Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Guinea-Bissau. Guinea-Bissau is geographically one of the smallest nations in Africa and has a population of only 1.8 million. Guinea-Bissau is one of the few African nations without a Latter-day Saint presence where there is widespread religious freedom and a significant Christian minority (22% of the population). See below for the Future Prospects sections of this article:
The absence of a United States embassy in Guinea-Bissau, limited infrastructure and health care, and ongoing political instability may lead the Church to hesitate commencing formal missionary activity despite dozens of members who reportedly live in the country and widespread religious freedom. The Church’s historical reliance on American senior missionaries to establish the Church in unreached nations appears a major obstacle given these conditions. Security issues also pose potential concerns, although Latter-day Saint missions have long operated in Latin American nations with similar issues. Nevertheless, the Church in West Africa during the mid- to late 2010s promptly obtained government recognition and organized its first congregations in several previously unreached nations within a matter of months or a few years, suggesting that the Church may make similar strides in the remaining unreached West African nations such as Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia. Due to the maturation of the Church in many more established African nations like Ghana and Nigeria, African senior missionary couples may be assigned to the country to assist in establishing a presence. The growth of the Church in nearby Cabo Verde may result in Portuguese-speaking African missionaries being assigned in small numbers to Guinea-Bissau once regional and international Church leaders decide to begin proselytism.
27 comments:
After reading this interesting piece on Guinea-Bissau, I was just thinking about Western sub-Saharan Africa. By my count, there are 5 countries where the Church has not yet reached (Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Mali) and I have wondered how long it will take for the Church to be recognized and start seeing convert baptisms in them. It is exciting that Burkina Faso finally has a Church presence now (thanks for the recent update Matt). The amount of work to be done is just staggering to me. We live in exciting times!
I think Senegal and Mali have some official Church presence. Mostly Muslim and difficult send many missionaries, the other 3 have more Christians to reach, comparitively.
Elder Bednar visited Guinea in 2017 and soon after a branch was organized and there are missionaries there.
Yeah, that could be the case. I just went off what the Church website (Facts and Statistics) shows. Maybe it is not quite accurate or updated.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics
The Church in Senegal is seeing quite healthy growth, mirroring about what we see in other parts of West Africa in terms of baptisms per congregation. It's just that there are a lot fewer of them (two branches, one group). But it seems like each is growing nicely.
Thanks for the information. I appreciate it.
I was searching on the classic maps site and there were numerous meetinghouse locations with no listed unit. These were both urban and rural. For example Forsyth, GA and Brooklyn. This is very exciting for unit expansion in areas where there are groups that aren’t organized as branches.
https://richmondbizsense.com/2020/01/09/mormon-temple-in-henrico-on-track-to-break-ground-this-summer/
The July 2020 Mission Presidents assignments list posted today.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2020-01-09/see-the-complete-list-of-130-new-mission-leadership-assignments-for-2020-171488
Kevin and Diana Field are close friends of mine and are in my stake. I am happy for them. They'll do a great job in the Adriatic North Mission.
They are going to a difficult mission, however. By my calculations, there are 1,532 members and 15 branches in the entire mission.
After reviewing the List of 130 New Mission Presidents assignments for July 2020 posted today, I only found one missing from the list :
Chile Santiago North to replace Pres. Jeffrey D. Meservy, who was called July 2017. Unless he was released early, or if there will be no replacement called due to consolidation? I don't see any record of early replacement. (???)
Chris, there is also a chance that the First Presidency asked President Meservy to continue to serve a little longer, or to perhaps extend his service for another year. That would be similar to cases wherein a temple president serves for a longer period than the general standard of 3 years. Insofar as I have been able to ascertain, there has not been either an early release or other replacement, And based on my own research, if the Church was going to consolidate a mission, that announcement would have come when the new missions for 2020 were announced back in Novwember. But my assumption would be that, unless we hear later on that he is being replaced, that the First Presidency have felt impressed to extend his service another year.
A few things I noticed in my analysis of the new mission presidents' assignments: Two General Authority Seventies, Elders Ricardo P. Gimenez and Peter M. Johnson, who were called just last April, will both serve as mission presidents. Additionally, a total of 7 current area seventies and at least half a dozen former area seventies have been called to serve as well. And finally, one of the area seventies called to serve as a mission president in his native Russia (Elder Alexey V. Samaykin) is currently also serving as Second Counselor in the Europe East Area Presidency, so it is more likely than not that he will be released from that area presidency assignment simultaneously with his release as an area seventy.
These are just my own personal takeaways on this. Hope this additional analysis is helpful to all who read it.
Just another quick additional note. Elder Taylor G. Godoy, who was called as a General Authority Seventy in April 2017, having been called to serve as president of the Nevada Reno Mission beginning in July 2018, among the 2020 changes announced today is that Brother Cory and Sister Pamela Dunn will now serve in that capacity, leaving Elder Godoy and his wife free to return to assignments at Church Headquarters, or in any of the Church's area presidencies. That likely also means that Elders Gimenez and Johnson will only likely serve 2 years each as well, which is relatively common for GA Seventies who are called to preside over a mission.
Hey, Chris! I was able to dig through some source material I found, and this is what I came up with: First of all, as of November of last year (when the Church released the new Missionary Handbook), President Hettinger was listed as president of the Hungary-Romania Mission in the following article from the Church News:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2019-11-15/missionary-handbook-lds-mormon-disciple-jesus-christ-166744
That fact is more or less further verified by this post from the blog of a missionary serving in that area:
http://eldermorganinmagyarorszag.blogspot.com/2018/07/8-pest-new-mission.html
Above and beyond that, however, I can confirm President Hettinger served for a year as president of the Romania/Moldova Mission prior to the missions merging and his subsequent reassignment:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/church/news/new-2017-mission-presidents-called-to-serve-in-argentina-sweden-philippines-and-more?lang=eng
So that would be a total of 3 years for President Hettinger between the two missions. President Hettinger previously served as an area seventy, so his name may be one to watch. Meanwhile, I can confirm that President Esplin has indeed served for just two years, That is also true for President Bentley.
Meanwhile, I found this Church News article about President Fisher:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/2017-11-10/new-mission-presidents-to-preside-over-temple-square-nauvoo-missions-15327
Given that his call as a mission president was announced in November 2017 and became effective in January 2018, that would be 2.5 years of service, and roughly 2.75 years from when his call was announced to when he was released. President Fisher is a former area seventy as well.
And, as I mentioned in my comment made just before you, Elder Godoy is a current GA Seventy, for whom a standard service period of 2 years has been somewhat of a tradition in recent years. Hope this additional contextual information and research proves helpful to you, Chris, and to all others who read them.
Bro. and Sis. Jensen, going to Mexico Puebla South, are people I met when I lived in Rochester, New York. Sis. Jensen's father was Kay Whitmore, a retired CEO of Eastman Kodak, who was also a former mission president, and when I moved there was serving as branch president in the YSA branch, which I attended for about a year. He died of leukemia in July 2004, in between the deaths of Elders Maxwell and Haight. Elder Haight's death and Pres. Whitmore's funeral (which had a huge turnout- the Rochester mayor attended and I believe spoke) were the same day- I came home from the funeral and turned on the news and learned of Elder Haight's death.
I suppose it wasn't too much of a surprise to see their names on this list since I already knew Bro. Jensen had followed his father-in-law's footsteps and served as a stake president.
The Church has presence in Senegal, Guinea and Mali. All three have at least one branch, I believe Senegal has 2. Mali has full time missionaries assigned and one or two of the other countries may as well.
I believe Elder Teh and his wife only presided over the mission in Taiwan that they presided over while he was a general authority for 2 years.
Elder Peter M. Johnson is the only African-American (as opposed to black African) general authority. He was a professor of accounting at the University of Alabama when called as a general authority. He had been a professor at BYU before that.
Elder Johnson and his wife Stephanie will preside over the England Manchester Mission. Being mission president in England while a general authority adds to his similarities to Elder Robert D. Hales, since they were also both raised in Queens and had careers in business/finance broadly defined.
Elder Gimenez and his wife Catherine will preside over the San Diego Mission. This will make two missions in California have general authority mission presidents. Elder Valeri Cordon and his wife Glenda preside over the California Los Angeles Mission. Elder Cordon is a native of Guatemala. His father was a counselor to Carlos H. Amado, later the first Guatemalan general authority, while Brother Amado was mission president in Guatemala at the height of the civil war in that land. Elder Crodon spent much of his adult life however in Costa Rica working for multi national companies. While working for such a company and serving in I believe a stake leadership calling Elder Cordon obtained an executive MBA from MIT. He would fly to Massachusetts 1 Friday a month for classes and fly back late Saturday to make Sunday meetings.
Elder Cordon gave a very moving talk in which he told of his father's decision at the height of the Guatemalan Civil War to pay tithing as his business was being disrupted by war and he really did not see how they would make ends meet. He the next day received an additional order. This talk is latched on by some tone-deaf haters of the Church as a sign of the Church seeking money from members above all else.
To me that talk is more a sign of the faith that is making it so Guatemala is getting a 3rd temple.
Elder
Quick question for all of you out there. Does anyone know why the Facts and Statistics page of the Newsroom is not accurate? Seems like there is missing information on it. For example, JPL states above that we have a branch in Senegal (I have no reason to doubt him), but the Church website shows nothing for Senegal. Thanks.
Unfortunately it seems to be due to the incompetence of The Newsroom staff. I have tried for years to get them to fully report the membership and congregational totals for non-sensitive countries and I have not been able to make any progress.
JMR,
Dakar Branch
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=14.084476,-16.376859&z=8&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&q=Dakar%20Branch&find=ward:2067811
Parcelles Branch
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=14.7001,-17.43914&z=18&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&q=Parcelles%20Branch&find=ward:2116790
JMR, I know that Matt has previously highlighted his repeated requests to the Church for specific statistical information on certain nations, but above and beyond that, there is another reason the Church Newsroom's "Facts and Statistics" page is so out-of-date: We only get the year-end statistical numbers during the weekend of the April General Conference each year, and it is only after the Church publishes that report that they begin updating the individual statistical pages. Simply put, as per the Church's procedures for record-keeping, which are outlined in several revelations from the Doctrine and Covenants, reports of unit growth and attendance are sennt both quarterly and at th, nd of the year.
The period of time elapsing between the end of one year and the weekend of April General Conference the following year allows the Church to compile, analyze, and prepare to report the total numbers. Once those totals have been reported, the Church then can focus on updating the numbers for each nation (and associated subdivisions), and all of that takes time.
But it all begins with the preparation of that statistical report, which, as also prescribed by revelation, is presented annually to the membership of the Church. Nothing has been updated as far as last year's statistics because of that procedure and the associated processes. Hope these additional insights are helpful to all who read them.
Hi
Would you like to instruct more about this? You may find online college classes that focus on that.
Greetings,
Edward
The best way to determine if there are Church units in a nation with non-sensitive nature is to look on the classic maps page. Boundaries may be inaccurate in some spots, and I if there are more than 5 units it is not an easy way to find them,but will find some.
The one exception might be super recent ones.
I am a member and served my mission from 2005-2007 in Cape Verde and I'm also half Bissau Guinean and Half Capeverdian.
My Mother is Capeverdian and My Father is Guinean,I was born in Guinea Bissau but raised in Cape Verde. I've been living in the US for almost 15 years.
I would definetelly be very happy to help church get a foot in Guinea Bissau and would be willing to help sharing the gospel.
There are a lot of challenges in Guinea Bissau but its not ass bad as it seems, I believe that church should give it a chance without delay to spread the gospel.
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