Last Sunday, the Church organized a new district in Albania. The Elbasan Albania District was organized from the Tirana Albania Stake and several mission branches in the Adriatic South Mission. The new district includes the following six branches: the Berat, Elbasan, Fier, Korçë, Lushnjë, and Pogradec Branches. Of these six branches, three have been organized within the past year. The Church has reported good growth in the recently organized Korçë and Pogradec Branches with as many as 40-50 people attending church services in each branch. The district is the Church's first district to ever be organized in Albania outside of Tirana. For more information about the Church in Albania, click here.
There is now one stake and one district in Albania.
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Hello again, everyone! First of all, Matt, thanks for this report. We have seen that, for the most part, with COVID-19 impacting normal Church operations and functions, that the creation of new stakes and districts has slowed for the time being. I am overjoyed to see that the Church can still create new districts during this time, which makes sense given the fact that the creation of a district usually involves small branches with few members, and could in the midst of COVID-19 be something that might be able to be done through technology if in-person gatherings are seen as unsafe or impractical.
It will be interesting to see what happens with the creation of new stakes and districts this year, especially given President Ballard's recent directive that all stake conferences for 2020 are cancelled at least through November 1:
https://www.ldsliving.com/Stake-conferences-canceled-through-November-1-exceptions-can-be-requested/s/93018
I'm hoping that as certain areas of the world recover from the effects of the current pandemic that the Church will be able to create a large number of new stakes and districts during late 2020 and early 2021 as a result of the effects of the pandemic on the growth of the Church.
In the meantime, I've been intrigued by the words of counsel from members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in relation to the current pandemic which have been shared by the Church News, in addition to the reports that have been published thus far about the virtual-only seminar for new mission leadership. From those articles, it appears that one impact the pandmic will have is on the missionary program of the Church. A common observation during this time has been that the pandemic has led Church leaders to reevaluate how to enable missionaries to more effectively reach interested individuals, and it sounds as though the Church will continue to more fully utilize technology as a vital element of missionary work going forward, even after a "new normal" is established post-pandemic.
It's also been amazing to see how the Church has more fully utilized technology. Instead of meeting with congregations of Saints worldwide, apostles have been able to continue their sacred ministry efforts through social media. The articles featuring the apostolic counsel have included numerous references to how their experiences during this time have changed their views on how to move the Church forward in the days ahead.
I know that President Nelson said during the most recent General Conference that he had no idea it would be impacted by a global pandemic, but I do wonder how much of the status quo might be altered going forward as a result of the pandemic and what Church leaders have learned in the midst thereof.
Updated earlier this morning on Classic Maps also, the Ecuador Guayaquil North, South and West Missions, were reorganized to create the new "Ecuador Guayaquil East Mission - 2153475", to begin tomorrow, Wednesday, 07/01/2020.
From Guayaquil North to Guayaquil East :
472727 Babahoyo Ecuador
521426 Durán Ecuador North
521434 Durán Ecuador South
524948 Guayaquil Ecuador Kennedy
520713 Guayaquil Ecuador Las Orquideas
520586 Milagro Ecuador
2120186 Samborondón Ecuador
616494 Ventanas Ecuador
From Guayaquil North to Guayaquil South :
412899 El Triunfo Ecuador
From Guayaquil South to Guayaquil West :
524921 Guayaquil Ecuador El Cisne
511633 Guayaquil Ecuador Puerto Nuevo
From Guayaquil West to Guayaquil North :
2105004 Guayaquil Ecuador Fortin
527068 Guayaquil Ecuador Via Daule
611743 Jipijapa Ecuador
524751 Manta Ecuador
514217 Portoviejo Ecuador
New totals of Stakes/Districts :
Ecuador Guayaquil East : 8 Stakes/Districts
Ecuador Guayaquil North : 8 Stakes/Districts
Ecuador Guayaquil South : 9 Stakes/Districts
Ecuador Guayaquil West : 8 Stakes/Districts
Updated also on Classic Maps today, confirmation of new "Elbasan Albania District - 2157047".
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=40.752244,19.500042&z=7&m=google.road&layers=stakecenter&q=Elbasan%20Albania%20District&find=stake:2157047
Thank you, Matt, for the update.
Chris, thanks for these updates as well. As I mentioned in the threads of the previous post, it makes sense that the Church's recently-created missions would split the number of stakes and districts a little more evenly than may have been the case before the creation of those new missions. It will be awesome to see how COVID-19 continues to change the missionary program. Thanks again for the great information.
There are a lot of other things going on and in some areas that proclaimed they had witnessed a miracle, they had a big surge in cases and deaths. Lots of other things not germane to this blog either.
But one thing hit very close to home. KSL reported there was a protest in Downtown Provo last night, during which a pickup somehow plowed its way through protesters and was shot at by a protester. From the video on KSLs Facebook page I discovered it was barely north of the Provo City Center Temple, maybe a block north or so but while not everything in the video was not clear I was able to determine that.
Updated earlier this morning on Classic Maps, the "Texas San Antonio Mission - 2013630" and "Texas Fort Worth Mission - 2012057" have been realigned to organize the new "Texas Austin Mission - 2152274".
From Fort Worth to Austin :
511196 Killeen Texas
1434780 Waco Texas
From San Antonio to Austin :
506915 Austin Texas
520845 Austin Texas Oak Hills
2144379 Austin Texas West
2072181 Cedar Park Texas
272795 Round Rock Texas
1994719 Round Rock Texas East
New totals Stakes/Districts, Austin - 8, Fort Worth - 9, San Antonio - 9.
Got an interesting report on a mission president who is starting his service today: He had to go to South America, I think Ecuador. Left Salt Lake yesterday morning and the flight, probably in stages, took the whole rest of yesterday. The country had eased travel restrictions just last week.
Same report said that the mission presidents that cannot reach their assigned mission yet are working with their mission via technology until such time as they can travel and enter the country their mission is in.
While reviewing the location of the new "Elbasan Albania District", I am wondering why the Vlore Ward, to the southwest of the new District, from the Tirana Albania Stake was not included in the new District?
It will have to go through the Elbasan District to go to Stake Conferences in Tirana to the north of Vlore?
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=40.688681,20.183663&z=9&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Elbasan%20Albania%20District&find=stake:2157047
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=41.286492,19.688055&z=8&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&q=Vlore%20Ward&find=ward:498998
My guess is that Vlorë is more directly connected to Tirana than Elbasan is. It could also be a leadership issue- maybe the Vlorë Ward has much needed stake leaders that could not come from elsewhere, so they kept that unit in the Tirana stake. Could be lots of reasons.
@Chris
Because Vlore was a Ward, and a stake needs a certain amount of members on its list (1900 members outside US & Canada) and a number of active full tithe paying pristhoood holders and at least 5 wards. The Vlore Ward has more than 300 embers on its record.
From the former stake president i knew that they wanted to create a district. I was still a bit surprised that permission was granted, since the stake only had between 450 - 500 members attending sacrament weekly. The 3 branches removed form the stake reduce that number by around 70.
I think one of the reasons the district was created was to make it easer for the stake president so that he does not have to worry so much about the small branches. It least that is what i got out of the conversation with the former stake president.
I just got a report from a grand niece serving in Albania. She says that the work is mainly online. After some online teaching there are meetings arranged to follow up with deeper discussions of gospel principles, and that the work is going very well.
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