Tuesday, May 19, 2015

New Stakes Created in Australia, New Zealand, and Nigeria; New Districts Created in Lebanon and Macau; Districts Discontinued in Brazil, Germany, and Venezuela

Australia
The Church organized a new stake in the Sydney area on May 17th. The Gosford Australia Stake was organized from a division of the Newcastle Australia and Sydney Australia Baulkham Hills Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Gosford, Normanhurst, Ourimbah, Toronto, Toukley, and Tuggerah Wards. There are now 38 stakes and eight districts in Australia.

New Zealand
The Church organized a new stake in Auckland on May 17th. The Auckland New Zealand Penrose Stake appeared to be organized from a division of the Auckland New Zealand Mt Roskill and Auckland New Zealand Panmure Stakes. Information on the names of congregations in the new stake is currently unavailable. There are now 29 stakes and three districts in New Zealand.

Nigeria
The Church organized a new stake in Calabar on May 17th. The Calabar Nigeria South Stake was organized from a division of the Calabar Nigeria Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Egerton, Etta Agbor, Mbukpa, New Airport, Uwanse, and Yellow Duke Wards. There are now 27 stakes and 20 districts in Nigeria

Lebanon
The Church organized a new district in Lebanon in late April. The Beirut Lebanon District was organized from a division of the Amman Jordan District. The new district appears to include two congregations: the Beirut Branch and the Cairo Branch. It is unclear why the Church decided to divide the Amman Jordan District as the district had only five branches prior to its division. The new Beirut Lebanon District appears to be the first district of the Church ever organized in this nation. Prospects appear favorable for passive missionary activity in Lebanon as there is no legislation barring proselytism or changing religious affiliation. Lebanon has the highest percentage of Christians among Middle East nations as 40% of the population is Christian.

Macau
The Church organized a new district in Macau on May 17th. The Macau China District is the Church's first district ever organized in this special administrative region of China. The new district includes the Macau 1st, Macau 2nd (English), and Macau 3rd Branches. The Macau 1st Branch administers Cantonese speakers whereas the Macau 3rd Branch administers Mandarin speakers. Missionaries are optimistic that the district can become a stake in the foreseeable future as there are currently 1,400 members in Macau - just 500 shy of the minimal criteria for a stake to operate. The branches previous pertained to the China Hong Kong Mission. The Church has experienced startling progress reactivating members and organizing new congregations in Hong Kong and Macau within the past year.

Brazil
The Church recently discontinued the Teófilo Otoni Brazil District. The district was originally organized in 2006 and had two branches for many years. Branches in the former district were reassigned to the Nanuque Brazil District. There are now 253 stakes and 38 districts in Brazil.

Germany
The Church recently discontinued the Erfurt Germany District. The district was originally organized in 2004 and had seven branches. Four of the branches were discontinued due to extremely few active members. Local members report significant problems with low receptivity and active members moving away from this economically depressed area of Germany. Retained branches were reassigned to the Leipzig Germany Stake and the Erfurt Branch became a ward in the stake. There are now 15 stakes and two districts in Germany.

Venezuela
The Church recently discontinued the Calabozo Venezuela District. The district was originally organized in 2005 and had two branches. The district had two if its branches recently discontinued. The retained branches have been reassigned to the Venezuela Caracas Mission.

37 comments:

  1. Interesting about Lebanon. Along with the creation of the Central Eurasian Mission, it looks like the Church is getting ready for some cool advancements in the Middle East.

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  3. Is it possible that the Lebanon and/or Jordan District also contains additional congregations that are unreported for security reasons?

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  4. May 17
    Auckland New Zealand Penrose Stake
    Favona Road Ward
    McKenzie Road Ward (Niuean)
    Waipuna Ward
    Waterlea Park Ward

    Calabar Nigeria South Stake
    Egerton Ward
    Etta Agbor Ward
    Mbukpa Ward
    New Airport Ward
    Uwanse Ward
    Yellow Duke Ward

    Gosford Australia Stake
    Gosford Ward
    Normanhurst Ward
    Ourimbah Ward
    Toronto Ward
    Toukley Ward
    Tuggerah Ward

    Macau China District
    Macau 1st Branch 澳門第一分會
    Macau 2nd Branch (English)
    Macau 3rd Branch 澳門第三分會

    Caldwell YSA Ward, Caldwell New Jersey Stake (3 Branches, 10 Wards)
    Riverside 2nd Ward, Saratoga Springs Utah Crossroads Stake (13 Wards)

    YTD 229 (11.45/week)
    Africa 72
    Asia 7
    Europe 6
    North America 78
    Pacific 16
    South and Central America 13
    Utah & Idaho 38

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  5. Update on mission presidents called.

    This actually comes from the May 10th Church News, but I have not looked through it until just now. New presidents for Sierra Leone and Liberia missions. The new president in Sierra Leone is CEO of Reach the Children, a non-profit that works in "Africa" on AIDS prevention, micro-enterprise and health issues among others. I am not sure if it does any work in Sierra Leone specifically. It is based in Fairport, New York where President Clawson lives, serving as a counselor in the Palmyra New York Stake Presidency. President Clawson was born in Germany, but I suspect his parents Rober Marion Clawson Jr and Mrs. Elizabeth Silver Clawson were Americans. Especially since he was born in 1957 in Landstuhl which was the location of a major US Army Hospital beggining in 1952. Sister Clawson was born in Salt Lake City. She is a multi-stake public affairs director,. and has previously worked in overseeing the Hill Cumorah Pageant as well as being Area Public Affiars director. She has also been a seminary teacher and Primary music leader. She apperently has never served in a primary, relief society or young women's presidency, which is rare for Mission President's Wives. Although I am not sure how comprehensive these past calling lists area. I am not sure they list counselorships at the ward level.

    As far as I can tell the information on the new President and Companion over the Central Eurasian Mission has not yet been published.

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  6. The new president of the Liberia Mission is a retired physician from Midway, Utah. Both the new presidents moving into these lands ravaged by Ebola in the last year seem to bring special skills that will help in dealing with the problems present there.

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  7. Reading statements from Church members in Lebanon, it appears the Church only tries to convert Christians. To me this is a narrow policy that is unwise. We have a mandate to convert all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples. This includes the Druze, Shi'a and Sunni populations of Lebanon.

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  8. Can we get the updated YTD unit growth per area in wards and branches? If so that would be great!

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  9. Total YTD 209

    Africa South East - 14
    Africa West - 52
    Asia - 4
    Asia North - 0
    Brazil - 10
    Caribbean - 0
    Central America - 1
    Europe - 2
    Europe East - 2
    Idaho - 5
    Middle East/Africa North - 0
    Mexico - 14
    North America Central - 9
    North America NE - 11
    North America NW - 10
    North America SE - 9
    North America SW - 17
    North America W - 3
    Pacific - 10
    Philippines - 4
    South America NW - 0
    South America S - 1
    Utah North - 3
    Utah SLC - 9
    Utah South - 18

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  10. oh wow excellent thanks, how do you get this?!

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  11. Is that the YTD of new units or total units (including discontinued/combined?) Because comparing from the year-end totals Brazil is only +7, Mexico is only +10, and all of Utah is only +13 (instead of the +30 listed.) Seems like a lot of those numbers are higher than they should be. I'm just going off the year end totals of 2014 and what is currently in CDOL.

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  12. The YTD is just new units organized. I haven't figured out how to get CDOL to list when Units are upgraded, downgraded or discontinued.

    Filter is
    Organization Status Changed to Active after Jan 1, 2015

    May 24
    Bastos 2nd Branch (English), Yaounde Cameroon District (7 Branches)
    Columbia Branch (Spanish), Lancaster Pennsylvania Stake (2 Branches, 7 Wards)
    Eleveur Branch, Yaounde Cameroon District (7 Branches)
    Garden Ward, Passo Fundo Brazil Stake (1 Branch, 9 Wards)
    Mahotas Ward, Maputo Mozambique Stake (1 Branch, 7 Wards)
    Santa Rosa Ward, Apodaca México Stake (7 Wards)



    YTD 235 (11.19/week)
    Africa 75
    Asia 7
    Europe 6
    North America 80
    Pacific 16
    South and Central America 14
    Utah & Idaho 38

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  13. >>>I haven't figured out how to get CDOL to list when Units are upgraded, downgraded or discontinued.

    I had that same issue when I had access to CDOL.

    Some people copy the data for every country and every state into excel every month and then determine the change in stakes, districts, wards, and branches each month.

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  15. John, I sympathize about your concerns about only teaching Christians in Lebanon. I would love it if we could right now teach everybody. But, we can't for several reasons.

    First, the available resources don't allow it. Only a very tiny percent of the world's population can realistically be taught with the current level of resources, so there has to be priorities set where it is believed to be the most fruitful.

    Second, there are often legal restrictions about doing so. In Lebanon, there is a tightly crafted, but uneasy accommodation between the religions groups. One of the restrictions is that Christians can't proselyte to Moslems and Moslems can't do so to Christians.

    Third, there have been many cases of family or tribal members punishing those who have left their faith. It can be dangerous to preach the gospel for this reason in some countries.

    Although "bond-servant" in the following scripture is often thought of as "slave" it has a broader meaning. And individuals in various tribes, particularly in the Moslem world, are in effect bonded to the tribal leaders, in ways we often don't really understand. Islam means "submission." Individuals submit to the "guidance" of their leaders by solemn vows. Attempting to break that submission, which starts very early in life, is problematic and often results in the death of the one who breaks his or her vows of submission. D&C 134 was originally the appendix to the D&C and was originally called the Official Declaration On Government. It wasn't numbered for some time after its conclusion in the D&C. D&C 134:12 states the policy "We believe it just to preach the gospel to the nations of the earth, and warn the righteous to save themselves from the corruption of the world; but we do not believe it right to interfere with bond-servants, neither preach the gospel to, nor baptize them contrary to the will and wish of their masters, nor to meddle with or influence them in the least to cause them to be dissatisfied with their situations in this life, thereby jeopardizing the lives of men; such interference we believe to be unlawful and unjust, and dangerous to the peace of every government allowing human beings to be held in servitude."

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  16. Thanks for that comment, Mike. Thought provoking. Never thought of it in that context before.

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  17. Thanks for that comment, Mike. Thought provoking. Never thought of it in that context before.

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  18. If you change the filter to "pending" instead of "active" after Jan 1 2015 you get the correct number of units added to mexico. I'm not sure if you do it to the other areas you get the right amount of added units. Its worth a look at though.

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  19. I'll update the net new wards and branches in a couple of days for the first five months of 2015.

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  20. My prediction for the Payson Utah Temple District. I will note, that this will already be inaccurate based on what I have heard the supposed district will be. This ONLY factors in which stakes would get to Payson quicker than other temples. There are 16 in total.

    1. Elk Ridge Utah Stake (9,0) [Provo]
    2. Goshen Utah Stake (7,0) [Provo]
    3. Payson Utah Mount Nebo Stake (8,1) [Provo]
    4. Payson Utah Mountain View Stake (10,1) [Provo]
    5. Payson Utah South Stake (7,0) [Provo]
    6. Payson Utah Stake (9,0) [Provo]
    7. Payson Utah West Stake (8,1) [Provo]
    8. Salem Utah Stake (11,0) [Provo]
    9. Salem Utah West Stake (8,0) [Provo]
    10. Santaquin Utah North Stake (8,1) [Provo]
    11. Santaquin Utah Stake (10,1) [Provo]
    12. Delta Utah Stake (8,1) [Manti]
    13. Delta Utah West Stake (6,2) [Manti]
    14. Fillmore Utah Stake (9,1) [Manti]
    15. Nephi Utah North Stake (9,0) [Manti]
    16. Nephi Utah Stake (7,3) [Manti]

    Based on driving times, the Fillmore Utah Stake would get to Payson faster than Manti, but it sounds like it won't be in the new district. Likewise, all of Springville and Spanish Fork (not to mention all the way over to Price) show that it would be faster to get to the Provo City Center Temple than Payson or Manti. The predicted district for the Provo City Center Temple (based on driving distance) extends all the way from the Huntington Utah Stake, the Price area stakes, and goes all the way up to the southwestern part of Orem. It shows some 46 stakes that the Provo City Center Temples is the fastest temple to get to from its stake center.

    Considering the Trujillo Peru, Indianapolis Indiana, and Tijuana Mexico Temples will be dedicated at later times, I will post specifics of those temples prior to their dedication. This is my prediction for all announced or under construction temples (stake and district count only).

    Trujillo Peru Temple
    25 stakes, 8 districts - Lima

    Indianapolis Indiana Temple
    8 stakes
    1 stake - Columbus
    2 stakes - Chicago
    4 stakes - Louisville
    1 stake - St Louis

    Tijuana Mexico Temple
    10 stakes, 1 district
    10 stakes - San Diego
    1 district - Hermosillo

    Provo City Center Temple
    46 stakes
    40 stakes - Provo
    6 stakes - Manti

    Rome Italy Temple
    10 stakes, 7 districts
    8 stakes, 2 districts - Bern
    2 stakes, 4 districts - Frankfurt
    1 district - London

    Hartford Connecticut Temple
    5 stakes - Boston

    Fort Collins Colorado Temple (I think Fort Collins might be dedicated before Hartford)
    8 stakes
    7 stakes - Denver
    1 stake - Billings

    Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple
    10 stakes - Washington

    Sapporo Japan Temple
    3 stakes, 2 districts - Tokyo

    Paris France Temple
    7 stakes
    2 stakes - Bern
    3 stakes - Frankfurt
    1 stake - London
    1 stake - Madrid

    Meridian Idaho Temple
    16 stakes - Boise

    Star Valley Wyoming Temple
    8 stakes
    2 stakes - Idaho Falls
    4 stakes - Logan
    2 stakes - Ogden

    Fortaleza Brazil Temple
    28 stakes, 3 districts - Recife

    Cedar City Utah
    17 stakes - St George

    This requires a part 2 because of character limits.

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  21. Concepcion Chile Temple
    25 stakes, 12 districts
    21 stakes, 11 districts - Santiago
    4 stakes, 1 district - Buenos Aires

    Lisbon Portugal Temple
    12 stakes, 7 districts - Madrid

    Urdaneta Philippines Temple
    21 stakes, 23 districts - Urdaneta

    Winnipeg Manitoba Temple
    1 stake, 1 district
    1 stake - Regina
    1 district - St Paul

    Barranquilla Colombia Temple
    14 stakes, 3 districts
    7 stakes, 2 districts - Bogota
    7 stakes, 1 district - Caracas

    Durban South Africa Temple
    3 stakes, 2 districts - Johannesburg

    Tuscon Arizona Temple
    8 stakes
    2 stakes - Gila Valley
    6 stakes - Mesa

    Arequipa Peru Temple
    24 stakes, 10 districts
    3 stakes - Cochabamba
    15 stakes, 8 districts - Lima
    6 stakes, 1 district - Santiago

    Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple
    28 stakes, 6 districts
    27 stakes, 5 districts - Campinas
    1 stake, 1 district - Recife

    Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Temple
    9 stakes, 11 districts - Accra

    Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple
    5 stakes, 4 districts
    4 stakes, 3 districts - Santo Domingo
    1 stake, 1 district - Panama City

    Bangkok Thailand Temple
    8 stakes, 27 districts - Hong Kong

    Most of these (especially the announced temples) are estimates, and I will calculate after groundbreakings and recalculate when it gets closer to their dedication (except Trujillo).

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  22. Provo City Center will have only Provo and Springville/Mapleton stakes in it when it is finished next year.

    There's still a large amount of exterior work and even significant interior work in progress and needing to be done. It appears to be a more substantial project than almost everything else outside of the Rome Temple is.

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  23. Distance to the temple is one of several criteria for assignment of a stake to a temple district. Capacity of temples and impact on temples are also considered.

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  24. Sorry, I just realized I skipped Kinshasa

    Kinshasa DR Congo Temple
    12 stakes, 9 districts - Johannesburg

    I am presently working on a map using resources from Cumorah.com, LDSChurchTemples.com, and LDS.org. When this map will be finished, I am uncertain. I have all temples separated into groups of 8 colors (blue, green, pink, light blue, purple, red, white, and yellow - available on Google Earth), average 21-22 temples per color, as well as the stakes, districts, and mission branches assigned to it. This map will also show what parts of the world (except Areas) go to specific temples. Countries that are part of an area, and not a mission is shaded in black, and does not factor into the areas serviced by current temples, but the stakes, districts, and branches in these areas will still match the color of the assigned temple.

    Only district and mission boundaries NOT within stake boundaries within 200 miles will be 10-15% opacity. This will indicate how much within 200 miles of this temple is actually part of a stake or district. Areas between 200 and 499 miles will be 25% opacity, 500 to 999 will be 50%, 1000 to 1999 will be 75%, and 2000+ miles will be 100% opacity (solid color). These areas outside 200 miles do not (but maybe later) show any stake, district, or mission boundary. This will show how much land each temple covers. Switching to Google Earth Pro really helped because this one has where you can create a circle from a central point to any length you need.

    Mission branches (mostly) will indicate which temple it is assigned to on LDS Maps. It will also show where each stake and district center is located (and verified by street view).

    Stakes, districts, and eventually branches that might go to a new temple will be shaded dark grey. Provo City Center Temple is the only exception to avoid confusion with stakes that will go to Payson next week. Once Payson is dedicated, the predicted district for Provo City Center Temple will then be dark grey, which it is currently black.

    It will also include predicted temples that factor for every stake and district (and later on branches) to be within 200 miles of these predicted temples. I have these color-coded by continent, but since they are separated by folder anyway, they will eventually become orange (custom place-mark) to differentiate from the 8 colors used for all the other temples.

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  25. "Nearly 80,000 missionaries are currently serving full-time missions around the world. "

    New number from Mormon Newsroom

    http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/elder-oaks-shares-missionary-assignment-process

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  26. Here is the net May growrh in Church Units, followed by year to date net growth.

    May + 25 W & B; + 28 W -3 B + 5 ST - 2 D
    US + 1; + 4 w- 3 B + 1st
    Outside US +24; + 24 W + 0 B + 4 st - 2 D

    May growth by Continent
    Africa + 22; + 10 W+12B +1 st + 1D
    Europe + 0; + 3 W - 3 B
    Pacific + 1; + 2 W - 1 B
    NA + 2; + 5 W - 3 B + 1 st
    SA + 0; + 7 W - 7 B + 1 st - 3 D
    Asia + 0; + 1 W - 1 B + 1 D

    YTD Thru May + 151; + 150 W +1B + 15 st - 2 D
    US + 48; + 51 W - 3 B + 4 st
    Outside US. + 103; + 99 W + 4 B + 11 st - 2 D

    Africa + 79; + 57 W +22 B + 5 st + 1 D
    Asia +2; + 9 W -7 B + 0 st + 2 D
    EUROPE - 5; - 1 W -4 B + 0 ST + 1 D
    NA + 59; + 66 W - 7 B +7 st +0 D
    Pacific + 8; + 8 W + 0 B + 2 st - 1 D;
    SA + 8; + 13 W - 5 B + 1 st - 5 D + 1 temple

    Countries with greatest growth
    US + 48
    Ghana + 29
    Nigeria + 16
    Cote d'Ivoire + 12
    Mexico + 9
    Brazil + 7
    Philppines, Canada, Aystralia each + 5






    YTD through May

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  27. Amazed by Ghana. Only 5 months in and they have +22 for the year? Wow. They were +39 last year and had a 23% increase in congregations. They are on pace for +52 this year, which would be around 25% if they were to keep it up. Last year the number of new members/increase in congregations totaled to 110 members per new congregation, which shows 1) How good the retention is and 2) how aggressive they're planting. There are still more branches coming online than there are branches that are being upgraded to wards. No way the growth would've been this solid had missionary work started there in the 60's instead of the 80's.

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  28. Adam, Ghana has recorded 29 new wards and branches so far this year, not 22. Twenty-two new wards and branches were created in the month of May on the entire continent of Africa, by far the lion's share of worldwide growth of 25 units. One reason for the slower growth outside Africa for the month of May was a district and multiple-branch closure in southeastern Germany, as well as several branches closing in the Dominican Republic. Some more rural areas have a very tough time staying open with most of their young people leaving the area to find employment.

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  29. Correction to YTD new wards and branches in Africa for 2015 through May 3. The total net growth in Africa is 83, not 79. There were several new units posted in the May 30 CDOL report that changed the total.

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  30. Make that May 30, not May 3! Also, the Philippines and Canada have both had 6 net new wards and branches, not 5.

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  31. I hope that all the great growth in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone will help the countries to their north grow faster when the church is there. Perhaps there are some linguistic connections as well as some ethnic ones to Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea ... Portuguese will be nice from Cabo Verde and elsewhere in Guinea-Bissau...

    Has the church done much in Equatorial Guinea?

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  32. I hope that all the great growth in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone will help the countries to their north grow faster when the church is there. Perhaps there are some linguistic connections as well as some ethnic ones to Burkina Faso, Gambia, Guinea ... Portuguese will be nice from Cabo Verde and elsewhere in Guinea-Bissau...

    Has the church done much in Equatorial Guinea?

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  33. To be fair, in a way missionary work started in Ghana in the 1970s. J W Billy Johnson and some others were teaching the Book of Mormon and forming unofficial congregations in the 1960s. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was officially registered with the government in 1968. True this was done by people who had no formal connection with the Church. However a large portion of these people joined the Church in 1978/79 when it was established with a connection to Salt Lake City. Johnson and his wife were the lone missionaries during the Freeze, going to member homes and encouraging them in a time when paying tithing was illegal and only home meetings could be held. A brother whose name I forget but lived I believe in Kumasi who had also been involved in the registration in the 1960s was among those who filed official statements with the government of Ghana urging the Freeze to be lifted.

    While the history of the Church in Ghana and Nigeria are similar, there are also major differences. In fact in some ways it is better to think of the regions involved as South-east Nigeria and southern Ghana. The fact that the capital of Ghana is in the region covered in the Ghana case, while neither Abuja nor Lagos are in the main area of pre-official emergence of groups that wanted to become part of the Church in Nigeria plays a role in different outcomes.

    Of course, the existence of Boko Haram and other extreme antagonisms to formsof religion other than Islam has stopped LDS Church planting in almost all of the north of Nigeria and made it rare in central Nigeria. On the other hand, while the north of Ghana is also heavily Muslim, there is not at present a terrorist element operating there, and so the Church has created congregations, although that has been a very recent development.

    On the other hand, Ivory Coast where the Church emerged in the late 1980s, has similar growth rates to Ghana. Both countries have also benefited from members who joined the Church in Europe and then returned to the country, or in the case of Ivory Coast a husband who returned and brought his German wife with him. I actually only know of the two couples mentioned by Elder Andersen in his talk in Ivory Coast and Emanuael Abu Kissi and his wife in Ghana, but these individuals have been extremely influential in the growth of the Church in their countries.

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  34. On July 26,2015, the Tagbilaran Philippines District will become the Tagbilaran Philippines Stake

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  35. Penrose Stake, Auckland, NZ

    Favona Road Ward
    McKenzie Road Ward (Niuean)
    Penrose 1st Ward (Tongan)
    Penrose 2nd Ward (Samoan)
    Waipuna Ward
    Waterlea Park Ward

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