Texas
The Church organized a new stake in Houston, Texas last Sunday. The Houston Texas Bear Creek Stake was organized from a division of the Cypress Creek Texas Stake and the Katy Texas Stake. The new stake includes the following eight wards: the Bear Creek 1st, Bridgeland, Copperfield, Katy 1st, Sam Houston YSA 2nd, Spring Branch, Westlake, and Wheatstone Wards. An article providing additional information on the creation of the new stake can be found here.
There are now 64 stakes and three districts in Texas.
Brazil
The Church discontinued the União da Vitória Brazil District in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. The district had three branches and was originally organized in 1995. Two of the branches (Canoinhas and Mafra) were reassigned to the Brazil Curitiba South Mission whereas one of the branches (União da Vitória) was reassigned to the Guarapuava Brazil District.
There are now 253 stakes and 38 districts in Brazil.
I wonder why the change in Brazil.
ReplyDeleteUnião da Vitória is well to the west of the other two branches in the former district. It is about 200 km south east of Guarapuava, where three of the branches in the Guarapuava district is located. Two other branches are well to the east of Guarapuava.
First, I wonder why the district was named for the furthest west of the branches. This probably meant that the União da Vitória had most of the district leadership. I wonder if it is large enough to become a ward.
Second, I wonder if the reason for the change is to prepare for a stake out of the Guarapuava district. With three branches located in Guarapuava, very close to each other, one might suspect these branches being somewhat large. Thus, it is possible that four of the six branches in the district, at least, might be close to becoming ward. Five wards is one of the requirements for a stake, but I have seen 4 wards and 2 branches in newly organized stakes (presumably the branches together being equivalent to a ward).
Guarapuava Brazil District:
Bonsucesso Branch
Guarapuava Branch
Irati Branch
Prudentópolis Branch
União da Vitória Branch
Vila Bela Branch
The Martin's Cove Branch still shows as part of the Casper Stake, even with the new Mormon Trail Mission boundary, however, it also shows enclaves of the Martin's Cove Branch that belong to the Riverton and Laramie Stakes.
ReplyDeleteLDS Maps shows four small pieces that belong to the Martin's Cove Branch, Wyoming Mormon Trails Mission. The largest and easternmost is also covered by the Casper YSA Ward, Casper Wyoming Stake.
ReplyDeleteTo the southwest of the largest element of the Martin's Cove Branch, is another piece of the Branch. This one also indicates Wyoming Mormon Trails Mission and it indicates Laramie Wyoming Stake.
Two the west are two more small pieces of the branch. Both indicate Martin's Cove Branch and Wyoming Mormon Trails Mission. Both are covered by the Riverton College Branch (Student Singles), of the Riverton Wyoming Stake.
I am not sure how to explain the second piece of the branch, but the largest and the two western pieces are part of the singles wards/branches overlaying the Martin's Cove Branch and thus also in a stake. As the Martin's Cove Branch is for missionaries assigned to the mission, it is possible that others might live there in those three pieces and they would be assigned to a different ward or branch than the missionaries.
I am wondering if the Wyoming Mormon Trails Mission has its unique makeup because of multiple Mormon trail related sites spread over a large area.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I would suspect that is the case. There are probably missionaries living at each of the four sites.
ReplyDelete15 Feb 2015 update
ReplyDeleteN'Dotre 2nd Branch, Cote d'Ivoire Abidjan Mission(5 Branches)
Woodhaven Ward, Eagle Mountain Utah East Stake (12 Wards)
6 more for the 8th
Aflao Branch, Ghana Accra Mission (2 Branches, 3 districts)
Agbogba Branch, Accra Ghana Adenta Stake (2 Branches, 9 Wards)
Issia Branch, Cote d'Ivoire Abidjan West Mission (9 Branches, 3 Districts)
Karawatha 2nd Branch (Samoan), Park Ridge 2nd Branch (Tongan), Brisbane Australia Logan Stake (2 Branch, 5 Wards)
Rive Gauche Branch, Cote d'Ivoire Abidjan Mission (5 Branch)
There are 77 new Units since the beginning of the Year.
Question for everybody: Deseret News reported 8 new mission presidents in an article published yesterday (2/21/15). One of the mission president's wives was described as having a calling as an "inner city missionary". I'm wondering if anyone knows what in the world that calling is, and what it entails. Has anyone ever heard of a specific calling as an inner-city missionary? The couple was from an area of Utah (I can't recall which) that I don't really think of as being an inner city.
ReplyDeleteI should add that this was listed as her current calling, not a past calling that could have described her missionary service as an FTM.
ReplyDeleteBoth Brother and Sister Palmer are listed as serving as "inner city missionaries." They are from South Jordan, Utah, and are now called to preside over the Salt Lake City West Mission.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is they are already serving in the Salt Lake City West Mission and they have been called now to preside over it.
I haven't heard the term used in articles like this before, but my brother-in-law served in the New York City Mission decades ago and he described it as being an inner city missionary.
I believe in the Church News they have previously reported Sister Denise Posse-Blanco Lindberg, who serves as a member of the Young Women General Board, was described as serving a mission with her husband to an inner-city area of metro Salt Lake. They served in a Spanish unit in Taylorsville.
ReplyDeleteI also remember reading in the Deseret News an article by someone mentioning how his wife had wanted to go on a mission. They had gotten married before she could, but then as a young couple were assigned as missionaries to an inner-city area of Salt Lake.
In my stake we don't call them inner-city missionaries, but the stake service missionaries, especially those with the Personal Storehouse Project, are for all intense and purposes doing that.
The missionaries I mentioned in my stake are local couples called to serve within the stake. We also have had senior couples from elsewhere called to serve in what would be considered inner-city wards. Although no units in my stake currently are entirely inner city. 4 have large chunks that can so be described, and the Bloomfield Hills Ward, where the temple is, that is named after the very upscale Bloomfield Hills, also includes parts of south Pontiac that are very inner city. There was a couple from my ward called as Stake Service Missionaries to Bloomfield Hills Ward, but I think this was because they are from China and there are lots of Asians in the boundaries of that ward, especially in the western third of Troy in the ward boundaries.
ReplyDelete