Friday, March 18, 2016

New Stakes created in Arizona and Washington; New Districts Created in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Russia

Arizona

The Church organized a new stake in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area on March 6th. The Mesa Arizona Red Mountain Stake was organized from a division of the Mesa Arizona Alta Mesa Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Adobe Villa, Granite Reef, Mountain Vista, Preston, Red Mountain, and Vista Peaks Wards.

There are now 102 stakes in Arizona.

Washington
The Church organized a new stake in the greater Seattle metropolitan area. The Enumclaw Washington Stake was organized on March 13th from a division of the Maple Valley Washington, Graham Washington, and Puyallup Washington Stakes. The new stake includes the following seven wards and one branch: the Buckley 1st, Buckley 2nd, Enumclaw 1st, Enumclaw 2nd, Enumclaw 3rd, Orting, and Victor Falls Wards and the Mount Peak Branch (Spanish).

There are now 59 stakes in Washington State.

Nigeria
The Church organized a new district in southeastern Nigeria on March 6th. The Etinan Nigeria North District was organized from a division of the Etinan Nigeria Stake. Although official information on congregations assigned to the district remains unavailable, it appears that five branches are assigned to the new district: Afaha Nsit, Ikot Ananga, Ikot Ebo 1st, Ikot Ebo 2nd, and Ikot Obio Asanga.

There are now 33 stakes and 20 districts in Nigeria.

Papua New Guinea
The Church reinstated the Isumo Papua New Guinea District on March 6th. The district was organized from a division of the Daru Papua New Guinea Stake. The Church had previously operated the Isumo Papua New Guinea District from 2002 until 2008. During this six-year period, the district included three branches: Isumo, Sogere, and Suki. In 2008, the district was consolidated with the Daru Papua New Guinea District in preparation to create the Daru Papua New Guinea Stake in 2011.

The reinstatement of the Isumo Papua New Guinea District has coincided with the downgrading of the Isumo Ward into a branch and the organization of two new branches: Gesowa and Sagero. The conference to reinstate the district had 400 members in attendance. There are 800 members in the new district. Reports indicate that members live throughout islands on the Fly River delta. Thus, several member groups may also operate in the new district.

The Church has achieved rapid growth in Papua New Guinea's Western Province within the past six or seven years. Today each of the three original branches in the former Isumo Papua New Guinea District (2002-2008) have become separate districts. The number of congregations (wards and branches) in the region increased from seven in the late 2000s to 27 at present.

For more information on the organization of the new district, refer to a recent article on the Papua New Guinea Mormon Newsroom website here.

Russia
The Church organized a new district in Siberia. The Irkutsk Russia District was organized from three mission branches in the Russia Vladivostok Mission on March 13th. The new district includes the following four branches: the Angarsk, Irkutsk, Irkutsk Russia District, and Ulan-Ude Branches. Missionaries serving in the region report good improvements in church attendance in recent months. However, some branches such as the Angarsk Branch (organized in 2015) have fewer than 20 active members. The Church has never previously operated a district in the Lake Baikal region of Siberia.

There are now three stakes and nine districts in Russia.

39 comments:

Deivisas said...

Excited to see the church growing in Eastern Europe! The members there are awesome!

John Pack Lambert said...

In this weeks list of new mission presidents we find a Chilean couple sent to preside over a mission in Argentina. An Australian couple sent to preside over the mission in the Marshall Islands. A couple from Piura Peru sent to preside over the Peru Huancayo Mission. Piura is the far north of Peru while Huancayo is just inland from the Lima Missions. It consists of 6 stakes, 1 district and 1 mission branch. However the La Merced and Huanuco Stakes include wards and branches that take in huge areas. The mission takes in both places that have long history of mining in the Andean Mountains, like Huancavalica, and places like Satipo in the Amozonian rainforest. Actually the Satipo Ward seems to be coextensive with Satipo Province which has an area of 7,400 square miles and a population of 144,000. This is only 20 people per square mile, and in parts of the province the density is much lower. Still it looks to me like this is an area where the Church might be helped by creating groups in some regions of the ward. Although for all I know Satipo Ward does have groups under it.

John Pack Lambert said...

Satipo Province was not reachable by car travel until 1960. In the 1980s it was one of the main locations of rebel guerrilla activities in Peru. About 30,000 people live in the town of Satipo itself, which may well be where most of the members reside.

John Pack Lambert said...

Her is an article about the Church starting meetings on the island of 'Atata in Tonga http://www.mormonnewsroom.org.nz/article/%C2%A0tonga-prince-and-latter-day-saints-journey-together

From the article I have the impression this is a group not yet a branch. Apparently Prince Ata, a son of Tonga's King who converted to the LDS Church last year, donated the facility used for church meetings.

Matthew Crandall said...

It wasn't too many years ago when they dissolved all the districts in Russia in an attempt to reduce the administrative burden on the branches. They almost did the same in Estonia, but they stuck with the district. It would be interesting to see if the branches are now stronger in Russia or if it just didn't have the desired effect. Having the mission administer to branches hundreds and maybe thousands of miles apart is a daunting task. I feel sorry for the mission secretary who was doing the audits these last few years. Good to see growth in Arizona and Nigeria. Looks like the three temples in the Phoenix area was justified. Hopefully a second will be announced in Nigeria soon!

Aaron and Kamyra said...

Today the Ipswich Australia West Stake was created from the Ipswich Australia and the Centenary Stakes, both to the west of Brisbane, Queensland. The new stake contains the following wards; Brassall, Karana Downs, Somerset, Toowoomba, Darling Heights and Warwick wards. The is a dependent group in the town of Dalby (formally a branch), dependent on the Darling Heights ward. Great to see the continued growth in the Brisbane/greater south east Queensland area. Some of this growth due to reactivation's, some converts but mostly member move-ins.

Bunko said...

Today the Sherman Texas Stake was created from the Allen Texas, McKinney Texas and the Frisco Shawnee Trail Texas Stakes. The new stake is as follows:

Sherman Texas Stake

Sherman 1st Ward (from McKinney Stake)
Sherman 2nd Ward (from McKinney Stake)
Durant, OK Ward (from McKinney Stake)
Celina Ward (From Frisco Shawnee Trail Stake)
Bonham Ward (From Allen Texas Stake)
Melissa 1st Ward (From Allen Texas Stake)
Melissa 2nd Ward (From Allen Texas Stake)

Deivisas said...

Well, that officially makes 2016 the best year on record for Stakes created in 1 year in the state of Texas, and it is only the first 3 months of the year!

Deivisas said...

I'm kinda curios now where next Temple in Texas will be, Austin or in the Dallas area, perhaps Fort Worth?

Grant Emery said...

There's already a temple in Dallas, so I'd assume Austin would get one first, even though there are more members in the DFW metro.

Ryan Searcy said...

Are you sure the Wasilla Stake was to be split today? I have not heard anything about it from my friends who live there. Something like this would have been mentioned.

John Pack Lambert said...

There is a brother in my ward who moved here to Michigan less than a year ago from Austin, Texas and he is of the opinion that the next temple built in Texas will be in south Texas in or around McAllen.

I am hoping we see a stake created in Laredo this year as well.

Michael Worley said...

Limited confirmation about Wasilla: https://www.facebook.com/aksourdough/posts/10205799863224107

David Todd said...

I am from the Fort Worth Texas area and while the church is growing very quickly here and I would love to see a temple on this side of the metroplex, I don't see it happening soon for two main reasons. First is that the Dallas temple is within an hour drive of nearly the entire DFW metroplex (an hour and a half at most with traffic), whereas areas like Austin and McAllen are much further from their assigned temples. The other reason is that I am under the impression that the Dallas temple is very underutilized. I have only been to a session twice in that temple, but both times I went, they had to bring in temple workers to join the circle because there weren't enough patrons. I think there is a lot of amazing things that can happen in DFW if the members here get invigorated with a spirit of Temple and Family History work as the membership and congregational growth is definitely already happening. Also, I think a creation of a new mission (perhaps in frisco, plano, or denton) will help the area.

TempleRick said...

More evidence of a split in Wasilla:
https://www.facebook.com/Wasilla-Stake-Choir-1624044544517557/

Alex said...

I'd imagine that the next Texas temple would be in Austin or the Rio Grande Valley. I would guess both of those get one before DFW. With how much space there is in Texas and the many stakes without a temple in close proximity, I think a second temple in the major metro areas would be fairly low priority. The Rio Grande Valley has very similar rationale for a temple as Lubbock did--5 stakes when Laredo becomes one with three of them being more than 30 years old and a distance >200 miles from the nearest temple. In addition, if we go international, there are 5 stakes just across the border from McAllen and Harlingen.

Ryan Searcy said...

That is very strange. Only one post stating a stake split, while every other post I've seen just talked about time and boundary changes, but no mention of a new stake. I suppose we'll know for sure later this week!

Ryan Searcy said...

I found 2 more posts about about the Palmer Alaska Stake. One said who the new president was, and that the person who posted was on the new High Council. It also (vaguely) referenced the new boundary running along Seward Meridian, which, depending on the extent of the boundary changes. I would say the Colony and Cottonwood wards belong in the Palmer Alaska Stake (and all wards east).

Eduardo said...

I don't know how CDOL numbers compare, but recent Indianapolis Temple district numbers:
Bloomington-3,338
Indianapolis-3,394
Lafayette-3,198
Champaign (IL)-2,566
Indy North-4,354
Muncie-3,363
Fort Wayne-3,248
Indy West-3,589
South Bend-3,025

Do those membership numbers square with other lists people have seen?
Our Ashburn Stake has over 5,000 but the most primary and youth in the northeast. That makes it harder to split, possibly similiar to Fredericksburg, VA, where the numbers look good but more adult leadership is needed...

Eduardo said...

I don't know how CDOL numbers compare, but recent Indianapolis Temple district numbers:
Bloomington-3,338
Indianapolis-3,394
Lafayette-3,198
Champaign (IL)-2,566
Indy North-4,354
Muncie-3,363
Fort Wayne-3,248
Indy West-3,589
South Bend-3,025

Do those membership numbers square with other lists people have seen?
Our Ashburn Stake has over 5,000 but the most primary and youth in the northeast. That makes it harder to split, possibly similiar to Fredericksburg, VA, where the numbers look good but more adult leadership is needed...

Mike Johnson said...

Eduardo, we are at about 5600 in the Fredericksburg Stake. The criteria for North America are:

3000 in each stake after a split or new creation
at least 5 wards in each stake after the split
24 full-tithe-paying Melchizedek Priesthood holder (in addition to those required for the wards in the stake: each ward has a requirement of 300 members and 15 FTPMPH).

The number was raised to 3000 in each stake from 2500 a few years ago just as the Fredericksburg Virginia Stake reached 5000. So stakes below 3000 members can and do exist.

Outside North America the criteria are:

1900 members in each stake after a split or new creation
at least 5 wards
24 FTPMPH (in addition to those required for the wards)

I continue to wonder why it is more restrictive in North America to create a stake than outside North America. The only thing I come up with is people move around more in the US and Canada and the extra membership is somewhat of a buffer reducing the need to disestablish stakes if a lot of people suddenly move from an area. Other than that I don't have any idea.

The number of youth and primary children doesn't really figure into the formula at least not directly. Ashburn undoubtedly is in the same boat as Fredericksburg--needing 3000 in each stake after a split.

I remember a few years ago when my daughter was still in Young Women's 7 stakes had a combined youth dance festival in the Centreville stake. The participants from each stake wore a different color shirt for the opening ceremony and they were gathered together as stakes. Only Ashburn (it appeared to me) have more youth there than Fredericksburg.

Joseph said...

Unit Update
28 Feb
L'viv Ukraine District (B:7)
Chernivets'ka Branch
Ivano-Frankivs'ka Branch
Khmel'nyts'ka Branch
L'viv Ukraine District Branch
L'vivs'ka Branch
Luts'ka Branch
Rivnens'ka Branch

13 March (This batch put the total non-sensitive congregations over 30K)
Enumclaw Washington Stake (B:1, W:7)
Mount Peak Branch (Spanish)
Buckley 1st Ward
Buckley 2nd Ward
Enumclaw 1st Ward
Enumclaw 2nd Ward
Enumclaw 3rd Ward
Orting Ward
Victor Falls Ward

Guthrie 2nd Ward, Stillwater Oklahoma Stake (B:4, W:10)
Kawale Branch, Lilongwe Malawi District (B:4)
Sagewood Branch (Care Center), South Jordan Utah Founders Park Stake (B:1, W:11)
Valle de Etla Ward, Oaxaca México Monte Albán Stake (W:11)

20 March
Ipswich Australia West Stake ( W:6)
Brassall Ward
Darling Heights Ward
Karana Downs Ward
Somerset Ward
Toowoomba Ward
Warwick Ward

Sherman Texas Stake (W:7)
Bonham Ward
Celina Ward
Durant Ward
Melissa 1st Ward
Melissa 2nd Ward
Sherman 1st Ward
Sherman 2nd Ward

Paseo Crossings Ward, Chandler Arizona South Stake (B:1, W:7)
Franklin Branch, Fayetteville Georgia Stake (B:2, W:10)
New Garage Ward, Ibadan Nigeria Stake (B:1, W:9)
Silver Lakes Branch (Spanish), Fort Lauderdale Florida Stake (B:2, W:5)
Smith Lane Ward, Kaysville Utah West Stake (W:7)
Vega de la Torre Branch, Martínez de la Torre México Stake (B:4, W:5)


YTD 164(13.7/week*12) +15 - Total 34,314(+10) (Net 112 68%)
Africa 42, 25.6% (+2) - Total 1812 (+1)
Asia 3, 1.8% (0) - Total 934 (0)
America Central 12, 7.3% (+2) - Total 3931 (+1)
America North 62, 37.8% (+6) - Total 9377 (+5)
America South 8, 4.9% (0) - Total 6338 (-2)
Europe 5, 3.0% (+3) - Total 1713 (+1)
Pacific 9, 5.5% (+2) - Total 2739 (+2)
Utah & Idaho 22(18), 13.4(11.0)% (0) - Total 6928(5717)(+1)

Totals no-sensitive (Net +12)
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 150 419 3,188 548 22,654 7,353 34,337
Us/Can 10 82 131 1,608 10 12,630 2,056 16,527
US n/a 74 124 1,560 7 12,292 1,907 15,964
Utah n/a 16 10 579 1 4,718 327 5,651
Canada n/a 8 7 48 3 338 149 553
Out 15 68 288 1,580 538 10,024 5,297 17,810

Alex said...

Hopefully the rate of stake creation keeps up. On pace for ~75-80 net stakes created for the year.

David Todd said...

On the topic of missions without a stake or district, it seems that L'viv can now be crossed off of the list, too! While much of the growth in eastern europe/ Russia is simply the reorganization of districts, it is still exciting to see so much happening out there, especially with local leadership. My roommate served in vladivostok, Russia and he has said that though the church is small out there, the members are remarkably strong in their testimonies and knowledge of the Gospel and the administrative elements of the church, too.

David Todd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eduardo said...

Yes, the 3,000 minimum seems right for North American stakes, so I was thinking Fredericksburg and Ashburn only need well over 5k (as they do) in order to split since the units in between based on the new stake divisions would average out to 3k or more each. Perhaps Tall Cedars would be a good spot for a new stake center? I do not know.
A higher number average in the US may have to do with stronger auxiliary leadership and experience, thus individuals are better reached by more church facets than in less strengthened areas in Latin America and Europe and elsewhere. We can handle bigger responsibilty up here, perhaps.

John Pack Lambert said...

It is good to see more wards and branches being formed in Mexico.

One question. When you need 3000 members to form a stake, do you count those from the stake serving elsewhere towards the count, or only those in the stake. On the other hand, would you count missionaries serving in the stake. My guess is on both counts the answer would be no.

John Pack Lambert said...

On another issue, it seems the L'viv district is the result of growth in that area for the Church since the formation of the L'viv Mission back in 2013.

soc. man I am ---------------- said...

Is there a way to see membership numbers per ward or stake?

tyler said...

Nairobi Kenya Stake split into 2: Nairobi East and Nairobi West. Very positive development. Several stories online, you shouldn't have any problem finding sources....

Eduardo said...

Yes, the 3,000 minimum seems right for North American stakes, so I was thinking Fredericksburg and Ashburn only need well over 5k (as they do) in order to split since the units in between based on the new stake divisions would average out to 3k or more each. Perhaps Tall Cedars would be a good spot for a new stake center? I do not know.
A higher number average in the US may have to do with stronger auxiliary leadership and experience, thus individuals are better reached by more church facets than in less strengthened areas in Latin America and Europe and elsewhere. We can handle bigger responsibilty up here, perhaps.

Mike Johnson said...

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/statistics/unit/nairobi-kenya-east-stake/

This one is good enough for me about the split of the Nairobi Kenya Stake

Mike Johnson said...

>>> I was thinking Fredericksburg and Ashburn only need well over 5k (as they do) in order to split since the units in between based on the new stake divisions would average out to 3k or more each

I am not sure what you man by the "units in between." Fredericksburg and Ashburn would be able to split if one or more wards from neighboring stakes are included.

Eduardo said...

Yes, neighboring stakes would have ward units to help these oversized stakes to create two more: Oakton, Centreville, and maybe one more. Warrenton or Front Royal, maybe.

Mike Johnson said...

My understanding is that the President of the Centreville Stake took the Warrenton wards off the table when the Fredericksburg Stake approached the Centreville Stake about it. The Centreville Stake is an obvious "target" for extra wards for both the Ashburn and Fredericksburg stakes.

The other possible stakes for Fredericksburg to supply a ward or so are the Woodbridge and Richmond Stakes. I have heard of the possibility of the Quantico Ward from the Woodbridge Stake. That would leave 8 wards in the Woodbridge Stake--a stake that needs a 4th building (3 wards in each of 3 buildings all largely full).

The natural boundary for two stakes from Fredericksburg is the Rappahannock River with its relatively few ways to cross the river inside the stake (I-95 and US 1, but both are congested much of the time). There are 6 wards south of the river. There are 6 family wards in Stafford County and 1 in Kings County north of the river. The YSA and Spanish branches meet in 2 of the 3 buildings in Stafford County north of the river, although I would think the YSA branch might end up in a stake south of the river (lots of the singles live to the south).

Eduardo said...

Somebody may have asked this before but I used to be able to see stakes and wards and missions on an LDS map. Was this LDS.org or another site?
I wanted to see what boundaries may change by Ashburn and Fredericksburg creating new stakes. Also, what and where would these new split stakes be located and called? I gues we need more buildings, despite Ashburn building two new ones in the last 5 years.

David Todd said...

You can find the maps on LDS.org. go to meetinghouse locator, then click on the 3x3 grid thing on the bottom right, and click on the classic LDS maps. Then you can go to layers and choose what you want to be able to see on the map. Hope that helps!

Eduardo said...

Awesome, thanks. I needed to go the "Classic Map" view, and that enabled me (by your grid directions).

There seems to be a wide east/west divide of the large Fredericksburg Stake. I know that in the Ashburn Stake the newest building in South Riding/Aldie (Tall Cedars), is geographically closer to the Centreville Stake and could go there more feasibly or logistically, perhaps freeing up Warrenton wards (1 and 2, it seems) to move to a new stake.

But it also seems that some smaller concentrated stakes have few numbers of buildings (Woodbridge appears to have only 3) so that they cannot split up as readily as Fredericksburg, or not split up entirely, but break off units to create a new stake.

So the questions remain: even with all the requisite numbers of 6,000 in ONE stake to be able to form new stakes, where are the new stake centers going to be? They said that Tall Cedars has the capacity to upshift to one, but again that is close to Centreville, which would not make much sense.

Hmmmm...

Ryan Searcy said...

An easier way is to just type

classic.lds.org/maps

Make sure you get the "s" in "maps" or it will redirect you to the new maps.