Last Sunday, the Church organized its third stake in the city of Bo in Sierra Leone. The Bo Sierra Leone East Stake was created from the Bo Sierra Leone East District. Local members report that the new stake includes the following seven wards and three branches: the Barracks, Kendeyella, Lewabu, Messima, Sewa Road Wards, Sheriff Town, and Torkpoi Town Wards, and the Mendewa, New England, and Pujehun Branches. It is unclear whether other stakes in Bo were involved in the creation of the new stake. However, none of the units included in the new stake were previously listed as part of the other two Bo stakes prior to the new stake creation. The district had six branches prior to advancing into a stake, suggesting that four new units were organized when the stake was created - an unusual occurrence as new units are typically not created during new stake creations, but shortly before or after new stakes are organized. The original Bo Sierra Leone East District was created in 2014 from a division of the Bo Sierra Leone District. Prior to that time, only one district functioned in Bo (organized in 1991) that also serviced branches in Kenema between 2003 and 2012. A third district in Bo, the Bo Sierra Leone North District, was organized in November 2016. The first branch of the Church in Bo was created in 1990.
No other city in the world, where no stakes previously operated, has ever had so many new stakes organized in so short of a period of time as Bo.* The Church in Bo organized its first three stakes within an approximately 22-month period. The percentage of members of the Church in the population is estimated at 3.5% given the number of congregations in the city before the Bo Sierra Leone East Stake was organized (20) multiplied by the average number of members per ward or branch in Sierra Leone as of year-end 2018 (308) and the city's population in 2015 of approximately 175,000. Bo is also unique as it is likely the city with the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the population of any city with 100,000 or more people on the Afro-Eurasian landmass. Even more interesting, Sierra Leone is also the country with the highest percentage of members in the general population among continental African countries, and is the country in Africa with the smallest percentage of Christians in the population with at least one mission headquartered within the country. Lastly, Bo is also unique in that many, if not most, members speak Mende as their first language. In fact, eight of the 20 congregations in Bo are designated as Mende-speaking on the Church's meetinghouse locator website, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/meetinghouses. However, the Church has no materials or scriptures translated into Mende aside from the 13 Articles of Faith per the Church's official website for ordering materials, https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/. There are 17 meetinghouses in Bo that provide high-penetrating outreach and access to the Church in the city. This level of outreach has also appeared instrumental in the Church's dynamic growth in Bo, as well as the creation of the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission in 2007. However, most importantly, local member involvement in missionary activity and leadership development advancements in the past decade appear most important for the impressive recent growth trends noted in Bo.
It is speculated that Bo is the most likely location for a future temple for Sierra Leone given its relatively central location in the country, more pleasant social and urban characteristics than Freetown (based on missionary reports), and strength in local membership. The creation of additional stakes in Bo may be within the foreseeable future, particularly if the two original Bo stakes were not divided in the creation of the Bo Sierra Leone East Stake. Also, Bo appears highly likely to be the location of the Church's second mission in Sierra Leone once this mission is organized given growth in the area and the expansion of the Church into many additional cities and towns within the past five years.
There are now six stakes and three districts in Sierra Leone.
*The Church in Monrovia, Liberia has experienced similar growth, with the number of stakes increasing from zero to four in a 13-month period from late 2016 to late 2017. However, the Church in Monrovia once operated a stake from 2000 to 2007, but the original stake was discontinued and reverted to district status until reinstated in 2017. Thus, the Church in Monrovia technically took 17 years to grow from zero stakes to four stakes.
51 comments:
Thank you for this report, Matt. Great to hear of the growth in Bo. Based on the report you mentioned from those missionaries, I wouldn't be surprised if the first Sierra Leonean temple was built in Bo, so I have added that to my list as an either/or with Freetown. But that would follow the trend we have seen recently in Yigo Guam of the temple not being built in the capital city. Based on this report, I am more convinced than ever than a Sierra Leonean temple will be one of the very next prospects announced for the Africa WEst Area (if not the very next). Wonderful report. THanks again.
Good report, Matt.
One nitpicky comment:
Where you wrote, "However, the Church has no materials or scriptures translated into 'Bo' aside from the 13 Articles of Faith," I believe you meant, "However, the Church has no materials or scriptures translated into 'Mende' aside from the 13 Articles of Faith."
Sierra Leone is growing at a wonderful rate. Awesome. We have a young elder from my ward serving there. I believe he is coming home in a couple of months.
Thanks for pointing out the typo! Corrected.
Interesting comment: "more pleasant social and urban characteristics than Freetown."
Looking at the meetinghouse locator, there appears to be three church-built meetinghouses now, one for each stake. When I looked about a year ago, I recall only seeing one. The meetinghouse located in the east stake appears to be built within the last few months: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Church+of+Jesus+Christ+of+Latter-day+Saints/@7.9471666,-11.7085147,559m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0xf06155e89fe51e5:0xb8445e7a7b2cd223!8m2!3d7.9468958!4d-11.7072871?hl=en
There is a large open plot of land to the west of this meetinghouse. If it is owned by the church, it could be the site for a future temple.
That's great to hear!!!
A member in Peru said that a new stake will be created in Chiclayo in two weeks.
@Matt
No problem, man. :D
Theories/Predictions on the "other announcements" that will be given at conference?
Matt, are you saying that no city, including cities in early days of the Church (Nauvoo, Salt Lake City) had this kind of growth? Amazing and wonderful to witness!
We have Mexico City (1975) and Lima (1988) both had 15+ sakes organized in a day, but for anything since the early days of the Church there are very few cases of rapid unit growth similar to this.
In keeping in line with using the whole name of the church and dropping LDS. What are some ideas for changing the the name of LDS Business College? Deseret Business College? Latter-day Saint College? BYU Salt Lake?(but there already is a BYU Salt Lake Center associated with the Provo Campus). BYU technical College?
@L. Chris Jones...The College Formerly Known as LDS Business College. That sounds good to me.
Maybe Scooter means two Sundays from now, the 29th of September.
Butterfly and Bones, Matt and many of the rest of us discussed our thoughts in that respect in the following earlier post and the associated comment thread:
http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2019/08/new-temples-and-other-announcements-in.html
Enjoy!
We really need to get the Book of Mormon in Mende. Hopefully that will be done soon.
I would not be shocked if both Bo and Freetown have temples announced next month. Overjoyed and a little surprised but not shocked.
I also hope a Bo Sierra Leone Mission is created 8n 2020. Training missionaries in Mende at the Accra MTC would also be a wise move.
On another note the Guatemala MTC is being closed. I am wondering if it would be a good location for a 2nd GC Temple. On the other hand I have a super crazy hope it is made a BYU-Guatemala City.
I think BYU technical college or something along those lines would be good for LDS Business College.
To be fair Salt Lake City did not have multiple stakes until 1904. It went from 1 to 4 at once however. This was actually the point where it was decided not to keep stakes like dioceses, almost never splitting in a city, and instead seeking to make them have relatively the same number of active members. Although it would be decades before equalization was achieved. Bryant S.Hinckley in the 1920s presided over a stake in Salt Lake City with 22,000 members when some rural Utah stakes had lower membership than would be allowed today.
Earlier in Church history they probably would have gone to a stake in Bo instead of 3 districts.
The key is Bo has this much growth from no stakes. Mexico City got its first stake in 1961 and Lima by 1972 if not the late 1960s. Didn't President M. Russell Ballard preside over the 1988 event in Lima?
When President Nelson was born there were 0 church units in all of South America.
@John Pack Lambert
Isn't the Guatemala MTC adjacent to the current Guatemala City Temple?
Hmm, I have to admit I do not know. If it is this could mean that it might be ideal for a university campus. It might also be turned into a visitor's center.
If 7 units in Bo hold services in Mende, does this mean the sacrament prayer at least has been translated to Mende? I guess technically you do not need to do the sacrament prayers in the same langauge as the rest of sacrament meeting, and I am sure there have been in the past and maybe to the present wards and branches on the Navajo reservation where sacrament meeting is a hodge podge of English and Navajo. When I lived in the foriegn language student housing at BYU the sacrament prayers were done normally in one foreign language, but most of sacrament was done in English. So there is no rule on monolongualism in sacrament, but translation of sacrament prayers to Mende would make sense.
Is there anywhere where a list of all the languages the endowment is translated into has been published?
Jonathan Whiting, the MTC in Guatemala City is adjacent to the temple. And according to feedback I received on my blog, the third Guatemalan Temple is likely to go to either Coban or Villa Nueva. The former seems more imminent than the latter, but both could have temples within the next 5-7 years, but certainly sooner if all goes well. Hope this information helps.
Guatamala MTC could be big enough for a multipurpose, such as visitor center,a meetinghouse space, Institute, seminary, and a BYU Pathway gathering location.
To those wondering about a possible name change for LDS Business College, my take on that is to wonder whether such a change is even necessary. From what I understand, the "LDS" which is currently in the college's name refers to the Church members (Latter-day Saints) the college was built to initially serve. If that is the case, since that term Latter-day Saints is an acceptable way to refer to Church members, a name change for the college might not be necessary.
Of course, I had an eerily similar theory about a URL change for the official Church website, so since I was wrong about that change, I could be wrong in my theory about the college. Just my two cents, for whatever they may be worth to anyone here. Thanks.
Five years ago I lived in a Idaho Falls Ward that was unique. It was your traditional family ward but hosted the deaf community from the entire region. We had sing lanhuage interpreters in sacrament meeting and the fifth Sunday. They had their own meetings the rest of the block. There was a calling for the group leaders for preisthood and releif society and Sunday school.
Rather than just converting the old MTC into a University campus. I would be excited to see this happening in other countries. I think more that BYU-Pathway will continue to grow and include more degree options. Not just from BYU-Idaho but offer degrees from the other BYU campuses and the Business College as well.
@ L. Chris Jones:
Hey, I used to live across the street from that deaf ward in Idaho Falls! I attended their sacrament meeting a few times when I couldn't make it to mine. That was between 2013 and 2014.
I may have bumped into you once or twice.
I was just reading over the Church History link on the gospel library app materials on the Church in South Africa. These are very informative. Especially interesting are those ok n Khumbulani Mdletshe. He also wrote an essay published by a Maxwell Institute publication that is well worth the read. Baptized in 1980 he did not first hear of the priesthood restriction until a missionary in England in 1983. Only his mission President Max Pinegre having great empathy got him through that struggle. He also has a story that the Church made a 2 minute video of him narrating about how when his branch President showed up to Church wearing a suit previously lent to him it altered his heart.
Brother Mdletshe was previously an Area 70 and area director of CES. He is currently president of the Kenya N.v Nairobi Mission. I would be shocked if he does not become a general authority seventy.
Brother Jones,
My brother used to be in the branch presidency of a fully bilingual English/Spanish branch in Detroit. I had a friend from the DC area at BYU where up in a ward that had a French group made up on immigrants from various countries in Africa. I believe this is now a separate branch. A former member of Zaire's parliament joined the Church in the DC area and I believe was a branch President there. That is Norman Jam9si whi I believe lived in a different part of DC. The father of one of the missionaries who baptized him was a major executive in I believe Jacobsen Constructiin which was the lead contractor for the Kinshasa Temple and has had the same position for other temples. That man recruited Kamosi to return to the DR Congo and be the head of public relations and government relations for the building of the temple
My friend from the ward that I think included the DC temple. This was back in 2002 when I knew her she mentioned a biracial couple in the branch who I think was Al Jackson who was later a Utah State Senator.
BYU-Pathway International has a lot of growth potential. With it being independent from BYU Idaho it may make it easier to leverage From there to other Church schools. I believe they also have some agreement with Arizina State University that basically allows leveraging from BYUPathway through some courses at BYU Idaho online on to the wide degree option at Arizona State. On the other hand my wife who did Pathway Hopes to get a BA in nursing through BYU Isaho online but she first has to complete an associates degree RN program because we have not yet reached a point where the melding of online education and programs with clinicals exists. I am less than convinced modern communication could not allow it but people don't do that.
Reminds me also of how my stake has gone to allowing my branch to do a broadcast of the adult session of stake conference. We are the only one that did a broadcast although Sunday morning is broadcasted to 4 of the 5 chapels other than the stake Center (not counting the rented space where the group meets).
I was glad I stayed at the stake Center since Elder Johnson did most of the adult session as a forum and I was able to make a few comments. They did not set it up to get questions and comments from our branch chapel but the technology does exist.
That said, I have been in enough meetings where tech failures happened that I think modern film distribution makes it easier to take in Church media productions at home than at the Church.
Lastly I wish I had gone to the stake Center for the Sunday morning session of stake conference. Even with a 1.3 mile drive to the branch chapel as opposed to 35 mile drive to the stake Center. This is because something went wrong with the broadcast and we missed almost half of it, including all of Elder Johnson's talk. The high council members did give some remarks but I still feel nipped out of not hearing from the general authority.
I expect Peter M. Johnson to be the next apostle called, but maybe I am crazy.
We had stake conference two weeks ago, and the Sunday meeting was broadcast to all buildings. But it took our tech staff half an hour to connect to the broadcast, so we missed the opening song and prayer, stake business, a choir presentation that the visiting 70 referenced later, and part of the stake president's remarks.
I won't say you're wrong about Elder Johnson because I don't know. But until last year, the confident predictions that some have made that the next apostle would be non-white have never come true. I actually did not expect it then because I thought that the world was expecting it for the wrong reasons, and had started to think that maybe we never would have any. (I certainly did not expect both new apostles to be non-white, although I have no problem with it.)
Someone somewhere (don't recall details, but I think it was while I was growing up in the 80's or 90's) suggested that the scriptures imply that the tribe of Ephraim would be given priesthood leadership over the world, not out of superiority but simply as a matter of having different responsibilities. This was supposed to explain why we had so many non-white GA's but none of them were being called as apostles.
A second explanation that I have come across as to why all the apostles were white Americans was that other countries needed their mature leaders to stay as leaders in their countries, but that has increasingly been contradicted by the numbers of GA 70s called from those countries. This idea was further blown up by the calling of Elder Uchtdorf in 2004, but some said "He may not be an American, but he's still white." The calling of our new apostles suggests that these 2 ideas may be as ill-founded as the explanations that were given for restricting the priesthood pre-1978. However, I will give my opinion that having Pres. Nelson as our prophet probably increases the odds on more non-white apostles.
That being said, I don't think I'm going to try to make a prediction on this matter. I have rarely if ever correctly predicted a new apostle, although I have sometimes thought that someone speaking in conference seemed like he would be a good apostle. I seem to remember thinking that about Elder Christofferson, but I clearly remember having negative thoughts about Elder Andersen in this regard.
Also, in retrospect, I was very impressed by Elder Renlund's first conference talk, but had almost forgotten about it by the time he was called. His calling surprised me because he was the first apostle called since 1978 that had not been in the Presidency of 70 OR in the Presiding Bishopric OR the President of a church college, other than Pres. Nelson who had been the General Sunday School president and also had Pres. Kimball as one of his patients in his career as a surgeon.
One of my early memories being aware of the apostles was in 1988, when I was 13. After Richard G. Scott had been announced as the new apostle, a missionary sitting behind me in the chapel in Caribou, Maine, turned to his companion and loudly said, "I told you it would be Scott!" or something similar. This made quite an impression on me as I had I believe already been working on learning the names of all of the apostles, probably prompted by the undoubted shock to me of learning I had misspelled Joseph B. Wirthlin's last name in my conference notes. Nerd that I was, and maybe still am, I later went back and memorized all of the modern apostles' names and dates of service, and I suspect that I could still recite them from memory.
My African American wife is of the tribe of Ephraim while I am of the tribe of Dan. I avoid any assumptions about what tribe an individual is from based on outward appearance.
That's a good reminder, John. You're right, of course. I think a lot of the assumptions I had growing up were based on something I had read, and someone else's speculation, rather than on fact.
JPL, as to your suggestion that Elder Peter M. Johnson may be the next apostle, aside from Presidents Nelson and Oaks and Elder Bednar, all other current apostles have served for a while as General Authorities before their apostolic call. The relevant amounts of time were 9.5 years for President Ballard, 5 for Elder Holland, 10 for President Eyring, 8.5 years for Elder Uchtdorf, 11.5 for Elder Cook, 15 for Elder Christofferson, 16 for Elder Andersen, 15.5 for Elder Rasband, 7.5 for Elder Stevenson, 6.5 for Elder Renlund, 8 for Elder Gong, and 13 for Elder Soares.
So unless the next apostolic vacancy occurs 5 years from now or later than that, I don't believe Elder Johnson would be considered prior to that time.
I say that because prior Church presidents have talked about the years of service that has allowed new apostles to mature into their new assignments.
And given that Elder Johnson was just barely sustained as a general authority last April, he may not be in consideration for a while yet.
In addition to what I have already noted, in 2007, Elder Michael John U. Teh was called as a new GA Seventy. Following the death of President Hinckley, I felt strongly that Elder Teh would be called as the new apostle. And that feeling has not yet been justified. I would love to see the first black apostle called in the near future, but given what I have outlined here, I don't see that being the case. But I also would not want to discount or dismiss someone else's feelings. FWIW, those are my thoughts on this.
Groundbreaking for the Puebla Mexico Temple has been set for November 30!
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-scheduled-for-the-puebla-mexico-temple
I like the Spanish Colonial style of the Puebla Temple rendering. It's a nice variation on the style the Church is going with with some of these new smaller temples. Makes it look more distinct while still being recognizable as one of ours. They did a similar thing with the Tijuana Temple, but on a grander scale.
Johnathan, I agree. I love the design of the Tijuana Temple and I am glad to see a similar, but also unique, Spanish-influenced style being used for Puebla. It makes me excited to what other locally influenced designs will be used for some of the other announced temples such as Bengaluru, Phnom Penh, Russia, and perhaps Budapest.
excited to *see* is what I meant to say
@Eric S.
Bengaluru's potential design especially has me excited.
Eric and Jonathan, regarding the Puebla Temple, my Church member contact in Mexico said the design for it is based on a combination of inspiration from the design of the Tijuana and tributes to architectural trends which are prevalent in the city of Puebla.
I am also excited to see what the design is for all announced temples, including those which both of your named.
On the Russia Temple, I am not sure what to hope for. We don't even know for sure in which city that temple will be built (though my personal research indicates that it is likely to be built in Moscow), so who knows how soon construction may begin there. I am hoping Russia will not be the next Fortaleza Brazil, Urdaneta Philippines, or Winnipeg Manitoba Temple.
Of the temples you both mentioned, I'd expect Bengaluru to be one of the first (if not indeed the very first) temple(s) to have a groundbreaking. I say that because of Bishop Davies' statement in May of this year about that temple, which is something you both can review as summarized on the following web page:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/bengaluru-india-temple/
Also, within the last 12 hours, I have published more content on my blog that is temple-related, with additional content in the works to be published before the end of this month. If either of you have time to offer feedback on the newest content or that of content yet-to-be-published, I'd welcome your thoughts.
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
Thanks in advance.
Rome Italy Temple also needs to be on the list of long time temples. It was announced in 2008 and dedicated in 2019. Nothing beats Salt Lake City which is said to have taken 40 years, but it was 47 years from the site designation by Brigham Young until it was dedicated.
47 years ago President Nelson was General Sunday School president and President Oaks was president of BYU. After President Nelson's most recent BYU devotional I went to look at some of his past ones. His first BYU devotional in 1974 opens with a thank to President Oaks, and continues with a mention of the learning the laws of restarting the heart. He didn't say exactly the same things even on that subject he did in his most recent talk, but in both he quoted the same Doctine and Covenants passage.
Interesting 10 years before that Dallin H. Oaks had been involved in helping the University of Chicago try to recruit Russell M. Nelson, but President McKay told President Nelson he should remain in Salt Lake City, remain as stake president, and while he might not get paid enough (and would not have the promise to of payment for his children's college tuition to any institute, a big plus when you have 8 children [there were not yet 10, but maybe 9 instead of 8], President McKay assured President Nelson if he remained in Salt Lake City the patients would come to him.
Guayaquil Ecuador took I think 17 years from announcement to dedication and Bogota Columbia 14 years. Rome actually took longer from announcement to finish than Forteleza, but this is in part because Rome was such a huge delay was because it was a very large project, although there was also a need to redo part of it and other factors that delayed it.
Good points, JPL. On the other end of that spectrum are the Hinckley- and Nelsonian-era smaller temples which saw construction begin within a year or less of the time period in which they were announced. And I'd be remiss if I did not mention the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple as well, which went from announcement to dedication within 4.5 years.
Based on what has been reported in regards to the Tooele Valley Utah Temple, I would not be shocked at all if construction began by this time next year or sooner. And given Elder Wilson's statement on the Tooele Valley Utah Temple, it would not shock me if that temple was dedicated 1.5-2 years before the rededication of the Salt Lake Temple occurs. Hope this comment is helpful to all who reads it.
@James
Good info on the Puebla/Tijuana Temples.
As far as Russia goes, if it does take longer than expected, I think a good comparison might be the Ukraine Temple, which took 12 years from announcement to dedication.
Ukraine is another member of the former Soviet Bloc in Eastern Europe, an adjacent country to Russia, similar culture, possibly similar restrictions to acquiring land.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/kyiv-ukraine-temple/
However, I would be elated as well if the process took considerably less time.
Yeah, I'll take a gander at your new posts.
Jonathan, I for one am hoping for two things with the Russia Temple: First, that construction will not be delayed for it for too long. Given Elder Uchtdorf's European connections, he may be of assistance in helping to get that temple approved and the construction process started and concluded sooner than many (myself included) might otherwise expect. If my memory serves me correctly, President Nelson may too have connections to Russia that would enable any obstacles to getting a temple approved and constructed there removed relatively easily.
As a general rule, I do stand by my viewpoint that the days when most announced temples would have a waiting period of more than 3-4 years between their announcments and subsequent groundbreaking ceremonies are long gone. The recently-announced temple news indicates that, wherever possible, President Nelson will not let the grass grow under the feet of most temple announcements for too long before he takes the initial steps to secure approval and has the Church begin construction, and in that and in respect to all other temple news, I have a feeling we are in for an influx of such developments between now and the end of the year, and that such announcements will become a matter of regularity in the following years.
Regarding recent content on my blog, around an hour ago, I published a brand-new revised version of my thoughts about the "other announcements" that may be coming in General Conference in just over a week. Just wanted to add that. And I'd welcome your thoughts on anything I have posted there at any time that is convenient for you to offer them. Thanks.
@James
I agree that it'll be nice if the Russia Temple takes less time to be completed rather than more. I wasn't trying to burst your bubble, but I do think it's useful to consider other similar Temple Projects in Europe that have taken awhile, like the Ukraine, or the Rome Temple that @JPL mentioned above, and allow for the possibility of the project taking longer than expected.
You may be right, though. Perhaps this new Nelsonian Era will allow for faster construction than we saw during the Monsonian or the Hinckleyan Eras (it's kinda fun to convert those names into adjectives, right?).
P.S. If President Nelson doesn't have connections to Russia himself, he could always borrow President Trump's.... XD
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