Cumorah Foundation Survey – Follow-up Request for Participation

Thank you to the 135 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who have already participated in our updated international member survey. We sincerely appreciate the time you have taken to share valuable insights about your local congregations. Your responses are already helping us better understand patterns in Church growth, missionary effectiveness, and member retention across diverse settings worldwide. We have received responses from the United States and many countries in Latin America, Oceania, Europe, and Africa.

In order to strengthen the reliability and breadth of our findings, we are seeking additional responses from Latter-day Saints around the world. Our goal is to gather at least 1,000 completed surveys to ensure broader geographic and demographic representation.

If you have not yet completed the survey, we invite you to take just 5–10 minutes to do so. Your input—regardless of where you live or the size of your congregation—is important and will contribute meaningfully to our research efforts at cumorah.com.

The survey includes questions about:

• Convert baptisms in the past year

• Retention rates among new members

• Member participation in missionary efforts

• Growth developments in your local area

• The effects of increased temple construction and emphasis on temple worship

The survey can be accessed here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P8VCFSL

We also encourage you to share this link via email, social media, or other means with fellow Latter-day Saints who may be willing to participate. The more responses we receive, the more meaningful and representative the data will be.

Thank you again for your support of this important project.

First Branch Created in Guinea-Bissau

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently created its first branch in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau (population 2.2 million). The Bissau Branch was organized under the Espargos Cape Verde District.

Previously, Guinea-Bissau was under the direct supervision of the Africa West Area via the Africa West Area Branch until approximately one year ago, when it was assigned to a mission for the first time—namely, the Cape Verde Praia Mission.

There were 45 Latter-day Saints in Guinea-Bissau as of year-end 2013 (the most recent year with published membership data), most of whom appear to have been baptized and confirmed in other countries (especially Portugal) before returning to their homeland.

Several factors appear to have delayed the establishment of a formal Church presence in Guinea-Bissau:

• The absence of a U.S. embassy

• A comparatively small population (by West African standards)

• Its Portuguese-speaking population

• Its remote location

In recent years, both formal and informal missionary efforts have resulted in convert baptisms within Guinea-Bissau, under the supervision of the Cape Verde Praia Mission. Prior to the branch’s creation, the country pertained to the Cape Verde Praia Mission Branch. Full-time missionaries now appear to be serving in Bissau, further signaling an increased focus on outreach.

Prospects for Church growth in Guinea-Bissau appear highly favorable, given:

• Good receptivity among Bissau-Guineans

• The relatively light administrative burden of the Cape Verde Praia Mission, which currently oversees only Guinea-Bissau and the four stakes and one district in Cape Verde.

With the creation of the Bissau Branch, only three West African nations remain without an official branch of the Church:

1. Burkina Faso

2. Mauritania

3. Niger

Among these, only Burkina Faso has a known member group, which was slated to become a branch in 2020, although this has yet to occur.

Below is a list of West African countries and the year their first branch was organized:

• Ghana – 1978

• Nigeria – 1978

• Liberia – 1987

• Sierra Leone – 1988

• Côte d’Ivoire – 1989

• Togo – 1999

• Benin – 2005

• Senegal – 2016

• Guinea – 2017

• Mali – 2017

• The Gambia – 2022

• Guinea-Bissau – 2025

We Need Your Input! Survey Request

It’s been a while since we last invited responses to our international member survey for The Cumorah Foundation. If you’re a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please take 5–10 minutes to complete our updated survey about your congregation.

Your responses will help us improve the accuracy of our research and enhance the resources we provide at cumorah.com on global Church growth and the effectiveness of the missionary program.

Please share the survey link via social media, email, or other means to help us gather insights from Latter-day Saints around the world. Since 2014, we’ve received more than 2,000 responses—this updated version will help us better understand key trends such as:

• Annual convert baptisms

• Retention rates

• Member participation in missionary efforts

• Local growth developments

Click here to access the survey. The url is: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P8VCFSL.