Sunday, March 11, 2018

LDS Developments in the Central African Republic

Mission leadership in the Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission report several recent missionary developments in the Central African Republic. First, increased stability in the capital city, Bangui, has permitted more frequent visits by mission leadership to meet with members in the Bangui Branch. Second, the branch currently has seven branch missionaries who teach investigators and prepare them for baptism. Third, there are now five members from the Bangui Branch serving full-time missions outside of the country - the most that has ever appeared to serve from the branch at a single time. Although approval has not yet been granted to assign the first proselytizing missionaries to Bangui, mission leadership appears optimistic that this may occur in the foreseeable future.

For more information on the Church in the Central African Republic, click on the label for "Central African Republic" below.

18 comments:

Eduardo said...

Political and ethnic stability are always necessary to post missionaries in any place. Good to see CAR going in that direction.
The remaining countries of Africa without LDS missionaries are generally oppressive or volatile, or both.
Great to see some other countries opening their doors with freedom to this form of religion. Senegal, Guinea, maybe Burkina Faso. People cannot progress in general without freedom to choose what they think and practice.

Mike Johnson said...

Last year, the Central African Republic had 216 members in 1 congregation. I wonder what it is now. In about a month we will probably know.

Jay Palmer said...

I’m glad you reported this. I’m good friends with the Mission President over the Bazzaville mission and follow his blog. He and his wife are from Canada, were missionaries in Cameroon from 2010-2012, the were in Angola for 2012-2013. They are faithful, wonderful people and it is so great to see the great work that is happening there.

Thank you for the blog. It’s a wonderful read.

Eduardo said...

Brazzaville Mission of Belgian Congo? I wonder what their missionary numbers and stats are.

John Pack Lambert said...

I have to admit I am a bit surprised Brazzaville Mission has not been split. It covers the Republic of the Congo, Camerron, CAR, Gabon, and in theory also Equitorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe.

I am thinking a split if the Bangui Branch could soon be justified.

Stability is not needed to establish the Church. It grew in Guatemala in the midst of Civil War. The same can be said of other places.

John Pack Lambert said...

With both its Spanish units having just been upgraded to wards the Odessa Texas Stake now has 11 wards (plus 3 branches). The 4 Odessa Wards plus Big Springs Ward could be made 1 stake and rhe 6 Midland Wards another with placement of the 3 branches either way. I cannot say if this is super likely based on other factors though.

Ohhappydane33 said...

Not likely JPL. You need to look at a map. Odessa is to the west of Midland, Big Springs is to the east of Midland. Odessa and Big Springs in a separate stake from Midland isn't probable.

randall said...

With the Odessa Texas Stake having lots of growth with the Oil industry, I think the following will soon happen. Odessa with it's four wards will be combined with the Ft Stockton District (4 branches) I think the Monahans Branch will upgrade to a ward. This will have the Odessa Stake with 5 wards and 4 branches (counting Andrews Branch). Midland Stake would then have 7 Wards and two branches. Just my prediction based on growth.

John Pack Lambert said...

Randall system would probably work. On the other hand in my stake they just changed ward boundaries by putting part of a ward with another ward, even though the one ward was east and the part moved was mainly west.

Revently when an apostle dedicated Barbados for the preaching of the gospel there was a discussion of where has been dedicated.

I have been reading Toronto, Dursteller and Homer's Mormons in the Piazza: The Latter-day Saints in Italy. After Elder Ezra Taft Benson rededicated Italy in 1966 the mission president allowed missionary companionships to dedicate cities for the preaching of the gospel.

In the 1980s Detroit was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel by one of the bishops whose ward covered part of the city.

Eduardo said...

That's good the Church grew during during bad or unstable times in a country like Guatemala, but my point is that our missionaries do not get sent to places that are too violent or hostile to them. It is a tricky balance to send elders or sisters where there are innocent civilians being targeted and killed. I wonder how close missionaries were located to incidents of violence during the Guatemala problems.
And this example does seem to be an outlier, all the same.

John Pack Lambert said...

On my mission I knew a sister who served in parts of Guatemala where the varuous factions were fighting.

On the other hand the story told in the film "Freetown" shows what often happens in times of violence.

So far this week new church units have been reported for Mozambique and two states in the US, Texas and Florida, with Portugal and El Salvador seeing branches upgraded to wards.

Anonymous said...

Looking forwards to conference. Anybody have hopes,guesses, or predictions for possible temple announcements?

Rodrigo Jofre said...

L. Chris. For me, no announcements of any temples in Europe, Canada, Japan or Australia. I expect announcements for Africa, mainly western Nigeria and maybe southwest South Africa, plus anywhere between Ghana and Cabo Verde. Filipinas and Brasil are also good candidates, together with Nicaragua.

I hope they announce a temple somewhere in the middle east. That area is very far from any temples. Either Bahrein, Qatar, the U.A.E. or Kuwait. Wherever the laws would allow for a temple to function. I think Jordan or Lebanon are also good choices although there are no stakes there yet.

John Pack Lambert said...

I have to admit I would be super shocked if a temple was announced for the Middle East. 2 stakes is very low to support a temple, and with virtually all members there being foriegn nationals, split between low level Filipinos, and higher paid Americans, Latin Americans and Europeans, and maybe a few low level people from say Nigeria (I know the later exist in the branch in Egypt, I am not sure about the stakes in the Gulf Region), there are some other factors. The domestics and other low level Filipinos would not have the time to be temple workers, and tend to not stay long. The other expatriates more often then not use their resources to continue contacts with their home countries, so probably spend significatn chunks of vaction abroad.

I still think Layton, Utah is a viable candidate for a new temple, and Tooelle is also a possibility. Nicaragua is a good cadidate, although San Pedro Sula in Honduras also is one. Puebla, Mexico is a good candidate too.

However I think the top most likely new temple is Benin City, Nigeria, with Lagos, Nigeria also being high up. Freetown, Sierra Leone remains to me the most likely candidate in that region, especially with the start of church growth in Senegal and Mali. Monrovia, Liberia will probably also get a temple in the next few years.

My top three are Benin City, Nigeria; Freetown, Sierre Leone and Managua, Nicaragua. One factor in Nicaragua's favor is that with generalized Church growth in Central America even if they can't staff the temple fully from members in Nicaragua, they should be able to send temple missionaries from other Central American countries easier now than in the past.

My top pick for a dark horse candidate is India. It now has I believe 5 stakes, but no city with more than one, so while places have gotten a temple announced with as many stakes, there is unually at least one place with two stakes.

I still think Lumbumbashi will be the next place in the Africa Southeast area to have a temple announced. However with 1 temple in operation and 4 in some stage of development, they may not announce another temple for that area until another gets done. Still Mexico I think may have for a time been at one temple in operation and 11 more announced, so more could be built.

James Anderson said...

Layton is possible, not immediately but short-term. Tooele Valley is expectd to hit 100K in the next ten years, but how much of the activity at Salt Lake will that take away?

No temple yet for the two Mideast stakes that would be in that area, you know what a stir that would cause with last-days speculators in the Church as well as overzealous preparedness nuts.

DR Congo will depend on a variety of factors, most notably larger member presence in some areas before one is put in as transportation as we know it is largely nonexistent, with members having to hitch rides on trucks hauling freight or other cargo to get to Kinshasa

Anonymous said...

DR Congo is one of the larger cpuntcoun geography in the African Continent. It may be possible for a second temple in that country in the next few years.

Anonymous said...

I meant the DR of Congo is one of thr largest countries in Africa.

Eduardo said...

Democratic Republic of Congo is also one of the most populous nations in Africa.