This is the fourth and final post in a serious of posts regarding the 36 new missions to be organized in 2024. This post provides an analysis of new missions to be organized in North America.
There will be 10 new missions organized in North America in 2024 - all of which will be located in the United States. Seven of the new missions have never previously operated, whereas three of the new missions will be reinstated from missions that previously closed. The number of missions in the United States will total 120 once the 10 new missions are organized. Even though the Church will report a new all-time high for the number of missions once the 36 new missions are organized in 2024, the number of missions in the United States will not be an all-time high. The Church reported its all-time high for the number of missions in the United States in 2016-2017 when there were 125 missions. Thus, the Church has been decreasing its percentage of worldwide missions in the United States within approximately the past decade from 29.7% in 2017 to what will be 26.7% in 2024. This decrease reflects greater efforts to redistribute missions worldwide from less productive and/or less populated areas to more productive and/or more populated areas and also increases in the number of full-time missionaries serving from countries outside of the United States. In 2024, the average mission in the United States will have 2.8 million people within its geographical boundaries.
CALIFORNIA MODESTO
The California Modesto Mission will be a reinstatement of the previous California Modesto Mission that briefly operated from 2015 until 2018. The new mission will likely be organized from the California Fresno Mission (organized in 1975) and the California Sacramento Mission (organized in 1942) and include six stakes within the Modesto and Stockton area (which was what the boundaries of the mission were when it operated from 2015-2018). The Church announced a temple for Modesto in April of 2022). Slight decline or stagnant growth has occurred for the Church in the Modesto area of California for decades, although no stakes have ever been discontinued in what will be the likely boundaries of the new mission. The most recently organized stake in the area is the Turlock California Stake which was organized in 1986. With the creation of the new mission, there will now be 16 missions in California, with the average mission having 2.4 million people within its geographical boundaries. The Church in California has experienced a significant decline within the past decade (2013-2022) in particular, as Church membership has decreased from 780,200 to 728,995 (6.6%), the number of congregations has decreased from 1,355 to 1,134 (16.3%), the number of stakes decreased from 157 to 146 (7.0%), and the number of missions has decreased from 19 to 15 (21%) even though the state population has increased from 38.4 million to 39.0 million.
FLORIDA TALLAHASSEE
The Florida Tallahassee Mission will be a reinstatement of the previous Florida Tallahassee Mission that operated from 1971 until 2019. The new mission will probably be organized from the Alabama Birmingham Mission (organized in 1979) and the Florida Jacksonville Mission (organized in 1987) and will probably comprise the same boundaries of the original Florida Tallahassee Mission with six stakes - four in the Florida panhandle and two in Alabama. The Church has experienced slow growth in this area of Florida and in southern Alabama during the past several decades, with the most recently organized stake being the Fort Walton Beach Florida Stake (organized in 1996). The Tallahassee Florida Temple was announced in April 2020 and construction is nearly complete. There will be five missions in Florida once the new mission is organized (which is the previous all-time high for the number of missions in the state). The average mission in Florida will have 4.4 million people within its geographical boundaries. A second mission in the Orlando area appears most likely if the Church organizes a sixth mission in Florida in the foreseeable future due to significant growth in this area in terms of congregations and stakes.
MONTANA MISSOULA
The Montana Missoula Mission will be the Church's second mission to ever operate in Montana following the Montana Billings Mission (organized in 1950). The new mission will likely include at least four stakes in western Montana and probably additional stakes between Missoula and Billings. The most recently organized stake in the Missoula area was created in Frenchtown in 2017, whereas the Missoula Montana Stake is the oldest stake in the Missoula area (organized in 1957). The average mission in Montana will likely have approximately 560,000 people within its geographical boundaries. The Church announced a temple for Missoula in April 2022.
NEVADA HENDERSON
The Nevada Henderson Mission will be the Church's fourth mission in Nevada following the Nevada Las Vegas Mission (organized in 1975), the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission (organized in 1997), and the Nevada Reno Mission (organized in 2012). The new mission will likely have eight stakes within its geographical boundaries - the oldest of which was organized in 1956. Steady growth has occurred in the Henderson area and in southern Las Vegas for many years, and the two most recently created stakes were organized in 2015 and 2017. No missions have ever been discontinued in Nevada. With the creation of the new mission, the average mission in Nevada will have 794,000 people within its geographical boundaries.
SOUTH CAROLINA CHARLESTON
The South Carolina Charleston Mission will be the Church's second mission to ever operate in South Carolina following the South Carolina Columbia Mission (organized in 1975). The Church has never discontinued a mission in South Carolina. The Church only operates one stake in Charleston which was created in 1972. However, the stake has steady grown to 10 wards and three branches and appears likely to divide in the near future. The new mission will likely include 4-5 stakes on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, the most recently organized of which was created in 2019 in Hilton Head. Charleston is a less likely location to have a temple announced. The average mission in South Carolina will have 2.6 million people once the new mission is organized.
TEXAS DALLAS SOUTH
The Texas Dallas South Mission will likely be organized from the Texas Dallas Mission (organized in 1961), the Texas Fort Worth Mission (organized in 1986) and possibly the Texas Dallas East Mission (organized in 2020). The new mission will probably include 5-6 stakes in the southern Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area which is an area of the metropolitan area that has fewer Latter-day Saints than most other areas of the metropolitan area.
TEXAS EL PASO
The Texas El Paso Mission will be organized from the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission (organized in 1975) and may also include the Fort Stockton Texas District that is currently assigned to the Texas Lubbock Mission (organized in 2002). The new mission will likely include the three stakes in El Paso and the stake in Las Cruces New Mexico (organized in 1974). The first stake in El Paso was organized in 1952 followed by two additional stakes created in 1982 and 2016. The new mission may also include the Silver City Mexico Stake (organized in 1983) which is assigned to the Arizona Tuscon Mission (organized in 1990). With the creation of the two new missions, there will be 12 missions in Texas. Thus, the average mission will have 2.5 million people within its geographical boundaries.
UTAH SALT LAKE CITY EAST
The Utah Salt Lake City East Mission will be a reinstatement of the Utah Salt Lake City East Mission which operated from 2013 until approximately 2019 when there was a realignment of missions in the Salt Lake City area and the mission was merged with the Utah Salt Lake City Mission (organized in 1980). The new mission will likely include 30-40 stakes within its geographical boundaries. The Church has reported a slight decline in the number of stakes in this area of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area within the past decade.
UTAH SARATOGA SPRINGS
The Utah Saratoga Springs Mission will be a new mission that has never operated before in Utah. The new mission will likely be organized from Utah Orem Mission (organized in 2015). The new stake will likely include 20-40 stakes in northern Utah county. Rapid growth has occurred in this area of Utah, with often multiple new stakes organized each year due to significant home construction.
UTAH SPANISH FORK
The Utah Spanish Fork Mission will also likely be organized from the Utah Provo Mission (organized in 1989). The new mission will likely have 30-40 stakes within its geographical boundaries. Steady growth has occurred for the Church in southern Utah county.
There will be 13 stakes in Utah once the three new missions are organized - an all-time high for the number of missions in the state. The average mission in Utah will include a mere 260,000 people. Given Church membership constitutes 64.3% of the state population, the average mission may include less than 100,000 people who are not Latter-day Saints on Church records. These Utah missions will likely be heavily involved with reactivation work among less-active and inactive members which likely number over one million for the state. The number of stakes and congregations has steadily grown year over year with only one exception in 2011 when there was a decline in the number of congregations due to massive realignment of stakes and wards to organize young single adult (YSA) stakes.
39 comments:
Are there any missions, either now or after the reorganization with more than one temple in them? I would imagine that with the number of Missions in Utah, that it would almost certainly be true there, but I don't know outside the state.
Randolph, These are the current 2023 Missions with more than 1 Temple either inoperation, construction or announced, within it's defined 2023 geographical borders. This list may not be complete and/or contain errors.
In alphabetical order, we have :
1) Alpine German Speaking includes both Berne Switzerland and Vienna Austria Temples.
2) Arizona Tucson includes both Tucson Arizona and The Gila Valley Arizona Temples.
3) Belgium/Netherlands includes both Brussels Belgium and The Hague Netherlands Temples.
4) California Fresno includes both Fresno California and Modesto California Temples.
5) Canada Calgary has the following 3 included, Calgary Alberta, Cardston Alberta and Lethbridge Alberta Temples.
6) Canada Montreal contains both Halifax Nova Scotia and Montreal Quebec Temples.
7) Canda Winnipeg includes both Regina Saskatchewan and Winnipeg Manitoba Temples.
8) China Hong Kong includes (at least in my mind) Hong Kong China and Shanghai China Temples.
9) Colorado Denver South includes both Denver Colorado and Grand Junction Colorado Temples.
10) Colorado Fort Collins includes both Casper Wyoming and Fort Collins Colorado Temples.
11) Idaho Boise includes both Boise Idaho and Meridian Idaho Temples.
12) Idaho Idaho Falls includes these 3, Idaho Falls Idaho, Rexburg Idaho, and Teton Valley Temples.
13) Idaho Pocatello includes these 5, Burley Idaho, Montpelier Idaho, Pocatello Idaho, Star Valley Wyoming and Twin Falls Idaho Temples.
14) Japan Fukuoka includes both Fukuoka Japan And Okinawa City Japan Temples.
15) Massachusetts Boston included both Boston Massachusetts and Hartford Connecticut Temples.
16) Mexico Ciudad Juarez includes both Ciudad Juarez Mexico and Colonia Juarez Temples.
17) Mexico Mexico City East includes both Mexico City Mexico and Mexico City Benemerito Mexico Temples.
18) Michigan Detroit includes both Detroit Michigan and Cleveland Ohio Temples.
19) Montana Billings includes the 4, Billings Montana, Helena Montana, Missoula Montana and Cody Wyoming Temples.
20) Nevada Reno includes both Elko Nevada and Reno Nevada Temples.
21) New Mexico Farmington includes both Farmington New Mexico and Monticello Utah Temples.
22) Oregon Eugene includes both Medford Oregon and Willamette Valley Oregon Temples.
23) Samoa Apia includes these 3, Apia Samoa, Pago Pago Samoa and Savaii Samoa Temples.
24) Texas Dallas West includes both Dallas Texas and McKinney Texas Temples.
25) Tonga Nuku'alofa includes both Neiafu Tonga and Nuku'alofa Tonga Temples.
26) Utah Layton includes these 3, Bountiful Utah, Layton Utah and Syracuse Utah Temples.
27) Utah Ogden includes these 4, Brigham City Utah, Logan Utah, Ogden Utah and Smithfield Utah Temples.
28) Utah Orem includes these 4, Lindon Utah, Mount Timpanogos Utah, Orem Utah and Saratoga Springs Temples.
29) Utah Provo includes these 5, Payson Utah, Provo City Center, Provo Utah, Vernal Utah and Heber Valley Utah Temples.
30) Utsah Salt Lake City South includes these 3, Draper Utah, Jordan River Utah and Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temples.
31) Utah Salt Lake City West includes both Deseret Peak Utah and Taylorsville Utah Temples.
32) Utah St George includes the 4, Cedar City Utah, Manti Utah, Red Cliffs Utah and St. George Utah Temples.
I know that those numbers will change next July 2024 when at least 36 current Missions will be realligned to create the 36 new or reinstated ones.
But, I do hope this helps answer your question.
Is there a website that shows mission boundaries on a map?
Craig Shuler says,
Randolph,
Six of Utah's 8 regular proselyting missions have more than one temple:
- Utah Ogden Mission has the following temples: Ogden Utah, Brigham City Utah, Logan Utah, and the Smithfield Temple under construction.
- Utah Layton Mission has the Bountiful Utah temple, Layton Utah scheduled for dedication in 2024 and Syracuse Utah nearly complete.
- Utah Salt Lake City South (where I had my first week as Financial Secretary last week) has the Jordan River Utah, Draper Utah, and Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temples
- Utah Orem Mission has the Mount Timpanogos, and Saratoga Springs Temples, with the Orem Utah temple scheduled for dedication in 2024 and the Lindon Utah under construction.
- Utah Provo Mission has the Provo Utah, Provo Utah City Center, Vernal Utah, and Payson Utah temples, with the Heber City Utah temple starting construction.
- Utah St. George Temple has the St. George Utah, Cedar City Utah, and Manti Utah temples, with the Red Cliffs Utah temple to be dedicated in 2024 and the Ephraim Utah under construction.
Utah Salt Lake City Mission has only the Salt Lake Temple which is closed for reconstruction.
Utah Salt Lake City West Mission has no temples, but Taylorsville Utah is nearly ready to dedicate and Deseret Peak Utah Temple is nearing completion.
Southeast Utah has the Monticello Utah Temple, but is part of the New Mexico Farmington Mission, with the Farmington Temple under construction.
As usual, by the time I wrote all this, Chris has answered your question better than I have.
I've heard that all mission presidents will be announced in the Church News on January 6 and mission maps on January 13.
Craig, Personally, I want to thank you for this great post. It helps me confirm my information is the most accurate. At least in the Utah Area. You have done a great job in providing more detailed information about the Utah Missions that have multiple Temples within their geographic boundaries.
Also, I want to thank you for at least a possible date we will get the 2024 New Mission Presidents called posted on the Church News Site. Even if it is just rumors now. Also I'm excited to hear they may post the Mission Maps about a week later. That is great news.
One that is missing from your list is the Alaska Anchorage Mission that has the Anchorage and Fairbanks temples.
To the anonymous friend asking about mission maps, the only one i know of is this unofficial site: https://missioncall.app/worldmap.html
Cleveland Stake has been moved to the Columbus Mission. So Detroit mission has 1 temple but Columbus has both Cleveland and Columbus Temples.
Since we will hopefully get new temples announced in April 2024, it is too soon to know which missions may have multiple temples as of July 2024. Also, exactly which mission some temples may end up in may be a bit hard to predict.
Thanks, Religlang, for the mission maps website. It also has a slide button to show or hide all current and announced temples within each mission boundary in 2023. Which helped me find another besides Alaska that I missed. Which is the Germany Berlin Mission that includes both Freiberg Germany and Hamburg Germany Temples until next July 2024.
Also, thanks, John Pack Lambert for clarifying that the Cleveland Stake was assigned instead to the Columbus Mission. So I can correct my mistake.
You're very welcomeǃ Someone else shared that website on this blog about a month ago, which is where I found it, but I don't remember who it was.
Also, from this non-official Mission Maps site, can someone confirm if the Pittburgh Pennsylvania Temple (located in the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake, near Cranberry) is in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission or the Ohio Columbus Mission?
On this map drawing it reflects the area under the Ohio Columbus Mission instead of Pittsburgh.
https://missioncall.app/worldmap.html?destination=details&missionId=ohio-columbus
making the Ohio Columbus Mission with 3 temples currently. The Columbus Ohio, Cleveland Ohio and Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temples included.
Here are a couple more I found by just glancing at the Missions map.
The Arkansas Bentonville Mission includes both the Bentonville Arkansas and Springfield Missouri Temples.
The Oklahoma Oklahoma City Mission includes both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa Oklah0oma Temples.
The mission maps is not accurate for 2023 for the Philippines as the boundaries are not accurate.
https://missioncall.app/worldmap.html is fairly accurate for most missions (at least the ones I'm familiar with). CDOL will have the exact boundaries for those that can log in. As far as I can tell, the church has not released the boundaries for after the new missions take effect in July and either of these maps will likely not show this until after creation/realignment.
Matt, I appreciated your comments in this recent SLT article on LDS membership in Utah. You always cut through the spin and state the facts. My favorite part: "So saying that Utah is no longer Mormon majority is misleading,” he said, “because it really hasn’t ever been a strong majority when taking self-affiliation and activity rates into account.” You could honestly cut out everything else and just have your quote and it would have been pretty much the same article, with the graph they display at the top even noting that Utah has not been majority LDS since 2007. Not sure why they felt the need to write it as they did, but that is their prerogative.
Here's a link for anyone interested: https://archive.ph/BrenN
Matt, I also liked your comments in the Tribune article.
One thing I found interesting is that there are now estimated to be about 700,000 people on church's rolls in Utah that don't self-identify as members. That's just a staggering amount. A full 5% of the entire church's membership. I know you mentioned in another post on Mexico that there are ~1 million such people in Mexico (who are on the church's reported membership records but don't self-identify as members).
And then this finding was interesting: that of survey respondents, 1/3 who were LDS at age 12 are no longer self-identifying as members. Is that number stable? Is it accelerating/declining? Would you expect it to be different outside of the US/Utah? I would expect the proportion who no longer identify to be much higher in countries like Mexico compared to Utah, but 1/3 is still quite high.
Even though the finding that "Utah is no longer a majority" is misleading, the cause of those who feel misled is from those who take the church's own reported numbers at face value. So I can't really blame the authors of the study on this one. It seems as though sometimes these studies are needed to correct misinformation.
Just to clarify my prior statement: a better article title would have been "New survey evidence confirms that Mormons not a majority in Utah since at least 2007" or "New survey evidence estimates Mormon affiliation at 42% of Utahans - 700,000 less than Church reported membership."
Thank you for your comment James, I always appreciate your thoughtful insight.
I am certainly not the expert on youth retention, but it has interested me and I have a few resources that may interest you.
This Pew religious survey from 2014 shows that roughly 31% of those raised LDS no longer identify with the faith: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/05/12/chapter-2-religious-switching-and-intermarriage/
And this thesis from BYU back in 1975 on Home Teaching has a citation from the Improvement Era in 1912 saying that 40% of youth were not active (page 118 for the quote): https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6043&context=etd
I'm sure Matt would have a better answer (and I would love to hear his thoughts), but it seems that things have held steady between 30-40% of youth going inactive. I don't have any other data points off the top of my head between 1912-2014, but I do think those two links above show an interesting spread, with activity actually improving over the past century.
Anecdotally my ward has about 90% youth activity.
If anyone is interested. The Church News just posted this article about the 200 millionth copy of the Book of Mormon.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2023/12/29/24012842/church-distributes-200-millionth-copy-of-the-book-of-mormon
Also the Newsroom posted last week this article about a Interfaith Christmas Program in Lima Peru.
22 December 2023 - LIMA
News Release
Interfaith Choir of Peru Unites Hearts
Christmas concert builds bridges and unifies
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/interfaith-choir-of-peru-unites-hearts
Since the Pittsburgh North stake center is where the Pittsburgh temple is being built, and said stake is part of the Pittsburgh mission, I think it's safe to say that the Pittsburgh temple is in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission, not Ohio Columbus. It is at present part of the Columbus temple's district.
2023 Temple News in Review, Part 1 of 3:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2023/12/29/24010596/temples-in-2023-part-1-president-nelson-announces-35-locations-2nd-straight-year
James & Chris,
Talking about 30-40% of those raised LDS and becoming less active later on:
I don't know if it's simply coincidental, but according to the church, the Lord lost a third of his children in the war in heaven - very similar numbers.
The other thing is membership is not the same as self-identification, and neither of these are the same as attendance. I don't know how many journalists and individuals try to compare these things as if they are supposed to mean the same.
I'm a member of a number of non-religious organizations, some I still affiliate with, that I'm a member of but haven't attend their meetings at least in the past year. Do I say they're over-inflating their numbers? One organization's meeting I have attended bragged that their 5% attendance of members at their monthly meetings was very good compared to other organizations. For the ones I don't affiliate with, unless they're contacting me like telemarketers, I see no point in calling them up to see if I'm still on the rolls.
Worldwide the bigger indicators for church growth, are countries with:
-religious freedom expansion
-"economically humbled"
-areas with high fertility rates
Consequently, Sub-Saharan Africa (portions with freedom of religion) and the Philippines are among those seeing the most church growth.
However, the worldwide rise in authoritarianism is going to hamper church growth in countries where freedom of religion is being taken away. This is certainly happening in Russia with their "anti-terrorism" laws which started in 2016 and increased in severity since (closed all FHC centers, church websites, prohibited proselytizing outside of church facilities, prohibited foreign missionaries which are now called volunteers...), and with China tightening down on the sliver of religious freedom that they had granted in the past couple of decades; these among a several other examples happening in other countries. I HOPE this current trend changes, but no apparent sign of worldwide reversal at this time.
Here is Part 2 in the 3-part series about temple construction in 2023:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2023/12/30/24010574/temples-in-2023-part-2-dedications-most-in-more-than-20-years
My thanks once again to you all.
There are 96 announced temples awaiting ground breaking. 48 have sites announced, 48 do not. Only 1 has a scheduled ground breaking. Some of this backlog may be after the long delay for Heber Valley (it has been over a year since groundbreaking, have thry begun construction yet), and a few other temples going over 6 months from ground breaking to construction start, there may be an attempt to get more approvals in place before ground is broken.
I am hoping some if the 47 temples with sites announced have ground broken soon, and hopefully some of the 48 awaiting sirlte announcements have sites announced soon.
I have hope we may see some announcements on the 2nd, but we might not see anything tempke related until the next week.
Lots of people "raised" in the Church really hardly attended at all. I have seen people baptized as children and teenagers, both with their parents and not with their parents, who you could count on your fingers how many times they went to Church after that.
I also know people who were baptized despite not being in accordance with the law of chastity at 14, in part because they lied to the missionaries, and maybe in part because missionaries did not think someone having a live in boyfriend at 14 was as likely as it is in inner city Detroit, who later changed their life around, and came to live fully by the covenants.
Nothing is very simple, and there are lots of levels.
We are going into one of my favorite times of thd year. New calling season. Almost all new callings of mission presidents, temple presidents, area seventies and general authorities and general officers are announced now through the end of April.
Last year I believe every temple president was a resident of the country of the temple they were called to run. The incoming American couple who will lead the Abijan Ivory Cosst Temple will seem out of place in some ways by the time thry start.
I believe the only cases where the temple president and matron were not current residents of the temple district were the Villars called to lead McAllen Texas Temple. They come from San Antonio,but President Villar is a native of the Rio Grande Valley. The couple who leads the Okinawa Temple are natfrom "mainland" Japan, but the president was born on Okinawa. The temple president in Guaquil Ecador is from Quito, and does not have any obvious Guaquil connections.
In the early 1980s when Tonta Tournai Paletu'a was called as president of the new Nukualofa Tonga Temple, calling a local temple president was rare.
President Hinckley included calling a local brother as temple president as part of his small temple plan. He also said he would serve 5 years. The 5 year part did not hold much past 5 years, they almost everywhere went back to 5. Although the Nixons in Manhattan will make it to 5 years, but that temple was long closed for Covid.
The Detrout Temple has only had one president called from outside Michigan, and he had been stake president in Midland Michigan stake. The Hinckley era temples in Mexico have pretty much all had out of district, and most non-Mexican, presidents. Of course there are contradictions there. The first Latina President in Colonia Juarez Temple was Rosa Whetten, who was raised in the US. Her husband was an Anglo descended man who was raised in Mexico.
The first temple president in Mexico City was Harold Brown, who was the first stake president there. The first temple president in Guatemala City was John O'Donnell, who was raised in the Latter-day Saint colonies in Mexico. His wife was the first Guatemalan baptized.
The Accra Ghana Temple has had I believe 7 presidents, only 2 have been Ghanaians. So London is only 1 behind,although London's temple president has lived in London for decades.
A History of who has been temple presidents and Matroska would be very interesting. There have probably been between 1100 and 1200 temple presidents, but around 3000 mission presidents. So it would seem to be easier to write a history of temple presidents.
To my knowledge there has only been 1 apostle who served as temple president before he was an apostle, Mariner W. Merrill. Anthon Lund is the only apostle to have been president of 2 temples, Manti and Salt Lake.
The first temple president was Wilford Woodruff.
At one point the president of the Laie Temple was at the same time president of the Hawaiian Mission. As far as I know that is the only place that every happened.
At least 3 current apostles (Elders Andersen, Rasband, Soares) were mission presidents, and so was President Ballard, President Monson and Elder Scott and Elder Haight. Elder Hales was, but as a general authority, the aane was true of President Packer. Elder Gong may be the only current apostle who ever served as a temple worker, and that was with an assignment to serve on the DC overnight shift in the late 1990s.
The last apostle who had served as temple president I believe was Joseph Fielding Smith, and that was while an apostle.
To be fair President Monson is the only president of the Church who was a mission president when not an apostle.
There have been lots of general authorities serve as temple presidents, but most were after they were general authorities, a few more while they were general authorities.
In fact Marriner W. Merrill might be the only temple president called as a general authority, ever. The fact that he is also quite possibly the only general authority who was temple president the whole time he was a general authority is also interesting.
We have a few more cases of mission presidents becoming general authorities, not just the massive numbers from 1960 or do on,but mid-20th century called aisles like Charles W. Callus, LeGrand Richards, Sylvester Q. Cannon, Matthias Cowley, and the list could go on.
I just thought of something. George Albert Smith had been acting mission president in the Southern States while a not long married man in the 1890s. He was mission secretary, and the president, J. Golden Kimball was gone a few months a few times leaving Elder Smith in charge of the mission.
Okay, one more comment.
Mission presidents started mainly serving 3 years in the 1930s. There were exceptions, especially President Wallace Toronto in Czechoslovakia.
I am pretty sure since about 1960 the only mission president to serve over 3 years have been president like Fritzner Joseph in Haiti who served under conditions that limited non-nationals serving. President Josrph was mission president almost 5 years. He was also Temple president for 4. I think he was when he finished his term the longest serving temple president, although only by 2 months. In 2019 most temples did the transition in November, it was later moved to the start of September. The Port-au-Prince Temple was dedicated at the start of September 2019.
Temple presidents served very long in most cases, often a decade or more, until at least the 1960s. Then the standard became mainly 5 years. In the mid-1980s it shifted to 3 years.
Mission presidents get more public in general. The earliest ones can be key to establishing the Church in an area. They are the overarching leader of the Church in an area until stakes are formed.
The Temple president has a much less visible role to the public. I am not sure the biography of Joseph Fielding Smith co-authored by his Don mentioned he was temple president. I am not sure anything on David O. McKay ever failed to mention he was mission president.
On the other hand the unofficial temples website does have a full listing of every temple president and matron ever. Such may exist gor every mission president but I have no idea where to find it. I have doubts that anyone has ever tried to produce a full list of every female leader of missions.
Pre-1923 no temple president's wife was the matron, and it did not became fully universal until the 1960s or so. The website may say otherwise, but based in the centennial history of the Kaine Temple, it did not have a matron during the first decade or more it existed.
To be fair while there were some cases in the 19th-century where a mission president's wife was a leader to the mission, Phoebe Woodruff was set apart to serve with Wilford Woodruff when le lead the Eastern States Mission starting in 1848, it is not until the early 20th-century that the mission presidents wife becomes his near universal companion.
In the early 20th-century they go the other extreme, make the mission president's wife the head of the mission relief society. Give her leadership over the primary and YMMIA as well. That works until stakes are formed in the missions, which happens not at all in most missions until really the 1960s.
why arent they looking at the catholic numbers i bet there alot more on record in utah then actally go they baptized as babies why only focus on mormons
JoellaFaith Well, Latter-day Saints are well known for their special connection to Utah (which I imagine you know about), so it makes sense to me.
Here is part 3 in the three-part series of articles detailing temple construction in 2023:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2023/12/31/24010610/temples-in-2023-part-3-8-groundbreakings-construction-planning
My thanks once again to you all.
I am intrigued with the statement under the El Paso Mission that the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission was formed in 1975. I received my call to the Colorado-New Mexico Mission in May of 1973. When I arrived in July,'73 the mission split had occurred and I was in the Colorado Mission and the New Mexico Mission had been created. Missions received the city of the mission home in their name in '74 and I came home from the Colorado Denver Mission in '75. I think the mission creation date should be corrected to 1973.
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