Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Ask a Question about the Growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
This is something I have never done before on this blog, but I thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to ask readers whether you have any questions about the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that you would like answered. Granted, I do not have all of the answers to some of the questions that may be asked, but I thought this would be a thought-provoking activity to see what interests you regarding the growth of the Church and for us to find the information to answer your questions. Please write your questions as a comment to this post, and I will try my best to answer them or find the information you request. And, of course, fellow followers and readers are welcome to answer questions as well.
Matt, several years ago you posted on your criteria or algorythm for how you predict future temples. Could you post that again and if there were any changes to that?
ReplyDeleteIs there a resource to find a breakdown of yearly membership by country dating back to 1830?
ReplyDeleteMatt, do you know what the current number of membership in the church is? It was last announced in April general. Conf. As 16,300,000 roughly.
ReplyDeleteAs always, would like to know the number of missionaries per mission, per country, per capita (or per the population).
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered about the proportion of the world's population living within Stakes/Districts, Missions if not Stakes/Districts, and areas when not in a Mission. I think it would be a useful measure of overall outreach of the church.
ReplyDeleteUnknown, while I am not Matt, I can tell you that the number of Church members announced each year during the April General Conference is the total number of Church members there were as of the last day of the previous year. So in April 2020, when the newest Statistical Report is released, the number of Church members will be current as of the last day of this year. So in a very real way, the statistics presented in April are not the most up-to-date. Additionally, as Matt is regularly and consistently updating the various Reaching the Nations profiles, that information (if memory serves) is more current when he mentions it here than is the case for the data presented in that Statistical Report. If anyone (including and especiallyh Matt himself) has more insight on this, feel free to jump in.
ReplyDeleteAs for me personally, Matt, I have a question or two of my own for you: Are you planning on publishing an updated version of your list of the top 10 nations with the strongest Church presence without a temple in any phase? If so, when can we expect that to occur? In addition, have you noticed any particular patterns to Nelsonian temple announcements? And if so, what might that tell us as far as what could occur in the future?
The final thing I wanted to note here is not so much a question, but a personal matter: Last Wednesday, I had to undergo an in-office minor procedure due to some ongoing health issues I am having. The fix that was applied was only temporary, and, as a result, I will be going in for another minor same-day surgical procedure tomorrow morning. My check-in time for that is 8:15 AM MST. I just wanted to note that here, and that prayers in my behalf would be appreciated. With any luck, I should be back at home to begin recuperating by mid-to-late afternoon or early evening tomorrow. I hope that is not inappropriate to share here. Thanks, everyone, and especially to you, Matt, for allowing us to have such wide-ranging discussions here.
Matt, I would be curious to know more about the history of the Church in Iran. I know that we had missionaries there before the revolution and even a mission HQ in Tehran (if memory serves). However, this has been one of the most oppressive countries in the world over the last 50 years. What do you foresee needing to be done before that country will again welcome the Church? Thx
ReplyDeleteA country that I've always been curious about (but that seems to have very few available resources in terms of Church growth and history) is Malawi. How are things going there? Is there a reason why the Church hasn't replicated its success from Mozambique or Zimbabwe there?
ReplyDelete@Pascal
DeleteHave you had a chance to see Matt's Reaching the Nations profile on Malawi?
https://www.cumorah.com/index.php?target=countries&cnt_res=1&wid=130&cmdfind=Search
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ReplyDeleteWith over 65,000 fulltime missionaries serving around the globe, there are lots' of parents' eyes watching church developments. Do you want us to send you updates or do you have better sources? Between a mission president's blog, Facebook groups, e-mails from other missionaries, and my son's e-mails, I have a pretty good sense of what is going on in the church in that country. Do you want updates from "the field" or is that information to granular? I would hate to overwhelm your inbox.
ReplyDeleteChurch Growth in membership statistics seems to have lagged when compared to the 20th century. Do you see the growth rate as a percent of the total church continuing to trend downward as the west becomes less fertile? I assume at some point the Southern Hemisphere will start to kick in and the growth rate will increase. When does the growth rate bottom out?
ReplyDeleteJonathan, yes. It's several years old (my understanding is that there will be a new one coming eventually, just like it has happened for a few other countries already), so I was curious about more recent information. Just wondering why the country seems to be so under the radar, which includes not getting a mission again - despite having more members than Ethiopia, Tanzania and Cameroon, and higher membership growth rates than those countries, as well.
ReplyDelete@Pascal
DeleteYou're right, it does seem like that article is due for an update.
One factor may be that Malawi only has 18 million people. Ethiopia has 109 million.
ReplyDeleteThe other factor is one really has to look at the Brazaville, Nairobi and Kampala missions as a whole. Thus, the factors pushing for a split were stronger in those 3 missions than in the Zambia mission.
Do you have any idea how many people have officially signed themselves out of the Church in recent years?
ReplyDeleteMatt, was the Akwa Nigeria Stake that you added here a split from the Uyo Nigeria South Stake? I couldn't find any other reference to Akwa wards other than the Akwa Ima Housing Estate Ward from that Stake in Uyo (Akwa Ibom).
ReplyDeleteAlso the Herriman Utah Towne Center Stake you mentioned. What Herriman Utah Stake or Stakes were split?
Matt, I have always been curious about your Temple predictions. I'd like to see a post showing how many predictions were right since you started writing them. That would be great. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments thus far everyone! This is a lot to look into and answer. I will plan to do this in coming blog posts.
ReplyDeleteThe Akwa Nigeria Stake was organized from a division of the Onitsha Nigeria Stake. Here is a map of the units: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1k4lYiG5OyporROUcSwCgzqKn_lM&msa=0&ll=6.157370443241756%2C6.987298586910811&spn=3.723979%2C5.817261&z=11
Many years ago, the Church News listed the number of missionaries serving from every country in the world. Are you able to share an updated list of the number of missionaries serving FROM each country?
ReplyDeleteAs for the question about how to notify me about new units/groups/cities opening, just email me at: Matt.Martinich@gmail.com. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOk, I am going for it.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would love to know is number of missionaries serving from and serving in each country of the world. Also what percentage of missionaries in each country are nationals of that country.
I am actually thinking that there are two related possibilities. On one hand it would be interesting to track residents of a country serving as missionaries there. However nationals coming from abroad might also have a part.
Small question:
ReplyDeleteWasn't there a stake or district discontinued in England this year, that should be on the list of those discontinued?
I thought I remember someone mentioning one in the comments a few months back.
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ReplyDeleteAha.
DeleteThat clears it up. Thanks, Chris! Glad to hear that it's still active.
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ReplyDeleteMatt, the Seventh day Adventist church, the Jehovah's witnesses, Assembly of God, have bigger membership than the church, they baptise more than the church, have more active members and retain more members! What can the church learn from them in terms of retention and activity rates from them?
ReplyDeleteI could be biased but it seems at least in the US, the LDS Church seems to have a bigger cultural impact. Is there a tradeoff?
DeleteThe Jehovah's witnesses only have about 8 1/2 million members with a peek at about 20 million people attending Memorial (Easter/communion) services once a year. The JW Memorial service isn't strictly for JW membership it is an outreach to the entire community and public are actively invited. The SDA and AoG churches have the doctrine of Jesu's divine grace over works thus their membership is inclined to follow less rules and commandments tahts probably why people like jlining those churches its a whole different form of Christianity compared to JW and LDS.
Delete@William P
DeleteKeep in mind the Adventists hace a couple of strict guidelines they expect, such as Saturday worship and abstinence from pork?
Did the "Lakewood Colorado Stake" get renamed to the "Front Range Colorado Stake"? When did that happen. (LDS Classic maps)
ReplyDeleteMatt, if I may do so, I had another question I wanted to ask you. There have been many times when I have wanted to look at a particular set of posts on your blog using one of the "Topics" by which you have labeled your posts. But in order to do so now, I wind up having to scroll practically all the way down the page to find what I am looking for in that respect. I know that you probably want to retain the lists of stakes and districts which have been created or discontinued in some form, but I am wondering, would you ever consider moving some of the older history of that to a newly-created page on this blog, and perhaps moving the labels higher up on the main screen so they might be easier for others and myself to access? If you have a specific reason for the way that is laid out, or if it would be too much hassle to do something like that, I can understand that. Just wanted to throw these questions and this idea out for your consideration. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteMain Tour, To answer your question, Yes, the Lakewood Colorado Stake was renamed the "Front Range Colorado Stake". According to my records this happened on / or about 12/03/2017, when the Golden Colorado Stake was merged (here on Matt's list of Discontinued Stakes). And the merged Stake Center was moved to Golden, Colorado.
ReplyDeletehttps://classic.lds.org/maps/#ll=39.682579,-105.069814&z=18&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&g=Front%20Range%20Colorado%20Stake&find=stake:504327
I hope this is any use to your inquiry.
On that same note, I am not sure when the Edmonton Alberta Millwoods Stake was renamed Edmonton Alberta Gateway Stake?
https://classic.lds.org/maps/#ll=69.961517,-119.249083&z=3&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&find=stake:516457
Here's what I know, for anyone who's interested: the Golden Colorado stake included 3 branches west of the continental divide. When my stake, the Meeker Colorado stake was split (and my current stake, the Craig Colorado stake was created) in October 2017, the branch in Granby was included in the Craig stake. The other two branches were added to the Rifle stake, renamed from Meeker. I believe this left the Golden stake with less than 5 units, hence the merge with Lakewood.
ReplyDeleteChris...the Edmonton Alberta Millwoods Stake was renamed on 5/26/2019 when the Rio Vista Ward (Spanish) was created. Several of the wards were renamed during that time.
ReplyDeleteAdventists had 10,888,000 members in Africa and India in 2018, whereas The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints counted 635,443 at year-end 2018, a ten-million-plus deficit. In the US there were 1,179,000 Adventists in 2018, a 0.66% increase over the previous year. They have huge investments in educational and medical facilities throughout the world.
ReplyDeleteWilliam p. Jehovah's witnesses only count those activity going door to door. So the 8 and half million are active members compared to the about 3 million active church members.Seventh day Adventist church members tithe, they don't smoke or drink alcohol as while as not eating pork or shellfish. Many are vegetarians. So I think they ask as much as the church in commitment. Even so what can we learn from their activity rates and teaching policies?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnother question: I've on the list of stakes for Nevada two new stakes that i've never seen mentioned here and not in any of the old church almanacs. Both are in the City of Henderson Nevada. Henderson Nevada Carnegie Stake and Henderson Nevada Green Valley Stake. Are they Las Vegas stakes that got renamed or what? Where did they come from?
ReplyDeleteGreen Valkey may have at one point been designated Las Vegas but it has always been in Henderson.
DeleteMain Tour, if it helps, Matt addressed the Henderson Nevada Carnegie Stake question in the following post from February 2017:
ReplyDeletehttp://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2017/02/new-stakes-created-in-nevada-uganda-and.html
and he had addressed the Henderson Nevada Green Valley Stake question in a post the month before the previous one I noted in this comment:
http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2017/01/new-stake-in-nevada-stake-discontinued.html
I was able to find both posts fairly easily by using the "search" feature on the top of pretty much every page of posts or individual posts on this blog, which may be helpful for you, MainTour, and any others here, in finding answers to those kinds of questions more easily yourselves. I know I have used that feature repeatedly here, and I can thus endorse it without hesitation as a very useful tool for finding such content here. Of course, if Matt (or anyone else) has anything to add on MainTour's question here, that's not a problem, but in this case, the information was pretty easy to find using the search engine, so I hope my mentioning that here is helpful to all who may read this comment.
Tony: where do you get only 3 million active Church members? I think 3 million might be temple goers alone, while another 3 million make it to church at least quarterly. That might leave 10 million less active... Among those 10 million, perhaps 2-3 million attend services in a given year but are not regular attendees. I am not saying these are ideal or great numbers (we all know many people on the rolls who have not attended for years or might be attending other churches), but I would like to know your sources. Or maybe you mean only U.S. activity rates? Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses are effective in many communities and areas. I have observed that many African-Americans have gravitated toward the discipline of Witnesses, which is an overall positive thing.
ReplyDeleteThe hang ups of polygamy and priesthood policy, among the somtimes exclusive practices of the temple, and acceptance of the Book of Mormon, create large stumbling blocks for many millions across the world.
I do believe that all three of these "modern faiths" (all claim ancient roots, foundations, or underpinnings) have similar stances on homosexual tendencies, which is not very popular at this point in the 21st century, at least not in developed nations.
I get my figures from fullerconsideration site, but I miss quoted . He thinks 4 million which I feel is correct. In the UK activity rates are 15%. We are losing 3 to 4 wards a year. The three wards nearest to me how 50, active, 35 active and 15 active, How they survive is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteSDA of course run lots of schools and hospitals across the world which I think helps with increasing viability.
Matt, do you have the statistics on baptisms per mission, or at least by area?
ReplyDeleteChile activity rate is lucky to be 15%. That is about 80,000 down there, soon to support 3 temples. Mexico, I am not sure, out of of 1.2 million, probably 200,000 active, higher rate than UK or Chile. Something like 12 temples.
ReplyDeleteBrazil and Peru both add up to maybe 500,000 active? The rest of South America maybe adds up to 300,000, prominently Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia.
Throw in Central America and the Caribbean and maybe there is another 200,000 active there.
So I figure "Latin America" alone has like 1.2 million active. US and Canada likely has 3 million active.
So I don't know about the Fuller site, but I think the Western Hemisphere alone has well over 4 million active members.
Europe and Asia have small activity rates, sure. Africa has some impressive activity rates, out of some 500 thousand plus members. Oceania and Australia has some really rates of population.
I could see more like 5-6 million active members world wide, but temple active is certainly another story.
Does Fuller breakdown country by country?
@Eduardo
DeleteMéxico has 14 temples now with with Puebla.
A few years ago i saw some supposably leaked statistics that seemed quite accurt. On them sacrameting attendance just past 5 million a few years ageo. The numbers on the statistics where very speciffic. Normaly more members are active than in church on sunday, so I would estimate active church membership at around 6 million.
ReplyDeleteThe activity rates in Chile and the UK just seem so bad because they have lots of names in the Address Unkown file. In the case of the UK I know from an area seventy that they are around 100000 (more tha have the membership. So they are not assigned to any stake, ward or branch. With >30000 active members in the UK the activity rate rised to around 35% when you ignore the members on the Address Unkonw file.
@Matt
Here my question:
How do you keep track of congregations using church resources? Specially ward's upgraded from branches, Stakes from distircts, or closing of wards or branches or stakes?
I can use CDOL to some extend to find out about new wards & branches or stakes & districts. But not the above mentionend.
So i use fullerconsideration site for that, but they somtimes have miss units or have completley from infromation for a short time (like closing of lot's of units)
In all Honesty is the Church in decline. in 2018 only 30 new units. Without Aftica we'd be losing units. SDA and JW add hundreds of units. Has the internet and other social shifts made us a shrinking church? Seemingly the Leadership is making changes to reverse but still small growth. Stakes are created but with diminishing unit in socially developed countries what transition are we on the brink of?
ReplyDeleteTo "Unknown"--It's true that congregational growth of 30 net new units in 2018 was very slow (after a growth of over 200 units in 2017). But so far in 2019 there are 376 new units; 395 new wards and a drop of 19 branches, due largely to district branches becoming wards as new stakes are created from districts, as well as many branches maturing to wards.
ReplyDeleteWhile there has been a decline in units in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina (down 44 wards and branches), the rest of South America shows substantial growth.
Brazil is up 54 wards (and down 23 branches), and up 5 stakes and districts. Peru is up 25 wards, down 5 branches, and up 7 stakes with one less district. Bolivia up 12 wards and 1 branch.
The US is up 184 units: plus 163 wards, 8 branches, 14 stakes, and one less district.
Africa is up 177 units: 161 wards and branches and 16 new stakes and districts. Nigeria alone has an increase of 81 units (plus 33 wards, 39 branches, 5 stakes and 4 districts).
There are places in the world where the Church is in decline, sure. Check your own ward and stake. Temple growth is dynamic, which is a very good sign.
ReplyDeleteTemples are being built everywhere. Southeast Asia is doing well. India continues to grow. So is most of Latin America.
In all honesty I'd like to see our church the Latter Day Saints revive the way we do missionary work. If that means following how the SDAs with hospitals and schools worldwide to increase viability so be it. If that means following after the JWs with most members of every congregation rotating to serve as local missionaries so be it. In my City here in Australia there are JWs on every street corner of the city centre, every town square, and heavenly used public spaces. We only have 3 Latter Day Saints chapels in our city of almost 1million people where is our visibility? Nowhere. The SDAs have their schools and health clinics in my city too and all across the country our Latter Day Saints church doesn't seem so outgoing as other faiths and we wonder why secularism is overtaking the west such as Australia.
ReplyDeleteSo my questions is it likely the church will ever change its missionary efforts for a greater outreach? Will the church ever start small and open local foodbanks, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, nursing homes? I'm talking world wide bishops storehouses are only in North America that doesn't count there isn't many anyway.
DeleteThe Church does operate bishop's storehouses outside of North America. I know the bishop's storehouse in Detroit uses a truck to service people in 7 stakes. We used to service two more, but we found the drive time made us not in compliance.
ReplyDeleteThe Church regularly donates to food banks. When I was in Ann Arbor we actively collaborated as a stake in helping a homeless shelter.
There are structural reasons to not want to be the sponsor of record for these endeavors.
Considering the Church divested itself of hospitals in the 1970s I do not see it taking on more such infrastructure. Considering the suits against Catholic Hispitals for trying to abide by religious teachings I see very good reason to avoid them.
Some say look at the Seventh-day Adventists, they have a huge network of hospitals and colleges, we should emulate them. I would point out the Jehovah's Witnesses seem to have neither so repeating the ways of others is not the solution.
I think we need to better use the things we have in place, not look for new solutions.
The key to more visibility is not more buildings. The key to more visibility is members sharing their testimony on social media.
ReplyDeleteSocial media and community volunteering. We collaborate with many organizations.
DeleteIn my Canadian Stake we do a lot of outreach but the baptismal payoffs are nothing really. What I think it does for us here is if you can't get someone to join the Church maybe you can get them to stop hating on the Church or even knowing we exist. But missionaries doing service and whatnot hasn't led to any real increase in baptisms
ReplyDeleteIf we werent so busy building beautiful temples in impoverished parts of the world in order to provide eternal, life changing ordinances, we'd probably have more hospitals and schools.
ReplyDeleteSin duda que hace falta más caridad en la Iglesia SUD tanto dentro y fuera de la misma, no digo que la Iglesia no colabore con los desvalidos, pero es insuficiente la ayuda que se da, a los mienbros en las capillas y a los no miembros en cualquier lugar del mundo.
DeleteSiempre se puede hacer más
Chile -Santiago
I've noticed is with all these changes that we seem to have divorced missionaries from the ward, they can't attend ward council, the WML can't either and the missionaries can only visit certain people in the ward now, without a chaperone.Splits are done away with for the most part. It seems so limiting. I'm less inclined to give referrals to them if I don't know them and they can't be trusted with a simple dinner appt. (now they have to have someone chaperone that)They have this ridiculous bureaucratic way of missionary reporting now.i.e the missionaries tell the WML who tell the RS and EQ Presidency members who tell the EQ and RS Presidents who tell the ward council.What was wrong with having the WML attend ward council and save all that stuff? I have yet to get an answer. I guess my question is where is the trust with the missionaries? if we trust them to go on a mission then why don't we trust them to actually serve a mission? if they feel uncomfortable in a situation then they can decide what to do, be given guidelines -not rules which is what this new missionary handbook actually seems to be
ReplyDeleteThe missionaries attend my branch's branch council. The WML can still be in ward council as needed.
DeleteMissionary safety and avoiding abuse of children need to be top priorities.
Also I think we are often too impatient.
Social media efforts, other than news and other matter, is currently lacking, most member made memes do not even have the Church web address (comeuntochrist.org, churchofjesuschrist.org), but promote their own websites or Facebook pages (other than Church News memes). Many inwardly tweet things, not hashtagging with outward-facing hashtags to reach many more, we are going to have to change all this.
ReplyDeleteThe Church is limited to what it can do with schools and hospitals have been done away with. Utah's Intermountain hospital chain was the Church's until 1975, when the Church got out of the business entirely. LDS Hospital in Salt Lake is the apparent original, and even under IHC bears that name and that is one case where the old abbreviation is still appropriate. A hospital is actually a huge money drain for anyone wanting to do that as a business anyway.
speaking of schools we can promote the BYU pathway program around the world it is now available for 143 different countries and territories.
DeleteThe reason to get out of hospitals was to make it so the Church could have the resources to run international health outreach. The Church has made a lot of progress on this.
DeleteIn my ward in Virginia the full time missionaries attend Ward Council, and the Mission Leader always does, too. That's too bad about them being left out.
ReplyDeleteSage advice from a Dallas bishop recently: if all of us would pray for our ministering visit homes by name, we would be miraculous.
The Church education system has a few schools in some developing nations. The LDS Business College and the three BYUs. In addition there is the affordable BYU Pathways Worldwide. It is now available in 143 nations and territories. I think we can promote that even more. I feel it is a great membership testamony builder and could be a wonderful missionary tool as well. An essential part of The Pathway program is a weekly in person or vurtual meeting with others for both spiritual (similar to institute) and academic support.
ReplyDeleteMatt, Do you know why the Classic LDS Maps site is down? Error 404.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTotally incorrect. Do not trust this site for discontinued units.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooks like somebody hacked the FullerConsideration website...the units are no longer showing as visible or worse have been shown as closing.
ReplyDeleteA mi pesar debo decir que en mi país Chile no es novedad que la Iglesia ha decaído mucho, no solo en bautismos, retención, asistencia al templo, pago de ofrendas y diezmos.
ReplyDeleteEs triste ver tantas capillas vacías y en venta u otras lindas capillas con tan poca asistencia, hay un enfriamiento en la fe de nosotros y de falta de compromiso, dedicación y consagración, y de testimonio de los que alguna vez fuimos parte de la Iglesia.
Hay demasiadas personas que ya no se identifican con el Mormonismo, otros (as) que se fueron a otras sectas, grupos o religiones o de pronto, no van a ninguna religión, porque la decepción que sienten s muy grande.
Omar, estoy de acuerdo contigo parcialmente. Pero no creo que el problema sea necesariamente con la Iglesia a escala global. He escuchado relatos de cómo, en algunas áreas, la ayuda enviada por la Iglesia para ayudar a la ciudadanía es acaparada por los líderes políticos o por los ricos en tales regiones. Desafortunadamente, cuando esas elecciones personales impiden que la ayuda llegue a donde debe estar, la Iglesia no puede ni debe ser responsable de ello.
ReplyDeleteAdemás, cuando se trata de la condición de la Iglesia en diversas áreas, muchas de las decisiones que se toman se deben a la fidelidad (o falta de ella) en los miembros y misioneros, por lo cual la Iglesia ha tratado de tomar medidas preventivas, pero solo puede hacer mucho.
En muchos casos, es la elección personal más que las circunstancias dirigidas por la Iglesia lo que crea los problemas. Y lo digo como alguien que tiene conexiones familiares con quienes están familiarizados con tales situaciones.
En los últimos dos años, el presidente Nelson ha hecho mucho para cambiar la responsabilidad del crecimiento personal, familiar y congregacional de la Iglesia en general a individuos, familias y congregaciones. Cuando se trata de eso, me viene a la mente un famoso dicho inglés: puedes llevar a un caballo al agua, pero no puedes obligarlo a beber.
Si nosotros, como individuos, familias y congregaciones, aprovechamos plenamente las oportunidades que se nos han dado para hacer las cosas de una manera mejor, más alta y más sagrada, como lo invitó el presidente Nelson, creo que se tomarán todos los demás asuntos. cuidado por el Señor. Pero primero tenemos que hacer nuestras partes.
Recientemente, el presidente Ballard emitió un llamado que se hizo eco de los líderes generales de la Iglesia: orar por los líderes políticos de estos Estados Unidos. Si los miembros de todas partes hicieran lo mismo para sus gobiernos en todos los niveles, cualquier problema probablemente se resolvería.
No quiero faltarle al respeto aquí por nada de lo que he dicho, ni deseo aumentar el dolor o la carga de cualquiera que realmente pueda estar sufriendo debido a las condiciones que describió, pero si hacemos nuestras partes de la mejor manera posible, el El Señor puede y compensará la diferencia en situaciones sobre las cuales no podemos tener control. Y si no lo estamos haciendo, podemos asumir una responsabilidad parcial o más completa cuando las cosas no salen como esperábamos.
A medida que elijamos actuar en lugar de actuar, el Señor se encargará del resto. Esa es su promesa. Pero depende de nosotros llegar allí. Solo algunos pensamientos me forman, para lo que sea que valen para ti.
Y nuevamente, me disculpo por mi pobre español. Google Translate es mi nuevo amigo.
I have said it before: lack of central heating in the chapels during the winter months is a blow physically and socially to members of the church in Chile.
ReplyDeleteThere are many challenges in Chile, as in all places, but hopefully the people will continue to move forward. More temples means more blessings...
Eduardo, claro en Chile cómo en otros países hay dificultades y desafíos, como bien señalas la calefacción es un tema muy importante.
ReplyDeleteA mayor conocimiento más responsabilidad, siempre he sentido que cuidar y velar por los bautizados es una tarea enorme y que no debe descuidarse.
Sé qué hay bautizados que dan todo su tiempo y diezmos a la Iglesia y no siempre tienen apoyo de sus líderes, pero no olvidan su testimonio.
Ojalá sigan construyendo templos por pequeños que sean en Chile, ya queda, es un país largo y las zonas están distantes unas de otras.
Tal vez, no sean tantos los activos o que asistan, pero los que van son la fortaleza de la Iglesia en el país.