November 2022 Monthly Newsletter

 Click here to access the November 2022 monthly newsletter for cumorah.com.

New Stakes Created in California, North Carolina, the Philippines, and Utah; New Districts Created in Tanzania

California

The Church organized a new stake in California on September 11th. The San Marcos California Stake was organized from a division of the Escondido California Stake and the Vista California Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards and one branch: the Buena Creek, Double Peak, Palomar YSA, Santa Fe Hills, Shadowridge, and Twin Oaks Valley Wards and the Las Posas Branch (Spanish). The creation of the new stake is essentially a reinstatement of the Escondido California South Stake (created in 1992, discontinued in 2011). This marks the first time the Church has created a new stake in California since the Lake Elsinore California Stake was organized in 2013. The Church has discontinued two stakes in California in 2022: the Concord California Stake and the Hayward California Stake.

There are now 146 stakes in California.

North Carolina

The Church organized a new stake in North Carolina on September 18th. The Lake Norman North Carolina Stake was organized from a division of the Gastonia North Carolina Stake and the Hickory North Carolina Stake. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Statesville, Cornelius, Huntersville, Lake Norman, Mooresville, and Mountain Island Wards. 

There are now five stakes in the Charlotte metropolitan area - two of which have been organized in the past five years. There are now 19 stakes in North Carolina.

Philippines

The Church organized a new stake in the Philippines. The Naga Philippines North Stake was organized from a division of the Naga Philippines Stake (organized in 1985). The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Calabanga, Camaligan, Canaman, Naga 1st, and Naga 5th Wards, and the Tinambac Branch. The Church announced plans to build a temple in Naga in October 2022.

There are now 125 stakes and 55 districts in the Philippines.

Utah

The Church organized a new stake in southern Utah on November 20th. The St George Utah Boulder Ridge East Stake was organized on November 20th from the St George Utah Boulder Ridge Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Cobblestone, Stonehedge, Stucki Farms, Sugar Plum, and Treasure Valley Wards. There are now 26 stakes in the St. George metropolitan area (excluding Hurricane and La Verkin). 

There are now 628 stakes and two districts in Utah.

Tanzania 

Two new districts were organized in Tanzania.

The Arusha Tanzania District was organized on November 20th. The new district includes three branches in the city of Arusha that were previously mission branches in the Tanzania Dar es Salaam Mission. These branches include the Arusha, Morombo, and Njiro Branches. Of these three branches, two were organized earlier in 2022. This marks the first time the Church has organized a district in Tanzania outside of the most populous city of Dar es Salaam. 

The Dar es Salaam Tanzania Chang'ombe District was organized on November 13th from a division of the burgeoning Dar es Salaam Tanzania District which had 16 branches after the creation of eight new branches in mid-2022. The new district includes four branches in the southern portion of the Dar es Salaam metropolitan area, including the Chanika, Kigamboni, Chang'ombe, and Mbagala Branches. Of these four branches in the new district, two were organized in mid-2022 and one was organized in 2021. It is unclear why the new district includes only four branches rather than evenly dividing the original Dar es Salaam Tanzania District into two districts of eight branches, but additional districts may be organized in Dar es Salaam in preparation of creating new branches and member groups. Recently returned missionaries report that the mission has aggressively organized member groups and small branches in Dar es Salaam to improve accessibility to the Church for Latter-day Saints and populations targeted by mission outreach. It appears that the focus has been to delay the creation of the first stake by providing greater saturation of congregations and meetinghouses in Dar es Salaam rather than trying to build up ward-sized units that cover large swaths of the city that include an average of half a million to one million people who live within the boundaries of each congregation. This type of strategy in Africa has generally be most effective in the long term for achieving greater growth. The population of the Dar es Salaam metropolitan area is 6.75 million. The Church in Tanzania is experiencing a period of rapid growth after decades of slow membership growth and stagnant congregational growth - a change that has appeared instigated by the creation of the Tanzania Dar es Salaam Mission in 2020 and transitioning to Swahili instead of English for church meetings. Church membership increased by nearly 30% between year-end 2019 and year-end 2021. In contrast, the Church had not reported annual membership growth rates year over year of 10% of higher since the early 2000s.