Bolivia
The Church organized two new stakes in Bolivia on November 12th in the city of Cochabamba.
The Cochabamba Bolivia Aeropuerto Stake was organized from the Cochabamba Bolivia Cobija Stake (renamed the Cochabamba Bolivia Sarco Stake) and the Cochabamba Bolivia Jaihuayco Stake (renamed the Cochabamba Bolivia Alalay Stake). The new stake includes the following five wards: the Cobija, Jaihuayco, La Chimba, Lindo, and Villa México Wards.
The Cochabamba Bolivia Blanco Galindo Stake was organized from the Cochabamba Bolivia Quillacollo Stake (renamed the Cochabamba Bolivia Los Alamos Stake) and the Cochabamba Bolivia Cobija Stake (renamed the Cochabamba Bolivia Sarco Stake). The new stake includes the following five wards: the Colcapirhua, Ingavi, Jardin, La Floresta, and Los Alamos Wards.
There are now seven stakes in Cochabamba, and 32 stakes and eight districts in Bolivia.
Tonga
The Church organized two new stakes in Tonga.
The Nuku'alofa Tonga Capital Stake was organized on November 19th from a division of the Nuku'alofa Tonga Harbour Stake and the Nuku'alofa Tonga North Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Kolomotu'a, Longolongo, Nuku'alofa 5th, Nuku'alofa 7th, and Nuku'alofa 14th Wards.
The Neiafu Vava'u Tonga Central Stake was organized on November 26th from a division of the Neiafu Vava'u Tonga Stake, Neiafu Vava'u Tonga North Stake, and the Neiafu Vava'u Tonga West Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards and one branch: the Feletoa, Leimatu'a 1st, Leimatu'a 2nd, Mataika, Neiafu 3rd, and Neiafu 5th Wards, and the Houma Branch.
There are now 21 stakes and two districts in Tonga.
Brazil
The Church organized a new stake in Parana State, Brazil on November 26th. The Foz do Iguaçu Brazil Stake was organized from a division of the Cascavel Brazil Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Cataratas, Foz do Iguaçu, Itaipu, Portal de Foz, and Porto Meira Wards, and the Medianeira Branch.
There are now 21 stakes and two districts in Parana State. There are now 268 stakes and 40 districts in Brazil.
Costa Rica
The Church organized its eighth stake in the San Jose metropolitan area on November 19th. The Heredia Costa Rica Belén Stake was organized from a division of the Alajuela Costa Rica Stake and the Heredia Costa Rica Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Belén, El Tejar, Flores, La Ribera, and Ojo de Agua Wards, and the Santa Barbara Branch.
There are now 10 stakes and two districts in Costa Rica.
Cote d'Ivoire
The Church organized a new stake in Abidjan on December 3rd. The Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Niangon Centre Stake was organized from a division of the Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Niangon North Stake and the Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire Niangon South Stake. It is unclear what wards are assigned to the new stake. There were 25 wards in the two original stakes prior to the creation of the new stake. The Church has experienced rapid growth in the Yopougon sector of Abidjan as new stakes have been organized in this area of the city in 1997, 2010, 2014, and 2015. Furthermore, the 20th anniversary of the creation of the first stake in Abidjan was recently held.
There are now 12 stakes in the Abidjan metropolitan area. There are more stakes in the Abidjan metropolitan area than in any other metropolitan area on the continental landmass of Africa, Asia, and Europe.
El Salvador
A new stake was created in western El Salvador on November 19th. The Ahuachapán El Salvador El Espino Stake was organized from a division of the Ahuachapán El Salvador Stake and the Atiquizaya El Salvador Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Campestre, El Arco, El Espino, Las Brisas, Las Rosas, and Suncuan Wards.
There are now 21 stakes in El Salvador.
Nevada
The Church organized a new stake in Las Vegas on December 3rd. The Las Vegas Nevada Desert Foothills Stake was organized from a division of the Las Vegas Nevada Meadows Stake and the Las Vegas Nevada Redrock Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Amber Hills, Carl, Cimarron, Hillpointe, Paseos, and Pueblo Wards.
There are now 27 stakes in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. There are now 42 stakes in Nevada.
Paraguay
The Church organized a new stake in Paraguay on November 19th. The Limpio Paraguay Stake was organized from the Mariano Roque Alonso Paraguay District and the Luque Paraguay Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards and four branches: the Huguito, Juan de Salazar, Limpio, Mariano Roque Alonso, Piquete Cue, and Salado Wards, and the Benjamin Aceval, Emboscada, Remansito, and Villa Hayes Branches.
There are now 11 stakes and nine districts in Paraguay.
Sierra Leone
The Church organized a new stake in Freetown on December 3rd. The Freetown Sierra Leone East Stake was created from a division of the Freetown Sierra Leone Stake, marking the first time the Church in Sierra Leone has organized a new stake from the division of a previously operating stake. Organized as the Church's 3,000th stake and the first stake in Sierra Leone back in December 2012, the Freetown Sierra Leone Stake had 11 wards and three branches prior to the division of the stake. Information on which congregations are assigned to the new stake remains unavailable. Never has the Church ever grown in a country from one stake to five stakes as quickly as in Sierra Leone. Four of the five stakes in the country were organized in 2017. Additional new stakes in Sierra Leone appear likely to be organized in the new future based upon missionary reports.
There are now five stakes and four districts in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Freetown Mission appears highly likely to divide in the immediate future to create a second mission in the country with headquarters likely in Bo. Also, there has been a net increase of 335 stakes worldwide within the past five years since the creation of the original Freetown Sierra Leone Stake.
Colorado
The Church recently discontinued the Golden Colorado Stake. With only four wards, the stake was combined with the former Lakewood Colorado Stake (renamed the Front Range Colorado Stake). The Church has discontinued multiple wards within the Golden, Colorado area over the past 15 years primarily due to members moving away from the area. Furthermore, the Golden Colorado Stake was recently reduced in size with the reassignment of the Buena Vista Branch to the Alamosa Colorado Stake, the Granby Branch to the newly created Craig Colorado Stake, and the Frisco Ward and Vail Ward to the Rifle Colorado Stake. This marks the first time in LDS history that a stake has ever been discontinued in Colorado. It appears likely that one more stake may be discontinued in the Denver area within the foreseeable future due to members moving away from older areas of the city.
There are now 35 stakes in Colorado.
10 comments:
What do you think about another temple in Tonga, maybe on a different island?
The Pacific Area hasn't seen a new temple dedicated since the Brisbane Australia Temple in 2003 (though several have been expanded and one rebuilt since then). Given the steady membership growth that has occurred over the past decade, we could certainly see new temples announced for the Pacific. The temple serving the largest number of stakes is the Hamilton New Zealand Temple. It is nearly 60 years old and has never been rededicated. Surely we will see a renovation announced for Hamilton and hopefully a new temple constructed in New Zealand.
Growth has been considerable on the Tongan and Samoan islands, too. Having to travel from one island to another to attend the temple presents a bit of a barrier (at the least) for any temple-goer. So, it makes sense that we would eventually see temples constructed on other islands in these chains. The number of sessions being held in Nuku'alofa and Apia is strong.
There are other island nations in the Pacific that would be greatly blessed by having their first temples as well.
I would hope for a temple in other Pacific Islands before a second temple in the Kingdom of Tonga, but why not have both? Vanuatu, maybe Kiribati, Marshall Islands or Solomon Islands. Of course Papua New Guinea...
I hope for Kiribati and Papua New Guinea, Tonga#2, Samoa#2, and New Zealand#2
I am glad to see the discussions of potential temple locations continue in various places. For any who may be interested, I have continued my series of posts in which I discuss future temple prospects on my blog. Since I am approaching those posts by area in alphabetical order, I have a few more areas to cover before I will be ready to post thoughts about future temples in the Pacific Area. But as a brief teaser, I will mention here that I have 4 temples on my list for the new future within the Pacific area, and I can also say that locations discussed here may or may not be on that list. But until I get to that area and discuss those possibilities, I look forward to seeing what other people say about such prospects.
Additionally, I just looked it up, and with the two districts in Bo that were upgraded to stakes last month, the new stake in Freetown, and the fact that the Kissy District was upgraded to a stake 6 months ago, that strengthens my belief that a temple will be announced for Freetown Sierra Leone in the near future. The only obstacle I see to that happening might be the recent mudslides in the region. But since covering Sierra Leone on my post about that area, enough has happened to make a solid case for a temple there.
There are also reasons why I feel additional temples could (and likely will) be announced in Bolivia, Brazil, the Ivory Coast, and Nevada. I have covered Brazil and the Ivory Coast as fully as I can for the moment, and will cover Nevada within the post I will do for the North America Southwest Area, and Bolivia when I put together my thoughts about the South America Northwest Area.
I don't want to interrupt the flow of this comment thread, so I will simply end with a link to my blog for any that may want to read the posts I have done so far or contribute to future discussions of temples in areas I have not yet covered. My thanks to Matt for posting the news about these new stakes and for allowing me to post links to my blog, and to you all for the wonderful discussions we have here.
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
Awesome for Bolivia and Sierra Leone. My friend served in Bolivia and his son just left to serve in Sierra Leone. Amazing growth news around the world.
I love seeing the growth throughout Latin America. If we were to create rings of growth, the base would be the Intermountain West, second would be the outer parts of the US and Canada, and Northern Mexico, 3rd would be Europe and Latin America, Polynesia and Australia, 4th would be East Asia, 5th would be sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Middle East, and 6th would be the sub-continent and southeast Asia, and the rest of the Muslim lands. Actually maybe China and the lands of Islam could be considered the seventh and final ring. Whatever the case, my point is that to me, the "3rd ring" of the Church is vital to growth everywhere. Also, I have faith that there are Book of Mormon peoples of Manassah, Ephraim, Judah, and Benjamin throughout the width and breadth of the Western Hemisphere, people of the covenant to be found and restored.
Great to see.
I do believe the blood of Israel is throughout the world. I have been intrigued by this site: http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~remnant/isracame.htm for some time now and even recommended to BYU professors in a temple studies group that it would be an interesting project for say a returned missionary from Japan to look into and evaluate the claims made on that site. I am intrigued by the Shinto shrines layouts being similar to that of the temple of Solomon, some ancient Japanese sounding like Hebrew, some ritual practices appearing similar, and the patriarchs of the old testament aligning with Japanese deities.
I would think somebody trained in the requisite scholarship could evaluate these claims.
Both from a doctrinal and genetic stand point virtually everyone is a descendant of Abraham. There are at least possibke suggestions for Chinese journeys to America, African jorneys to the Caribean and Phoenician journeys to North Ameeica before Columbus. Considering the kevel of skepticism given in some circles to Grouard, a cowboy whose father at one point was a Latter-day Saint, having had a Polynesian mother, some claiming this was an attempt to obscure African ancestry when in fact Brother Grouard going on a mission with Addison Pratt and marrying a local woman is very well documented. My general impression is that peoole in the past interacted more than we realize. Our records of post Columbian navigations are less than complete and yet so vast few comprehend their full extent, yet we assume at times our records before Columbus. The spread of populations through Asia is known although the exact details are at times fuzzy.
In the 1800s if not the 1700s, there were Chinese immigrants found in Chile, but like the Japanese in Sao Paolo and even northwestern Parana state in Brazil, those can be accounted for easily, it is the precolumbian era and before that we have no records of, but there may be other anecdotal evidence for that to have happened from Asia.
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