Below is a list of all of the countries and dependencies/territories of the world with the percentage of Latter-day Saints in each location as of 2016. Countries with an asterisk indicate that LDS membership figures are estimated due to no official LDS membership data released to the public. Previous data from 2008 can be found here. Population figures were obtained from the CIA World Factbook for all locations except of overseas departments of France. Population data for French overseas collectivities/departments was accessed via http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/OA.
THE CARIBBEAN
EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
NORTH AMERICA
OCEANIA
SOUTH AMERICA
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
69 comments:
Cool list. How about the world or continental averages?
Around 2008 I attended a Wednesday night Protestant dinner and Bible study; we had a good time. During the class I think we were discussing Matthew chapters, many of us were making comments; one brother from Tonga mentioned in his home country there were only 3 Churches: Catholic, Methodist and Ptesbyterian, I think he said. I didn't correct him then or after but I have thought many times about what his reaction will be when he finds out the archipelago is Little Deseret.😉
I love Tongans and Polynesians in general. They are a great little big people. Great asset to our faith. And sports from rugby to basketball. Now Coach Sitake is breaking ground. Great stuff.
Oh, I meant to mention for context the above story took place in at a military base in central CA. It bugs when people say "my ward, my stake, my temple" when I have no idea if they are talking about Alaska, Montana, or Florida.
After Tonga next highest is Samoa, right?
I love seeing the little islands around Britain represented. Very cool.
According to the 2011 census in Tonga, adherence was then as follows:
Total 103,043
Free Wesleyan Church 36,592
Latter day Saints 18,554
Roman Catholic 15,441
Free Church of Tonga 11,863
Church of Tonga 6,935
Assembly of God 2,602
Tokaikolo 2,533
Seventh-day Adventist Church 2,331
Other Pentecostal Denomination 1,034
Constitutional Church of Tonga 961
Other 877
Bahá'à Faith 777
Anglican Church 728
Jehovah's Witnesses 462
None 288
Refuse to answer (inc not stated) 275
Gospel Church 236
Hinduism 200
Buddhism 183
Islam 24
The top three all report numbers higher than the census and there are probably a lot of people on two if not all three of these churches' roles. The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga is the established church and has an extensive education system. Some 60% of the students in secondary school go to a Free Wesleyan school as opposed to public schools. The royal family are officially members of the Free Wesleyan Church.
I don't see Presbyterians on the list.
There are 19 stakes and 2 districts. In 2011, there were 17 stake and 2 districts, so I would expect about 18,000 active members.
Interesting report, Matt. I loved looking at this data. Thank you!
Many Tongans have emigrated as well. I believe we have a sizable number of Tongan members in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Samoa, and elsewhere.
Yeah, good point, I was stretching to remember the third faith the gentleman mentioned. I remember reading that the Methodists, i.e. Wesleyans, had come in strong as the first Western religious missionaries in the islands.
I guess the 18-20 k members listed more recently in Tonga doesn't entirely square with the numbers on this list, but the numbers certainly are encouraging whether high or low.
Yes, thousands of Polynesians live abroad: in the US there are high numbers in California, Washington, Utah, and elsewhere.
Interesting to think how many have left their homeland, like Ireland a relatively snall place but expands throughout the world.
There were two Tongan Ward in my stake in Texas. They have a pretty strong presence in much of the west.
Would Niue even be able to have a stake if every person there was a member of the Church?
I was reading a study once that suggested Tonga currently has the highest percentage of its economy based on remittances from citizens living abroad of any country in the World.
I would not say that there is "a strong presence of Tongans in much of the west". In Salt Lake City 2.0% of the Population is Pacific Islander, to 2.7% being African-American. These figures obscure some, because only full ancestry are counted. On the other hand, this includes others besides Tongans. It rises to 2.5% Pacific Islanders if you count those who also mark being white, Asian etc. On the other hand blacks rise to 3.5% under that count system. The census does not in reports number out Tongans. However there are 2,888 uncounted out Pacific Islanders to 144 Native Hawaiians and 727 Samoans.
In Long Beach, California the overall some pacific islander percentage is 1.6% to Salt Lake City's 2.5%. However the balance is different. Long Beach has 3,736 Samoans, 336 Native Hawaiians and only 647 other pacific islanders. Los Angeles County overall is only 0.6% people who marked at least one of their races as Pacific Islander.
I would say a general focused plotting of high numbers of Polynesians in the US is as follows. These do not neccesarily mean high percentages in the population, but concentrations of Polynesians. The main focus seems to be Salt Lake and Utah counties in Utah, with smaller populations in Davis County. Clark County Nevada has enough to have a Samoan Ward, and I believe Reno also has a concentration. The San Francisco and Oakland areas have lots of Polynesians. Still Alameda County is 1.5% of some Pacific Islander ancestry. One of the highest concentrations of Pacific Islanders I have identified in a US city on the mainland is in Hayward, California which is 4.7% Pacific Islanders. Still only Native Americans are less numerous in the city. Of course Hayward is one of the most all around diverse cities in the US period. The closest one can find to a majority racial/ethnic group is that 40.7% of the population is Hispanic/Latino. Roughly 3 of 4 Hispanic/Latinos in the city identify as Mexican. The census is still formulated to only count and better county Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans, even though El Salvadorians almost centainly outnumber Cubans in the US these days. 0.6% of the population marked themselves as by race only black/African American and as Hispanic. Exactly what this means, if they are all people who fully identify just as black. Non-Hispanic whites alone are under 19% of the population. So maybe Hayward is just heavily Hispanic, but it is far lower than some cities in California. The 673 Samoans outnumber the 662 Koreans. It would be nice if Tongans were seperately numbered. One stat that I think really would boggle some minds, 576 people in Hayward marked themselves as Hispanic and Asian, they did not mark any other races besides Asian. These may largely be a sub-set of the 15,000 Filipinos, although they could also be people of Chinese descent whose families lived for a few generations in Latin America.
I have to admit the more I read the Hayward figures the more I feel like the census masks as much as it tells. I know here in Metro-Detroit it masks our huge middle-eastern population.
I would not say the west overall has a heavy number of Polynesians. I would say they concentrate in a few urban areas. I am not even sure if the Phoenix area has many.
On the other hand Arkansas and Oklahoma have large numbers of people who have come from the Marshall Islands.
In a lot of ways the most impressive stat is Kiribati since the Church has only been there since the late 1970s. Everywhere else above 10% the Church has been over half a century or more.
I still think there is a strong presence, when you consider that Tonga only has a population of just over 100,000 people. Ten thousand+ tongans in the western US makes it a significant presence.
Perhaps part of what makes the extra-island Polynesian population is the numbers represented in sport, especially rugby and US football.
I have read numerous reports over the years about excellent rugby players who are ethnically Tongan or Samoan and were raised in New Zealand or Austalia, and notably took leave from lucrative contracts in order to serve full time missions.
In the US, football is hugely affected by Polynesian and LDS players.
In CA I have observed formidable Polynesian populations in Oceanside, the Inland Empire like Rialto and Fontana, Monterey Seaside, and the Palo Alto area in the Bay Area, nearer to Hayward as mentioned.
Seattle seems to have good numbers; Hawai'i and even Texas has its Polynesian LDS.
There seems to be enclaves in certain Western urban settings, but definite individuals found in big and small eastern US towns, in and around DC and even a college town like Bloonington, IN or Annapolis, MD. (Niamatololo).
Or Sikahema in Philly, PA, etc, or now Van Noy working in Boston. Kyle grew up in Reno NV.
Over 2 percent of a population is sizable for an ethnic or religious minority, in my opinion.
Bloomington, whoops. It's bad when you misspell your own home town! Typing first round posts is treacherous both in content and form.
I am too limited to do this, but Bloomington has many counterparts across the US. I wonder which have the most to least LDS members.
I would guess that Bloomington UT has the most (although surrounding places like Bloomington Hills is tricky how to count...)
Bloomington IN is probably second with 4 LDS units, although this city takes in ward members from surrounding towns and hamlets like Elletsville and Stinesville and maybe a dozen others.
Not sure about the suburb of Minneapolis Bloomington, but I am guessing it may have more membership than its namesake in Illinois.
There is a Bloomington in CA near Fontana, which may have a ward, but not a big place, not sure. I think it even has LDS Polynesians, as we have discussed the Pacific Island diaspora.
I have also heard about a Texas Bloomington, and like many things there, perhaps it is formidable and has grown. Like the name suggests.
This may be considered a silly exersize (troglodyte alert) but I personally take pleasure in contemplating and analyzing where members are located, and even the names of those places.
Something subtlely artistic about it.
In my stake they made some changes today. They downgraded the Palmer Park Ward to a branch which considering its attendance level is not surprising. They called as branch president the man who was last branch president just before it was made a ward about 5 years ago. The Church is also going to selll the Palmer Park Chapel a former Greek Orthodox Church will the chapel area on the shape of a cross. The Palmer Park branch will then meet at the Southfield Ward building where I go to church and the Southfield and Palmer Park units will have joint youth programs.
All the reasons for this change I do not know. I do know that about 7 or more years ago there was consideration of tearing down the Palmer Park building and building a new chapel on tje cite. However that plan would have drawn lots and lots of opposition from historical preservationist who want to force others to pay to satisfy their varried architecture fetishes.
The Palmer Park chapel was a block from a very large strip club and 25 years ago when It was in scouting the scout master of the troop for the ward there would complain that I'm the suburbs they would never ha e tolerated such a set up.
Other than that the area is probavly about the level or better than the parts if Detroitk12 where the two LDS chapels that will remain will be. Southfield is outside the city but close to the boundary and in a city that I'd at least 70% African-American. This is not the early 1980s when black investigators in the city feared to cross 8 Mile. There might be an issue since many city residents drive unrejistered cars with no insurance. The chances of getting stopped and cited for this arexvirtually none in the city but go up a lot once you pass outside the city. I just hope members do not feel alienated by the move and stop coming.
Wait, what?? There's 50 members in Guinea Bissau, 20 in Guinea, and 20 in The Gambia? Even if those include expats/embassy personnel, that's a good beginning. Same with 10 in Burkina Faso and 10 in Chad. I wonder if the 100 members are still in South Sudan with the continuing conflict. And even if they're non-native, I was surprised to see any members listed in Eritrea and Mauritania. Outside of Africa I was surprised to note 20 members in the West Bank, and 40 in Azerbaijan. Felt a little down seeing 50 in Bangladesh, that number hasn't changed in all the years I've followed this blog, hope to see that increase sooner than later. It was interesting to note how few nations had absolutely no LDS members. I see that LDS membership is blank for Saudi Arabia, must be especially sensitive since we know there's several branches there. Really interesting, thank you Matt!!
This is not meant as racist at all but I hope people will be encouraged to register their cars, at the minimum. I know money can be tight.
One example of our faith helping people is allowing them to have food while the plan would be that the money saved could go to basic fundamental costs like a vehicle legal document.
In the San Bernardino Stake back around 2004 the area of southern California (maybe 70 stakes) was told by the administrative Seventy that there was 120 or 140,000 dollars not spent on welfare cases that should have been, therefore the bishops and branch presidents needed to step up and give more away to the needy. What a cool problem.
Perhaps some priesthood authorities could help some faithful members get some issues ironed out like that?
Maybe it seems like robbing Mary to pay Paul, but it makes sense to me, maybe a few others...
I had mentioned how my California bro-in-law's father was working housing development in Detroit and was making the best money he ever had? That is profit being tithed. I hope people in Michigan and natonwide, even worldwide can get ahead financially.
First step is paying for the basics, then savings. After tithing.
Our ward has some baptisms this Saturday, this is a good sign after a drought last year.
Can we have a worldwide table to rank countries?
I did it again: northern Virginia. The DC South Mission baptized its goal of 300+ last year and this year it is 365.
And, another typo while correcting a previous one: I meant to write the Monroe County town of Ellettsville, Indiana, feeds into the four Bloomington wards. It used to feed into the Spencer Branch but they closed down that struggling unit, leaving Owen County without a Church congregation, as too many Hoosier counties as I have recounted in the past. But membership continues to grow, nevertheless.
Thread jack alert: Does anybody have any first-hand insights into how mission presidents choose counselors in their presidencies? It seems like that would be a tough choice to make considering the president wouldn't know virtually nobody in the area, and they usually pick fairly high-caliber counselors who are probably in high demand for stake or even area leadership.
Thoughts?
sigh...*would know virtually nobody"
Is these a similar list for each US State (or US counties)?
I am pretty sure that area authorities consult with stake presidents and perhaps them to the bishops. I think that some mission counselors are retained from one mission president to another to provide a bit of familiarity and continuity to the missions they serve in.
Bloomington and Bloomington Hills in Utah are just developments within St. George City limits and are not actually their own towns or cities.
Maintour
On www.rcms2010.org you can find the data you are looking for. It may not be the most up to date, but I have looked at it before.
There has been a boundary realignment within a stake in the Northwest Phoenix area, no details on whether units were created or whether this was just to even some things out as far as numbers go relating to unit sizes, etc.
The following are year end 2016 LDS membership data and 2016 data from the US Census Bureau and Stats Canada:
Utah, United States: 2,065,808/3,051,217 = 67.7%
Idaho, United States: 444,614/1,683,140 = 26.4%
Wyoming, United States: 67,505/585,501 = 11.5%
Nevada, United States: 182,617/2,940,058 = 6.2%
Arizona, United States: 423,056/6,931,071 = 6.1%
Hawaii, United States: 73,927/1,428,557 = 5.2%
Montana, United States: 50,145/1,042,520 = 4.8%
Alaska, United States: 33,810/741,894 = 4.6%
Washington, United States: 287,433/7,288,000 = 3.9%
Oregon, United States: 153,936/4,093,465 = 3.8%
New Mexico, United States: 69,617/2,081,015 = 3.3%
Colorado, United States: 151,884/5,540,545 = 2.7%
California, United States: 771,464/39,250,017 = 2.0%
Alberta, Canada: 81,160/4,252,900 = 1.9%
North Dakota, United States: 11,256/757,952 = 1.5%
Nebraska, United States: 24,765/1,907,116 = 1.3%
Kansas, United States: 37,632/2,907,289 = 1.3%
Texas, United States: 348,130/27,862,596 = 1.2%
South Dakota, United States: 10,450/865,454 = 1.2%
Oklahoma, United States: 47,349/3,923,561 = 1.2%
Missouri, United States: 70,389/6,093,000 = 1.2%
Virginia, United States: 95,198/8,411,808 = 1.1%
Arkansas, United States: 30,694/2,988,248 = 1.0%
West Virginia, United States: 16,981/1,831,102 = 0.9%
Iowa, United States: 28,157/3,134,693 = 0.9%
North Carolina, United States: 84,902/10,146,788 = 0.8%
Maine, United States: 10,978/1,331,479 = 0.8%
Georgia, United States: 84,415/10,310,371 = 0.8%
South Carolina, United States: 40,216/4,961,119 = 0.8%
Kentucky, United States: 34,954/4,436,974 = 0.8%
Alabama, United States: 37,237/4,863,300 = 0.8%
Tennessee, United States: 50,030/6,651,194 = 0.8%
Yukon, Canada: 282/37,500 = 0.8%
Florida, United States: 154,921/20,612,439 = 0.8%
Mississippi, United States: 21,849/2,988,726 = 0.7%
Vermont, United States: 4,548/624,594 = 0.7%
Maryland, United States: 43,534/6,016,447 = 0.7%
Indiana, United States: 44,669/6,633,053 = 0.7%
New Hampshire, United States: 8,668/1,334,795 = 0.6%
British Columbia, Canada: 30,666/4,751,600 = 0.6%
Louisiana, United States: 29,934/4,681,666 = 0.6%
Minnesota, United States: 32,719/5,519,952 = 0.6%
Delaware, United States: 5,400/952,065 = 0.6%
Ohio, United States: 61,490/11,614,373 = 0.5%
Nova Scotia, Canada: 4,953/949,500 = 0.5%
Saskatchewan, Canada: 5,505/1,150,600 = 0.5%
Wisconsin, United States: 26,392/5,778,708 = 0.5%
Michigan, United States: 44,662/9,928,300 = 0.4%
Illinois, United States: 57,109/12,801,539 = 0.4%
Connecticut, United States: 15,834/3,576,452 = 0.4%
New York, United States: 81,741/19,745,289 = 0.4%
District of Columbia, United States: 2,758/681,170 = 0.4%
Pennsylvania, United States: 51,666/12,784,227 = 0.4%
Massachusetts, United States: 27,204/6,811,779 = 0.4%
Rhode Island, United States: 4,070/1,056,426 = 0.4%
Ontario, Canada: 52,752/13,983,000 = 0.4%
New Jersey, United States: 33,478/8,944,469 = 0.4%
Manitoba, Canada: 4,553/1,318,100 = 0.3%
Prince Edward Island, Canada: 509/148,600 = 0.3%
New Brunswick, Canada: 2,286/756,800 = 0.3%
Northwest Territories, Canada: 123/44,500 = 0.3%
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada: 772/530,100 = 0.1%
Quebec, Canada: 11,619/8,326,100 = 0.1%
A couple of weeks ago, boundaries were realigned in the Fredericksburg Virginia Stake. Apparently, for the first time in a lot of people's memory, the Fredericksburg Ward is now the largest in the stake. No new units were created, but the large Massaponax and Spotsylvania wards in the smaller Massaponax building lost people to the Fredericksburg and Chancellor wards in the larger Fort Bragg Road building.
Excellent news out of Dublin, Ireland. The Terenure 2nd Ward was created yesterday. This supports the post from a few weeks ago that Ireland experienced a good amount of growth again last year.
It's great to see all of these impressive statistics. I'm also happy that my home state (Alabama) is doing well. We have a lot of faithful members in Alabama, and it is good to see that the work is growing. My ward (one of 3 wards in Madison, Alabama - located just outside of Huntsville) has consistently had between 10-17 young Missionaries serving full time missions for the past several years. We have a lot of valiant youth, and I firmly belive that we are seeing blessings in Alabama as the result of their service to the Lord.
I met some really cool members in Mobile about 3 years ago. We enjoyed going to church there and the kids enjoyed going to primary and Sunday School. Have any LDS played for the Crimson Tide or Auburn?
Cooper Bateman played for Alabama, and Tua Tagovailoa will be on the the team this fall. Auburn University had Jorrell Bostrom on their team. I am sure that there were others as well.
Saint Martin and Sint Maarten should be combined since there is only one branch for the island. You have the members for the whole island twice with the population split in the French and Dutch halves. Source: Served my mission there.
Saudi Arabia is extremely sensitive. 50 in Guinea Bissau should be enough to start a branch. I hope to see a move into Guinea Bissau, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Senegal soon. With how the Gambia is officially under Sharia Law it might be a hard place to go to. My understanding is these days the Church likes using senior couples as the first missionaries in nee lands. I believe Michael and Maria Moody were yhe first missionaries in Gabon. On sine ways the best senior coyples would be West Africans. There are still totally unreached places in Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast and in Togo and Benin it is mainly just one city reached. Still I think moving to more West African countries would be good and now is the time.
Does it ever get spelled San Martin? I visited there once back around 1984, it's a funny place that is so confined yet speaks two different languages. Do you have sets of missionaries that speak both languages?
I am curious about missionary teaching in Martinique and Guadeloupe. There are so many people there as compared to tge other lesser Antilles; it seems ripe for potential Church growth. Maybe there ought to be a ward per 25,000 people, which would add up to a lot.
Good to hear about those athletes in Alabama. I follow a lot of sports collegiately in Indiana and I am not aware of LDS student-athletes there.
I was encouraged by Bronco Mendenhall moving to Virginia and have thought it could influence more LDS athletes in Charlottesville. Some members fly under the public radar, which is fine, but I like to see members of the Church stand out and leave an impression where they are. That goes for academics and tge arts, or anything positive, too.
Thanks for the feedback.
On a contrasting note, I have seen too many LDS go to colleges where they "tune out" and they become anonymous to the faith and become part of the antiseptic secular world. I see that as lights or candles going dark, dim, or extinguished.
It's an ever constant battle, the social and academic worlds of higher education. Singles, and married couples, have opportunities to forge solid identities as people of valor. Or not.
I am thinking the activities of Mormonleaks if they have any effect in the LDS Church will make it harder for leaders to spend lots of time abroad. I hope they dont but if sensitive communications intended for internal use continue to get exposed one response is to not create the communications in a oermanent reusable form and just have unrecorded meetings which in turn would make it so those who need to know would have to be there.
On the other hand especially what I find annoying about the released videos from last fall is the claims about what is says about who the Church leaderz consult with. Of couse the detractors do not give any credit for heavily consulting with an Asian American. Mormons necer get credit for giving space to people of some minority group the detractors always just complain. However considering how little amont of time was coveted in the recordings and the opaque nature of how they were obtained and how or was chosen to release the ones that weee released making any conclusions from them makes no sense.
I believe our current mission president has a counselor who served under the last one. This man was previously the temple president and was bishop of a ward here in metro-Detroit over 30 years ago when his first wife died. The other counseloris the immediate past president of one of the stakes. Counselors is mission presidencies are generally local brethren and they serve on a church service not full time basis. Sometimes husbands in senior missionary couples are called but this is scouted as much as possible. When the freeze was announced in Ghana Emmauel Abu Kussi was the 1st counselor in the mission presidency.
The Book "David O. McKay and the roots of modern Mormonism" seems to suggest that when David O. McKay became president of the Church most mission presidents served without counselors.
I have to admit I distrust that book in thst it tries to highlight disagreements and differeces of opinion as much as possible. It also seems to rake at face value second hand claims made years afterward about how people felt about the events, giving more credence to orhers claims of his a person felt stated 40 years later than how that person actually said they felt at the time of the event.
I do know that when the British Mission was organized in the 1830s there was not just a president but counselors.
I might have to go back and reread Elder Groberg's book on his tone as mission president to see if it mentions counselors. Although if it fails to do so nothing would be proved.
If It remember right I had a roommate at BYU who on his mission in Russia in about 2000 the mission president did not have counselors. My other roomates and I were surprised by this fact.
My mission president had 3 counselors when I started my mission.
On the other hand the role of the wife of the mission President as head of the relief society was at times in the past more formally entrenched. One of the speeches or in this case a writting in "At the Pulpit" I believe illustrat wss this.
My stake president and my bishop have really been pushing and holding lots of missionary prep events for the youth. I am hoping it translates into many more youth serving.
On the issue of athletics I know for example Ezekiel Ansah a Latter-day Saint plays for the Detroit Lions or at least he used to I am not 100% sure he is still with them abd I know when I was a youth there wad a member who played with the Lions although I dont remember his name. However I am not aware of any LDS players ever playing football for MSU or UofM. It may have happened and I am not aware of it but I dont know. I have to admit I follow football not very much.
Do tou mean Indiana University soecifically or all universities in Indiana. The later would include Manti Teo at the University of Notre Dame. I guess you may have meant Indiana University but I as ted to make it clear that there were LDS athletes in football in the state.
Having gone to both BYU and some state schools in Michigan I understand on a cultural level why so many LDS choose the former. However I think strong LDS are needed at the latter too. I believe people can do much good for the work of the Lord in any setting.
The alcohol/sex culture present at so many colleges and universities is the antithesis to the gospel. However three are those who do not partake, those ago will change when moved upon by the spirit and probably most importantly those who realize the emptiness of it and are seeking for more.
My stake in West Valley City, Utah just held Stake Conference under the direction ood Elder Benjamin De Hoyos. He was very humble and, being from Mexico, wished he could speak in Spanish to deliver his message he felt in his heart. I believe he did, even in English.
In the Leadership Meeting, he spoke about having more Ward Missionaries and more Temple and Family History Consultants. I am wondering now how many each ward or branch have of each of these. There was a wife variety of answers from my stake. How many of each does your ward or branch have?
I think we have ten consultants and about that many ward missionaries for a unit that covers 17 square blocks, three of which are almost all commercial and one has a school.
One of the commercial blocks is getting an about 100-unit apartment building in the next few months, and if it weren't for Nu-Skin, some would have a straight line view of the new temple.
Yeah, I meant all Indiana schools. I did think of Manti Teo at Notre Dame, which was a good sign. Hope there will be more. There's IU, Purdue, Ball State, Indiana St., then private schools like Valparaiso, Butler, Evansville, etc.
Perhaps there are some that I am not tracking but hopefully more will come with time. Although if I am a gifted LDS athlete, BYU or western schools make a lot more sense socially, which is a big part of college. Darell Bevell at Wisconsin was a good example at Wisconsin which Badger fans then will never forget. He served a mission in Cleveland, tead articles about it in local papers. We need more like him. Academically we need more as well. In all fields.
Indicators of greater growth per state, more visible. But as we have seen, most states seem to be growing positively. Some faster than others, obviously.
I forgot IUPUI and Fort Wayne.
Any or all the schools could use more represenation.
I have no sense of who the stake missionaries are in Southfield Ward. I do have a better sense I'm Sterling Heights Ward but not of their number. Southfield Ward has 4 temples and family history consultants I am not sure what the real number is in Sterling Heights Ward.
I am tempted to say that both wards need to evaluate the people in this calling in light of its new nature. One of the people with this calling in one of the wards I am not even sure has ever been to the temple. I know when I had this calling all I was told to do was go to the family history center for a weekly shift. I wish I had been more proactive. I did on one occasion tey to get my ward members to join family search but the elders quorum president was lukewarm about the campaign. At the family history center I spent almost all my time helping those not of our faith. However it is not a strong missionary activity since guidelines siscourage trying to preach the gospel in a clear or concrete way. On one ocxasion the person I was helping was an investigator. A few times members would show up but this was extremely rare except since we were right by the temple back in the days of temple ready we would have people come and try to names processed to go to baptisms sometimes having given themselves way to little time.
Even this ignores the fact that there were large chuncks of tone of no one at the family history center. This is why the stake president has since had the family history centers reduce their hours. At one time there was consideration of closing one and only having the one at the stake center. My mom would often express she wished this had been done. My parents ended practices against the handbook such as having the center open with no LDS staff present or having only one staff member pressent. I think there was a period of time when my Mom would spend 10 hours or more a weak at the center not counting the hour or more round trip to the chapel further than the other center at the stake center by the temple was closer. If the center had actually been heavily used than this amount of time there might have seemed justified. The reality is there were shifts no one showed up to use it.
While there will always be a place and need for family history centers I hope the new system gets more one on one interaction.
In basketball there is Frank Jackson at Duke. He initially said he would go to BYU but then decided he wanted to play somewhere where he would not be the best player on the team. Jackson may be the first Afeican-American Latter-day Saint in NCAA who was raised by an LDS African-American father. His dad was an LDS bishop in a primarily white ward in the DC area possibly the one that includee the DC temple. His dad has also been a state senator on Utah. His mom I'd white however so how African-American Frank Jackson is is hard to say but just as much as Jabari Parker. Jacksons decision not to serve a mission seems to have been a difficult one for him.
At North Carolina at Chapel Hill this season there wad a returned missionary with the last name if Stillman. He had not expected to be able to return to play after his mission at least not at the same school.
If the culture of some colleges in general is opposite to LDS values ghan the culture among some sports teams is even more so. BYU players and breaking the honor code even beckoned an issue altgough weather it is really more common or just gets more attention is hard to say.
On the other extreme is the man who was a tennis player at Idaho State University. He is suing for harrasment, punishment because he intended to go on a mission and so forth. This culminated in an assistant coach hiring prostitues when the team was on a trip in Las Vegas to tempting and embarass him.
It is teue that Idaho in general and Idaho stste in partucular have a kegacy and culture of anti-Mormonism unrivaled elsewhere. This is the state that banned all Mormons voting and had the law upheld by the Supreme Court in 1890. On the other hand this is tennis not as kboen for its players sexual prowess as basketball.
Port-Bouet Ivory Coast stake had 6 wards and branches created back on the 16th. That is half the units in that stake. This propelled it to being one of the 4 largest stakes in the Church by number of units.
DeMarcus Harrison of South Carolina was probably raised by by an African-American father but I am not sure. He played at BYU before transferring back home to Clemson. (Basketball).
Jordan Chatman is now at BC, his dad converted at the Y back in the 1980s. Both these guys pre-date Jackson and grew up outside of Utah.
Michael Hall of San Bernardino certainly has both black parents (I met him but not his folks), but he got baptized in France after BYU.
So depending on how you count it, there are a few African-American fathers of Div. 1 players before Jackson.
It's a good trend to see more LDS players of all ethnic backgrounds ib the Eastern US.
The caveat with Jackson was an LDS African-American father. Jabari Parker's father was not LDS. Nrandon Davies was only raised by a mom.
Harrison probably just proves how out of touch with NCAA basketball I am. While nothing I have read goes explicitly into Derek Harrison's, DeMarcus's dad's LDS connections, his seeming familiarity with LDS mission issues suggests to me he is an LDS member. Harrison is a member who seems to bear no ill will toward BYU for how things happened. BYU would have even let him play a second season its just that since he said he was going on a mission and then it was delayed they already gave up his scholarship for the interim.
On the other hand I cant imagine that Harrison is the only person to jave put in their mission papers and have their stake president decide they needed to wait longer. Although the exact details might be unique, I dont even know them. The fact that Harrison at first didnt want do serve a missiin and then decided to anyway probably means he was pushing the time line tighter than normal. With the mad rush to have people lined up for the next fall the ligistics are always tight. Still I think there might be a better way to build in lee way but with various title IX and NCAA rules leeway in giving scholarships is not that broad.
The fact that Harrison's older brother served a mission and attended BYU tells me there are signs we are making progress. Frank Jackson's older sister went to BYU and met her white husband there.
Chapman grew up in Vancouver, Washington. He served his mission in Taipei Taiwan and then went to BYU. He got a degree at BYU in Asian Studies on2 years. He was accepted to BYU law school but chose to go to Boston College as a graduate transfer. Is he the first NCAA African-American men's basketball player to have served a mission? I think there are some NCAA African-American women's basketball players who served missions.
Oops, evidently it is Chat man with a t. I need to pay closer attention. I am wondering if it is a sign of extreme presentism that Jeff Chatman lacks a Wikipedia article or if he really is not notable enough.
Jordan Chapman went to Boston College because BYU law school said no to him playing basketball while a student. He married his girlfriend who also went to BYU. I have no clear vindication of the race of either Jordan Chapman's mother or wife. In a way I like that. It either is a sign of more African-Americans at BYU than people acknowledge or that interracial marriage is more common than some think. Although if the latter I still wish it was more publicized because tjere are still those who try to make it seem the Church discourages inter-racial marriage. In 2003 Jeff Chatman was a member of the high council of a stake on the Vancouver Wasington area.
New stake in Washington created.
Oak Harbor Washington Stake, covering Whidbey Island, Anacortes, and the San Juan Islands.
His sister Jessica also plays for by on the women's team and she served in my mission (Lansing).
Matt,
The Oak Harbor Washington Stake was created from a division of the Mount Vernon Washington and Everett Stakes. As part of this wards were also realigned in the Marysville, Arlington, and Snohomish Stakes.
Teshie Ghana just got a stake. This is a suburb of Accra with 171,000 people. It os the site of Ghana's main military cadets training program and has an international peacekeepers training program as well. It also is the site of a carpentry workshop closely connected with the rise of elaborate celebrarion boffins among the Ga. The Ga are the ethnic group of Accra but since overall Ghana has more Akan than Ga and also other ethnic groups that have been drawn to Accra as it has becomes a major city as the capital how much of the population in Accra is Ga is hard to say.
Teshie was the cite of a Danish controlled trading fort starting in 1711. It came under British control in 1857.
Wikipedia does not give a good sense of what the driving forces in the economy are. Some have argued Wikipedia should be a gazeteer but at least for places in many African countries it does a horrible job at explaining the contemporary economy.
On the other hand Teshie may be so connected to the overall Metro Chan's economy that a seperate delineation of economic activity may have little meaning.
I assume you meant to say BYU. The Chatman family seems to be present a lot of places. Jeff and Leah Chatman have more children but who knows if any others will make it to being NCAA basketball players.
I just learned that the Salt Lake Pioneer Stake has a Tongan as the 1st counselor in the stake presidency and a Samoan as 2nd counselor. The Samoan man has a Tongan wife. He served a Spanish speaking mission in the San Antonio Texas Mission. I know this because he was my bishop in a YSA ward in Michigan just after my mission. I had nit even realized he now lived in Utah I lost track when he moved away from Michigan.
The other Ensign Wolfgramm I suspected was Tongan even though his name sounds German. It took a bit of searching but at least there was a man by that name who was the nephew of a Tongan man mentioned in Elder Oaks May 2000 CES devotional talk on miracles.
The stake president, President Defa, seems to have had ancestors who shortened the name from a longer Italian one. Hid ancestors seem to have come from Italy probably still Catholic but clearly not LDS and then intermarried with Latter-day Saints. At least there are I'd a Defa family who did this, living in Bingham, Utah and then Duchesne, Utah. Defa is a eare enough name, it appears there were only 3 families with it in the 1920 census, that this is likely to be President Defa's family.
I am pretty sure the puoneer stake includes where President Monson grew up. It is one of the three stakes along with Liberty and Ensign stakes created when Salt Kake City was divided into multiple stakes for the first time in 1903. In 1901 Granite and Jordan Stakes had been formed making it so most or all of Salt Lake County beyongmd the city limits was not in Salt Lake Stake.
Pioneer Stake has 5 English designated wards and a Spanish branch. While I would be a little surprised if the stake Church membership was 67% Polynesian like the stake presidency I would not he at all surprised if it was significantly Polynesian although I have to admit I think of Rose Park and West Valley City as being the center places of Polynesianess. I knew a "Tongan" sister missionary here in the Detroit mission who was born in Salt Lake City and went to West High School. I am pretty sure I remember that she was from Rose Park.
Oak Harbor Washington Stake (2087057) Created April 23 2017
Eastsound Branch (1549774)
Friday Harbor Branch (26638)
Lopez Branch (1819976)
Anacortes Ward (24147)
Mount Erie Ward (2035499)
Mount Vernon YSA Ward (367915)
Oak Harbor 1st Ward (28363)
Oak Harbor 2nd Ward (110981)
Penn Cove Ward (259462)
South Whidbey Island Ward (110973)
Ten units. Does anyone here think they are planninf on making any of the branches wards like we see overseas, or is this really a number of smaller branches in smaller areas?
Wolfgramm is a common last name in Tonga. I don't know the full history, but it's from a common ancestor of German descent. Two years ago, I lived in the Tongan neighborhood just south of Rose Park in SLC.
My cousin could probably give you more information on the Wolfgramm heritage. She just did her doctoral thesis on the German diaspora in Tonga.
And Providences and territories in Canada .
The three branches in the new Oak Harbor Washington Stake are all located in the San Juan Islands. I visited the Friday Harbor Branch in 2007. During Sacrament Meeting, groups from the other islands called in, then held their own Sunday School and auxiliary meetings. I was pleased when Eastsound and Lopez became their own branches in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Membership seemed too small to qualify for a ward, but that was 10 years ago.
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