Camp Lemmonier, which is the base many of the members in Djoubuti were based at, is the only US permanent military base on the entire continent of Africa. It is currently under US leade until 2034.
Gboko, which is the new town in Benue State with a branch, has about 500,000 inhabitants. It is the traditional center for the Tiv People. On the other hand it suffers from high rates of youth unemployment and poorly developed infastructure.
An interesting comment from Steve Rockwood, the current head of FamilySearch International.
Steve said if you ever want to know some places where we are diversifying, listen to the Church’s General Conference and see where the Prophet [Thomas S. Monson] is announcing temples. When that happens, opportunities open up for us, he said. Look where there are 27 temples still under construction. Steve said that 60% of visitors to Temple Square (across the street from the Salt Lake City Family History Library) speak Chinese. What kind of discovery experience can we provide for them?
For the rest of what he said, read this blog post.
Two new wards were created in the Provo Utah USA 6th Stake today. The Provo YSA 78th and 85th wards. Apparently the building on BYU campus that we meet in is going from having 12 wards to 17 wards meet there, so I anticipate that there are other changes (new wards) that will be happening soon or concurrently.
A new ward will be created in Scottsdale, AZ next week on Aug 7. We lost our largest ward to a neighboring stake about a year ago, so this actually surprising.
Nothing spectacular, but about a month ago, my YSA ward in Ogden had a set of missionaries assigned to it specifically for the first time. There have been some huge struggles in my ward with attrition and lack of fellowshipping, and until a few weeks ago we almost never had investigators (or missionaries) at church.
These new Elders have made a point of attending not only church, but all sorts of social functions within the ward (such as privately-organized barbecues). There, they would talk to everyone, ask for referrals, or directly get into conversations with non-members and less actives. The ward boundaries are about 2*1 mile of mostly single family homes, so traditional knocking on doors would probably not last long enough to keep a companionship busy. Either way, what these missionaries are doing is definitely working. They have established contact with some long-time less actives, and they have begun regularly teaching some of them. A couple of them have started coming to church again, while others are still reluctant. But that is not all. Over the past month, five newly-found investigators have been invited for baptism, and all have accepted. Four are due to be baptized on Saturday, and all of them have been faithfully attending all three hours of church for a few weeks. A couple were found at a barbecue one of the ward members held, and invited the missionaries to.
I must say, when I was on a mission, these kinds of social finding situations weren't my favorite (too many distractions from other people), but apparently they work a lot better here, particularly for YSAs.
YSA wards in Southern California have a pair of elders and sister missionaries assigned and set aside one night a month for doing splits with members for "finding".
Pascal, That is very exciting news about pick up of work with YSAs in Ogden. I know when I was in the Ann Arbor YSA ward the missionaries would do lots of contacting on the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University campuses. However Ann Arbor has a large class of YSAs who are young professionals, and I am not sure they ever figured out how to do concerted outreach to them. Here in the Bloomfield Hills Stake even when our YSA unit was a ward instead of a branch, it never had its own set of missionaries. I think the University Ward in the Lansing Stake at one point had 3 sets of missionaries, but MSU alone has over 50,000 students.
There are also two sets of missionaries on the WMU campus in Kalamazoo and two sets assigned to the Mount Pleasant Ward, which one set focuses almost exclusively with CMU students.
And my ward meets in the Tanner Building on BYU campus.
Word is that stakes across the valley are being changed, I've heard that letters are being read in wards being affected. The changes sound very interesting.
One I heard involves some wards right at about 106th South in Sandy and nearby, near South Towne Mall. There was no mention of a stake being created or discontinued in that area, just some boundary changes, and that involved wards in that area too.
The Kalamazoo University Branch meets in a former Protestant Chapel the LDS Church bought immediately across the street from Kalamazoo College and pretty close to the Western Michigan University campus. The Ann Arbor YSA Ward meets in the Green Road Chapel which is right by the north campus of the University of Michigan. The institute building is on Hill Street right by the south campus of UofM, specifically the business school and infact the business school rents out the third floor of the institute building. Several church members are professors in the UofM business school, including the Ann Arbor Stake Patriarch Kim Cameron.
Tanner Building makes sense to have lots of wards meeting in it. It was a good sized building when I was there. I believe sometime around about 2007 it had a major addition built onto it.
On another note in my girlfriends branch, Belle Isle, one of the white families that lives in Grosse Pointe has a daughter who is about to go to BYU. The dad in this family was in the branch presidency with the previous branch president. He actually grew up in Detroit in the area of Chalmers south of Jefferson. The house he grew up in has since been torn down and he says he is not sure how it ever fit on that lot. He joined the Church while living in St Clair shores, then moved to Harrison Township and then to Groose Pointe.
How are Michigan missions baptizing lately? The DC South Mission in Virginia has a goal of 300 converts in 2016; they are close to being on goal especially after recently adding the Woodbridge Stake.
The Lansing Michigan mission has a goal of 100 baptisms. I'm fairly certain we are behind on that number. The members in our mission are not very involved with missionary work. We are trying very hard to change that in the North Muskegon ward, but there have been many years of bad habits to overcome. We have only had 1 baptism in our ward this year. We have developed a member missionary committee, which meets once a month, to promote activities in the community.Traditionally, members have been very isolationist. They are afraid of the large number of anti-Mormons in our area. I'm not afraid of them, and am encouraging our members to make friends in the neighborhood of our building. Our ward is celebrating our 75th anniversary, and we have musicians from other churches participating in a concert and history program in September. I am hoping for a good turn out, but the members here have trouble grasping why we want to invite nonmembers to this. I will let you know how things work out in the future.
Not only did the Woodbridge Virginia Stake shift from the Virginia Richmond Mission to the Washington DC South Mission, the Annapolis Maryland Stake moved from the Maryland Baltimore Mission to the Washington DC North Stake. That move means Frederick Maryland is now about the center of the Maryland Baltimore Mission.
That seems like a low number for the Lansing Mission. I served there and got home a little over a year ago. 2014 and 2015 had goals of 300 baptisms and we were close to it in 2014 and ahead of track when I left the mission last may. It is true that many areas struggle, particularly due to anti-mormon influence, but the campuses seem to all baptize a lot and certain wards and branches get "on fire". Some examples that I recall are the Wyoming Ward, Sturgis Ward, Bay City Ward, and Kalkaska Branch.
Here's some contextual info on the Lebanon, Indiana branch being closed. Two branches were upgraded into a single ward. The Lebanon branch and the Frankfort branch were combined in order to created the Frankfort ward. Does it still count as the location being closed if it is now part of a newly created ward?
100 convert baptisms in a year for one stake is pretty good. With over three thousand stakes worldwide, if every stake did that in one year we would have a high in converts, maybe not all time high for one year, but very robust.
100 convert baptisms per stake would give us just over 300,000 convert baptism, although that would be absolutely none outside of stakes. In 1990 the number of convert baptisms was at least 325,000.
I just came upon the article on the creation of the first areas from the Ensign in 1984.
There were in 1984 initially 13 areas of the Church, 7 in the US and Canada (although NA South-east took in the Caribbean as well) and 6 in the rest of the world. Today there are 10 in the US and Canada (or 11 from those first 7 since the Caribbean was all or almost all in a US area in 1984). There are 13 in the rest of the world, 12 of which have their headquarters outside the US. Initially in 1984 only the Europe (based in Frankfurt, Germany with Joseph B. Wirthlin as president), Pacific and South America South Areas had the Area Presidencies living outside of Salt Lake City.
Interestingly the South American South Area has the same boundaries it did in 1984, although Chile had its own area for some time.
Africa was under the European Area at first. That area is now essentially 5 (Europe, Europe East, NA/Middle East, Africa West and Africa South-East). The Pacific Area covered Hawaii when it was first created, but at some point Hawaii was relocated to the North America West Area. Also Micronesia was at that point in the Pacific Area, it would later be moved to the Philippines Area when that was formed, and then be moved to the Pacific Islands Area when a separate Australia/New Zealand area was formed, and then be moved to the Asia North Area. the Russian Far East (Vladisvostok Mission) was also for a time in the Asia North Area, but it is now in the Europe East Area.
In 1984 there was only the Asia Area. It is now most of Asia North, Asia and the Philippines Areas. Part of me wonders if the Asia Area Might be splittable into two. Africa might on the other hand be able to have a third area. When Africa was first split into two areas the Congo was in the Africa West Area, but it has since been moved to the south-east area. Europe for a while had 3 areas, and they had boundaries drawn between them in all sorts of interesting and changing ways.
The South America North Area has been split into South America North West and Brazil, but both of those areas were split for a time, although that also involved Panama being moved for a time. The Church has elimanated about 5 areas while at the same time giving more responsibilities to areas.
What was Mexico/Central America is now two areas, although it peaked at 3. In the US and Canada there has been less change. The North America West Area aquired Hawaii at some point, and it has lost the Lake Havasu City and Yuma Stakes.
For some of the others I would like to get better descriptions. The North America Southwest took in more of southern Utah than it does now, apparently most of the state south of Provo/Utah County. Today it only takes in the south-east corner of the state, in that is only since the Farmington New Mexico Mission was formed. What is unclear though is what is "southern plains" what is "south central" in the Ensign descriptors. The south-east/south-west area divide may have been close to the current divide, I really can not say. However the North America Central Area did not exist. so my guess is that pretty much all of Colorado, and possible more of Missouri and Kansas was in the south-west area. The North-east Area clearly went further west, it probably included most of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Manitoba. The NA North-west area not only included most of what is today the Idaho Area (although some of the present Idaho Area may have been in Utah Salt Lake City North), but also is said to have included "Northern Plains" and Alberta. This says to me at least Montana and Wyoming, although exactly how Wyoming was split remains unclear. The Dakotas I would also guess were in the NW area.
I think my ward has had only 2 convert baptisms this year, which is far below the 5 we had in November of last year. However I think with the rolling out of justserve we will have more connection to the community. This is not meant to directly result in baptisms but I think will result in better interactions that will in the long run mean more baptisms.
In my girlfriend's branch they have 3 convert baptisms scheduled for August 13th.
I just noticed that the Lancaster Pennsylvania Stake and the Chamberburg Pennsylvania Stake are in the Baltimore Mission. Has this always been the case, or is it a recent development. I have to admit that the book I would love would be a historical atlas of mission boundaries, that showed every mission boundary ever. I am still waiting to get the really awesome book "Mapping Mormonism", although that Historical Atlas of Mission Boundaries is like an ultimate dream.
Irritation, people. When Wikipedia came up in conversation here last week, I read some of the more general LDS wiki pages; which are awful. They are as deep as 5th grade reports and strange as well. In the LDS Temple Architecture page an author of a book about Solomon's Temple is the source given for saying that the Salt Lake temple is meant to emulate the temple of Solomon, and faces Solomon's Temple/Jerusalem. Why would someone allow an author trying to lend more current-day import to the topic of his book be used instead of the numerous sources that say LDS temples have an eastward facing preference wherever in the world they are built? Why the tendency toward the obscure and clearly biased, Wiki writers?
Now, I'm reading an article by an architectural critic out of Philadelphia, linked from the news page of Rick's LDS Temples site, dated August 2, and she has pulled from the Wikipedia page and repeated in her article that the LDS prefer to have their temples face Jerusalem! I thought Wikipedia was widely not considered a scholarly source. Why, if she is an architectural critic did she not notice that in the same page Wikipedia calls the Nauvoo Temple 'Greek Revival' and think, "Wait, this page is all crap."?
A few stakes have been reassigned to other missions this year; or rather I am just now noticing them, I am not sure when they actually switched. These include:
Boulder Colorado Stake moved from the Colorado Fort Collins Mission to the Colorado Denver North Mission.
Parker Colorado South Stake moved from Colorado Springs to Denver North.
Chambersburg Pennyslvania and Lancaster Pennsylvania Stakes moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore.
Annapolis Maryland Stake moved from Baltimore to Washington DC North.
Woodbridge Virginia Stake moved from Richmond to Washington DC South.
Fort Myers Florida Stake moved from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale.
Vero Beach Florida Stake moved from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando.
Cookeville Tennessee Stake moved from Nashville to Knoxville.
Richmond Texas Stake moved from Houston to Houston South.
Thanks for the correction. Both Chambersburg and Lancaster Stakes were in the Pittsburgh Mission, not Philadelphia. Lancaster was organized in 2013 from the Harrisburg and York Stakes. York was renamed Chambersburg. York had been in the Harrisburg Mission before it was absorbed by Pittsburgh in 2009.
Gracie, you can edit Wikipedia. Please do, well armed with scholarly sources. Wikipedia is an easily accessible source, and people, especially journalist in a hurry to meet deadlines will use it. We can either work to make it better, or we can throw our hands up and complain. But it will be used.
I believe some of the stakes in north-east Wyoming that are now in the Billings Mission used to be in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. I seem to recall that north-central Wyoming (Cody and such) have long been in the Billings Mission, but the north-east corner seems to be a more recent realignment.
Looking at probable temple locations as well as existing temples, and breaking them down by areas, dimensions, districts, and the like, I can note a discernible pattern.
I divide the number of square feet of a temple (x1000) over congregational equivalents (a 5 ward stake gets 1.0 units whereas an 8 ward one branch stake gets 1.7 units). One branch is worth 0.1 unit, while one ward is equal to 0.2 units.
Gillette should have been kept with Rapid City, because of its closeness to that location, it's less than a two-hour drive. However, I think they moved it to Billings because the Sheridan units (3 wards in 1987) may actually be closer to Billings. Gillette at one time had three wards, I don't know how many there are now.
Gillette has the Sundance and Newcastle units too, both of which are fairly close to the state line with South Dakota.
Part of me wonders if the headquarters of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission will be moved to a different city. The mission has moved its center of gravity north and maybe a bit east over the years, so its headquarters is now near the south-east corner of the mission.
Whoa! Mr. Smarty Pants John Pack Lambert does NOT know that the South Dakota Rapid City Mission was realigned and renamed the North Dakota Bismarck Mission? Even an alleged apostate like myself already knew that ;-) In fact, it's old news...
At least the last 7 people baptized in my ward, those baptized from the start of last November on, were all at Church today.
The Elder's quorum in my ward is trying a new method of home teaching. Instead of having companionships, we have groups of families with the idea of doing one large home teaching event. The elder's quorum presidency tried to arrange these by area more or less. I am not sure how well it will work, but it will be interesting.
The next temple in the area will probably go in northern Davis Co. Kaysville or Layton (I personally favor Kaysville as it is more centrally located.
The coeffecient is obtained by dividing the number of square feet of a temple over number of congregations as explained in post 33. The magic number appears to be 1 (1.000) for the Utah and Idaho areas.
The next temple in the area will probably go in northern Davis Co. Kaysville or Layton (I personally favor Kaysville as it is more centrally located.
The coeffecient is obtained by dividing the number of square feet of a temple over number of congregations as explained in post 33. The magic number appears to be 1 (1.000) for the Utah and Idaho areas.
Somehow I had missed the move of the mission location, so that makes more sense to have Wyoming in Billings now.
That also has a large number of units, but the branches are largely in very small towns like a couple thousand people each with not many around them. So, in order to get more normal numbers for a stake, there will have to be both a new full ward in Sheridan and Gillette each. The split would be Buffalo, that would go with Sheridan, along with Ranchester, while Sundance and Moorcroft would stay with Gillette. Wright is directly south of Gillette so it would stay with Gillette.
I love LDS street rumors! One anti-Mormon street rumor I heard in my first mission sector Mulchen was "the Garden of Eden is NOT in Missouri". We shall see. That was a quote from a local evengelical preacher, 8th Region.
Two new stakes formed in Provo would be wonderful. It would also make it all that more likely we will see a new temple announced for Utah County. Here in Metro Detroit we would be happy if we could get two new wards. The total number of wards has declined since 2010.
I'm only coming to believe that Wikipedia (re: the general LDS pages) deserves anyone's effort in clean up; since people do go to it and it's in bad shape. It looks like a worthwhile project. But for me, I can't spend my time on that. Probably not many people could have the time for that. I hope someone does fix it up though; it'd be a big, careful and continual project too.
One way that Metro Detroit is indirectly helping the Church is through work and tithing. My California brother-in-law's father from Yucaipa is doing construction in Michigan most months of the year, making some money and paying maybe his best tithing ever. Life long devoted member.
The area around Eagle Mtn to Lehi is growing rapidly. Mt. Timpanogos is extremely busy even after Provo Ctr was finished, and its ratio like Oquirrh is close to the magic number for further temples.
Another temple in Orem is a possibility though Lehi or area will probably be announced first.
Price might be able to support a micro temple though the two closest temples are also with small districts relative to their sizes.
Possible temple in Pocatello as well as some place between ID Falls and Rexburg given their low coefficients. With more growth in Twin Pokey looks more probable.
I don't see one between I.F. and Rexburg. Pokey seems very likely the next few years. Probably after I.F's renovation is complete and depends on how busy it is.
I don't see one between I.F. and Rexburg. Pokey seems very likely the next few years. Probably after I.F's renovation is complete and depends on how busy it is.
Arizona is pretty much staked out as far as temples go. Nevada might need a temple for Elko due to distance concerns. Winnemucca would go to Elko in that case easing off Reno.
Texas will probably get a temple in McAllen as San Antonio has the largest district in relation to temple size in TX and in Monterrey, in MX their coefficient is likewise quite low (0.414). The north Tamaulipas stakes would go o a McAllen temple or in Reynosa across the border.
Oklahoma has the lowest coefficient and a temple in NW ARK would be the best bet overall to raise it a little.
ST PAUL 0.648 DENVER 0.742 WITRQTR 0.870 EDMNTON 0.884 KNSCITY 1.345 CHICAGO 1.365 BISMARK 1.427 BILLNGS 1.543 FTCOLIN 2.156 INDIANA 2.267 REGINA 2.488 CALGARY 2.598 STLOUIS 4.021 CARDSTN 4.027 NAUVOO 6.207
A Temple could be built in Colo Springs to ease off Denver's low coefficient even when considering Ft Collins. Madison WI might be a possibility considering St Paul's low coefficient and Chicago's moderate coefficient. Winter Q and Edmonton could make their temples bigger as though their coefficients are low there is not another sizeable place to extend.
Regina SK is the highest coefficient where another temple is announced (Winnipeg)
There might be another temple in the Inland Empire or two more in the Central Valley (Bakersfield on the south, Redding or Yuba in the north). A second Bay Area temple might be in store in the longer term (prob SJ)
Winnemucca to Reno is a terribly long drive! I feel for them. Is the Redlands Temple pretty busy? I like the idea of a northern California temple for distances. A temple in Imperial County CA would be sweet, but probably better in huge Mexicali across the border. Or maybe Palm Springs?
Palm Springs would work better. There are only two stakes in Mexicali and the reason why TJ was built was so that those without a visa wouldn't have to travel to Hermosillo (12 hrs).
Tijuana has 12 stakes in its district. And at 33k sqft, has the highest coefficient for temples in Mexico making the construction of another temple on the Baja peninsula, highly unlikely.
Winnemuca to Reno is three hours tops. Not terribly far but not too close either.
Here in Puebla on a GOOD day we are two hours from the Mex City Temple. But with a new law prohibiting transport from outside the city two days a week plus two Saturdays in a month, there will be a better chance of some temples on the outer areas of the district. Queretaro and Puebla are two likely sites as church growth has happened there. Followed by Cuernavaca and Toluca (Cuernavaca has the stakes but zero growth, Toluca has growth but they need more stakes)
A fourth temple for Washington looks like a possibility, perhaps in the central part of the state. A temple looks probable for Missoula if growth continues there (would ease up Spokane). An eastern Oregon temple might be in the offing medium to long term depending on growth.
A temple looks probable in the Piedmont region (perhaps Charlotte) for the low coefficients in the two Carolina temples. Knoxville is a small though tempting possibility (distance 3 hours to Nashville and 4 to Atlanta). Jacksonville is tempting but more members are needed there.
Another OH temple is definitely possible. Maybe we can get Kirtland back?
Michigan's coefficient is low but current membership would favor an enlargening of the existing temple first. New York has a similar issue, unless White Plains becomes an option.
A Virginia temple is tricky as Washington DC has a very high coefficient. Richmond isn't very far away. Buena Vista has SVU and not too much more. Then there is Norfolk, fairly distant from both Washington and Raleigh. My bet is that the first VA temple goes to Norfolk.
Looking at the coefficients several candidates pop out for distance and coefficients.
Queretaro will probably be next as the district it would cover puts it between the two temples with the lowest coefficiencies in Mexico. Draw a triangle with Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey as the vertices, and Queretaro is right in the middle. There has been consistent growth there.
Puebla is number two. Though it is fairly near Mexico City there are 12 stakes within an hour's drive of Puebla. Two hours away from there are three more stakes in Cuautla, one in Teziutlan, and one in Tehuacan. There has been growth primarily in the South mission.
Torreon and Culiacan are three and four as they are far from their temples with a reasonable number of stakes (though growth needs to pick up).
Surprise pick would be Cancun as it is pretty far away from Merida which has a low coefficient and there has been growth there. Cuba and Jamaica could probably go there.
Some temples such as LA and Salt Lake have large assembly rooms that are not used for ordinance work, so the size of the temple does not directly tell us ordinance capacity.
Any word on progress for missionary work in Myanmar? I wonder if a mission is formed in Myanmar if it will also include areas in the north-east of India. Some groups, such as the Naga live on both sides of the border. Several of the peoples in North-east India speak Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistically the north-east of India is closer to Myanmar than to most of the rest of Burma.
The Naga number about 4 million people, live in both Myanmar and India, and are about 95% Christian. In Myanmar there are over 3 million Christians. The country is officially Buddhist, and over 85% of the population adheres to that religion. Christianity is most prevalent among ethnic minority groups, and the Budhists control the government and have made missionary presence hard.
While I can see logistical advantages to a mission covering both Myanmar and north-east India I doubt it will happen. In part because it is so logical. The Kingdom of Burma controlled parts of what is now north-east India in the early 19th-century before the British took them. Thus the Indian control in some of those areas is not as deep as they would like it, so India, which already has fairly high restrictions on activities by the LDS Church, would not be pleased if the LDS Church put parts of India under an eccesiastical organization based in Myanmar.
Richmond Virginia seems to be a popular suggestion for a temple. However, when the Philadelphia Temple is dedicated, the Washington, D.C. with lose a quarter of the temple district. I have only seen one full session in the Washington, D.C. temple in the time that I have lived in the metro area. If a temple in Richmond is built, the Washington, D.C. temple district will be cut in half from its present size. For that to be effective, the number of sessions will need to be reduced, which could be tricky because traffic situations can change quickly.
From reading Reed Haslam's book ''The Light Breaks Forth: The LDS Church in the Ancient Kingdoms of Asia'' about the Church in South-east Asia, it appears, at least based on what was learned on a trip to the area by a mission president in 2004, that the Church could easily baptize over 1,000 people in Chin State of Myanmar if missionaries could be sent there. Some people there were baptized by the mission president in 1988, well they were baptized near Mandalay where they had traveled to meet with him. 87 in all. One brother had actually been baptized by President Gordon B. Hinckley on a trip to Burma in 1987.
For a time the Church actually had a branch in Chin State, but due to inability to provide any oversight it was suspended.
Some of the Church members in Yangon have relatives in Chin State. While some of the converts there have been former Budhists, many have been formed Christians.
The book in question was published in 2012, so I can not say much of how events in the last 4 years have effected the Church in Myanmar.
Actually I think the next Nevada Temple will be in either Elko or in the western part of the Las Vegas area. Elko is not likely unless they manage to start seeing some growth, either from baptisms with retention, reactivation, or most likely a combination of both. If they can get another stake in Elko, it might be a candidate for a temple, although Elko's 3 hours 18 minutes to the Salt Lake Temple is about the same as the 3 hours from Buena Vista to the Washington DC Temple. With 2 stakes in Buena Vista and another in Roanoke, Roanoke might be a good target for a temple. It could take in all 6 stakes in the Charleston West Virginia Mission plus the Waynsburg Virginia Stake and maybe draw in the Danville Ward in the Greensboro, North Carolina Stake as well.
Looking at the map though the place that stuck out to me as a good candidate for a temple in that area is Beckley, West Virginia. However temples are rarely built in a place that does not have a stake.
Also, Pittsburgh is a good candidate for a temple, and that would probably take in some of West Virginia as well. However Greensboro and Winston-Salem are still closer to Raleigh than Roanoke, so a temple in Roanoke would possibly only take in 5 stakes if Pittsburgh got a temple as well. That is not an unheard of low.
On a new southern-Nevada temple, I very much think somewhere in the western part of Las Vegas would get it. Henderson is not all that far from the Las Vegas Temple on the north-east side. Both the stake that includes the temple and the stake that covers the area immediately south across the street from the temple have had wards discontinued this year. So even though the Church continues to grow in Henderson, it just is not enough to justify a new temple. The distance from the far north-west parts of the Las Vegas area to the temple is greater and more likely to justify a temple. With Las Vegas being split into the Las Vegas Mission and the Las Vegas West Mission, I could see a temple being built somewhere in the West Mission boundaries. The Las Vegas West Mission has not had a temple in its boundaries since the Reno Mission was formed.
I put the distance from various stake centers to the temple in the distance calculator. From the stake centers of the two stake centers of the two most recently organized stakes in Henderson to the Las Vegas Temple is 29 minutes in both cases. The Las Vegas Nevada Skye Canyon Stake Center to the Las Vegas Nevada Temple is 37 minutes drive. It looks like no where in the Las Vegas Metro area is more than 45 minutes drive from the Las Vegas Temple.
The two most outlying stakes in the Las Vegas Temple district are the Kingman Arizona and Lake Havasu City Arizona stakes. So I looked to see if a temple in Yuma or Flagstaff would help with either of these. A temple in Flagstaff would still be further from Kingman than the Las Vegas Temple, and the Kingman stake stretches into the far southern part of Nevada, even closer to Las Vegas and futher from Flagstaff. Yuma is further from Lake Havasu City than Las Vegas. So no plus there.
I looked into how areas to the west and north of Las Vegas might be helped by a temple on the west side. A temple built on the north-west side of Las Vegas would only cut the travel time for people in Pahrump by about 10 minutes. Even a temple by the stake center of the stake Pahrump is in would just cut the time from an hour and 23 minutes to 53 minutes. Going beyound there, there is just very little. Tonopah Ward would be helped a little by a temple in the far north-west of Las Vegas, but the 3 Fallon Nevada wards in the Fallon Nevada south stake would still be clearly closer to Reno Temple. The remaining ward and 3 branches are a bit of a toss up, but would still be looking at journeys over 2 and a half hours any way. Ridgecrest California still seems to be closer to LA Temple than to any location no matter how far west in metro-Las Vegas. Bishop California is a bit more of a toss up, but would still be looking at the one ward having a 4 hour drive to the temple. Barstow Ward might find a temple in far south-west Las Vegas closer than the Los Angeles Temple. However it is just about at the even point, depending on traffic and things. The two branches in Barstow Stake west of the Barstow Ward seem likely to be clear candidates for benefitting from a temple on the west side of Las Vegas. However for example the Newberry Springs Branch takes in an area bigger than metro-Las Angeles and still has its chapel in the western fithed of the branch. This branch goes to the Nevada border, but there is a huge desert out there.
Anyway one looks at it the 27 stakes in the Las Vegas Temple district are about all there will be, and none would be helped all that much by a new temple. I could see a temple built somewhere on the western side of Las Vegas, but not any time super soon.
One other possibility would be a temple in Logandale or Mesquite Nevada. The Logandale stake is almost big enough to split. However I still don't see this temple taking in more than 4 stakes, and Logandale is just over an hour from the Las Vegas Temple. I could see Hurricane, Utah getting a temple before one getting built in Logandale.
A friend from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia talked of a counter Mormon resistance in that major urban area. So far, so good. A temple towards the Roanoke Appalachians woyld be cool. Let's build two!
President Hinckley did say that the smaller temples announced in 1997-99 would be built with potential future expansion in mind.
One was redone soon after, Monticello, but that was to make it possible to run sessions more frequently than the original floor plan had it possible to do, and simply involved splitting the ordinance room in two for that purpose.
But others I could see being redone, adding particularly on the far side away from the front. So far we haven't seen it happen, we have had two renovated with no new capacity added though in the last couple years.
On the other hand in Ohio President Hinckley stated that when the Columbus Temple got too busy the Church would build an additional temple to relieve demand.
On another note, an incoming BYU freshman basketball player named Yoeli "Yo" Childs was just baptized a member of the Church. Here http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865659685/BYU-freshman-basketball-player-Yoeli-Childs-joins-LDS-Church.html?s_cid=Email-4 is the Deseret News article on it. In the picture they have the 3 sister missionaries, one who looks Tongan or Samoan, are all drawfed by Childs and a fellow BYU basketball player.
Childs appears to be African-American, especially if you look at his profile picture on ESPN. He grew up in South Jordan, Utah raised by a single mother.
BYU is starting to see several outstanding athletes, with good academic records, who are African-American LDS converts. Another is Shaqueille Walker, a track star who came close to making the US olympic team. Walker joined the LDS Church as a teenager in Georgia, after he comitted to go to BYU, and has served a mission.
I am hoping that these men can both be leaders in LDS outreach to African-Americans and help form a more positive image of African-Americans among Church members, which will in turn make LDS outreach more effective.
Too often our missionaries are not good at speaking the word of God in a way that African-Americans hear it. This often involves tricky situations like not offending people when explaining to them that they cannot be baptized until they finish their probation for drug dealing, even though they had white fellow students in their high school who got much shorter sentances for the same crime and who could be baptized today.
My ward's chapel was a Pokemon Go hotspot, but evidently some of the Pokemon people who showed up were engaged in smoking pot, some of whom managed to sneak into the building because it was not locked, so our bishop had it removed.
African-Americans have many hurdles to overcome, as have LDS of all hues. In my ward in the last 4 years we have had 3 black converts and an Afghan. Another white convert is married to a Pakistani, while another boy convert is half Asian ( I think Filipino, maybe another East Asian). Come to think of it, the biggest number of our converts have been minorities. Although noted, we have not baptized in general as much as we had hoped. But some good folks, we love them. Love finds a way to speak to all people of the Lord, the heart will have its way with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Us followers need to continue to follow His voice. I wonder if more German speakers respond more to President Uchtdorf?
Sorry, I get irritated when people talk about their units and don't tell where: Loudoun County, Virginia, where it is so diverse we have Bollywood or other Indian films at the local movie theatre. My kids are surrounded by Latinos at their elementary school.
In my ward 4 of our last 7 convets (all 7 of whom were there last Sunday) were African-American. 3 of those were 12-year-old twin brothers (now 13) and their 10 year old sister. Their now 8-year-old brother was also in Church on Sunday, and will probably get baptized soon. The 10-year-old has been bringing an African-American friend of hers to church as well.
At the 2010 census the area of our ward was well under 10% African-American. It has probably gone up since then.
Probably the most over-represented group in our ward is Hispanics. Our ward boundaries are at most probably 2% Hispanic. Our ward is much higher. However it is mainly people of partial Hispanic ancestry, and I can not be sure that all would mark themselves as Hispanic on the census. For example back in November of 2013 a sister named Leslie Smith was baptized. I just learned a few weeks ago that her mother was born in Mexico. Among the youth in the ward there are 6 who have Cuban ancestry and at least 3 with Mexican ancestry. The population of our ward area is over 5% Asian, yet we have no youth in the ward who would show up in that demographic. Although 3 are half Asian and would be part of the 2.2% who identify with more than one race. Their Korea born, USA raised mom was the relief society president for many year.
85 comments:
Camp Lemmonier, which is the base many of the members in Djoubuti were based at, is the only US permanent military base on the entire continent of Africa. It is currently under US leade until 2034.
Gboko, which is the new town in Benue State with a branch, has about 500,000 inhabitants. It is the traditional center for the Tiv People. On the other hand it suffers from high rates of youth unemployment and poorly developed infastructure.
An interesting comment from Steve Rockwood, the current head of FamilySearch International.
Steve said if you ever want to know some places where we are diversifying, listen to the Church’s General Conference and see where the Prophet [Thomas S. Monson] is announcing temples. When that happens, opportunities open up for us, he said. Look where there are 27 temples still under construction. Steve said that 60% of visitors to Temple Square (across the street from the Salt Lake City Family History Library) speak Chinese. What kind of discovery experience can we provide for them?
For the rest of what he said, read this blog post.
http://www.ancestryinsider.org/2016/07/turning-model-upside-down-byugen-byufhgc.html
Two new wards were created in the Provo Utah USA 6th Stake today. The Provo YSA 78th and 85th wards. Apparently the building on BYU campus that we meet in is going from having 12 wards to 17 wards meet there, so I anticipate that there are other changes (new wards) that will be happening soon or concurrently.
A new ward will be created in Scottsdale, AZ next week on Aug 7. We lost our largest ward to a neighboring stake about a year ago, so this actually surprising.
Nothing spectacular, but about a month ago, my YSA ward in Ogden had a set of missionaries assigned to it specifically for the first time. There have been some huge struggles in my ward with attrition and lack of fellowshipping, and until a few weeks ago we almost never had investigators (or missionaries) at church.
These new Elders have made a point of attending not only church, but all sorts of social functions within the ward (such as privately-organized barbecues). There, they would talk to everyone, ask for referrals, or directly get into conversations with non-members and less actives. The ward boundaries are about 2*1 mile of mostly single family homes, so traditional knocking on doors would probably not last long enough to keep a companionship busy. Either way, what these missionaries are doing is definitely working. They have established contact with some long-time less actives, and they have begun regularly teaching some of them. A couple of them have started coming to church again, while others are still reluctant. But that is not all. Over the past month, five newly-found investigators have been invited for baptism, and all have accepted. Four are due to be baptized on Saturday, and all of them have been faithfully attending all three hours of church for a few weeks. A couple were found at a barbecue one of the ward members held, and invited the missionaries to.
I must say, when I was on a mission, these kinds of social finding situations weren't my favorite (too many distractions from other people), but apparently they work a lot better here, particularly for YSAs.
Interest Pascal -
YSA wards in Southern California have a pair of elders and sister missionaries assigned and set aside one night a month for doing splits with members for "finding".
David Todd, which building do you meet in on BYU campus?
Pascal,
That is very exciting news about pick up of work with YSAs in Ogden. I know when I was in the Ann Arbor YSA ward the missionaries would do lots of contacting on the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University campuses. However Ann Arbor has a large class of YSAs who are young professionals, and I am not sure they ever figured out how to do concerted outreach to them. Here in the Bloomfield Hills Stake even when our YSA unit was a ward instead of a branch, it never had its own set of missionaries. I think the University Ward in the Lansing Stake at one point had 3 sets of missionaries, but MSU alone has over 50,000 students.
There are also two sets of missionaries on the WMU campus in Kalamazoo and two sets assigned to the Mount Pleasant Ward, which one set focuses almost exclusively with CMU students.
And my ward meets in the Tanner Building on BYU campus.
Word is that stakes across the valley are being changed, I've heard that letters are being read in wards being affected. The changes sound very interesting.
One I heard involves some wards right at about 106th South in Sandy and nearby, near South Towne Mall. There was no mention of a stake being created or discontinued in that area, just some boundary changes, and that involved wards in that area too.
The Kalamazoo University Branch meets in a former Protestant Chapel the LDS Church bought immediately across the street from Kalamazoo College and pretty close to the Western Michigan University campus. The Ann Arbor YSA Ward meets in the Green Road Chapel which is right by the north campus of the University of Michigan. The institute building is on Hill Street right by the south campus of UofM, specifically the business school and infact the business school rents out the third floor of the institute building. Several church members are professors in the UofM business school, including the Ann Arbor Stake Patriarch Kim Cameron.
Tanner Building makes sense to have lots of wards meeting in it. It was a good sized building when I was there. I believe sometime around about 2007 it had a major addition built onto it.
On another note in my girlfriends branch, Belle Isle, one of the white families that lives in Grosse Pointe has a daughter who is about to go to BYU. The dad in this family was in the branch presidency with the previous branch president. He actually grew up in Detroit in the area of Chalmers south of Jefferson. The house he grew up in has since been torn down and he says he is not sure how it ever fit on that lot. He joined the Church while living in St Clair shores, then moved to Harrison Township and then to Groose Pointe.
How are Michigan missions baptizing lately? The DC South Mission in Virginia has a goal of 300 converts in 2016; they are close to being on goal especially after recently adding the Woodbridge Stake.
The Lansing Michigan mission has a goal of 100 baptisms. I'm fairly certain we are behind on that number. The members in our mission are not very involved with missionary work. We are trying very hard to change that in the North Muskegon ward, but there have been many years of bad habits to overcome. We have only had 1 baptism in our ward this year. We have developed a member missionary committee, which meets once a month, to promote activities in the community.Traditionally, members have been very isolationist. They are afraid of the large number of anti-Mormons in our area. I'm not afraid of them, and am encouraging our members to make friends in the neighborhood of our building. Our ward is celebrating our 75th anniversary, and we have musicians from other churches participating in a concert and history program in September. I am hoping for a good turn out, but the members here have trouble grasping why we want to invite nonmembers to this. I will let you know how things work out in the future.
Not only did the Woodbridge Virginia Stake shift from the Virginia Richmond Mission to the Washington DC South Mission, the Annapolis Maryland Stake moved from the Maryland Baltimore Mission to the Washington DC North Stake. That move means Frederick Maryland is now about the center of the Maryland Baltimore Mission.
That seems like a low number for the Lansing Mission. I served there and got home a little over a year ago. 2014 and 2015 had goals of 300 baptisms and we were close to it in 2014 and ahead of track when I left the mission last may. It is true that many areas struggle, particularly due to anti-mormon influence, but the campuses seem to all baptize a lot and certain wards and branches get "on fire". Some examples that I recall are the Wyoming Ward, Sturgis Ward, Bay City Ward, and Kalkaska Branch.
Here's some contextual info on the Lebanon, Indiana branch being closed. Two branches were upgraded into a single ward. The Lebanon branch and the Frankfort branch were combined in order to created the Frankfort ward. Does it still count as the location being closed if it is now part of a newly created ward?
David, You are correct. I meant to say the mission had a goal of 300. 100 is the goal of the Grand Rapids stake. Sorry for the mistake.
100 convert baptisms in a year for one stake is pretty good. With over three thousand stakes worldwide, if every stake did that in one year we would have a high in converts, maybe not all time high for one year, but very robust.
100 convert baptisms per stake would give us just over 300,000 convert baptism, although that would be absolutely none outside of stakes. In 1990 the number of convert baptisms was at least 325,000.
I just came upon the article on the creation of the first areas from the Ensign in 1984.
There were in 1984 initially 13 areas of the Church, 7 in the US and Canada (although NA South-east took in the Caribbean as well) and 6 in the rest of the world. Today there are 10 in the US and Canada (or 11 from those first 7 since the Caribbean was all or almost all in a US area in 1984). There are 13 in the rest of the world, 12 of which have their headquarters outside the US. Initially in 1984 only the Europe (based in Frankfurt, Germany with Joseph B. Wirthlin as president), Pacific and South America South Areas had the Area Presidencies living outside of Salt Lake City.
Interestingly the South American South Area has the same boundaries it did in 1984, although Chile had its own area for some time.
Africa was under the European Area at first. That area is now essentially 5 (Europe, Europe East, NA/Middle East, Africa West and Africa South-East). The Pacific Area covered Hawaii when it was first created, but at some point Hawaii was relocated to the North America West Area. Also Micronesia was at that point in the Pacific Area, it would later be moved to the Philippines Area when that was formed, and then be moved to the Pacific Islands Area when a separate Australia/New Zealand area was formed, and then be moved to the Asia North Area. the Russian Far East (Vladisvostok Mission) was also for a time in the Asia North Area, but it is now in the Europe East Area.
In 1984 there was only the Asia Area. It is now most of Asia North, Asia and the Philippines Areas. Part of me wonders if the Asia Area Might be splittable into two. Africa might on the other hand be able to have a third area. When Africa was first split into two areas the Congo was in the Africa West Area, but it has since been moved to the south-east area. Europe for a while had 3 areas, and they had boundaries drawn between them in all sorts of interesting and changing ways.
The South America North Area has been split into South America North West and Brazil, but both of those areas were split for a time, although that also involved Panama being moved for a time. The Church has elimanated about 5 areas while at the same time giving more responsibilities to areas.
What was Mexico/Central America is now two areas, although it peaked at 3. In the US and Canada there has been less change. The North America West Area aquired Hawaii at some point, and it has lost the Lake Havasu City and Yuma Stakes.
For some of the others I would like to get better descriptions. The North America Southwest took in more of southern Utah than it does now, apparently most of the state south of Provo/Utah County. Today it only takes in the south-east corner of the state, in that is only since the Farmington New Mexico Mission was formed. What is unclear though is what is "southern plains" what is "south central" in the Ensign descriptors. The south-east/south-west area divide may have been close to the current divide, I really can not say. However the North America Central Area did not exist. so my guess is that pretty much all of Colorado, and possible more of Missouri and Kansas was in the south-west area. The North-east Area clearly went further west, it probably included most of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Manitoba. The NA North-west area not only included most of what is today the Idaho Area (although some of the present Idaho Area may have been in Utah Salt Lake City North), but also is said to have included "Northern Plains" and Alberta. This says to me at least Montana and Wyoming, although exactly how Wyoming was split remains unclear. The Dakotas I would also guess were in the NW area.
I think my ward has had only 2 convert baptisms this year, which is far below the 5 we had in November of last year. However I think with the rolling out of justserve we will have more connection to the community. This is not meant to directly result in baptisms but I think will result in better interactions that will in the long run mean more baptisms.
In my girlfriend's branch they have 3 convert baptisms scheduled for August 13th.
I just noticed that the Lancaster Pennsylvania Stake and the Chamberburg Pennsylvania Stake are in the Baltimore Mission. Has this always been the case, or is it a recent development. I have to admit that the book I would love would be a historical atlas of mission boundaries, that showed every mission boundary ever. I am still waiting to get the really awesome book "Mapping Mormonism", although that Historical Atlas of Mission Boundaries is like an ultimate dream.
Irritation, people. When Wikipedia came up in conversation here last week, I read some of the more general LDS wiki pages; which are awful. They are as deep as 5th grade reports and strange as well. In the LDS Temple Architecture page an author of a book about Solomon's Temple is the source given for saying that the Salt Lake temple is meant to emulate the temple of Solomon, and faces Solomon's Temple/Jerusalem. Why would someone allow an author trying to lend more current-day import to the topic of his book be used instead of the numerous sources that say LDS temples have an eastward facing preference wherever in the world they are built? Why the tendency toward the obscure and clearly biased, Wiki writers?
Now, I'm reading an article by an architectural critic out of Philadelphia, linked from the news page of Rick's LDS Temples site, dated August 2, and she has pulled from the Wikipedia page and repeated in her article that the LDS prefer to have their temples face Jerusalem! I thought Wikipedia was widely not considered a scholarly source. Why, if she is an architectural critic did she not notice that in the same page Wikipedia calls the Nauvoo Temple 'Greek Revival' and think, "Wait, this page is all crap."?
Wikipedia needs cleaned up.
A few stakes have been reassigned to other missions this year; or rather I am just now noticing them, I am not sure when they actually switched. These include:
Boulder Colorado Stake moved from the Colorado Fort Collins Mission to the Colorado Denver North Mission.
Parker Colorado South Stake moved from Colorado Springs to Denver North.
Chambersburg Pennyslvania and Lancaster Pennsylvania Stakes moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore.
Annapolis Maryland Stake moved from Baltimore to Washington DC North.
Woodbridge Virginia Stake moved from Richmond to Washington DC South.
Fort Myers Florida Stake moved from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale.
Vero Beach Florida Stake moved from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando.
Cookeville Tennessee Stake moved from Nashville to Knoxville.
Richmond Texas Stake moved from Houston to Houston South.
Chambersburg and Lancaster stakes were in Pittsburgh mission before.
Thanks for the correction. Both Chambersburg and Lancaster Stakes were in the Pittsburgh Mission, not Philadelphia. Lancaster was organized in 2013 from the Harrisburg and York Stakes. York was renamed Chambersburg. York had been in the Harrisburg Mission before it was absorbed by Pittsburgh in 2009.
Gracie, you can edit Wikipedia. Please do, well armed with scholarly sources. Wikipedia is an easily accessible source, and people, especially journalist in a hurry to meet deadlines will use it. We can either work to make it better, or we can throw our hands up and complain. But it will be used.
I believe some of the stakes in north-east Wyoming that are now in the Billings Mission used to be in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. I seem to recall that north-central Wyoming (Cody and such) have long been in the Billings Mission, but the north-east corner seems to be a more recent realignment.
Gillette was moved to the Billings mission last year it happens at the same that Glendive and Riverton was moves out of that mission.
Looking at probable temple locations as well as existing temples, and breaking them down by areas, dimensions, districts, and the like, I can note a discernible pattern.
I divide the number of square feet of a temple (x1000) over congregational equivalents (a 5 ward stake gets 1.0 units whereas an 8 ward one branch stake gets 1.7 units). One branch is worth 0.1 unit, while one ward is equal to 0.2 units.
My findings by area, tbc.
Gillette should have been kept with Rapid City, because of its closeness to that location, it's less than a two-hour drive. However, I think they moved it to Billings because the Sheridan units (3 wards in 1987) may actually be closer to Billings. Gillette at one time had three wards, I don't know how many there are now.
Gillette has the Sundance and Newcastle units too, both of which are fairly close to the state line with South Dakota.
Part of me wonders if the headquarters of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission will be moved to a different city. The mission has moved its center of gravity north and maybe a bit east over the years, so its headquarters is now near the south-east corner of the mission.
Whoa! Mr. Smarty Pants John Pack Lambert does NOT know that the South Dakota Rapid City Mission was realigned and renamed the North Dakota Bismarck Mission? Even an alleged apostate like myself already knew that ;-) In fact, it's old news...
As I read James' post I was thinking "didn't the South Dakota Rapid City Mission move to become the North Dakota Bismarck Mission?"
James, this is what LDS maps has for the stake (with units in the same building grouped together:
Gillette Wyoming Stake: 1500 O'Hara Dr GILLETTE, WYOMING
Gillette 3rd Ward: 1500 O'Hara Dr GILLETTE, WYOMING
Gillette 4th Ward: 1500 O'Hara Dr GILLETTE, WYOMING
Gillette 1st Ward: 2903 Allen Avenue GILLETTE, WYOMING
Gillette 2nd Ward: 2903 Allen Avenue GILLETTE, WYOMING
Buffalo Ward: 470 MUNKRES BUFFALO, WYOMING
Newcastle Ward: 20 Ash Street NEWCASTLE, WYOMING
Sheridan 1st Ward: 2051 Colonial Drive SHERIDAN, WYOMING
Sheridan 2nd Ward: 2051 Colonial Drive SHERIDAN, WYOMING
Sheridan 3rd Ward: 2051 Colonial Drive SHERIDAN, WYOMING
Sheridan YSA Branch: 2051 Colonial Drive SHERIDAN, WYOMING
Wright Ward: 555 Wright Boulevard WRIGHT, WYOMING
Ranchester Branch: 1066 BIG HORN DR RANCHESTER, WYOMING
Moorcroft Branch: 15506 US HWY 14 MOORCROFT, WYOMING
Sundance Branch: 702 S 7th ST SUNDANCE, WYOMING
At least the last 7 people baptized in my ward, those baptized from the start of last November on, were all at Church today.
The Elder's quorum in my ward is trying a new method of home teaching. Instead of having companionships, we have groups of families with the idea of doing one large home teaching event. The elder's quorum presidency tried to arrange these by area more or less. I am not sure how well it will work, but it will be interesting.
Dane: why are you an apostate? I wonder what all the Rio missionaries will do during the Olympics? Watch a little at member homes?
Utah North: OGDEN 1.150 BOUNT 1.221 BRIGM 1.538 LOGAN 1.645
The next temple in the area will probably go in northern Davis Co. Kaysville or Layton (I personally favor Kaysville as it is more centrally located.
The coeffecient is obtained by dividing the number of square feet of a temple over number of congregations as explained in post 33. The magic number appears to be 1 (1.000) for the Utah and Idaho areas.
Utah North: OGDEN 1.150 BOUNT 1.221 BRIGM 1.538 LOGAN 1.645
The next temple in the area will probably go in northern Davis Co. Kaysville or Layton (I personally favor Kaysville as it is more centrally located.
The coeffecient is obtained by dividing the number of square feet of a temple over number of congregations as explained in post 33. The magic number appears to be 1 (1.000) for the Utah and Idaho areas.
Somehow I had missed the move of the mission location, so that makes more sense to have Wyoming in Billings now.
That also has a large number of units, but the branches are largely in very small towns like a couple thousand people each with not many around them. So, in order to get more normal numbers for a stake, there will have to be both a new full ward in Sheridan and Gillette each. The split would be Buffalo, that would go with Sheridan, along with Ranchester, while Sundance and Moorcroft would stay with Gillette. Wright is directly south of Gillette so it would stay with Gillette.
The rumor on the street is that there will be two new YSA stakes in provo this fall in freshman housing complexes.
I love LDS street rumors! One anti-Mormon street rumor I heard in my first mission sector Mulchen was "the Garden of Eden is NOT in Missouri". We shall see. That was a quote from a local evengelical preacher, 8th Region.
Two new stakes formed in Provo would be wonderful. It would also make it all that more likely we will see a new temple announced for Utah County. Here in Metro Detroit we would be happy if we could get two new wards. The total number of wards has declined since 2010.
Sonoran Trails ward in Scottsdale Arizona North Stake formed 8/7/16.
I'm only coming to believe that Wikipedia (re: the general LDS pages) deserves anyone's effort in clean up; since people do go to it and it's in bad shape. It looks like a worthwhile project. But for me, I can't spend my time on that. Probably not many people could have the time for that. I hope someone does fix it up though; it'd be a big, careful and continual project too.
One way that Metro Detroit is indirectly helping the Church is through work and tithing. My California brother-in-law's father from Yucaipa is doing construction in Michigan most months of the year, making some money and paying maybe his best tithing ever. Life long devoted member.
UTAH SLC AREA
OQUIRRH 1.099
STR VLY 1.141
DRAPER 1.384
JRDNRVR 1.418
SLTLAKE 2.663
Salt Lake takes in the northern half of the valley, even going west to Elko and east into Wyoming. Star Valley will likely take Wyoming areas.
Tooele though possible is improbable due to SLCs district being small relative to its temple size.
Most likely temple appears to be SW SL County as Oquirrh and Draper are filling up. Bluffdale or Riverton probably.
UTAH SOUTH
MT TIMP 1.081
PROVO 1.426
PRVOCTR 1.576
CEDRCTY 1.624
PAYSON 1.955
STGRGE 1.957
VERNAL 2.053
MANTI 2.979
The area around Eagle Mtn to Lehi is growing rapidly. Mt. Timpanogos is extremely busy even after Provo Ctr was finished, and its ratio like Oquirrh is close to the magic number for further temples.
Another temple in Orem is a possibility though Lehi or area will probably be announced first.
Price might be able to support a micro temple though the two closest temples are also with small districts relative to their sizes.
IDAHO AREA
REXBURG 1.117
IDFALLS 1.285
TWFALLS 1.305
BOISE. 1.701
MERIDAN 1.913
Possible temple in Pocatello as well as some place between ID Falls and Rexburg given their low coefficients. With more growth in Twin Pokey looks more probable.
I don't see one between I.F. and Rexburg. Pokey seems very likely the next few years. Probably after I.F's renovation is complete and depends on how busy it is.
I don't see one between I.F. and Rexburg. Pokey seems very likely the next few years. Probably after I.F's renovation is complete and depends on how busy it is.
Is a temple in Bakersfield CA Likley? Or a temple halfway between Sacramento and Fresno. Or one further south in the central valley?
NA SOUTHWEST (15 TEMPLES)
OKLAHMA 0.417
SNANTON 0.540
RENO 0.743
MNTICLO 0.949
HOUSTON 0.980
DALLAS 1.005
SNOWFLK 1.063
LUBBOCK 1.447
GILAVLY 1.453
ABQRQUE 1.493
GILBERT 1.669
LASVEGA 1.752
PHOENIX 2.301
MESA 2.792
TUCSON 3.604
Arizona is pretty much staked out as far as temples go. Nevada might need a temple for Elko due to distance concerns. Winnemucca would go to Elko in that case easing off Reno.
Texas will probably get a temple in McAllen as San Antonio has the largest district in relation to temple size in TX and in Monterrey, in MX their coefficient is likewise quite low (0.414). The north Tamaulipas stakes would go o a McAllen temple or in Reynosa across the border.
Oklahoma has the lowest coefficient and a temple in NW ARK would be the best bet overall to raise it a little.
Bakersfield maybe. Though LA temple is humongous for the district size that it has. Fresno is reverse, bigger district for temple size.
NA CENTRAL (15 TEMPLES)
ST PAUL 0.648
DENVER 0.742
WITRQTR 0.870
EDMNTON 0.884
KNSCITY 1.345
CHICAGO 1.365
BISMARK 1.427
BILLNGS 1.543
FTCOLIN 2.156
INDIANA 2.267
REGINA 2.488
CALGARY 2.598
STLOUIS 4.021
CARDSTN 4.027
NAUVOO 6.207
A Temple could be built in Colo Springs to ease off Denver's low coefficient even when considering Ft Collins. Madison WI might be a possibility considering St Paul's low coefficient and Chicago's moderate coefficient. Winter Q and Edmonton could make their temples bigger as though their coefficients are low there is not another sizeable place to extend.
Regina SK is the highest coefficient where another temple is announced (Winnipeg)
NA WEST
REDLNDS 0.503
SACMNTO 0.512
NWPRTBE 0.761
FRESNO. 0.787
KONA. 1.726
LAIE. 1.863
OAKLAND 1.908
SNDIEGO 2.562
LSANGLS 3.135
There might be another temple in the Inland Empire or two more in the Central Valley (Bakersfield on the south, Redding or Yuba in the north). A second Bay Area temple might be in store in the longer term (prob SJ)
Winnemucca to Reno is a terribly long drive! I feel for them.
Is the Redlands Temple pretty busy? I like the idea of a northern California temple for distances. A temple in Imperial County CA would be sweet, but probably better in huge Mexicali across the border. Or maybe Palm Springs?
Palm Springs would work better. There are only two stakes in Mexicali and the reason why TJ was built was so that those without a visa wouldn't have to travel to Hermosillo (12 hrs).
Tijuana has 12 stakes in its district. And at 33k sqft, has the highest coefficient for temples in Mexico making the construction of another temple on the Baja peninsula, highly unlikely.
Winnemuca to Reno is three hours tops. Not terribly far but not too close either.
Here in Puebla on a GOOD day we are two hours from the Mex City Temple. But with a new law prohibiting transport from outside the city two days a week plus two Saturdays in a month, there will be a better chance of some temples on the outer areas of the district. Queretaro and Puebla are two likely sites as church growth has happened there. Followed by Cuernavaca and Toluca (Cuernavaca has the stakes but zero growth, Toluca has growth but they need more stakes)
NA NORTHWEST
SPOKANE 0.435
COL RVR 0.624
ANCORGE 0.788
MEDFORD 0.849
PORTLND 1.566
VNCOUVR 2.104
SEATTLE 2.161
A fourth temple for Washington looks like a possibility, perhaps in the central part of the state. A temple looks probable for Missoula if growth continues there (would ease up Spokane). An eastern Oregon temple might be in the offing medium to long term depending on growth.
NA SOUTHEAST
COLMBIA 0.418
RALEIGH 0.527
NSHVILE 0.673
LUIVILE 0.770
BTN RGE 0.791
BRMGHAM 0.947
MEMPHIS 1.092
ATLANTA 1.386
ORLANDO 2.174
FTLDRDL 2.652
A temple looks probable in the Piedmont region (perhaps Charlotte) for the low coefficients in the two Carolina temples. Knoxville is a small though tempting possibility (distance 3 hours to Nashville and 4 to Atlanta). Jacksonville is tempting but more members are needed there.
NA NORTHEAST
*LAST NA AREA
COLMBUS 0.413
DETROIT 0.823
NEWYORK 0.928
PALMYRA 1.028
MNTREAL 1.318
PHILLY 2.465
HALIFAX 2.816
WSHNTON 2.941
BOSTON. 4.023
HARTFRD 4.537
Another OH temple is definitely possible. Maybe we can get Kirtland back?
Michigan's coefficient is low but current membership would favor an enlargening of the existing temple first.
New York has a similar issue, unless White Plains becomes an option.
A Virginia temple is tricky as Washington DC has a very high coefficient. Richmond isn't very far away. Buena Vista has SVU and not too much more. Then there is Norfolk, fairly distant from both Washington and Raleigh. My bet is that the first VA temple goes to Norfolk.
MEXICO
GDLJARA 0.363
MNTEREY 0.414
MERIDA 0.556
TAMPICO 0.594
CD JURZ 0.598
HMOSILO 0.600
VERCRUZ 0.605
VILAHSA 0.690
TUXTLA. 0.733
MEXCITY 0.861
OAXACA 0.930
COLJURZ 2.061
TIJUANA 2.127
Looking at the coefficients several candidates pop out for distance and coefficients.
Queretaro will probably be next as the district it would cover puts it between the two temples with the lowest coefficiencies in Mexico. Draw a triangle with Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey as the vertices, and Queretaro is right in the middle. There has been consistent growth there.
Puebla is number two. Though it is fairly near Mexico City there are 12 stakes within an hour's drive of Puebla. Two hours away from there are three more stakes in Cuautla, one in Teziutlan, and one in Tehuacan. There has been growth primarily in the South mission.
Torreon and Culiacan are three and four as they are far from their temples with a reasonable number of stakes (though growth needs to pick up).
Surprise pick would be Cancun as it is pretty far away from Merida which has a low coefficient and there has been growth there. Cuba and Jamaica could probably go there.
Some temples such as LA and Salt Lake have large assembly rooms that are not used for ordinance work, so the size of the temple does not directly tell us ordinance capacity.
Any word on progress for missionary work in Myanmar? I wonder if a mission is formed in Myanmar if it will also include areas in the north-east of India. Some groups, such as the Naga live on both sides of the border. Several of the peoples in North-east India speak Tibeto-Burman languages. Linguistically the north-east of India is closer to Myanmar than to most of the rest of Burma.
The Naga number about 4 million people, live in both Myanmar and India, and are about 95% Christian. In Myanmar there are over 3 million Christians. The country is officially Buddhist, and over 85% of the population adheres to that religion. Christianity is most prevalent among ethnic minority groups, and the Budhists control the government and have made missionary presence hard.
While I can see logistical advantages to a mission covering both Myanmar and north-east India I doubt it will happen. In part because it is so logical. The Kingdom of Burma controlled parts of what is now north-east India in the early 19th-century before the British took them. Thus the Indian control in some of those areas is not as deep as they would like it, so India, which already has fairly high restrictions on activities by the LDS Church, would not be pleased if the LDS Church put parts of India under an eccesiastical organization based in Myanmar.
Any reports on numbers in Vietnam? What is up with Laos?
Richmond Virginia seems to be a popular suggestion for a temple. However, when the Philadelphia Temple is dedicated, the Washington, D.C. with lose a quarter of the temple district. I have only seen one full session in the Washington, D.C. temple in the time that I have lived in the metro area. If a temple in Richmond is built, the Washington, D.C. temple district will be cut in half from its present size. For that to be effective, the number of sessions will need to be reduced, which could be tricky because traffic situations can change quickly.
From reading Reed Haslam's book ''The Light Breaks Forth: The LDS Church in the Ancient Kingdoms of Asia'' about the Church in South-east Asia, it appears, at least based on what was learned on a trip to the area by a mission president in 2004, that the Church could easily baptize over 1,000 people in Chin State of Myanmar if missionaries could be sent there. Some people there were baptized by the mission president in 1988, well they were baptized near Mandalay where they had traveled to meet with him. 87 in all. One brother had actually been baptized by President Gordon B. Hinckley on a trip to Burma in 1987.
For a time the Church actually had a branch in Chin State, but due to inability to provide any oversight it was suspended.
Some of the Church members in Yangon have relatives in Chin State. While some of the converts there have been former Budhists, many have been formed Christians.
The book in question was published in 2012, so I can not say much of how events in the last 4 years have effected the Church in Myanmar.
Where do you think the next Nevada temple be? Henderson? O
Actually I think the next Nevada Temple will be in either Elko or in the western part of the Las Vegas area. Elko is not likely unless they manage to start seeing some growth, either from baptisms with retention, reactivation, or most likely a combination of both. If they can get another stake in Elko, it might be a candidate for a temple, although Elko's 3 hours 18 minutes to the Salt Lake Temple is about the same as the 3 hours from Buena Vista to the Washington DC Temple. With 2 stakes in Buena Vista and another in Roanoke, Roanoke might be a good target for a temple. It could take in all 6 stakes in the Charleston West Virginia Mission plus the Waynsburg Virginia Stake and maybe draw in the Danville Ward in the Greensboro, North Carolina Stake as well.
Looking at the map though the place that stuck out to me as a good candidate for a temple in that area is Beckley, West Virginia. However temples are rarely built in a place that does not have a stake.
Also, Pittsburgh is a good candidate for a temple, and that would probably take in some of West Virginia as well. However Greensboro and Winston-Salem are still closer to Raleigh than Roanoke, so a temple in Roanoke would possibly only take in 5 stakes if Pittsburgh got a temple as well. That is not an unheard of low.
On a new southern-Nevada temple, I very much think somewhere in the western part of Las Vegas would get it. Henderson is not all that far from the Las Vegas Temple on the north-east side. Both the stake that includes the temple and the stake that covers the area immediately south across the street from the temple have had wards discontinued this year. So even though the Church continues to grow in Henderson, it just is not enough to justify a new temple. The distance from the far north-west parts of the Las Vegas area to the temple is greater and more likely to justify a temple. With Las Vegas being split into the Las Vegas Mission and the Las Vegas West Mission, I could see a temple being built somewhere in the West Mission boundaries. The Las Vegas West Mission has not had a temple in its boundaries since the Reno Mission was formed.
Would a temple size expansion be more likely in some areas rather than another temple?
I put the distance from various stake centers to the temple in the distance calculator. From the stake centers of the two stake centers of the two most recently organized stakes in Henderson to the Las Vegas Temple is 29 minutes in both cases. The Las Vegas Nevada Skye Canyon Stake Center to the Las Vegas Nevada Temple is 37 minutes drive. It looks like no where in the Las Vegas Metro area is more than 45 minutes drive from the Las Vegas Temple.
The two most outlying stakes in the Las Vegas Temple district are the Kingman Arizona and Lake Havasu City Arizona stakes. So I looked to see if a temple in Yuma or Flagstaff would help with either of these. A temple in Flagstaff would still be further from Kingman than the Las Vegas Temple, and the Kingman stake stretches into the far southern part of Nevada, even closer to Las Vegas and futher from Flagstaff. Yuma is further from Lake Havasu City than Las Vegas. So no plus there.
I looked into how areas to the west and north of Las Vegas might be helped by a temple on the west side. A temple built on the north-west side of Las Vegas would only cut the travel time for people in Pahrump by about 10 minutes. Even a temple by the stake center of the stake Pahrump is in would just cut the time from an hour and 23 minutes to 53 minutes. Going beyound there, there is just very little. Tonopah Ward would be helped a little by a temple in the far north-west of Las Vegas, but the 3 Fallon Nevada wards in the Fallon Nevada south stake would still be clearly closer to Reno Temple. The remaining ward and 3 branches are a bit of a toss up, but would still be looking at journeys over 2 and a half hours any way. Ridgecrest California still seems to be closer to LA Temple than to any location no matter how far west in metro-Las Vegas. Bishop California is a bit more of a toss up, but would still be looking at the one ward having a 4 hour drive to the temple. Barstow Ward might find a temple in far south-west Las Vegas closer than the Los Angeles Temple. However it is just about at the even point, depending on traffic and things. The two branches in Barstow Stake west of the Barstow Ward seem likely to be clear candidates for benefitting from a temple on the west side of Las Vegas. However for example the Newberry Springs Branch takes in an area bigger than metro-Las Angeles and still has its chapel in the western fithed of the branch. This branch goes to the Nevada border, but there is a huge desert out there.
Anyway one looks at it the 27 stakes in the Las Vegas Temple district are about all there will be, and none would be helped all that much by a new temple. I could see a temple built somewhere on the western side of Las Vegas, but not any time super soon.
One other possibility would be a temple in Logandale or Mesquite Nevada. The Logandale stake is almost big enough to split. However I still don't see this temple taking in more than 4 stakes, and Logandale is just over an hour from the Las Vegas Temple. I could see Hurricane, Utah getting a temple before one getting built in Logandale.
A friend from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia talked of a counter Mormon resistance in that major urban area. So far, so good.
A temple towards the Roanoke Appalachians woyld be cool. Let's build two!
President Hinckley did say that the smaller temples announced in 1997-99 would be built with potential future expansion in mind.
One was redone soon after, Monticello, but that was to make it possible to run sessions more frequently than the original floor plan had it possible to do, and simply involved splitting the ordinance room in two for that purpose.
But others I could see being redone, adding particularly on the far side away from the front. So far we haven't seen it happen, we have had two renovated with no new capacity added though in the last couple years.
On the other hand in Ohio President Hinckley stated that when the Columbus Temple got too busy the Church would build an additional temple to relieve demand.
On another note, an incoming BYU freshman basketball player named Yoeli "Yo" Childs was just baptized a member of the Church. Here http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865659685/BYU-freshman-basketball-player-Yoeli-Childs-joins-LDS-Church.html?s_cid=Email-4 is the Deseret News article on it. In the picture they have the 3 sister missionaries, one who looks Tongan or Samoan, are all drawfed by Childs and a fellow BYU basketball player.
Childs appears to be African-American, especially if you look at his profile picture on ESPN. He grew up in South Jordan, Utah raised by a single mother.
BYU is starting to see several outstanding athletes, with good academic records, who are African-American LDS converts. Another is Shaqueille Walker, a track star who came close to making the US olympic team. Walker joined the LDS Church as a teenager in Georgia, after he comitted to go to BYU, and has served a mission.
I am hoping that these men can both be leaders in LDS outreach to African-Americans and help form a more positive image of African-Americans among Church members, which will in turn make LDS outreach more effective.
Too often our missionaries are not good at speaking the word of God in a way that African-Americans hear it. This often involves tricky situations like not offending people when explaining to them that they cannot be baptized until they finish their probation for drug dealing, even though they had white fellow students in their high school who got much shorter sentances for the same crime and who could be baptized today.
My ward's chapel was a Pokemon Go hotspot, but evidently some of the Pokemon people who showed up were engaged in smoking pot, some of whom managed to sneak into the building because it was not locked, so our bishop had it removed.
African-Americans have many hurdles to overcome, as have LDS of all hues. In my ward in the last 4 years we have had 3 black converts and an Afghan. Another white convert is married to a Pakistani, while another boy convert is half Asian ( I think Filipino, maybe another East Asian). Come to think of it, the biggest number of our converts have been minorities. Although noted, we have not baptized in general as much as we had hoped. But some good folks, we love them.
Love finds a way to speak to all people of the Lord, the heart will have its way with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Us followers need to continue to follow His voice.
I wonder if more German speakers respond more to President Uchtdorf?
Sorry, I get irritated when people talk about their units and don't tell where: Loudoun County, Virginia, where it is so diverse we have Bollywood or other Indian films at the local movie theatre.
My kids are surrounded by Latinos at their elementary school.
In my ward 4 of our last 7 convets (all 7 of whom were there last Sunday) were African-American. 3 of those were 12-year-old twin brothers (now 13) and their 10 year old sister. Their now 8-year-old brother was also in Church on Sunday, and will probably get baptized soon. The 10-year-old has been bringing an African-American friend of hers to church as well.
At the 2010 census the area of our ward was well under 10% African-American. It has probably gone up since then.
Probably the most over-represented group in our ward is Hispanics. Our ward boundaries are at most probably 2% Hispanic. Our ward is much higher. However it is mainly people of partial Hispanic ancestry, and I can not be sure that all would mark themselves as Hispanic on the census. For example back in November of 2013 a sister named Leslie Smith was baptized. I just learned a few weeks ago that her mother was born in Mexico. Among the youth in the ward there are 6 who have Cuban ancestry and at least 3 with Mexican ancestry. The population of our ward area is over 5% Asian, yet we have no youth in the ward who would show up in that demographic. Although 3 are half Asian and would be part of the 2.2% who identify with more than one race. Their Korea born, USA raised mom was the relief society president for many year.
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