Click here to access the November 2024 newsletter for cumorah.com. My goal is to produce these monthly newsletters again after a 16-month hiatus to chronicle church growth developments and announce new resources on cumorah.com.
Click here to access the November 2024 newsletter for cumorah.com. My goal is to produce these monthly newsletters again after a 16-month hiatus to chronicle church growth developments and announce new resources on cumorah.com.
123 comments:
Matt, you may want to edit the November 2024 Newsletter. The listed Stakes recently closed listed were from some time ago in Hong Kong. And repost the edited corrections version. Just a friendly reminder. Thanks for all your great work here in keeping us informed of the Growth of the Kingdom in different parts of the world.
I have the Salt Lake Jordan and Hong Kong China closures from July 2023 timeframe.
That is exciting news about the Member groups in Papua New Guinea and the Juba Branch in South Sudan now located on the Meetinghouse locator.
Also, about the 2nd branch now in Banjul, The Gambia in west Africa.
I wonder how close the mission branches in Guinea are to organizing a Mission District in Conakry.
I wonder if we will see any Temple groundbreakings, new sites or open house and dedication dates announced this afternoon. Or if we will consider yesterday's Tallahassee Florida Temple dedication as this week's temple announcement.
Over the weekend, the Forney, Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was created, marking the 28th stake in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Formed by realigning congregations from the Dallas East Stake.
facebook.com/ChurchofJesusChristNorthTexas/posts/pfbid0jJU99YEJKwm7guHQLyjPpJ6Y2peWrKKFgCeafUzvRmuEt7f2592bK84dVsXJSSGl
And has been already updated on the Meetinghouse website this morning.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2272989
And the Ogden Utah Rock Cliff Stake (503460) has been renamed and updated as the Ogden Utah East Ridge Stake (503460) on the website.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/503460
And the Ogden Utah Lorin Farr Stake (502154) has been discontinued.
The newsletters haven't been coming out monthly, have they? I wonder if they aren't reflecting November news as much as news that hasn't come out in a prior newsletter.
That the new locations reached is equal in Ivory Coast and in DR Congo is impreesive. For a while new outreach had slowed in Ivory Coast. If it is picking back up again, we may soon be on tack for a 2nd temple in Yamosoukro or Daloa. I think eventually both those cities will get a temple. Based on where stakes are today Daloa would make more sense, but since Yamosoukro is the oldest stake outside the Abijan metro area and it is the capital, I could see if getting the 2nd temple. Also, Yamosoukro Stake is large enough it could be split soon, and if that happens, I think that would be the most likely location for Ivory Coast's next temple.
The groundbreaking date for the Cali Colombia Temple construction was announced today.
"First Presidency sets groundbreaking date for Cali Colombia Temple
Elder Jorge T. Becerra will preside at the Saturday, March 1, 2025, groundbreaking for one of Colombia’s 4 houses of the Lord."
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2024/12/09/cali-colombia-temple-groundbreaking-date-set-elder-jorge-becerra/
Oh, thank you Chris D. You beat me to sharing the news!
Exciting developments in the Midwest—a Swahili-speaking branch is being organized in Des Moines. I believe it will be in the Des Moines Stake.
Matt, for the record, the stake #55 you just updated for 2024. According to the Meetinghouse Locator website, the name Kinshasa was dropped and just called the Kintambo Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (2285118).
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2285118
Sorry, i forgot again to login. This was me, Chris D.
Kintambo is a municipality with 106,000 people (well, as of 2004, it probably has way more now, I am shocked Wikipedia is using 2004 estimates). It is part of the city-province of Kinshasa. Kinshasa has an area of 3,848 square miles. That is bigger than Delaware. The urban area of Kinshasa that has over 16 million of the 17 million inhabitants as of 2021 is 200 square miles.
Kintambo is part of that urban core. Most of the city-province of Kinshasa is significantly further east than the city core. It is the furthest west commune of Kinshasa that is fully in the urban core. It covers about 1 square mile. To its west is Ngaliema which covers 86 square miles. It is not clear to me which Commune the Kinshasa Temple is in (it would help if someone could figure this out and indicate that information in the Kinshasa Temple article).
I had given up hope last night that temple annoucements would come out, but I guess I despaired too soon. I am very exited that the Cali Colombia Temple groundbreaking is happening. Hopefully some more will happen soon.
The groundbreaking happened in Grand Rapids. I was not able to watch since I was working at the Detroit Temple at the time.
The design of Tacloban has been released.
The Wikipedia article on the Kinshasa Temple says "Unlike most of the church's other temples, the building is not topped with a statue of the angel Moroni," This is an outdated statement at this point. There has been no new temple with a statue on the angle Moroni released for a few years. We are on course to have a majority of temples without a statue of the angel Moroni in not too long.
79% of Kinshsa state-province is in Maluku. It is basically the eastern 3/4ths of the province and also goes further south than the rest of the province. It also goes further north than the rest of the province. It is the only part of the province that borders other parts of DR Congo along the north. It has a hue game preseve in its boundaries, but lots of other stuff, and had almost 200,000 people in 2004 (when Kinshsas had 7 million and opposed to 17 million people).
There appear to be no branches in the Maluka area of Kinshasa at present. The furthest west commune is actually Mont Ngafula, it is west and south of the one I mentioned before. There is a ward that meets in the Kimbondo neighborhood of that commune. There may be a few other wards in that commune. However there is urbanized area in that commune well beyond where wards meet. There is not another branch going west until you get to Kimpese, a city of maybe 40,000 or maybe more considering how outdated Wikipedia info on DR Congo is. That is in Congo Central Province, which is basically the area of Congo west of Kinshasa.
To the west from Kinshsa you have to make it to Bandundu to find a new branch. That is about 220 miles driver from the furthest east ward meetinghouse in Kinshsa (it is 400 km drive from the airport, there are a few wakrds that meet a little east of the airport). Evidently 3 brnaches meet in Bandundu though.
JPL, here is a wikipedia map of Ngaliema Commune. The Temple compound with the adjacent Meetinghouse is located in the top right corner of the Commune (Municipality). and within the "Quartier Basoko"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ngaliema#/map/0
Here is the OSM boundary map of the "Quartier Basoko" (OSM Level 8), and of Ngaliema Commune (OSM Level 7).
https://global.mapit.mysociety.org/area/1273153.html
https://global.mapit.mysociety.org/area/988285.html
The Church has to report membership to the UK for tax purposes. It reports a decline from 2022 to 2023:
2022: 186,933
2023: 186,350
Not a huge decline, but the decline within Scotland in particular was more sharp (7% decline):
2022: 15,548
2023: 14,428
The statistic about the UK is already on the Church's country website, but it doesn't break things down into sections of the UK, so it's interesting to see that what appears to be driving the decline in membership is a decline in membership in Scotland.
I would assume that this is largely driven by out-migration, as Scotland is struggling quite a bit economically. Outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh, career opportunities are very scarce. There is actually quite a bit of outmigration of British members as well, especially to mainland Europe since Brexit, and likewise a fairly high rate of remigration of mainland Europeans who had previously resided in the UK. There are actually several families in my ward that this applies to.
That said, there are also issues with low activity rates, a relatively overaged Church membership (the British Isles had significant membership growth in the 1970s and 80s, but this generation of converts is gradually dying out), and low birth rates. I would not be surprised to see membership drop further, but it is somewhat encouraging to see some very modest growth outside of Scotland.
Interesting statistics. That would actually suggest the membership in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland increased (at least slightly), even as Scotland decreased by over 1,000. Scotland is a very secular place (even moreso than the UK as a whole), so it wouldn't surprise me if many have become disaffliated with the church there over the years and a purge of the membership roles took place between 2022 and 2023
@ Pascal and Cfunk: I think the outmigration story would make more sense than low activity rates or secularization, unless people actively removed their records from the church. That's because these are the church's reported numbers, which express nominal membership and not active/participating membership.
It would be interesting to juxtapose the correlation between active membership (through, say, Census data) and church reported membership when church reported membership is falling vs. rising. We've seen lots of instances of countries where the church reports strong growth, but the census data suggest stagnant growth or even shrinking in some areas. My guess is that because the hurdle to REDUCE church reported membership is higher (people have to actively remove their records, die, or move out and the church has to NOTICE that they die/moved out), any time we see a decline in church reported membership it is a pretty reliable figure of a geographic region where the church is shrinking.
Great news in Cote d'Ivoire. Any news on new towns in Chile getting missionaries in northern Chile since the La Serena Mission opened last summer?
How many languages are being used by the Church in Africa now?
I live in London right now (I'm attending the Britannia YSA Ward) and this is very unsurprising. Within the last couple of years, the Church has closed two stakes in the London metro area and has gone from somewhere in the ~20 ward range down to 9. Our YSA has actually baptized something like 8 converts in the three months I've been here, with three more baptisms scheduled in the next two weeks, but virtually every other congregation in the London metro area is shrinking, not growing, and a massive percentage of Church leaders in the area--including our stake president and area seventy and my bishop--are Americans. The number of native British Church members has declined even more precipitously than the overall total.
@Jonathon F. - I have friends in the South Kensington area of London, and they say similar things. It seems the decline the church reported in the UK (especially when adjusting for the decline in Scotland) is severely understating the decline in active/participating membership in the area, unless other areas of England are going gangbusters.
I have heard anecdotally from a missionary who served here that central England (Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds especially) is doing very well with baptisms by European standards. He has also posted some pictures of baptisms in his home ward on social media since returning home about a year ago so it seems generally believable. Whether it translates well to more active members is hard to say, but it is noteworthy that there are not the same numbers of discontinued units as elsewhere.
I have just been listening to a podcast with Elder Gilbert and Elder Christofferson. We are at all time highs by percentage of enrollment in seminary and institute. I am hoping that positive turn around can be implemented even more places.
I am hoping that we see a temple in Wales soon.
I am actually wondering if a Senegal mission might be organized. With growth there, the Gambia and Guinea, it might make sense to have a mission just there. Mali might also go there. This would allow the missions that currently cover there to focus their efforts on continued expansion in their own countries.
In the interview by the Church News with the leaders of the missionary department those leaders said the current number if missionaries is above estimates.
That suggests to me we may well see the number of missions rise again. Which may mean that the day that we have an equal number of temples and missions. That day will come, although I think 2024 had more new missions than new temples.
With the groundbreaking on the Grabd Rapids Temple we are at 51 temple under construction. With 202 dedicated we only need 48 more to get to 250.
The current 50 temple dedicated record is from June 1 1997 to October 1, 2000 from St. Louis to Boston. With Deseret Peak dedicated on November 10, 2024 that puts the deadline yo tie that previous 50 record on March 10, 2028. I hope we can beat that record. It looks like Clevrland Ohio Temple may be dedicated less than 2 years after groundbreaking. If the equal size Cali Colombia Temple can be built as fast, it should be dedicated about March 2027. So we may actually be able to see 250 temples reached some time in 2027 if all goes well.
Certainly do-able, considering current projections. Looking at a list of their construction status and counting them in order, the Londrina Brazil Temple (#248) is currently estimated to be completed in late 2027, likely having a dedication in early 2028. The Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple (#249) is the only one currently estimated to be completed in 2028. Four other temples do not have estimates and could easily jump in order once construction commences: Heber Valley Utah Temple (#250), Santiago West Chile Temple (#251), Tarawa Kiribati Temple (#252), and Grand Rapids Michigan Temple (#253). We can also add the two with groundbreaking dates - Tacloban City Philippines (#254) and Cali Colombia Temple (#255).
The new Kearns Utah North and South Stakes have been formally updated on the meetinghouse locator. The Kearns Utah North Stake was a reorganization of the Kearns Utah Stake, not the Kearns Utah East Stake like I imagined. It was commented in the last post what wards were part of these two stakes, and I compared it with what the old five stakes had, and I discovered six wards that were part of the five stakes, but were not included in the two stakes (Georgetown, Sun Ridge, Valley View, Western Hills 2nd, Western Hills 3rd, and Western Hills 8th (Spanish)). Sadly, it appears these six wards were all discontinued when the stakes were reorganized. That would have put the Kearns Utah Central Stake down to five wards, the Kearns Utah Stake down to two wards, and the Kearns Utah West Stake down to two wards and a branch.
This also brings up a question, will this mean that some chapels will be closed? Among the two stakes, there are fifteen chapels (excluding the one the Tongan Wards meet in), and sixteen wards. One chapel now sits empty (the only ward meeting there was discontinued), the Kearns 14th ward meets in the same chapel as the Kearns YSA Ward (in the Taylorsville Utah YSA Stake), the Olympic Park 1st and 3rd (Spanish) Wards meet in the same chapel as well as the Fox Hills and Kearns 21st Wards. The remaining eleven chapels have only one ward each.
When you look at past Church reported membeship in Scotland it is even worse. In 2013 it was 26598 and in 2017 22895. And now in 2023 it is 14428. That is a deline of 12000 in 10 years.
https://www.cumorah.com/countries/viewStats/United%20Kingdom/334/UK%20-%20Scotland
I wonder if the 14,428 numer form the uk tax report excludes members not assigned to units (if the ones in the "address unkonw file" are only counted as UK instead of Scotland)
Ohterwise it is difficult to explain such a huche decline.
Overaging is very likely a problem for the church in Scotland. Another one is members moving away. Mostly to other UK countries, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
I served my mission in London in 2004 - 2006. The stakes there where small often only 5 - 7 wards with around 400-600 attending stake conference. Most wards i seved in had between 50-100 attending on sunday. The former Wandsworth stake had hardly any "British" members. The stake was very international.
Some former Church members reported a large decline in the UK in sacrament meeting attendace between 2015 and 2020.
I think in the past the baptism keeped attendance up, but they declined a lot since i served. In the 2023 tax report they mentioned around 900 baptism for the UK. When I served in 2004-2006 my mission alone had between 400 and 500 every year.
But i am very confident in estimating that church attendance hat a tournaround in the UK in 2023 and 2024
It would be interesting to know which contractors the Church is using for temple construction. Does anyone keep track of this?
I feel that the Church's architectural office is a little behind in relation to southeast Brazil. I understand that the Church is postponing the São Paulo East work until the subway works are completed and that, perhaps, its construction will only begin after the Ribeirão Preto temple is completed. But, unlike the northeast, which had a quick process of releasing renderings, the temples of São Paulo East, Santos and Vitória are behind in this regard. I hope this can happen this year.
I had some free time and I was analyzing the rendering of the Manhattan temple. I think I figured some things out, or at least came up with some comforting answers for myself.
Looking in detail, it seems that the stained glass windows on the ground floor only go so far, and from then on it is simpler. This could mean that, although the Church is retrofitting the entire facade, perhaps the museum will remain in its current location.
But the best use of the lower side block (which resembles a service access), and its total integration with the main block, will add a substantial area to the temple itself. The addition of stained glass windows throughout the facade is also a very positive change that will enhance the entire neighborhood, as well as the temple.
As for the spire of the tower that supports Moroni, I thought the previous model was very elegant and in keeping with the city's architecture. The new tower will be taller and more distinctive, but the previous one had a beautiful slender and urban appearance.
I've always been interested by the process of closing chapels. I served my mission in St. Louis, and the former East Saint Louis Ward building had been unused for years, since that ward was discontinued, but the local FM group still maintained the grounds and building meticulously. I know the Church does sell buildings, because there are plenty scattered around Salt Lake and Ogden that we don't own anymore, but I wonder if the Church will shutter but maintain a few of them in anticipation of future growth.
With the 2 hour church schedule making it fairly easy to have 4 watlrds in a challenging, I really do not see any reason to hold onto all the Charles in Kearns. In my stake we had a very costly building that was sold and initially the wbranch that met there moved to another couple. The building was an old Greek Orthodox building and really too big for even a large ward, let alone one that was never fully advanced from branch status and went back to being a branch.
However the other challenge was too fat away. There is probably a location that a couple yo serve both the ward and the branch in that general area could be placed, but for now they have gone back to renting a facility in Detroit.
I know The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated some former chaple sites to various organizations for various reasons over the years. The first Latter-day Saint built chapter in Detroit was leveled to build a freeway.
A lot of the other Charles built by the Church in Michigan are still in use. I know our stake president has expressed the view that some are in less than ideal locations, well more that thry are not as centrally located to the population served as might be desire. Building a new chsple a few miles away from an existing chsole to replace the existing chaple is fairly rare though. The only Charles built by the Church in metro Detroit this century are in the city of Detroit itself. There was a site bought in Macomb County in about 2007 or so, but I believe it was eventually sold.
Macomb County has about 800,000 residents but the Church only has 1 chaple in the county. That is one that is maybe in a less than ideal position. To be fair where my parents live in Macomb County they go to a chaple just outside the county that is close to them. The northern part of the county is split between two wards that meet well outside its boundaries.
I do have to wonder if the ideal of 2 wards per building on at least not building new buildings for just 1 ward makes sense in a place like Michian. My branch building was built just for our branch.
I understand the cost to building lots of buildings and can see why the Church does not always want to build buildings for a ward when there is another not to far. Still iI could see a strong argument for building a building for the North Shores Ward in the Bloomfield Hills Stake based on distances from the Roseville building. That would put us to only 1 building with 2 wards, another with a ward and a branch, and 5 buildings with only a ward or a branch, but we Aldo have 2 groups. My sister is in a building with 2 wards and a Spanish branch, that is close to the boundary between the wards and not likely to get another building soon. More likely might be the west end of her ward combined with areas south to form a new ward, which then might get its own building.
If you look at the adjacent stakes south of 6200S just south of the Kearns South, all those buildings have 3 Wards in each Bldg. I wonder if some those wards move up a few blocks to better evenly spread the wards out?
Or the other option is to backfill these empty buildings with new speciality Wards, like a new SA Ward, Spanish YSA Ward, or Tongan YSA Ward, or other language units?
About two years ago Idaho Falls a chapel that was no longer in use (except as the mission office) was donated to the local food bank. As part of the donation they removed the steeple. https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/10/latter-day-saint-church-building-will-be-new-home-for-local-food-bank/
I attend church in a building in Ammon, Idaho with 4 wards in it. Most buildings have 3. The building with the YSA ward has two wards in it.
Anonymous, what do you mean by "hold onto all the Charles"? That makes no sense in context or substance and is incoherent. Hopefully that was autocorrect's fault and not due to you forgetting to login and/or proofread your own comments. "The race is not to the swift, not the battle to the strong." Hope that is helpful and reassuring, because I meant it to be.
Perhaps the person does not have English as their primary language? We get the gist of it.
I think he meant to type "chapels" and it got autocorrected
I am glad there are kind and understanding people like JTB who actually try to understand what someone is saying instead of just attacking them for their mistakes.
I hate the fact that unlike some other places there is no option to edit past comments here.
I guess I should review and make sure all my comments are fully correct before posting. I hate using a cell phone to type. I make many fewer errors when using a computer. I have less than adequate access to a computer at home.
I was hoping we would have more temple presidents and matrons announced today. That has not been the case. Are they announced on Saturday? I guess they do not usually start announcing temple presidents and matrons until February. So maybe it won't be until then we will see more new announcements. After 2 weeks in a row with 3 new announcements I just was hoping they would keep coming.
I was really hoping we would get the Harare Zimbabwe Temple President and Matron announced this week, but I guess I will have to wait.
I updated the lists for new stakes/districts and discontinued stakes/districts. The Kanye Botswana District is now showing up on the meetinghouse locator website with three branches.
Thanks, Matt. That is Great News from Botswana. The Marvelous Work goes forth.
Also, I have been told that the Kanye Botswana District (above mentioned), was created on last Sunday, December 8th, 2024.
Sorry if you felt attacked. That wasn't my.intent. Since my one-moth hospital stay in three hospitals, I am easily confused, so I was just trying to clarify. Sorry.
Great news with all the above. I don't sweat the typos and misspellings too much. Through context clues or follow ups it is possible to understand what the people mistype. The Charles reference was funny to me because of being around Boston a bit, it reminded me of the river that flows by to the harbor. Lots of good wards around there!
Of course, the intent was chapel, as in Chapel Hill.
When will the new missions for 2025 be announced? Do we have to wait till January? Also, new mission presidents?
How many languages do our missionaries speak now?
How many are Igbo speaking? Any in Yoruba, or the smaller Nigerian languages and dialects?
How many Native American languages and Inuit languages are preached in?
Good tidings, brethren and sisters. Celebrate our knowledge and blessings.
That is very good news about another district in Botswana. I hope we continue to see positive developments in the Africa South Area.
I am noticing that the new district in Botswana was created from the Gaborone Stake. This is quite unexpected; if anything, I would expected a district created from the mission branches around Francistown.
I do wonder if more unit creations are planned in and around Gaborone.
Indeed, it seems strange that two of the branches, Kanye 2nd and Lobatse were previously wards in the Gaborone Stake but are now branches in the Kanye District.
I read it as "chapels" as well. My thought when reading it, Anonymous could have been using speech to text which I find is not the best at typing what you're really saying.
I've noticed the church will keep buildings when wards consolidate. When it gets down to one or two wards per building, then I see buildings start to sell. But there's plenty of meetinghouses in member concentrated areas with two wards. Where you see large growth such as ones that cover new neighborhoods, then you may see 4-5 wards per building.
Once a meetinghouse is sold, it's sold. Before Katrina, there was a ward meetinghouse and an branch meetinghouse in the city. Members left after Katrina, but over time membership grew again. Now there's a ward meeting in a chapel only large enough to house a branch with nowhere else to build. Where the ward meetinghouse was has been subdivided to become a residential neighborhood, and there's no available property that's large enough to have a ward meetinghouse.
Maybe having the two branches within the stake made it difficult for local leadership. Now that it's a district, the leadership for these branches is handled by the mission. That's my speculation.
Kanye is a good distance from Gaborone. You cannot have wards in a district, and a state generally needs 5. If the stake can function without those 2 wards, it is probably better for then to be in a district to grow that into a stake. Hopefully we see a Francistown district soon as well. In a district you have local district conferences not stake conferences so less travel is needed. You also get less commraderie with others, but if you are far away less travel can be a blessing.
Is there a mission headquartered in Anchorage Alaska or has it been discontinued, Also has the Arizona Scottsdale mission been relocated to Flagstaff - if so does anyone know what stakes are assigned to it
Anonymous, to answer best both your questions.
According to the 2010 Church News Almanac posted online, the "Alaska Anchorage Mission # 114", was organized on October 15th, 1974.
"The Alaskan-British Columbia Mission was renamed the Canada Vancouver Mission on 1 July 1974 and a few months later the Alaska Anchorage Mission was created on 15 October 1974."
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2010/2/2/23228912/united-states-information-alaska/
It is at least last I heard still located in the City of Anchorage. Unless someone has heard rumors of it moving and changing name.
And, 2nd question, Yes, the old Arizona Scottsdale Mission, organized in 2013, was realigned with neighboring missions in July 2023. under the direction of Pres. D. Mick Smith (2021-2023). And was moved and renamed to "Arizona Flagstaff Mission (1812998)".
Currently the following Stakes are assigned to the Flagstaff Mission since July 2023.
2069466 Centennial Arizona
510092 Cottonwood Arizona
518581 Eagar Arizona
2091372 Flagstaff Arizona East
502545 Flagstaff Arizona West
505897 Holbrook Arizona
277037 Payson Arizona
505692 Prescott Arizona
1497375 Prescott Valley Arizona
507350 Show Low Arizona
513881 Silver Creek Arizona
500291 Snowflake Arizona
500275 St Johns Arizona
523321 White Mountain Arizona
510807 Winslow Arizona
I rejoice and agree with your vision !!!
Good News !!! Today 2 New stakes were created in Brazil. The Bento Gonçalves and Colombo Stakes are located in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná, bota in the south region of Brazil. In the Last two years 6 stakes were created, all of then in the 3 states of the south region of the country.
The Britannia YSA Ward here in London had two more baptisms today, bringing the count to 7 (as far as I can remember) in the 3.5 months I've lived here and at least 9 in the last calendar year. The two baptized today were both Arabic speakers, one from Jordan and one from Egypt. Before them, the last two baptized were both from mainland China. Obviously this is anecdotal to just one ward, but it's been an extraordinary period of growth and there are still two, possibly three, baptisms scheduled for the coming weeks!
Also, here is the link to the Alaska Anchorage Mission facebook page which has recent posts from a few months ago.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LDSAlaskaMission/
Excellent news brother, thanks for sharing! It may just be from one ward, but it always inspiring to hear of new people accepting the gospel. I hope they can persist upon the covenant path.
Another exciting, if small, fact - the Blackfoot Idaho East Stake will create 4 new wards on December 29. This will raise the total number of wards in the stake from 6 to 10. I've noticed from the meetinghouse locator that it appears many, many new wards have been created across Idaho this year, with few ward discontinuations. It will be interesting to see the year end count for total ward increase in Idaho, I expect it to be rather high.
I wonder what is going on in Utah. Of the 14 stakes discontinued worldwide, 11 of them are in Utah. Three of them in Kearns.
How much of growth and discontinuation of stakes in the Salt Lake Valley is due to changing demographics? Some parts of the valley are growing fast and some other areas are shrinking.
8/11 stakes discontinued in Utah this year have been in the Salt Lake Valley. All of these stakes were discontinued in "older" areas, meaning the housing there has been developed for at least ~50 years, meaning those who bought new homes in the area are now quite old, usually already passed on or close to it. All the stakes (with the exception of the Sandy YSA Stake) were located in the northern half of the valley, which is markedly less LDS than the southern half of the valley.
However, the areas that lost stakes aren't loosing population. Kearns hasn't lost population recently. Neither has Murray. West Jordan and Cottonwood Heights have had slight declines (I would largely attribute this to the fact that there are fewer large families in those areas now as there were 20 or 40 years ago, when those areas were a much higher percent LDS than now.)
What seems to be happening, more than anything, is people (non-LDS) are moving to the Salt Lake Valley, particularly the northern half, and young LDS couples raised in Utah are opting not to live there as much, and instead opting to live in places in Utah and Davis counties, as well as Herriman and South Jordan. The University of Utah, for example, now very actively recruits out of state kids to attend, and many of those kids decide to stay because they love the area (what's not to love, great people and great outdoors?). But, they aren't interested in the Church. Many other people are attracted here for the great outdoors and the great employment opportunities, despite the relative cost of living. Again, these people tend to move to places like SLC, Murray, West Valley, or West Jordan that feel less dominated by LDS culture than the rest of Utah. Additionally, I've noticed the ex-LDS people tend to congregate in the vicinity of SLC, moving there from all parts of the pioneer corridor to escape LDS culture, while not entirely leaving the region where there families live. These are just my personal observations as someone who enjoys thinking about these topics and has lived in the Salt Lake Valley for a long time. I do feel sad as I watch the majority shift from LDS to non-LDS through this neighborhoods and cities however. The Saints need a place where they can act as the majority (and thus be protected by the power that majority holds) and it would be a shame to loose that throughout the pioneer corridor as a whole.
I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and the mission is still very much active.
The Pittsburgh YSA ward sees similar numbers of baptisms with similar diversity. Our Covenant Path progress shows 14 baptisms (which I guess is not similar Britannias, it is double). 1/3rd are from Mainland China and the rest as a relativley diverse set of U.S. students. We almost baptized a really cool guy from Saudi Arabia the other day but he doesnt have permanent residency in the U.S. so church policy does not allow for his baptism.
We are horrifically overwhelmed by the number of baptisms. Many recent converts continue to attend and several are already developing into great leaders within the ward council, 2 left on missions, but the are also many who fall away, I believe because we have too many and not enough resources to really get to know them, take care of them, etc. He have been baptizing 2+ people, now 4 per month, since 2022.
Elder Andersen along with Elder Craig C. Christensen held leadership trainings and stake conferences this weekend in Raleigh, NC. Elder Anderson stated that when all the temples that are currently announced/under construction are completed 79% of church membership will be within one hour of a temple.
I'm far from a Utah apologist as I only lived in the state to attend BYU, but it's also important to note that 17 stakes were created in Utah this year as well, for net growth of 6 stakes (greater net growth than last year, although those numbers are probably skewed due to the new stake requirements). Many of those stakes are language or age specific stakes, which shows the greater diversity of the church in Utah than even a decade ago. Utah is a changing state and people move, I don't think there's much more to it than that, though Matt would certainly be the authority to add anything else.
Cfunk: Why do the Saints need to live in a place where they are the majority for "protection"? Those of us that live outside Utah have never been afforded that luxury and likely never will. Where I live in California, we have also lost significant levels of membership, but even at our peak years ago, we were never even close to being the majority.
The renderings for 5 Temples have just been posted on the Newsroom site.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/renderings-released-for-five-temples-in-north-america-buenos-aires-argentina
I know I'm not the one who posted before, but I just want to clarify that he didn't say that saints need to LIVE in a place with the majority. I can agree that it is helpful to the church that there exists a place where the leaders of the church don't need to worry about politics keeping them from their duties, etc.
Ohhappydane33: As David Todd said, it's not about the Saints needing to live in areas where they are the majority. It's about the protection and representation that having a majority in Utah and half of Idaho has given the Saints. If we lived as a minority throughout the world, we wouldn't be afforded the same representation we now are. I see it like this - because of LDS dominance in the intermountain west, we usually have 3 Senators and 6-7 representatives, elected from LDS-majority areas, that allow for a degree of political representation within the most politically important nation in the world. It forces people, at least a little bit, to take our people seriously. And within the state, LDS are free to shape the politics and create laws that use our worldview to make the state a better place - eg alcohol laws, gambling laws, allowing for release time seminary. Additionally, it allows for a place where people needn't feel judged or different for being LDS - something that I still do think is important, based on my time living outside of Utah.
Now of course, most Saints around the world live in communities where they aren't the majority. That is perfectly ok and does provide many unique and amazing opportunities of its own. Still, I think having a place where the LDS worldview can dominate is a good thing for the broader church, the Kingdom of God on Earth. But, that's just the way I see it and others are free to disagree.
On my map, I have divided new temples into 4 categories: A) Dedication Date Announced, B) Under Construction, C) Site Announced (includes groundbreaking date announced), and D) Announced.
Presuming no further changes this year, we have two temples in category A, 49 temples in category B, 56 temples in category C, and 58 temples in category D.
Of the temples in category D, only one temple (Russia) exceeds five years from announcement. Two other temples will reach five years in April (Shanghai and Dubai) if nothing changes with them.
As reported earlier, the Makurdi Nigeria District became a stake yesterday with 1, 553 in attendance, according to facebook.
I think there is a lot of potential for missionary outreach in Salt Lake County. So do church leaders since they created an additional mission there this year. There is much work that can be done there.
I am not sure if Ryan Searcy's figures took in today's announcement. Buenos Aires City Center Temple moved to site announced. It will be 12 miles from the existing Buenas Aires Temple.
The Winchester Virginia; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Springfield, Missouri; Jacksonville, Florida and Mexico City Mexico Benemerito Temples all had rendering released today. The last had its site announced over 2 years ago.
Makurdi will put to at least 4 the number of stakes assigned to Abuja Temple. It is just under 4 hours from Abuja, and over 7 from the Aba Nigeria Temple. Even a temple in Enugu would he further from Makurdi than Abuja is. I am thinking Makurdi might get a mission soon, and hopefully a temple some day.
With how fast the Church is growing in some areas we'll over an hour from any planned temple. I have doubts we would actually be at 79% within an hour of a temple when all planned temples are completed. Also I think there has been talk of wanting the figure to be closer to 90%. At the same time there are many temples operating at near capacity. So I think we will continue to see 30 plus temples announced per year for a few more years.
I would not be surprised if President Nelson announces 33 next year which would get us to an even 400.
I am also hoping the 5 renderings lead to ground breaking dates soon. Of course Tacloban had a rendering after the ground breaking date was announced, while other temples have had long delays between the rendering release and the groundbreaking, so who knows.
Beira Mozambique is other than the 3 temples mentioned by Ryan the one that has gone the longest without a site announcement. It will hit 4 years in April. It is possible that Beira and Maputo could have sire announcements at the same time.
It would also be interesting to know what percentage of chur h members currently live within 1 hour if a temple. I assume these figures are the one way journey, not round trip. Considering rush hour and other factors the travel time to the temple is a hard figure to calculate. What I know is that I am very blessed to live in a place where I can get off work, go home, and still make it to the temple in time for an endowment session.
What we should not forget is that there is still a tremendous inflow of members into Utah. Nowadays it is mostly driven by YSA, but it also includes families. They come from pretty much every corner of the world to some degree but the main movement seems to be from California and the Midwest. It's purely anecdotal, but two of our bishops in our Illinois ward moved their families to Utah in the same year (neither to the Wasatch Front and neither are Utah natives) and several other families we know have followed them, along with practically 100% of the local YSA. The Church there would look very, very different if it were not for the constant drain that Utah is on it. At the same time from the Utah perspective, the notion that the state is being flooded exclusively by non-members is simply false. In fact, the areas with the highest population growth along the Wasatch Front (e.g., Saratoga Springs, Lehi/Alpine/Highland, western Davis County) are likely becoming more LDS as a result largely of migration to Utah. Concurrently, the areas where we are now seeing ward and stake closures more frequently (Kearns, West Valley, inner-city Ogden) have not been majority LDS in some cases since the Pioneer era. So what I think is really happening is just an amplifications of how cities and neighborhoods have been historically, either with an amplifying LDS majority or an amplifying non-LDS majority.
Yes, the Buenos Aires City Center Argentina Temple was moved to Site Announced for the calculations.
I'd love to hear input from anyone with a better understanding of the Church in Virginia than I have, because Winchester still baffles me. Not that it's a bad thing, but everything about Winchester is atypical for a temple location and ESPECIALLY a temple of the size they're proposing. It's not going to be a little modular temple--they're going with a 29,000 sq ft floor plan. What do the Brethren see in that area that I'm missing? I just can't see the demand for a temple that large.
To me, it looks like there are only three stakes that will naturally go into the temple district: Winchester, Martinsburg WV, and Hagerstown MD. There are parts of several other stakes that will be closer to the Winchester temple than the temples in DC or Richmond. I'm thinking Ashburn, Gainesville, Fredericksburg (my stake), and Waynesboro. But that would only apply to two or three wards in each of those stakes. When it was announced, it made more sense to me than it does now since it seemed like it may have been to get a temple closer to the stakes in southwest Virginia, but then the Roanoke temple was announced, so those stakes will only be in the Winchester temple district for maybe a few years. Maybe it's projected to be that large because they're anticipating high temple attendance from those few stakes.
Other Matt here...
In terms of Kearns, Kearns has experienced demographic shifts. It was always a working class or poorer area of SL Valley which recently became its own city. The city is almost a minority-majority city now with whites at 50% of the population and shrinking. Latinos now make up 40%+ of the population, and there's also a large Poly (Tongan, Samoan) population.
I would imagine the recent influx of Latino immigrants are not predominantly LDS which leaves a lot of potential for outreach and missionary work.
Aside from demographic shifts, the culture of the church really needs to change in these areas from a middle class white approach to an inner city multicultural approach. Unspoken expectations (that can cause perfectionism, judgements, exclusion) that is often the norm in Utah, needs to change to be more inclusive and accepting for everyone, in order for non-members in Utah to embrace the Restored Gospel.
With 8 Branches, I wonder how close the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia District is to meeting the minimum requirements to become a Stake.
Along those lines, with just 2 Branches, I wonder how much longer the Planaltina Brazil District can function and be staffed as a District. It's not the only District with just 2 branches. But usually when they are left with 2 Branches or less, the District gets disbanded and returns to Mission Branches or joining nearby stakes as wards or branches. Another example I can site is the 2 branches of the Macau China District, possibly maintaining a semblance of District due to being practically the only district on mainland China for nationals.
Another 2 cases of 2 branches each, the União da Vitória Brazil District and the São Borja Brazil District
My ex wife is from that region. We heard that there is a prospect for the São Borja district to join the Santo Angelo Stake
Adam, in my map, I left Hagerstown Stakecenter with the DC Temple, but included the 3 Stakes of Winchester, Martinsburg and the 3rd is Clarksburg West Virginia. It seems Clarksburg is closer to Winchester, then to Pittsburgh, Columbus or Roanoke in my opinion.
Thanks, Daniel. I didn't include the 2 branches of the São Gabriel Brazil District, in the region also.
Not so great news, there was a 7.3 magnitude earthquake earlier today just 19 miles from Port Vila, Vanuatu that also generated a tsunami. Fortunately, the tsunami was smaller than what was believed, being less than a foot, but the earthquake caused a good bit of damage (several embassies were specifically mentioned) and caused some landslides. The figures I saw stated only 14 people died, which is very fortunate. Hopefully, the members there are safe and well, as well as the temple and other Church facilities being spared from damage.
I don't know how the church in São Gabriel is doing, but the proximity to Santa Maria (mission headquarters and a strong candidate for a temple) may indicate the church's interest in mobilizing resources in that region to keep the district functioning and growing, despite the size cities in the west of RS and the distance between them does not help with this strategy.
Hi Chris, I think the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia District was colse to becomming a stake before they changed the requirements last year. But now it will take some time to grow the branches, so that 5 of them, reach the requirement for a 100 participating adults.
Clarksburg is assigned to the Pittsburgh Temple and I don't see that changing. There's no easy interstate access for those units to Winchester like there is to Pittsburgh; it looks like going to Winchester would add a couple hours of drive time for most of those wards. A couple of the branches on the outskirts of the stake might find it easier to go to Winchester. I might be wrong about Hagerstown, but Winchester is about 15 miles closer than the DC Temple. And then there's traffic to consider on top of that. The two wards in the stake west of Hagerstown are much closer to Winchester.
We are at 28 new districts for 2024 now with the creation of new districts in Kanye, Botswana; Sablayan, Philippines; and Ubay, Philippines. This marks the most new districts created in a single year since 2016 when there were 30 new districts created. The all-time record for the most new districts created in a single year since I started keeping records of this in 2006 was in 2015 when 32 new districts were organized.
Ubay Philippines District (2274051)
Created: 8 Dec 2024
Parent: Philippines Cebu East Mission
Assigned Temple: Cebu City Philippines Temple
Sablayan Philippines District (2273241)
Created: 15 Dec 2024
Parent: Philippines Cavite Mission
Assigned Temple: Manila Philippines Temple
Bento Gonçalves Brazil Stake (2271575)
Created: 15 Dec 2024
Assigned Mission: Brazil Porto Alegre North Mission
Assigned Temple: Porto Alegre Brazil Temple
The Hastings New Zealand Stake was discontinued.
The Hastings New Zealand Flaxmere Stake was renamed the Te Matau a Maui New Zealand Stake.
Sad to see a stake discontinued in New Zealand. If I recall, one of the Hastings stakes had less than 5 wards for a long time. They must have has a lot of consolidations since the last time I saw what congregations are there (likely well over a year), since the Te Matau a Maui New Zealand Stake only lists 5 wards and 2 branches.
Ubay is a bit of a curiosity, wondering if the district could have been in a more central location (like Pilar) and take in more branches towards the center of Bohol (like the Carmen and Jagna branches), but I'm not terribly knowledgeable of the area.
Sablayan I feel opens up the possibility of another district on Mindoro in Pinamalayan, with the Mindoro Oriental Philippines District being renamed the Calapan Philippines District. I feel they can rename the San Jose Mindoro Philippines Occidental District to simply San Jose Mindoro Philippines District (since there are multiple San Joses in the Philippines). Pinamalayan to Calapan is a barely shorter drive than Sablayan to San Jose.
Bento Goncalves Brazil Stake (sorry no special keyboard) hasn't been updated yet, I imagine also comes with new wards, because the Caxias do Sul Brazil Stake only shows 8 wards and 3 branches. There's 2 wards in Bento itself, a branch south in Carlos Barbosa, and a ward in Farroupilha that could go either way. There's a ward in Lajeado and a branch in Estrela that seems closer to Santa Cruz do Sul, so questionable if they're part of the new stake (though with 7 wards and a branch, it seems they can manage without them). That's a possible 4 wards and 2 branches from existing units, leaving the Caixas do Sul Brazil Stake with 5 wards and 2 branches.
Colombo looks like it will be a split from the Curitiba Brazil Boa Vista Stake, which has 9 wards and 1 branch. There appear to be 4 wards situated in the Colombo area, with another ward in Campina Grande do Sul, and the branch in Bocaiuva do Sul. That would leave the Boa Vista Stake with only 4 wards. The tricky part is unless a new ward was created with the stake, all neighboring stakes only have 5 wards, so can't exactly borrow one. That's the Sao Lourenco Stake to the northwest, Curitiba stake to the southwest, and the Taruma Stake to the southeast.
Curitiba Boa Vista Stake:
. Boa Vista Ward
. Santa Cândida Ward
. Bacacheri Ward
. Jardim Aliança Ward (New)
. Timbu Ward
Colombo Stake:
. Rio Verde Ward
. Guaraituba Ward
. Ana Terra Ward
. Jardim Osasco Ward
. Parque dos Lagos Ward
Caxias do Sul Stake:
. Bela Vista Ward
. Caxias do Sul Ward
. Moreira César Ward
. Rio Branco Ward
. Serrano Branch
. Vacaria Branch
Bento Gonçalves Stake:
. Bento Gonçalves Ward
. Cinquentenário Ward
. Farroupilha Ward
. Progresso Ward
. Carlos Barbosa Ward (Upgrade)
I was pleased to hear about the creation of the advancement of the Makurdi Nigeria District to a stake. Back in October I was told that was imminent, so I have been awaiting news on it. I was also told that a 4th stake in Abuja had been approved, so I expect we will hear news of that quite soon as well.
--Felix
Interested in the preparations for the Kiribati temple, particularly in regards to the fact that the island is progressively shrinking and experiencing floods more and more often (expecting more than 65 flood days for the entire island each year in the 2050s, and potentially no island remaining by the turn of the century). Anyone know what the long term plan is and how the temple plans are different for this area? The temple site is literally sandwiched between the ocean on both sides: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tarawa+Kiribati+Temple/@1.3499445,173.0390966,18.75z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x65647b409f85f3ed:0xf5760cd11640f87f!8m2!3d1.3494749!4d173.039885!16s%2Fg%2F11k3qhcxb0?hl=en-US&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
I thought about this for a long time during a bus ride a few months ago. It is important to remember that there are several temples in equally low coastal areas, even on large land masses. The Hague and Rio de Janeiro immediately come to mind.
I don't believe they will elevate the temple grounds to a higher level than the parliament building right in front of it. It would be inconceivable as a project and a complete disrespect for the place and its inhabitants.
I believe that if we could ask the prophet, he would simply answer: it doesn't matter. And if we insist, he will say: remember Nauvoo.
Nauvoo also operated for only a few months before it was lost, and the suffering of the pioneers was great to lose that building after so much effort. Today, on the contrary, the Church has enough resources for small extravagances, such as building a dedicated building just to use for a little while, if conditions suddenly stop being favorable. After all, the blessings will not be withheld from the faithful members of that place, even if new challenges arise very soon. In the end, Nauvoo was restored to its glory, just as all the temples that fall due to the tribulations of the last days will be restored in the Millennium.
I find it odd that members feel like they have to have a majority rule for some type of protection. Protection from what? Living outside of Utah for over 30 years tells me this supposed “worldview” is narrow and unnecessarily controlling. It really is okay to have leadership that aren’t members of the Church and still have them care about your community and good governance.
I am hoping we see more temples on the African continent move into the actual construction phase this year.
The same applies in Europe. Is there any temple actually under construction in Eimurope, or are all the temples in a previous phase. It will be interesting to see what exactly construction for the Brussels Temple looks like.
The Phillipines has some temples under construction, and there are others in Asia, but there are several that are also in progress but not making progress.
I am hoping we have more temple announcements next week, but we may not with Christmas.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has done many humanitarian projects in Ghana recently. The Kumasi Temple us one that seems to have been in progress a long time. Cape Coast is one I am also hoping will move forward.
It is looking like we might not have any word of new missions until after the New Year. That is I believe the norm. Miasions were announced very early for the 2024 season. With 80,000 or do missionaries and indications that that is higher than what was projected in for 2024 we may see additional new missions.
It is very unlikely President Nelson will live until a time when the number of proposed temples exceeds the number of missions. President Oaks may well, and Elder Gong very likely will.
For Europe, the last dedicated temple was the Lisbon Portugal Temple in 2019. Some individuals might consider Cabo Verde as part of Europe, which then the most recent would be the Praia Cape Verde Temple in 2022. None are currently under construction, but there are a few with site announcements. The Barcelona Spain, Oslo Norway, Budapest Hungary, Vienna Austria (no rendering), Birmingham England, and Brussels Belgium (no rendering). Earlier this month, permission was granted to start planning the Birmingham England Temple, and in late August, the site was announced for the Brussels Belgium Temple. No other European temple news were listed.
For Africa, we have the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple set for dedication in late May, with the Nairobi Kenya Temple likely not too far past that. There's the Harare Zimbabwe, Freetown Sierra Leone, and Lubumbashi Democratic Republic of the Congo Temples under construction. For temples with site announced, we have the Cape Town South Africa, Kumasi Ghana (no rendering), Lagos Nigeria (no rendering), Benin City Nigeria (no rendering), Antananarivo Madagascar (no rendering), and Kananga Democratic Republic of the Congo (no rendering) Temples. None of these temples with site announced have news listed in the past year.
For Asia, there's the Alabang Philippines, Davao Philippines, Phnom Penh Cambodia, Bacolod Philippines, Bengaluru India, Kaohsiung Taiwan, and Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temples under construction. In just 4 weeks, the Tacloban City Philippines Temple will join them (January 18th groundbreaking). For site announced, there's the Singapore, Jakarta Indonesia (no rendering), and Osaka Japan (no rendering) Temples. Most recent news is Elder Cook visiting Saints at the Osaka Japan Temple site. No news for Singapore was listed, but I swear I remember hearing recently that preliminary construction was going to start there soon. I can't seem to find any reference on the newsroom, so I can't pinpoint where I heard that. I could very well be mixing up preliminary construction activity at the Cali Colombia Temple and saw something about Singapore around the same time.
Based on this, it appears that the Birmingham England Temple is the closest to groundbreaking at the moment, but that can easily change. There are a lot of developments behind the scenes we can't see.
This was my reasoning for excluding Kiribati from my temple predictions, but "your ways [are not] my ways." - Isaiah 55: 8.
Other Matt here...
I know for the Singapore Temple, they are demolishing the old meetinghouse in preparation for the Temple groundbreaking. You see the latest construction pics on the website link.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/singapore-temple/
Matt, just a reminder that the Hastings New Zealand Stake was recently discontinued.
Good to know it was a real thing and not my imagination. The "news" I was looking at for these temples are under the Articles section, which are things like newspaper articles.
6 renderings for temples in North America today, and nothing new for southeastern Brazil. Maybe in January...
11 renderings in just 2 weeks, plus a site announcement. Even though all these new renderings are only for temples in 2 countries - the United States and Mexico, this, hopefully, is a good sign for things to progress in other countries, especially for places like Ghana, Nigeria, and Brazil. Based on current projections, we're over a year and a half until Brazil's next dedication with the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple's projected completion in early-to-mid 2026, with both Ribeirao Preto (mid-2027) and Londrina (late 2027) roughly a year after that. I'm hoping we can get some progress on some northern temples, especially Maceio, Natal, and Teresina.
Still kind of a funny fun fact that the Praia Cape Verde's closest operating temple is the Fortaleza Brazil Temple, with Natal being just a tiny bit closer (just over 2 miles). However, the upcoming dedication of the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will make it impossible for South America to have a closer operating temple to Praia. Also, the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple will likely be the final new dedicated temple with an Angel Moroni, as no other temples under construction or with renderings released have them.
The six new temple renderings (Cuernavaca Mexico, Toluca Mexico, Tacoma Washington, Missoula Montana, Des Moines Iowa and Cincinatti Ohio) put us to 32 temple renderings released in 2023 (not counting the updated one for Grshd Rapids). That is equal to temples announced.
I think our current number of dedicated temples is the same as the number of missions reached in 1989. The Wikipedia article List of missions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not give the number of each mission anywhere, and there are several discontinued. About 9 missions created this year do not have the mission they were formed from listed, and consequently about that many missions do not have all the missions formed from them listed. Also, because of some oddities of this process the table makes some missions look like thry are essentially the sane as at formation when thry are not. The easiest to see example of this is Tucson Arizona. That mission used to include El Paso which is now a separate mission, but since El Paso first moved to the Albaquerque mission, that does not actually constitute a direct formation.
From the chart I realized that the Salvador Brazil North mission was renamed to another city and Salvador South was made a new mission.
I am hoping we have more temple announcements next week, but we may not see any new ones until 2025.
Praia Cape Verde's closest operating temple is in Praia Cape Verde, where a temple was dedicated in 2022:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/praia-cape-verde-temple/
Sorry if I misunderstood what you meant, but since my hospital stay, I am easily confused.
If we got an announcement 2 days before Christmas, I don't see why we wouldn't get one 2 days before New Year's Day.
Speaking of today, it was the birthday of both Elder Gong and the Prophet Joseph Smith:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/12/23/elder-gerrit-w-gong-71-birthday-9-quotes/
https://www.thechurchnews.com/history/2023/12/23/24011611/joseph-smith-birthday-articles-video-birthplace-sharon-vermont-joseph-smith-papers-restoration/
My thanks again to you all.
I love these geographic facts: being close to the Equator, the northern tip of Brazil is closer to any other country on the American continent than to its own southern tip (this includes Canada to Uruguay). Due to its diamond shape, Brazil practically has two equal sides, one with international borders and the other with coastline. João Pessoa is not only the easternmost point of the continent, but it is closer to Africa (as explained above) than to the outer west of the country, in the heart of the jungle in Acre. The real center of Brazil is not in BrasÃlia, nor in Cuiabá or Palmas, but in an area not yet fully defined on the border between Goiás, Mato Grosso and Tocantins. The north-south distance is practically the same as the east-west distance of the country. It is the largest country in the world present in two hemispheres. São Paulo is the largest city in the southern hemisphere and also in the western hemisphere of the world...
Don't blame you for being confused, I see now I forgot to put "Temple" after "Praia Cape Verde."
Post a Comment