Cote d'Ivoire
Last Sunday, the Church organized its seventh stake in Abidjan. The Abobo Cote d'Ivoire East Stake was organized from a division of the Abobo Cote d'Ivoire Stake and includes the following eight wards: the Abobo, Agbekoi, Akeikoi 1st, Akeikoi 2nd, Ile Verte, M'Ponon, Plaque, and Quatre Etages Wards. The Abobo Cote d'Ivoire Stake experienced unprecedented congregational growth in 2014 as the number of congregations within the original stake mushroomed from eight wards to 15 wards and one branch. Three additional stakes in the Abidjan area appear close to dividing including the Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Toit Rouge Stake (11 wards), Cocody Cote d'Ivoire Stake (10 wards, 1 branch), and the Port Bouet Cote d'Ivoire Stake (11 wards, 1 branch).
There are now seven stakes and three districts in Cote d'Ivoire.
Brazil
The Church recently discontinued the Quaraí Brazil District. The former district was located in Rio Grande do Sul State on the border with Uruguay. The district has experienced rapid congregational decline within the past five years as the number of branches has declined from five to two. The retained branches now pertain to the Artigas Uruguay Stake and will likely become wards as branches have been consolidate to increase the number of active members in each congregation.
There are now 252 stakes and 39 districts in Brazil
25 comments:
Temple in Cote d'Ivoire for sure the next time temples are announced.
I am still not convinced that a temple for Cote d'Ivoire will be announced anytime soon. There's only seven stakes in the country and it's adjacent to Ghana. Abidjan is also about a 7 hour drive to Accra. I know areas in Brazil that have more stakes and are located much farther from the nearest temple. Yes, there are a few more going to split, but I don't think it will be enough - for now.
Article in the Deseret News about the rapid church growth in Africa.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865614977/Progress-is-remarkable.html
It glaringly lacks of the statistics that we are so fond of here, but a lot of great insight.
The problem is that most members from Cote d`Ivoire can`t just travel to Ghana. And also, any new Temple announced would take four to five years to complete (longer if you take Kinshasa for reference, which is probably the most similar current Temple project). Within that time period, I could see far more than 20 stakes in Cote d`Ivoire, simply because growth is so astonishing. This could probably be achieved by each congregation in the country splitting on average once over the coming five years - which is a conservative estimate. Further I would estimate that Church membership in Cote d`Ivoire would be anywhere between 40,000 and 60,000 in five years, which is a window where all African nations meeting these numbers have a Temple operating or announced at the moment.
Something very similar is happening in Ghana, where congregational growth has also been speeding up again and where more Missionaries have been assigned lately. I`m not exactly sure about how well the Accra Temple is used at the moment, but I would assume that in a couple of years, it could actually get close to capacity, with membership likely between 80,000 and 100,000 in five years.
7 hours from Abjidan to Accra. What about Yamassoukro> In a first world bus? Even if you have the money to pay for that kind of trip once every year, do you think the roads are that good for many members to travel with ease? I would think the necessity of a temple in Cote D'Voire is apparent to church leaders. In nearby Sierra Leone, my dad who lived there in the 1960s cannot find the road on satellite maps from Freetown (where the church is doing well) to where he lived in Shenge (where I am not sure how the LDS presence is), which means the old road is either not there or covered up by foliage. Either way, not too good transportation within one country. Plus, with the heavy rains, I am sure some streets and roads are nearly impassable for weeks at a time, if not whole seasons.
West Africa is deserving, in my opinion, even Freetown. A 7 hour drive is not like here, or in the West. Also, crossing the border may be time consuming and expensive. We are talking about people who do not get new shoes, and when they do it is more like an American getting new wheels, or a car itself. How many Americans need a passport to attend a temple? El Paso? People along the border of Canada with BC, Montreal or Nova Scotia (New Brunswick).
I hope Haiti could get one too. How many can afford to go to Santo Domingo?
The Accra Ghana temple schedule can be seen here
https://www.lds.org/church/temples/accra-ghana?lang=eng
It appears they are adding an additional Saturday session and one early session on second Tuesday of the month.
They appear to have plenty of sessions which seem to me that there is a need for them.
22 stakes and 21 districts are assigned to the temple. That is quite a bit for a temple that is only 17,500 sq. ft. and one endowment room.
The new stake in Orlando, Florida is apparantly the Lake Mary Florida Stake, with the following 6 wards:
College Park YSA Ward
Lake Mary Ward
Longwood Ward
Oviedo Ward
Sanford Ward
Tuskawilla Ward
http://rt.com/op-edge/203731-ukraine-donbass-militia-mormon/
This is a link to an interesting article. I have grave reservations about members participating in armed revolutions.
Well, Michigan got a temple with 8 stakes, and about that number in Ohio. It is only 3 hours drive from Detroit to Columbus. Plus, Cote D'Ivore has some of the highest rates of temple attendance in the world.
You mean like the armed revolution that created the United States of America? :P
I don't know the situation here, but there are obviously times when an armed revolution is called for, and it's not fair to have a double standard for ourselves and everyone else.
As mentioned in a previous post of mine I believe we are moving to smaller missions. I think this will increase the missionary and member effectiveness and mission production.
I created a Google Doc that could show what this will look like. 61 New missions in North America.
Check it out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VsrmRFtE1K41wyJjh8j8Tw5oT0eGi8Mvc-yuohTNh8U/edit#gid=0
I mostly do like the layout. However, I doubt that the tendency towards smaller Missions actually exists (quite the opposite seems to be the case in my limited observation). Also, I do believe that North America is indeed saturated and that within the next few years, only minor adjustments will be made to the currently existent Missions. I can see new Missions in Casper, Wyoming; Grand Junction, Colorado; and Miami, Florida. Those are my three guesses for new Missions in North America, if at all.
I`m also pretty certain that there is no need for an increase in the number of Missionaries in North America, hence I see no reason to increase the number of Missions by 61. As in, it is not going to happen anytime soon. Even though I am a big fan of small Missions.
But of course, thanks so much for your efforts! I can see you put a lot of time into this, and it`s definitely a great list and concept.
This being said, I still owe you my Mission prediction list. Free time has certainly not been on my side lately, but I sure think it will be done in the near future :)
New Unit Creations
2 November 2014
Bartlesville Oklahoma Stake (9 wards, 2 branches)
1. Guiginto Ward, Malolos Philippines Stake (6 wards, 1 branch)
2. Héroes Branch, Querétaro México Los Arcos Stake (5 wards, 3 branches)
3. Lehi 48th Ward, Lehi Utah North Stake (9 wards)
4. Mount Erie Ward, Mount Vernon Washington Stake (10 wards, 4 branches)
5. Mountain View Ward, Hemet California Stake (10 wards, 2 branches)
6. Mulberry Ward, St. George Utah Little Valley Stake (9 wards)
7. Paseos Branch, Querétaro México Los Arcos Stake (5 wards, 3 branches)
8. Plain City 8th Ward, Farr West Utah Stake (7 wards)
9 November 2014
Abobo Cote d'Ivoire East Stake (8 wards)
Lake Mary Florida Stake (6 wards)
1. Anyaa Branch, Accra Ghana Kasoa Stake (8 wards, 3 branches)
2. Castle Peak Bay Ward, Hong Kong New Territories Stake (7 wards)
3. Country Shadows Ward, Queen Creek Arizona Chandler Heights Stake (9 wards, 1 branch)
4. East London 4th Ward, East London South Africa Stake (11 wards, 1 branch)
5. Independence Ward, Bluffdale Utah South Stake (9 wards)
6. Ivins Veterans Home Branch (Care Center), Ivins Utah Stake (7 wards, 1 branch)
7. La Ceiba Ward, Amatitlán Guatemala Stake (9 wards)
8. Selmer Ward, Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Toit Rouge Stake (11 wards)
9. Seville Groves Ward, Queen Creek Arizona Chandler Heights Stake (9 wards, 1 branch)
soc. man, thanks for your hard work on coming up with a scheme of more smaller missions in North America. It is appreciated and certainly worth thinking about.
I think you meant Washington DC West Mission (vice East) covering the Seneca MD, Frederick MD, Martinsburg WV and Winchester VA stakes--all of which are west of DC.
I think the Church would be reluctant to do this--at least in North America--because missions come with costs More, smaller missions would be more costly and require a net increase administrative functions to support. I don't think that is necessary or desired, at least for North America.
That said, I think I recall reading your idea that the mission presidents would be locals called to work part time in that capacity. That may work, but an immediate complication I see is that mission presidents are pretty constantly involved in supporting the missionaries. You drop from a couple putting in typically close to about 100 hours per week each supporting missionaries, to maybe 20-25 hours per week (which is what a typical bishop or stake president does) who is trying to hold down a job and raise a family at the same time. The mission would require a number of supporting personnel above and beyond a mission presidency and their wives to ensure adequate coverage.
I am not sure how a hundred or more full time missionaries (presumably the increase in missions would reduce the size of missions in North America from about 250 missionaries to 150 or so) can be reasonably led and supported by a part time president. Mission presidents also report to full time general authorities in Salt Lake and full time support people in Salt Lake support mission presidents. This idea would likely make the mission president the weak point in the chain.
I think smaller missions is a concept that is ideal for countries with relatively immature membership. A mission president in that case would have to provide direct support to several branches in addition to a small number of missionaries. I don't think North America fits the bill.
I think to create a new mission, the Church looks both at the membership in the area and at the number of non-members in the area as well as distances from other missions. And then after doing that calculation, they take it to the Lord for confirmation or other.
But, who knows. I could be wrong and that could be the wave of the future.
Two more wards from Queen Creek Arizona.
I like to compare Queen Creek with Eagle Mountain in Utah. Both are planned communities created in the desert off the main north-south interstate in the area. Queen Creek is only a couple of years ahead of Eagle Mountain and not much larger in population--both continue to grow as communities.
What amazes me is that in terms of stakes and wards, the two have been growing fast and in parallel with roughly the same numbers. Right now, there are six stakes in each. The Queen Creek stakes have 51 wards and 1 branch. The Eagle Mountain stakes have 48 wards and 1 branch. Both cities have about 25,000 people so 6 stakes each would suggest at least 18,000 members of course both do include a few congregations outside of their respective cities.
I did not like that boycott American woman post. it is not appropriate for this site. (or any other site) It is disrespectful and hurtful to daughters of God. the link is worse. I clicked on it and my internet filter categorized it as porn. I am glad I have a filter. DO NOT click on it. Can that post be removed?
Yes, get rid of the comment that linked to the pornography site, it was a drive-by by a spammer.
Ran it through K9's lookup tool and they also have it, then ran it by Zscaler, the Church's filter (not as good by the way as they rely on robots to categorize sites rather than what most do and that is have a live person categorize sites for the most part).
Ironically, given the name, you would think it was hosted in the US, Zscaler said the IP it was on is in the US.
No church members participated in the armed revolution that created the United States. My general impression is that the Church highly discourages members from participating in armed resistance to the government.
I see a need for lots more missionaries in Detroit. There are other places in the Eastern United States where more missionaries could be very helpful.
It is not the Flint Stake, it is the Grand Blanc Stake. I do not see it being moved to a separate mission. The stake covers Pontiac, Rochester Hills and some other areas that are 100% in the Detroit area by all measures. Flint is a too up on Detroit on Lansing, but the current Grand Blanc stake boundaries put it firmly in the Detroit Area.
Possibly the Kalamazoo Stake might be shifted from Lansing Mission to a Fort Wayne Mission. I could see that happening, but not the formation of a Kalamazoo Mission.
John, I know you`re in the area so you probably know better than most of us. Do you have the impression that additional Missionaries assigned to the Detroit area would be busy teachers? From the impressions of Missionaries I know in North America who have opened new areas in the recent past, it appears that most of the original areas had a teaching-finding ratio of somewhere 70-30 or higher, meaning that the Missionaries there were teaching at least 20 lessons a week on a regular basis and spent little time finding new investigators on their own. Is Detroit an area like this? If not, this might be one of the reasons why so few Missionaries are assigned there. Areas just need to "produce" before they are split. North America as a whole is so saturated that it simply makes no sense to have areas that spend their whole time tracting, always in the same neighborhoods.
Additional Unit Creations
4 November 2014
1. Harbor Bay Ward, Saratoga Springs Utah South Stake (8 wards)
9 November 2014
Ashaiman Ghana Stake (7 wards, 2 branches)
Detroit: Inner city branches (many in old Greek Orthodox and other churches they sold off or otherwise could not use).
Westland: Western Wayne county, excluding Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County although there could be a unit or two that goes into either from eiter.
Bloomfield Hills: Most areas north of 8 Mile. Excludes any north of that which are in Westland.
Grand Blanc: Includes much of Oakland County, and parts of Genessee County including Flint. Does include Rochester Hills,
There may be one other that includes Troy and areas east primarily those east of M-53.
Detroit is extremely difficult to work in, and it has nothing to do with receptiveness, it's the general issues with the area that have gone on for decades. There are areas that are so dangerous that supposedly even the cops have given up on them, not too much different than some areas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This may be one area where Internet contacting will be useful, as that way the missionaries can do much online, but for the final teaching, interviewing, and baptizing the missionaries can then go in, teach the lesson, and 'get the heck out the area' so to speak, and not do much else in the area other than teaching contacts garnered online.
Detroit only has 2 inner-city branches, and one of those (the one my girlfriend is in), has about half its active membership in the very upper class Grosse Pointe Suburbs. The unit that meets in the Former Greek Orthodox Chapel is a ward, and it and the Belle Isle Branch I mentioned are in the Bloomfield Hills Stake. The High Priest Group leader in the Belle Isle Branch, who is African-American and lives in Detroit, is also a temple worker (he is also a counselor in the branch presidency). The Elder's Quorum president is also African-American, a Detroit cop, and was the first president of the branch back in the mid-1990s, when it only included areas in Detroit and he was the only Melchezidek Priesthood holder. The current branch president is white and lives in Grosse Pointe. The city of Detroit is split between the Bloomfield Hills and Westland stakes. In Bloomfield Hills stake where I live there are 2 other wards that included parts of the city proper,as well as suburbs. Although with the Southfield Ward the city of Southfield has a 70% African-American population.
Roseville Ward is roughly 1/3rd non-blacks living outside Detroit, 1/3 blacks living outside Detroit and 1/3rd blacks living inside Detroit. Of the second group about half have moved out of the city since joining the Church. These are very rough estimates.
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