Areas such as italy, france, spain growing for first time in years. Places like phillipines, mexico, brazil growing again after being big movers over the years but slowing down in late 1990s early 2000s. But convert baptisms have not been effected much yet so growth in wards and stakes must be coming through retaining converts and reactiviations, I know that that is whats happening in our ward, stake and region. It is facinating wat hing this happening and t I see and participate in where this goes from in in next 1,2 years and effects in next 5, 10 years

Ray said...

June and first half of 2014 growth in congregations and stakes

June + 36 W&B; + 43 W - 7 B +13 stakes (+14 -1) - 3 districts (note: some districts maturing to stakes)

June US + 11 W&B; + 13 W - 2 B
+ 2 stakes
June outside US + 25; + 30 W - 5 B + 11 stakes (+12 -1) - 3 dist

YTD + 179 W&B; + 187 W - 8 B + 37 st (+38-1) - 5 dist

YTD US + 81 W&B; + 82 W - 1 B + 14 st - 1 dist

YTD outside US +98; + 105 W - 7 br + 23 st (+24-1) - 4 dist

Areas of highest growth:

Africa + 79 W&B; + 37 W + 42 B + 7 st + 5 dist

US + 81 W&B; + 82 W - 1 B + 14 st - 1 dist

Phillipines + 19; + 19 W
+ 0 B + 2 st - 1 dist

Ray said...

More on Year-to-date Church Growth (first half of 2014)

Actually Ghana had even greater growth than the Philippines with 21 new wards and branches(+12W+9B)

Cote d'Ivoire increased by 17 (from a very low base) and Nigeria by 16. Brazil grew by 12W&B, Mexico by 9, and Canada by 5.

In the United States the greatest growth was in Utah with 24 new units (+25 W - 1 B).

All of these growth figures represent very substantial gains from last year.

Ray said...

The Cote d'Ivoire increase of 17 W&B in the first half of 2014 from a base of just 72 represents a 47% annualized rate of increase.

Three nations in southern South America had substantial decreases in the number of wards and branches--Argentina - 15 (-7W-8B), Chile - 9 (-4W-5B), and Uruguay - 7 (-5W-2B). Without these decreases the total growth in the number of wards and branches for the first half of the year would have been 210.

2014 congregational growth is the fastest since 2005.