Arizona
A new stake was created yesterday in the Tuscon area. The Marana Arizona Stake was organized from a division of the Tuscon Arizona West and Tuscon Arizona North Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards and one branch: Avra Valley, Continental Ranch, Cortaro, Picture Rocks, Red Rock, and Tucson YSA 1st Wards and the El Rio Branch (Spanish). The organization of the new stake came as a surprise to local members and church leaders. One local member reported that the vising general authority and area seventy were not apprised of the plans to create the new stake until October 23rd. Local members indicate that the creation of the new stake was primarily motivated by a desire for the Church to focus on reactivation efforts in the area.
There are now 98 stakes in Arizona
Missouri
The Church organized a new stake in Missouri on October 18th. The Far West Missouri Stake was organized from a division of the Liberty Missouri and Platte City Missouri Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards and four branches: the Cameron 1st, Far West, Gallatin, Kearney 1st, Kearney 3rd, and Maryville Wards, and the Albany, Chillicothe, Trenton, and Wood Heights Branches. The Church once briefly operated a stake in Far West during the early days of the Church.
There are now 17 stakes in Missouri
Utah
Two new stakes were recently organized in Utah.
The Lehi Utah Thanksgiving Stake was organized on October 11th from a division of the Lehi Utah Gateway Stake. The new stake includes the following nine wards: the Cranberry Farms 1st, Pilgrims Landing 1st, Pilgrims Landing 2nd, Pilgrims Landing 3rd, Pilgrims Landing 4th, Sunset Hollow, Thanksgiving Meadows 1st, Thanksgiving Meadows 2nd, and Thanksgiving Village Wards.
The Eagle Mountain Utah Silver Lake Stake was organized on October 25th from a division of the Eagle Mountain Utah East Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Cedar Crest, Foxwood, Silver Creek, Silver Lake, and Woodhaven Wards
There are now 578 stakes and one district in Utah.
Matt:
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for a current list of the number of stakes and wards/branches in the Church year-by-year. Do you have that, or do you know if one exists online? I can build one using the last published Church almanac plus the last few membership reports in General Conference, but I'd thought I'd see first if someone else has done the work for me. :-) ..bruce..
Here you go: http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=2&wid=318&cmdfind=Search
ReplyDeleteThis also may be useful: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzyZqee1W-lPd2JKNW01N1R0bHc/view?usp=sharing
District created in Mombasa Kenya. All three Mombasa area branches are part of the new district.
ReplyDelete1 July (posted Oct 15)
ReplyDeleteCentral Eurasian Mission(13 branches 3 Regions)
Adana Military Branch
Almaty Branch
Ankara Branch
Astana Branch
Central Eurasian Azerbaijan Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Kazakhstan Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Kyrgyzstan Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Tajikistan Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Turkey Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Turkmenistan Mission Branch
Central Eurasian Uzbekistan Mission Branch
Gaziantep Branch
Istanbul Branch
Izmir Branch
Kazakhstan Mission Region
Kazakhstan RN Mission Region
Turkey Mission Region
20 Sept
Bogor 2nd Ward, Jakarta Indonesia Stake (1 Branch, 9 Wards)
4 Oct
Ikot Akpabin Ward
11 Oct
Baramata Branch, Kuriva Papua New Guinea District (4 branches)
San Benito Branch, Managua Nicaragua Tipitapa District (4 Branches)
18 Oct
Far West Missouri Stake (4 Branches, 6 Wards)
Albany Branch
Chillicothe Branch
Trenton Branch
Wood Heights Branch
Cameron 1st Ward
Far West Ward
Gallatin Ward
Kearney 1st Ward
Kearney 3rd Ward
Maryville Ward
Aeropuerto Branch, Lerma México Stake (1 branch, 5 wards)
Alepe Branch, Cote d'Ivoire Abidjan Mission (16 Branches, 4 Stakes)
Bee Cave Ward, Austin Texas Oak Hills Stake (1 branches, 11 Wards)
Grantsville 15th Ward, Grantsville Utah Stake (10 Wards)
Greensboro YSA Branch, Greensboro North Carolina Stake (2 Branch, 8 Wards)
Harvest Ridge Ward, Salem Utah Stake (12 wards)
Independence 2nd Ward, Bluffdale Utah South Stake (10 Wards)
Naciones Ward, Amatitlán Guatemala Stake (10 wards)
Oyigbo 2nd Ward, Port Harcourt Nigeria East Stake ( 4 Branches, 10 wards)
Pital Branch, Alajuela Costa Rica Stake (3 Branches, 6 Wards)
Sejong Branch, Daejeon Korea Stake (2 Branches, 5 wards)
Village Ward, St George Utah Little Valley Stake (11 wards)
25 Oct
Eagle Mountain Utah Silver Lake Stake (6 Wards)
Cedar Crest Ward
Foxwood Ward
Silver Creek Ward
Silver Lake Ward
Woodhaven Ward
Mombasa Kenya District (3 Branches
Bamburi Branch
Changamwe Branch
Mombasa Branch
Elk Ridge 9th Branch (Care Center), Elk Ridge Utah Stake (1 Branch, 9 Wards)
Legacy Farms Ward, Spanish Fork Utah Maple Mountain Stake (11 Wards)
Nibley 11th Ward, Nibley Utah Stake (12 Wards)
Sooke Branch, Victoria British Columbia Stake (3 Branches, 4 Wards)
YTD 518(12.05/week 43) +32 (net 27)
Africa 153, 29.5% (Middle East/Africa North Area Added)
Asia 16, 3.1%
Europe 25, 4.8% (+8 due to post of Central Eurasian Mission)
North America (w/ Caribbean) 133, 25.7%
Pacific 44, 8.5%
South and Central America 56, 10.8%
Utah & Idaho 91, 17.6%
Totals no-sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 148 418 3,154 544 22,495 7,363 34,147
Us/Can 10 81 131 1,592 10 12,548 2,065 16,437
US n/a 73 124 1,545 7 12,212 1,915 15,876
Utah n/a 15 10 578 1 4,685 327 5,616
Canada n/a 8 7 47 3 336 150 551
Out 15 67 287 1,562 534 9,947 5,298 17,710
With Sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 148 418 3,154 555 22,499 7,454 34,253
We have been told that the Black Mountain Stake in Henderson, Nevada, will split November 15. We currently have 13 Wards in the Stake.
ReplyDeleteMatt:
ReplyDeleteThose references were perfect -- many thanks.
I have always found it interesting that the midwest state of Missouri has a higher number of members and stakes than other surrounding places. My home state of Indiana, for example, usually averages a stake per 500,000 people while MO seems to have more like a stake per 300,000 or so. Perhaps church history and RLDS/Community of Christ have had a larger influnce than places like Minnesota or Michigan or a tweener like Kentucky.
ReplyDeleteAlso, maybe the spirit of the city of Enoch is working on the souls of the Show Me state.
Does anyone know what the hold up is with the Fortaleza Brazil Temple? Last I heard, they finally got a construction crew, but nothing has happened yet.
ReplyDeleteEduardo,
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is the zeal of some members leads them to move to the prophesied site of the New Jerusalem, notwithstanding no indication that the city will be built in the immediate future.
Trends in the US also show that there are more members in economically well off places. I haven't researched anything, but I imagine there are a lot of good job opportunities in the larger cities of Missouri that also contribute to lots of members from elsewhere moving in. Sort of like Virginia with government work and Texas with a booming economy.
DeleteTrends in the US also show that there are more members in economically well off places. I haven't researched anything, but I imagine there are a lot of good job opportunities in the larger cities of Missouri that also contribute to lots of members from elsewhere moving in. Sort of like Virginia with government work and Texas with a booming economy.
DeleteI am quite excited that there is now a district in Mombasa. I hope to see a second stake in Kenya very soon, and a temple announced for Kenya in less than 10 years.
ReplyDeleteSorry for making another comment. I just wanted to say I served in the Block Mountain Stake. We baptized two people I can remember. Both were spouses of church members. One of them we gave the six discussions to in six days. I feel sad I not only have not kept in contact with him but I do not remember his name. That was in the Arrowhead Ward, which is actually in a different stake now. We covered Arrowhead Ward, which has had some boundary changes but at best it and one other ward were realigned into 3 wards. The other ward we covered was Paradise Hills Ward, which now covers an area that is I believe 5 wards, although I think more like 4 and a half. To be fair some of those wards have boundaries today that had no houses in them back in Nov 2001- Jan 2002 when I was a missionary there.
ReplyDeleteWhile part of me thinks we were too quick to rush the man I mentioned through the discussions, on the other hand he had almost been baptized about 8 years earlier when he first met his wife, and his wife was an active member and he had been coming out regularly. We started the discussions because we stopped by because we did not really know the family. It might have been wise to ask the ward mission leader before going over. I had not actually said anything about maybe teaching the husband about the Church, although I knew he was not a member. The wife volunteered that her husband was ready to take the lessons. On the other hand I am not sure she would have contacted us if we had not stopped by.
She did break out laughing when we asked what parts of the word of wisdom he had a problem with and he said none. On further inquiry he said he would quit all his habits not in line with the word of wisdom. That was on a Wednesday and he was baptized the Saturday of the following week. The baptism was performed by his wife's grandfather. That is why we waited that long, but I think it was good to wait. My companion at the time was a convert who had quit smoking for less than a week before getting baptized and so thought that minimum obeying the Word of Wisdom directives were not worth while. I think if there is in place ward leadership that fully understands that reverting to addictive behaviors is a complex process that does not mean the person is insincere but will make the person tempted to quit the Church, minimum directives might not be 100% needed. Still part of me wonders if it is not best to have a rule that has a significant minimum at least between when the person first commits to live the word of wisdom and their baptism. Not so much a period of no reversions to smoking, which tends to be the hardest to quit, but either no reversions or a clear moving of the people through the process of moving back to their commitment to live the word of wisdom and a realization that they can repent and do not have to listen to Satan's lies telling them to give up.
On the Missouri matter it helps that there is a significant population of Samoans in Independence and to a lesser extend other parts of Metro-Kansas city, a significant portion of whom are Latter-day Saints. I have heard lines about them getting a jump start on the final gathering, but I am not sure that that is actually a factor in them moving there.
ReplyDeleteSister Oscarson, the Young Women General President, lived in the St. Louis area when she was first married. Her husband grew up in St. Louis, and I believe her father-in-law was the first stake president there.
In south-west Missouri you have somewhat of a concentration of members. This is the part of the state with the fastest growing population. Some have connections with Branson. One of my two favorite district leaders on my mission was a recent convert from Springfield, Missouri. He now lives in in Arizona, I think in the Eastern Phoenix Metro Area, where he is a full-time seminary teacher.
I know Metro St. Louis has lots and lots of members who are in medical, dental and other such schools. I also have the impression that there are lots of members connected with the Medical complex in Kirtsville, Missouri. In the St. Louis area this gives the Church lots of returend missionaries in areas that otherwise have largely people who are either recent converts, recently activated or just plain inactive. On the other hand it causes constant turn over in ward membership. Sometimes that is good, it makes it so people do not fossilize into cliques that are unwelcoming. Some wards on my mission the members seemed to not know how to go an say hi to visitors. On the other hand, constant membership turnover makes it hard for members to develop deep community connections to build the public image of the Church.
ReplyDeleteIf some of my experiences with members moving into the Belle Isle Branch in Detroit play out it also leads to having a constant inflow of members in color shock of living in a very heavily African-American city when they just moved from parts of Utah and Idaho especially that have very, very few African-Americans.
This is true. My brother and his family live in metro St. Louis while he is going to chiropractic school. At least 5 other families in his ward are there for the same reason.
DeleteColor shock; that is an interesting term for people acculturating. Yet another reason why our missions help assimilate our international fellowship and membership.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew from a small mostly Anglo town in California goes to Sierra Leone, a white farm boy from my home ward in Indiana served in Zambia.
All these experiences help us develop and become more of a Zion. Speaking of Zion, in the 90s I was told of an Independence bishop who would get an LDS family showing up about once a month with no job or many belongings, simply an urge to go there.
Also, bigger communities tend to do better with convert growth. I have seen uncounted midwest towns where there is no missionary influence.
Getting very close to 30,000 Wards and Branches
ReplyDeleteUnit Update
18 Oct
São Lourenço Branch, São Paulo Brazil Embu Stake (2 Branches, 7 Wards)
25 Oct
Marana Arizona Stake (1 Branch, 6 Wards)
El Rio Branch (Spanish)
Avra Valley Ward
Continental Ranch Ward
Cortaro Ward
Picture Rocks Ward
Red Rock Ward
Tucson YSA 1st Ward
Bonifacio Branch, Ozamiz Philippines District (7 Branches)
Brussels Grimbergen Ward (English), Antwerp Belgium Stake (7 Branches, 7 Wards)
Cowdray Park Ward, Bulawayo Zimbabwe Stake (3 Branches, 5 Wards)
Hualien 3rd Ward, Hualien Taiwan Stake (1 Branch, 6 Wards)
Madeira Canyon Ward, Henderson Nevada Anthem Stake (11 Wards)
Simpsonville 3rd Ward, Greenville South Carolina Stake (7 Wards)
Sun City 2nd Ward, Ashaiman Ghana Stake (3 Branches, 9 Wards)
Zenu New York Branch, Ashaiman Ghana Stake (3 Branches, 9 Wards)
YTD 529(12.30/week 43) +11 (net 5)
Africa 156, 29.5% (Middle East/Africa North Area Added)
Asia 17, 3.2%
Europe 26, 4.9%
North America (w/ Caribbean) 137, 25.9%
Pacific 45, 8.5%
South and Central America 57, 10.8%
Utah & Idaho 91, 17.2%
Totals no-sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 148 418 3,155 545 22,498 7,363 34,152
Us/Can 10 81 131 1,593 10 12,548 2,065 16,438
US n/a 73 124 1,546 7 12,212 1,914 15,876
Utah n/a 15 10 579 1 4,686 326 5,617
Canada n/a 8 7 47 3 336 151 552
Out 15 67 287 1,562 535 9,950 5,298 17,714
With Sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 148 418 3,155 556 22,502 7,454 34,258
Any mission districts in Liberia ready to become stakes? I hear Elder Bednar is there this weekend, not sure for what reason as that was not stated initially in the Facebook post I saw.
ReplyDeleteMissionaries who have recently been assigned to Liberia report incredible growth. Some branches have upwards of 100 investigators on Sundays. Sounds like the first stakes will be created in 2016 based on missionary reports.
ReplyDeleteLiberia - beside the tremendous growth the country is seeing at the moment - is in the interesting situation that probably all three districts in the country could become stakes at the same time. I am not aware of an instance in Church history when this has happened before (although Matt or any of the other data miners among us may freely correct me).
ReplyDeleteI can only repeat myself in that I am in complete awe as to what is happening all throughout the Africa West Area at the moment. Great times for the Church are coming for the members of the Church in this part of the world.
It's not as dramatic as what is happening in West Africa, but I was a missionary in Bolivia in the early '80s, and the districts in all three of that country's main cities became stakes in 1979: Santa Cruz (January) , La Paz (March) and Cochabamba (September).
DeleteOns of leadership. Liberia did have a stake last decade for a time. A person I knew from Liberia said that the reason it was discontined was because of too many leaders calling only relatives to positionsof leadership. I am not sure how accurate her perceptions of the issues involved was but that is what she told me.
ReplyDeleteYou said Maryville Ward; It's actually Maryville Branch
ReplyDelete