Monday, December 17, 2018
Updated Country Profile - Slovakia
Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Slovakia. Slovakia has one of the lowest percentages of Latter-day Saints of any European nation as there is one member per approximately 20,000 people. There are fewer than one hundred active members in the country despite a continuous Church presence since 1993. Strong Slovak ethnoreligious ties to Catholicism, delays in translating Church materials into the Slovak language, minimal mission outreach extended to Slovakia over the past two decades from the Czech/Slovak Mission, and the lack of a Slovakian Latter-day Saint community appear responsible for this lack of growth.
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the Stake listed here as 2018 #54 "Pachuca México Heroes" was changed to "México City Los Heroes Tecamac" stake on Classic LDS Maps site :
https://classic.lds.org/maps/#ll=19.625684,-99.013557&z=13&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&q=Mexico%20City%20Los%20Heroes%Tecamac%20Stake&find=stake:2123762
Thank you.
December 10, 2018 at 5:49 PM
So we had Stake Conference last week here in the Midwest and we had a visiting general authority. He met with the seminary teachers, the high council, the ward councils of the stake and then had the normal adult and general sessions. I learned a bit more from him about what is going on at Church HQ. He spoke of a few things.
First the revelation keeps flowing to President Nelson so I am thinking changes will keep coming deep into the new decade. I knew from Elder Anderson's visit last year that they had already lined up changes to be phased in for the next 3 years, but it appears additional changes are coming on top of what was already planned.
The GA said every President of the church has a gift the Lord really magnifies and it appears that Pres Nelson's gift is that of revelation. It comes abundantly and easily much like in the early days of the restoration with Joseph when the church was being formed. He shared a story that two weeks ago Pres Oaks and Pres Eyring walked out of the First Presidency meeting and looked at each other and Pres Oaks said to Pres Eyring "There he goes again and it just isn't stopping".(referencing the constant revelation Pres Nelson receives in that meeting) Another story he shared was between Elder Bednar and Pres Oaks commenting on how fast things are moving and at times it feels like a runaway train.
It is really amazing the day we live in church history. I am just not even going to get settled in because I know more change is coming before April's Conference. The general authority alluded to that in his comments.
It was a great conference and glad to hear that even the Apostles are surprised by how fast things are moving. I guess we are starting to see what the Lord means by "hastening the work"
Like John Pack Lambert,we saw the video for the area plan of the NA Northeast Area. It has been done in many other areas of the world for several years but I never saw it be done for North America areas. I am glad it was done.
Just a little detail I got from my Stake President on this. 97% of the stake presidents in the Northeast Area had 2 of the 3 focuses as their concerns that were in the plan.
The plan was built from the bishops up. He said he was asked to email the bishops in August and ask what keeps them up at night. They replied and it was forwarded on to the Area Seventy so this plan is built from the bottom up.
Another item is there will be a special fast in January concerning missionary work throughout the NA Northeast Area. Plus we are invited to be extra generous with our fast offerings in January. This is a five year plan, unless of course, something needs to change.
I am not finding on LDS.org yet but I do find other Area plans on there.
Found hte Pacific Area Plan and it has similar goals from this year for next, just tweaked a little probably. There are videos but the intro video is not up yet.
North America Northwest had one briefly, as Google had spidered it. But the page is gone so I don't know what it had save for a first line which referenced what happened this year as a springboard for what they may have had on that page. Found no others.
The Oakland California Temple is set for rededication on June 16, 2019.
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/public-invited-tour-newly-renovated-oakland-california-temple
Here is Africa Southeast plan
https://africasoutheast.lds.org/area-plan
Here is Idaho/N. America Central plan
http://southstaketheme.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IdahoNorthAmericaCentralAreaPlan-2019.pdf
Pacific Area plan
https://pacific.lds.org/2019areaplan
Caribbean Plan has been updated. This is the 2018 plan
https://caribbean.lds.org/materials-to-the-2018-area-plan
Asia North plan
https://www.ldschurch.jp/asia-north-area-plan
Europe Area Plan
https://www.lds.org.uk/areaplan
Here is the Central America Plan
https://www.sudca.org/plandearea/es
It looks like the other areas aren't available right now.
In those that are available, I see a definite focus on the four purposes of the Church as described in Handbook 2, 3.4, although a few specifically also include the sabbath day emphasis that is still ongoing. They may word things differently but it is fairly clear what is going on.
"Spidered it". And that means... ?
That is an old expression that means Google indexed the page, a little of that indexing shows with each result on Google. Most other search engines are similar
What does "indexing" mean? Indexing a page on the web? Like Church members do indexing? I don't work in circles that talk like that. Thanks for explaining.
The search engine 'reads' the page, then when you search for something it pulls up pages that match your search if the page has thosewords in it.
México City Culhuacan Stake renamed México City Villa Coapa Stake. 2018-12-**
MéXICO CITY IZTAPALAPA renamed MéXICO CITY TLAHUAC
MéXICO CITY TEPALCAPA renamed MéXICO CITY BOSQUES
Texcoco México District (2123347) reported 2018-12-19 : http://www.fullerconsideration.com/units.php ...
https://classic.lds.org/maps/#ll=19.510998,-98.839831&z=11&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&q=Texcoco%20M%C3%A9xico%20District&find=stake:2123347
Great report, as always, Matt. Thank you. I also appreciate the increased reports of President Nelson's revelatory process. We may be entering another season full of "days never to be forgotten". It makes sense that future changes are being lined up well in advance. It gives the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve time to consider everything that will be involved in such changes, how that might impact the day-to-day lives of Church members everywhere, and the best and most effective ways to implement what is coming down the pike.
We have also seen in President Nelson a spirit of true communion with the Lord. I remember in the wording of the statement on the name of the Church that he said the Lord "impressed upon [his] mind" the importance of using the correct name of the Church. We have also seen him extend unprecedented invitations to those on both sides of the veil to see what the gospel can offer them. He reportedly moves, thinks, and acts with the mind and energy of one who is in his mid-60s or mid-70s rather than as a typical 94 year-old man.
But I have noticed another common theme: Pretty much everything that President Nelson has done is with a goal of reducing and simplifying the work of the Church, its' leaders, and its' members. Think of the way the responsibility for directing the work of the Church in the US and Canada was transferred from the Presidency of the Seventy to 3-man presidencies, which enables that Presidency to focus more on assisting the apostles with the work of the Church, or the way the ministering program and consolidation of Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums has served to simplify that work.
And more responsibility for our own gospel learning was transferred to individuals and families during this last General Conference, when a 2-hour block was announced. The work of bishops will be simplified through having all young men ordained to the next Aaronic Priesthood office as groups in January when they turn 12, 14, or 16. We have a big opportunity as a Church and as individual members and families to change what has been a traditional view of our Sabbath Day worship. If what I have heard is any indication, not only is there more yet to come, but the best things for the Church and individual members and families will continue to be implemented. It is wonderful to think about.
That said, for any who may be interested, I have covered many more topics in recent weeks on my blog. Among the recently-posted content are my long-promised predictions for the April 2019 (for which I will be accepting feedback until the week of General Conference), a two-part update on the latest age and tenure milestones for our apostles, and some breaking Church news and temple developments. With my thanks to Matt as well for continuing to allow me to do so, and with my apologies if anyone is bothered thereby, I would like to again share the address of my blog for any who would like to comment on that latest content. The address follows below. My thanks again to Matt and to all of you.
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
Did anyone see the First Presidency announcement earlier today regarding Sister Missionary dress standards?
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2018-12-20/sister-missionaries-now-have-the-option-to-wear-dress-pants-48657
My parents Rigby East Stake in Rigby, Idaho will be splitting in September. They are currently building a new stake center down the street from their house. Their ward is so full there is barely room to contain everyone.
I have to admit I am old school enough that I do not like the change in sister missionary attire 100%. It should be noted dress slacks does not apply to Church meetings, missionary meetings (zone conference etc) and the like. I guess after having taught at a school where all the female students were required to wear skirts, I have nostalgia for that.
I also remember when I was on my mission elders had to wear suits all the time much of the time.
I understand these changes, I just have nostalgia. I understand the issues with extreme cold, and that bike riding is easier. Most areas I have known sisters rarely if ever ride bikes though. That may change, and probably has some with many more sister missionaries.
Still, dress slacks are not required, just an option. Also, this only applies to some missions. Some other missions women wearing slacks would not be acceptable. There ankle-length skirts/dresses are acceptable. This from my knowledge was long allowed in some areas especially ones where sisters at times would have to sit on the floor. Although I had a friend who served in Guatemala and the sister missionaries in his mission had to plead for this accomadation to better preserve modesty.
This is also not as big a change as some will make it out to be. It was at the height of the Zika fear that the church first allowed some sister missionaries in some areas to wear slacks during the wet season. While this new policy applies to most missions (how many it does not is not clear) all year round, it is a change. The church is also providing funds for all sister missionaries entering the MTC before March 2019 to purchase 4 pairs of slacks or ankle length dresses.
I am not aware of such previsions for past changes, but since this change is for many locations adding to protection from disease causing vectors, such a change makes sense.
As far as I can tell the general guidelines on dress and grooming have only been changed by this accomadation. Despite how some will react, this is overall a much smaller revision that the one a few years ago that removed suit requirements outside of meetings and encouraged especially for sister missionaries a much more vibrant look.
Most of the comments on the change in the Church News article come from Sister Cordon, Young Women General President and a member of the General Missionary Committee. This makes sense since as the only, or at least the most high ranking female on that committee she would have the most authenticity in speaking to female concerns.
Sister Cordon also presided over the Brazil Curitibia Mission with her husband from 2010 to 2013. She is the only Young Women General President to lack an article in Wikipedia, but with how many of my articles on church leaders have been deleted, I am hesitant to start one on her. I will at least make sure I have enough sourcing to create a strong article. That may prove hard.
The classic example of why this is so hard is that when the New York Times wrote its broad ranging and often not focused article on Latter-day Saint women, which in many ways was a key example of Kellerism, the controlling doctrine of the New York Times that there are clear good and bad people in the social-cultural debate, and that organized religions such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church are bad and dissibents against these Churches should always be treated as heroic strugglers for good, especially if they are women, there was a long interview with Sister Burton, Relief Society General President, involved in the creation of the article but she was barely mentioned in passing in the final product and her insights and statements were almost completely ignored.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stakes_of_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints
has been marked for Deletion since 12/20/2018.
Any opinions?
This page may provide some assistance at Wikipedia, has live help, may or may not provide other needed contact information there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IRC_help_disclaimer
Wikipedia editors stink and are likely biggotted, at minimum biased. No money from me!
NY Times probably has some agents of Satan working for them. Journalists are a mixed lot, like all of us.
John Pack Lambert, where did you get the impression that this change in dress standards for sisters only applies to some missions? The exact wording of the announcement notes that that is an option for "all 407 missions" in the Church. That said, in some cases, it may not be practical due to local customs, which I can understand. As far as being nostalgic, there is nothing wrong with that at all, but I think all of us would be well served to be adaptable to the idea of change. Dresses are, of course, still required for sister missionaries in the temple and at Church, but for everyday wear, I can see why dress slacks would be a good idea for most areas of the Church.
I also understand the ongoing frustration expressed here with Wikipedia articles about the Church being consistently nominated for deletion. It is a pity that more people cannot recognize the merits in articles about the Church, since the Church still ranks as one of the largest Christian denominations in the world. I unfortunately have not felt up to getting back to Wikipedia since my return home from the hospital on November 28. But I do think it is not fair to brand all who edit there as "bigoted, biased agents of Satan."
The problem is that there are just not enough of us who care enough to work to fix the problems that have led to the recent mass deletions. And unfortunately, unless more people are willing to make the effort to work on the problem, there is only so much that those of us who are trying to keep these articles can do. It's true there are some who may have an ax to grind against the Church because of bigotry or anti-Church bias, but there are some who are careful to weigh policies against the quality of the articles in question. I will hopefully be able to get on Wikipedia again within the next week or so and I will see what I can do further.
In the meantime, it is all well and good for those who are not involved in editing Wikipedia to vent about the issue of such articles being deleted (which I understand to a certain extent), but only those who have been involved in the discussions about such deletions are aware of what is happening. The crux of the problem is that those of us who could act to preserve such articles keep getting redirected to a different place to try and resolve the issue. I was directed to as many as 7 different pages in my efforts to resolve all of this, and each time, I was redirected elsewhere. There is one particular editor who has reached out to me repeatedly with his suggestions about what else I could try in my efforts to resolve this, but since I haven't been able to check in there for more than a month, I don't know whether or not he has any new recommendations. I hope that my mentioning all of this doesn't offend anyone, but it's not really fair to characterize all Wikipedia editors as bigoted, biased, or agents of Satan.
That said, there has been much more Church news and temple developments reported in recent days, and when I have not done new posts about them, I have detailed them in the comments of previous posts. For any who are interested, the address of my blog again follows below. My thanks again to Matt for allowing our conversations here to be so wide-ranging, and for graciously continuing to allow me to share such things here, and to all of you for the insights you continue to share.
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
No, the Wiki editors appear to be prejudiced/bigotted or biased against the knowledge or members of Church of Jesus Christ.
The writers of NY Times seems to have some diabolical ones, like the rest of the world. Big distinction. Hopefully no Wiki editors work for the adversary, but then again, you suggested it. You may be right!
This is the exact statement that tells me not all sisters are in areas where wearing dress slacks is an option "In areas where for cultural reasons it is not acceptable for women (including sister missionaries) to wear dress slacks, sister missionaries may choose to wear ankle-length skirts for additional protection from extreme weather and vector-borne diseases such as Zika, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and malaria, according to the letter."
Yet an incoherent list that seeks to list every Church in Sweden (but seems to mainly only include Lutheran ones) is deemed notable enough to keep on Wikipedia.
I just learned there are more missions in Africa than in Asia. Considering that Africa has 1.2 billion inhabitants while Asia has well over 3 maybe 4 billion, this at first glance seems odd. Even at this Africa has far fewer missions per capita than the US. However considering that most of China is not under any mission, and Indonesia has one while India has 2, shared also with several populous neighboring countries, this is not too surprising.
Still the fact of the matter is Nigeria has 7 missions. If it had the missions per capita at the level of Mexico or Brazil there would be about 30 missions in Nigeria.
There is 1 more mission just in the country of Brazil than in all of Africa.
Considering that the Russia Novosibirsk Mission is essentially all in Asia, there are the same number of missions in Europe and Africa. This is counting the Cape Verde mission in Africa but most people consider Cape Verde in Africa.
On another note I have been told that here in the Michigan Detroit Mission they are anticipating a reduction of the number of missionaries so there will only be one companionship per unit in the next few months.
What else would Cape Verde be?
So I've been seeing some news from my friends that a new mission will be created in the Philippines this July 2019. It came from one of the current/past mission president, not sure where. It is said to be Philippines Antipolo Mission. Created from Quezon City, Quezon City North, and San Pablo Missions. This will cover the eastern side of Metro Manila. The Philippines Cavite Mission will see its boundary change which will now include certain areas of San Pablo, QC and QC North mission. If confirmed, this is some exciting mission reorganization happening. This might boil down as well to some district being upgraded to stake these past few months, not to mention some stakes that may split in the future.
Cabo Verde could be considered part of the Europe West Area, similar to the islands of Spain, the Canaries.
Cabo Verdeans speak a Portuguese Krio language, and the islands used to be covered by the Portugal Porto Mission, I think. My brother-in-law Chris served in the Portugal mission that covered Cape Verde (English spelling). Maybe it was Lisbon South? It was the mission that went all the way to the southwest most corner of Europe in the 1990s. The pidgin Portuguese there is like a different language than traditional standard Portuguese.
So the islands could be considered "non-African", depending on those who administrate.
There are quite a few Asian nations with little or no members. Brunei is pretty sparse. Central Asia is largely untouched, and Bhutan probably has next to nothing. Sone would-be break aways of India have little Church presence, like Bihar or Nagaland or others. Many islands of Indonesia have no Church of Jesus Christ missionaries or members. Vietnam is largely untouched, and south east Asia is still largely untouched. Example: we have Cambodian members in my Virginia ward with family two hours from any organized branch in Cambodia ( maybe Phnom Penh?) and would like to join.
Cape Verde is part of the Europe area, largely because ties to Portugal are stronger than to adjacent countries of the African mainland, such as Mauritania and Senegal. Or to the countries in the Africa West Area that have larger numbers of members.
In terms of Asia: We have a Sister Missionary from our ward here in Germany who is currently serving in Kazakhstan. She seems to be seeing quite a bit of success there. That said, it's just difficult to grow the Church much more if you're only allowed to have two operating branches, really. As a result, my understanding is that they are actually quite big, with sometimes over 100 people attending Church in Almaty. Astana is apparently a bit smaller but solid branch size anyhow.
Geographically, Cape Verde is part of Africa. The country is also part of the African Union. That is why it is considered part of Africa, despite the more closer historical ties to Portugal.
The fact The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no presence in Nagaland is a bit surprising considering Nagaland is about 98% Christian. The same is true of Manipur. Mizoram is majority Hindu, but most of its sub-sections are majority Christian, just the majority Hindu area has more people. I may have confused Maniput and Mizoram. The Church does not have a branch in India east of Kolkatta, even though the seven states of India east of Bangladesh all have noticeable Christian populations.
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