Last Sunday, the Church organized a new stake in the city of Querétaro. The Querétaro México Stake was divided to organize the new Querétaro México Valle Stake. The new stake includes the following four wards and two branches: the Fresnos, Juriquilla, Satelite, and Valle Wards, and the San Jose de Itubide and San Luis de la Paz Branches. With only four wards, the creation of additional wards appears imminent. There are now four stakes in the city of Querétaro where the Church organized its first stake in 1995. The Church in Querétaro has generally organized one new stake every decade. The Querétaro Mexico Temple was announced in April 2021.
The 2020 Mexican Census indicated that the number of self-affiliated Latter-day Saints in Querétaro State increased by a whopping 66.2% from 2010 - the largest percentage increase of any state in Mexico during that time period. This percentage increase was more than twice the rate of population growth during that same period. Young families, particularly those with professional training, have reportedly been moving to Querétaro in appreciable numbers during the past decade based upon local member reports. This growth has also likely contributed to the announcement of a temple in the city in 2021. Although these statistics are very positive, the number of self-reported Latter-day Saints in Mexico as a whole increased by only 7.3% between 2010 and 2020 even though Church-reported membership increased by 23.7% during this time period. I will be posting an analysis of the 2020 Mexican Census numbers in the coming days.
There are now 225 stakes and 47 districts in Mexico.
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I wonder if the implied new Maceio Brazil Temple Districts, from this recent Church News article will be as follows :
"Learn about the 2 temple locations announced in Brazil this year
• There are 5 stakes in Maceió; the first was organized in 1982. Aracaju, 175 miles to the south, has 2 stakes, and Arapiraca, 80 miles to the west, has 1 stake.
• Maceió is currently in the Recife Brazil Temple district, which comprises 45 stakes, including 6 in the Salvador-Camaçari area. Maceió is about 170 miles from Recife and 375 miles from Salvador, where a temple is under construction."
I interpret that to mean the planned Maceio Temple district would include the following 8 Stakes + 1 District in Alagoas and Sergipe States, taken from Rick's temples.org website.
"Alagoas
Arapiraca Brazil Stake
Maceió Brazil Colina Stake
Maceió Brazil Litoral Stake
Maceió Brazil Pajuçara Stake
Maceió Brazil Stake
Maceió Brazil Tabuleiro Stake
Sergipe
Aracaju Brazil North Stake
Aracaju Brazil South Stake
Lagarto Brazil District"
Also from the same the Salvador Brazil District could include the 11 Stakes + 1 District in Bahia State.
"Bahia
Camaçari Brazil Central Stake
Camaçari Brazil Stake
Feira de Santana Brazil Kalilândia Stake
Feira de Santana Brazil North Stake
Feira de Santana Brazil Stake
Itabuna Brazil Stake
Porto Seguro Brazil District
Salvador Brazil Imbuí Stake
Salvador Brazil Liberdade Stake
Salvador Brazil North Stake
Salvador Brazil Stake
Vitória da Conquista Brazil Stake"
As for the Santos Brazil Temple District, the article states :
"• There is 1 stake in Santos, which when organized in 1973 became the 7th stake in Brazil. Nearby coastal communities have 4 stakes.
• Santos is currently in the São Paulo Brazil Temple district, which comprises 47 stakes."
It appears like a member group is functioning on the Island of Holbox in Quintana Roo. Holbox is a growing resort community and it appears some members from other parts of Mexico have relocated here.
https://presidentandsisteranderson.blogspot.com/2022/07/first-baptism.html
I was a missionary in the branch that covers this area in 2015. We knew it was likely that there were members there, but we didn't have approval to go there. It appears that the new branch president has taken some initiative and likely took advantage of online streaming of sacrament services during the pandemic to reach out to members in these small towns within the branch boundaries. When I was there, a group functioned in a small town called "el Ideal" where there was a large family. I don't know if the group is still functioning. There was also a returned missionary in the town of San Angel that we were able to reconnect with. I believe this is an example online communication that began during the pandemic and has aided the branch leadership in reaching out to isolated members living in other towns.
Cory, this is a great find! I did a bit of research and the area looks gorgeous. I would not mind trading that ocean for the freezing cold baptismal font I got baptized in!
There are just short of 1200 people on that island. It's probably not a major priority for the Church but I wonder if in those kinds of situations, it would make sense to just send a senior couple there to that island to live and render administrative support to the group so it can eventually grow. They would spend some time finding and teaching, but also establishing the Church within the community and creating positive relationships out of which eventually, real growth can result.
I am feeling a bit more upbeat about Mexico now than a couple of years ago and I would not be surprised if we were entering a period of sustained real growth there.
Very interesting data. Some casual browsing caused me to notice a few things:
1. Overall population grew by 12%. Catholics 5%. Mormon 7%. Adventists 20%. JW -2%.
2. NONES (no specific religion or atheist/agnostic, which was only an option in 2020 and not 2010): 153% growth, to 13 million, or roughly 10% of the population.
3. In terms of relative growth to the population, Catholics now represent 5% less of the overall population than in 2010, Mormons shrunk slightly in representation, and "Nones" represent 5% more of the population.
4. There seems to be a huge jump in those who responded to this question in 2020 vs. 2010, which means extrapolating trends or growth could be difficult, but the 2020 numbers are more likely to be representative of the underlying population than the 2010 numbers. 2.5 million more people answered the question at all in 2020 relative to 2010. I would guess that representation of any group was understated in 2010, so any raw shrinking is understated, and any raw growth overstated.
"Church breaks ground for first chapel in Central African country of Angola"
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2022-07-24/luanda-angola-chapel-groundbreaking-first-church-building-central-africa-262432
Hello again, everyone! Matt, I assume you might already be aware of this, but for you and for anyone else who might not have heard, the Church News reported earlier today that, after its' congregations had met in community-provided locations, ground was recently broken for the first meetinghouse in the Angolan capital city of Luanda.
Construction on the meetinghouse is anticipated to be completed around a year from now. I believe I had listed a potential temple for Lunada as a long-shot guess that might come to fruition based on Nelsonian announcements thus far. But since there is not currently an existing meetinghouse in Angola, my assumption would be that a temple might not happen there for at least a few years until the Church is more fully established there.
In the meantime, on another note, as I mentioned recently on my blog, yesterday's "Days of '47" KSL Parade held in conjunction with Pioneer Day marked the first time the parade had a female grand marshal. Outgoing Relief Society General President Sister Jean B. Bingham served in that role this time around. And as also recently reported by the Church News, President Oaks has recently traveled to Rome to participate in the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit at around the same time that President Henry B. Eyring spoke at the recent BYU-Idaho commencement ceremonies. Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time two of the three members of the First Presidency have been outside of Utah on assignment at around the same time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's also worth mentioning that recent status updates on the Columbus Ohio, San Juan Puerto Rico, and Saratoga Springs Utah Temples have given me hope that announcement on their opening (or in the case of the Columbus Ohio Temple, the reopening) arrangements might soon be announced. Since Pioneer Day fell on a Sunday this year, the Utah state holiday will be observed tomorrow, making it likely that the earliest any new temple-related announcement will be made is Tuesday of this week. More details on all of these developments are available on the Church News and Church Temples sites, and in the most recent comments threads of my blog:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2022-07-24/luanda-angola-chapel-groundbreaking-first-church-building-central-africa-262432
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022-07-24/week-in-review-in-case-you-missed-it-president-nelsons-social-media-post-oaks-rome-eyring-byui-ballard-black-pioneers-262426
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2022-07-20/president-oaks-rome-italy-religious-freedom-historic-address-global-effort-262167
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2022-07-21/byu-idaho-commencement-graduation-president-henry-b-eyring-counsels-byuidaho-graduates-lifetime-of-learning-personal-revelation-262272
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/san-juan-puerto-rico-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/saratoga-springs-utah-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/columbus-ohio-temple/
https://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2022/07/breaking-news-2022-days-of-47-ksl.html
My thanks once again to you all.
I was looking at a map of temples in Africa, and I noticed that the Johannesburg South Africa Temple had 5 temples announced or under construction within its current temple district - Nairobi Kenya, Harare Zimbabwe, Beira Mozambique, Antananarivo Madagascar, and Cape Town South Africa. Additionally, the Hong Kong China Temple also has 5 planned temples in its current district - Shanghai China, Bangkok Thailand, Bangalore India, Phnom Penh Cambodia, and Singapore.
I know other temples have a good number of planned temples in its district, such as Cebu City Phillipines (Tacloban, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao), Accra Ghana (Kumasi Ghana, Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire, Monrovia Liberia, and Freetown Sierra Leone), and Mexico City Mexico (San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Mexico City Benemerito, and Puebla) with four each.
Just out of curiosity, what was the temple (or temples) that had the most amount of planned temples in its district? My initial thought would be Mexico City with numerous temples built in 1999 and 2000, but I'm not sure what the original boundaries between Mexico City and Mesa were or Mexico City and Guatemala City. I imagine the far north of Mexico went to Mesa or Dallas (such as Hermosillo, Ciudad Juarez, Colonia Juarez, and Monterrey) while the extreme southwest of Mexico could have gone to Guatemala City (Tuxtla Gutierres, possibly Villahermosa and Merida). I would imagine Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Tampico, and Veracruz went to Mexico City, but if Merida and Villahermosa were assigned to Mexico City, that would be 6 planned temples in its district.
From the photos I saw of the Days of 47 Parade, the number of spectators was not great. Sad to say that the spectators from last month's SLC Pride Parade were higher. Brigham Young's prophecy about the Salt Lake area in the latter days is being fulfilled.
Paul - Do you know if there are any reliable numbers on the parade attendance? I would be fascinated to know.
I have no reliable number of parade attendees. Just a sense from the photos.
For a while, the Campinas Brazil Temple district had four temples under construction/announced: Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, and Vitória
I am pretty sure none of Mexico was officially assigned to Guatemala City. I am suspecting at most Colonia Juarez, Ciudad Juarez and Hermosillo were officially assigned to Mesa, and even then Hermosillo may have taken in some areas previously assigned to Mexico City. Crossing the border into the US in a regular way for a short term trip was not very easy in the 1990s, so I am guessing that probably at one point there were at least 9 temples under construction taking from the Mexico City Temple.
Atlanta had at least Columbia, South Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee and maybe Raleigh and Memphis taking from it all at once.
Washington DC had Boston, Manhattan, Palmyra and Columbus for sure taking from it, maybe Raleigh as well.
Very quickly Oakland lost to Fresno, Reno and Medford.
In the early 1980s I think Apia, Nuku'alofa, Papeete and Sydney all took from Hamilton, New Zealand temple at once. Sydney had other temples in Australia all under way at once.
Accra, Ghana has Kumasi, Abijan, Freetown and Monrovia all under way in its area. I would not be shocked if Yamosoukro in Ivory Coast is announced this fall, and that would put 5 since Abijan is not dedicated yet.
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