Wednesday, February 10, 2010
New Mission in Guatemala
Missionaries report that the fifth mission in Guatemala will be organized this summer from the Guatemala Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City Central Missions. The new mission will be named the Guatemala Retahuleu Mission. The decision to create a second mission in the highlands of western Guatemala was likely due to continue to expand outreach into small, Amerindian communities. Many of these communities have members, some of which meet in small branches or groups. Like the creation of Chile Concepcion South Mission in the mid-2000s, the new mission will likely be created to have mission leadership and missionaries work with areas with high inactivity. There are also several districts close to becoming stakes which the new mission may facilitate becoming stakes in the coming years.
When was the last time we saw such a dramatic reshuffling of missions in the church like this one?
ReplyDeleteThis reshuffle is almost certainly going to see growth accelerate, as well as focus on retention. 2010 could very easily become the largest year for church growth in a long time...
This new mission will also help strengthen and increase the membership that will belong to the new Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple, due for completion next year.
ReplyDeleteTom -
ReplyDeleteThe reshuffling of missions like this is unprecedented in the last 20 years. While I agree that growth will accelerate, I doubt that much of a difference will be seen in the 2010 results. Changes in mission boundaries and mission presidents come in July, and several of the new missions such as the Guatemala one will start out with very few missionaries and slowly increase to a normal size (probably by around 15 new missionaries per 6 weeks). I think the most evident results will be seen in 2011.
I agree; it usually takes a year or two before we start to see greater growth. Sometimes we see fewer people joining the Church (like in Sierra Leone) but this is due to mission leadership stressing that investigators develop a habit of Church attendance and also working with less active members.
ReplyDeleteThis makes a lot of sense. Reu and Mazate both used to be part of the Central Mission but were switched to Xela when I was there in mid 2000. They were the two most powerful areas and it took the Central Mission a long time to recover after losing them. Does anyone have any idea what the new boundries will be?
ReplyDeletehow many Mormon missionaries are in Guatemala?
ReplyDelete