Missionaries and members report that the Portugal Porto and Portugal Lisbon Missions will consolidate into a single mission and the Connecticut Hartford Mission will combine with the Massachusetts Boston Mission this July. Both these areas report low levels of convert baptisms and are generally self-sustaining in local leadership for established congregations, albeit there has been very little congregational growth or congregational decline for many years. I will provide more analysis when more details become available.
hi. im just curious. where did you find this out? is there a link i could read about it on? i just recieved my call to porto portcugal. so i just hope they keep me in portugal!
ReplyDeleteI obtained this information from several missionaries currently serving in Portugal.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of the Connecticut Hartford Mission it only has three stakes. There has been a general trend in the United States over the last decade to try and somewhat balance the number of missionaries per unit. Thus the number of missionaries assigned in the western United States has grown while it has shrunk in the eastern united states. Still, the ward I attend here in Michigan has four full-time missionaries. Two of these are the CES couple since my ward is a singles ward with both the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University in its boundaries, with a combined enrollment of over 60,000 students, and other institutions of higher education as well. On the other hand my brother serving in the Idaho Pocatello Mission currently covers an entire stake if I understand correctly, and I know in his last area he covered an entire stake. That was the Idaho Falls Central Stake with 5 wards, so this workds out to roughly 10 times as many missionaries per ward. There are missionaries in my brothers mission who cover multiple stakes. So even with the attempts to balance the number of units covered by missionaries is still uneven.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing about Hartford, they lose a mission yet gain a temple?
ReplyDeleteOr a different view, the Boston mission will have two temples?