Monday, August 31, 2020

August 2020 Monthly Newsletter

Click here to access the August 2020 monthly newsletter. With the birth of my son and work obligations, I was unable to do much research during the month. Numbers released on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on missionary service are summarized in the newsletter, as well as reports on new stakes created during the month (the first three new stakes created since March 2020).

16 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the birth of your son Matt! Great to hear the good news!

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  2. Matt, big congratulations on the birth of your son. Although we appreciate the time you are taking to moderate the comments and publish content here, if you need to step back for a time and focus on your family, it won't be problematic for any of us. Hope you and yours are staying happy, healthy, and well in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 craziness. Best wishes!

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  3. I had never heard of Broadus County until this article. It makes sense, as it's on the far eastern side of the state and I grew up on the western border. Also, Montana is so big and so rural that it's full of a thousand little communities that no-one's ever heard of, not even many of its own residents.

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  4. Seeing its location, my bet is that the growth in Broadus was due to the Dakota oil boom, and perhaps its recent closure was due to temporary oil workers seeking employment or residence elsewhere.

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  5. The Sheridan, Wyoming Stake was newly created on August 30, 2020. The Gillette WY stake was divided into two stakes: Gillette WY and Sheridan WY. Other than the families of the incoming and outgoing presidencies (who met at the stake center), the membership watched stake conference from home.

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    1. @Melanie and Ryan

      Funny coincidence, but Sheridan County, WY (where they just made the new stake), is right near Powder River County, MT (where they just closed the aforementioned branch in Broadus).

      I guess when one door closes, another opens, eh?

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  6. For the information of all readers of this blog, the Church announced yesterday that the opening of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple has been postponed due to COVID-19:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/winnipeg-manitoba-temple-open-house-and-dedication

    The good news is that, with President Nelson having set the precedent of delegating more temple dedications and rededications to his fellow apostolic colleagues, if the queue of temple dedications/rededications does build up, the apostles can be sent out 1 or more at the same time to take care of the queue whenever it can be dealt with safety. My thanks once again to you all.

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  7. Good to hear about the newest stake growth.

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  8. I thought policy for US stakes was at least 3,000 members, but I don't see how the Sheridan Stake could have over 2,500 to 2,600 members. This is based on information from the Association of Religion Archives ("the arda.com") which showed the membership for Johnson and Sheridan Counties, where the stake is located, as 1889 for 2010. The population for Johnson County has actually declined slightly, and the population for Sheridan County is up only about 5% since 2010.

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    1. Maybe the members in those counties are super duper righteous, so they count double? ;P

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    2. The Colstrip, MT ward is also assigned to the Sheridan Stake.

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  9. The Dover Delaware Stake was created in 2012 from the Wilmington Delaware Stake, leaving Wilmington stake with about 2,700 members. (I was stake membership clerk at the time.) I'm not sure how it was approved, especially since Dover stake has been struggling.

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  10. Actually maybe Broadus was moved into one of the wards where the new stakes were formed and that is why it no longer has a branch.

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    1. @John Pack Lambert

      That's definitely a possibility, especially if nearby Colstrip, MT is a part of the new Wyoming Stake.

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  11. The creation of the Sheridan Wyoming Stake (2163349) has been confirmed, it was added in CDOL within the past few days. It consists of 5 wards and 2 branches:

    Ranchester Branch (136344)
    Sheridan YSA Branch (296635)
    Buffalo Ward (37281)
    Colstrip Ward (129976)
    Sheridan 1st Ward (35602)
    Sheridan 2nd Ward (115754)
    Sheridan 3rd Ward (540323)

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