The Church in Armenia

This is one of the most fascinating countries the Church has recently moved into. Over 2,300 members now live in Armenia, organized into 15 branches according to the 2008 Church Almanac by the Deseret Morning News. In 2006, Church membership increased by 13.3% and 10 years ago membership was only 200. The majority of Armenians are Armenian Orthodox and take pride in the claim that their nation is the oldest Christian nation in the world. I do not want to recount a full history of the Church in Armenia and if you want more information, I suggest you visit http://www.lds.org/ or read what the Church Almanac has to say about it.

In the past six or seven years, missionaries have started to work outside of Yerevan (the capital), especially in the northern half of the country. Now branches are located in Ashtarak, Gyurmi and Vanadzor. Missionaries are also working, according to the Armenia Yerevan's website, in Alaverdi and Step'anavan were members meet together at least in groups (I have had trouble determining if they're groups or branches). Missionary activity has also spilled over into Georgia and there is an entire zone of missionaries in Tbilisi. However, most of the branches are located in Yerevan as well as the members.

Armenia, and recently Georgia, are the only countries in this region of the world with missionaries teaching and baptizing. In the last decade, missionaries have started working their way down from the Russia Rostov Mission into the northern Caucasus into cities such as Sochi, Krasnodar, and Stavropol. The surrounding areas to the south, east and west of Armenia are pretty much void of missionary work.

Oh, and on this map the red dot means that there are missionaries in this city, but I have not been able to confirm a branch in the city. Previously posted maps (excluding the temple maps) tend to symbolize cities over 100,000 people with no missionaries or branches with a red dot.