October 2019 Monthly Newsletter

Click here to access the October 2019 monthly newsletter for www.cumorah.com.

Updated Country Profile - Laos

Click here to access the updated country profile for Laos. The Church in Laos has numbered among the most successful among Asian nations with significant government restrictions on religious freedom. There are two branches in Vientiane and converts regularly join the Church. Convert retention and member activity rates have been consistently good. The Church has also made good progress translating Church materials and scriptures into Lao. See below for the Future Prospects section of this article:


Government restricts international missionary outreach, requiring local members to be self-sufficient in ecclesiastical duties and member-missionary work. This has led to intimate involvement of Laotian members in missionary work, and has yielded good convert retention and member activity rates. The two Vientiane branches appear likely to become wards if the Udorn Thailand District becomes a stake. Government recognition may occur in the near future, which would permit the publication of the meetinghouse location in Vientiane. However, government recognition does not appear to currently provide any other benefits to the Church in Laos in regards to proselytism freedoms or expansion into additional cities. Returned missionaries present good leadership development prospects as long as these members do not emigrate. Growth in membership on the outskirts of Vientiane may result in the formation of groups or small branches to serve members in these locations if permitted by government officials. Members who relocate to other cities in the country may also permit the expansion of the Church.

SSSR Presentation

See below to access my SSSR presentation, entitled: International Saints Missiological Survey (ISMS) of over 6,500 Latter-day Saints, 2012-2019: Key Findings and Analysis.

SSSR 2019 Presentation - Martinich 

First City in Interior Benin Has Branch Organized

For the first time in Church history in the West African country of Benin, a branch has been organized in the interior of the country. The new branch was organized in the city of Bohicon, the seventh most populous city in the country with approximately 100,000 inhabitants. Since the organization of the first branch in Benin in 2005 (the Cotonou Branch), all other cities with congregations have been on the Atlantic coast, including Calavi (organized in 2014), Port Novo (2014), and Hilacondji (2017). Missionaries first began visiting Bohicon to investigate opportunities to organize a member group and teach isolated members and prospective members in 2017. The organization of the new branch is a major development for the Church in Benin as the Church has maintained an extremely limited national presence limited to a few cities along the Atlantic Coast.

See below for a map of Latter-day Saint congregations in Benin:

New Stakes Created in Alabama, Australia, Brazil, DR Congo, Mozambique, and Peru

Alabama
The Church organized a new stake in Alabama on September 22nd. The Gadsden Alabama Stake was organized from a division of the Birmingham Alabama Stake and the Madison Alabama Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards and two branches: the Anniston, Attalla, Gadsden, Guntersville, Leeds, and Trussville Wards, and the Locust Fork and Talladega Branches. The new stake is the Church's eighth stake to be created in Alabama, where the first stake was organized in 1968. Prior to the creation of the Gadsden Alabama Stake, the last time a new stake was organized in Alabama was in Madison in 2011.

Australia
The Church organized a new stake today in rural Victoria and New South Wales. The Wangaratta Australia District was organized into the Riverena Australia Stake. The former district had eight branches, and most of these branches have appeared to become wards. Australian members report that this is the first "rural" stake to be organized in Australia as there are no cities within the boundaries of the new stake that appear to have more than 100,000 inhabitants. However, the Devonport Australia Stake in Tasmania also does not have any cities with more than 100,000 people within its boundaries. The Wangaratta Australia District was one of the oldest districts in the worldwide Church, as the district was originally organized in 1890.

There are now 42 stakes and 7 districts in Australia.

Brazil
The Church organized a new stake in Sao Paulo State on October 13th. The Piracicaba Brazil Rezende Stake was organized from a division of the Piracicaba Brazil Stake and the Rio Claro Brazil Stake. The new stake includes the following seven wards: the Limeira, Nova Itália, Parque das Nações, Piracicaba 2nd, Piracicaba 4th, São Pedro, and Vila Sônia Wards. The new stake includes wards based in three cities: Limeira (3), Piracicaba (3), and São Pedro (1).

There are now 276 stakes and 39 districts in Brazil.

DR Congo
The Church organized a new stake in the DR Congo on September 22nd. The Kolwezi Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake was organized from the Kolwezi Democratic Republic of the Congo District. All seven branches in the former district were organized into wards. The seven wards in the new stake are the Dilala, Diur, Kasulo, Kolwezi 1st, Kolwezi 2nd, Manika, and Mutoshi Wards. The Church organized the Kolwezi Democratic Republic of the Congo District in 1991 as Kolwezi was one of the first cities in the DR Congo to have a Church presence established. However, political instability and war resulted in significant setbacks for the Church as many members moved to more stable areas of the country in the late 1990s and 2000s. The Church has since experienced steady growth in Kolwezi for approximately the past 5-6 years.

There are now 22 stakes and 1 district in the DR Congo. The lack of districts in the DR Congo is indicative of the Church's very conservative "centers of strength" model being implemented, as well as high member activity rates in cities with a Church presence that has permitted the rapid organization of stakes in most areas with adequate numbers of congregations and members. Nevertheless, several additional districts appear likely to be organized in the near future in Fungurume, Kisangani, Matadi, and Uvira.

Mozambique
The Church organized a new stake in the Maputo metropolitan area on September 22nd. The Matola Mozambique Stake was organized from a division of the Maputo Mozambique Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Liberdade, Matola, Mozal, Ndlavela, and T-3 Wards, and the Beluluane Branch. The new stake is the Church's second stake in the Maputo metropolitan area, and the Church's fourth stake in Mozambique. The Church organized its first stake in Mozambique in Maputo in February 2015.

There are now four stakes and one district in Mozambique.

Peru
The Church organized a new stake in Lambayeque Region on October 13th. The Chiclayo Perú Federico Villarreal Stake was organized from the Chiclayo Peru Stake, Chiclayo Peru Central Stake, Chiclayo Peru El Dorado Stake, and the Chiclayo Peru Latina Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Chiclayo Central 1st, Federico Villarreal, Los Artesanos, Moshoqueque, and Santa Victoria Wards. Chiclayo is Peru's fourth most populous city with approximately 600,000 inhabitants. There are now seven stakes in the greater Chiclayo metropolitan area. Chiclayo is the most populous city, and the city with the most stakes in Peru, without a temple.

There are now 111 stakes and 18 districts in Peru.

Sneak Peak at Presentation for SSSR Conference in St. Louis, Missouri

Next week I will be presenting at the annual SSSR conference in St. Louis, Missouri as part of the Variable Patterns of International Growth in Twenty-first Century Mormonism. I will be part of presentations on Friday, October 25th from 3:00-4:30 PM. The SSSR schedule can be found here.

I have been busily analyzing the 6,816 survey responses included in this comprehensive analysis on church growth in preparation for my presentation, which will cover convert retention rates, member activity rates, church growth trends, and other relevant statistics and data in regards to tracking church growth. One of the pieces of data I will present at the conference is the below table, which includes an agglomeration of convert retention one year after baptism estimates given by 3,565 surveys completed by returned missionaries from August 11th, 2012 until October 13th, 2019. the vast majority of individuals who completed the survey served full-time missions after 2010. Fascinatingly, there is no significant difference in convert retention rates for missions outside of the United States versus inside the United States (49% and 50%, respectively). Also many of the lowest baptizing missions have the highest estimated convert retention rates one year after baptism, such as in Eastern Europe. However, many of the qualitative responses to survey questions indicate that convert retention 1-4 years after baptism has been a bigger challenge than retention within the first 12 months after membership in the Church.

 COUNTRY/MISSION         EST. RETENTION

USA	50%
Central Eurasian	80%
DR Congo	80%
Cote d’Ivoire	74%
Kenya	70%
Liberia	70%
Samoa	70%
Zimbabwe	69%
French Polynesia	66%
Hong Kong	63%
Romania/Moldova	63%
Adriatic South	62%
Bulgaria	60%
Sierra Leone	60%
Finland	59%
Ghana	59%
Czech/Slovak	58%
Vanuatu	58%
Canada	57%
Nigeria	57%
South Africa	57%
Germany	54%
Peru	54%
Tonga	54%
Ukraine	54%
Denmark	53%
Fiji	53%
Indonesia	53%
Mozambique	53%
Philippines	52%
India	51%
Madagascar	51%
New Zealand	51%
Spain	51%
El Salvador	50%
Haiti	50%
Belgium/Netherlands	49%
Benin/Togo	49%
Cambodia	48%
Ecuador	48%
France	48%
Italy	48%
Colombia	47%
Japan	47%
Marshall Islands/Kiribati	47%
Panama	47%
Uganda	47%
Bolivia	46%
Jamaica	46%
Russia	46%
Singapore	46%
Zambia	45%
Chile	44%
England	44%
Mexico	44%
Nicaragua	44%
Sweden	44%
Trinidad and Tobago	44%
Micronesia	43%
Norway	43%
Scotland/Ireland	43%
Taiwan	43%
Adriatic North	42%
Australia	42%
Brazil	42%
Dominican Republic	42%
Guatemala	42%
Hungary	42%
Portugal	42%
Argentina	41%
Switzerland	41%
Honduras	40%
Korea	40%
Mongolia	40%
Baltic	39%
Paraguay	38%
Thailand	38%
Cape Verde	36%
Costa Rica	36%
Puerto Rico	34%
Uruguay	33%
Armenia/Georgia	30%
Poland	29%
Austria	25%
Venezuela	25%