In the past 2 years, the Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has experienced unprecedented expansion into cities, towns, and villages that have previously had no official congregations. Historically, the Church has generally established its first branch in only 1-2 cities or towns per year (if any) since 2008. However, the Church organized its first branches in six cities and towns in 2023 - the most ever up to that point. In 2024, 14 cities, towns, and villages have had the first branches of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized. The Church's meetinghouse locator now reports official wards or branches operating in 43 cities, towns, or villages in the country. The number of cities, towns, and villages with a ward or branch has doubled since 2021. Moreover, the Church has begun to organize branches in small towns and villages in the DR Congo for the first time. This represents a major shift in historical area and mission policies and practices that have governed the growth and expansion of the Church in the DR Congo, as there has been a strong emphasis on establishing centers of strength and postponing the creation of branches in additional cities due to concerns with finite mission resources, leadership training, and ensuring quality baptismal standards for new converts. The number of missions in the DR Congo increased from just one prior to 2010 to seven as of late 2024 (eight if the Rwanda Kigali Mission is included which administers to branches in the eastern DR Congo near Rwanda and Burundi), and this has likely been a major catalyst to provide the needed mission president oversight and resources to effectively expand into so many previously unreached locations. The announcement of a permanent Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Kinshasa in 2024 has also provided for greater infrastructure to train local Congolese to staff these many new missions. The Church in the DR Congo has typically achieved member activity and convert retention rates in excess of 80% which numbers among the highest in the world.
A recent article noted that the number of Latter-day Saints in the DR Congo has surpassed 130,000 - an increase of more than 15,000 since January of 2024. Dozens of new wards and branches have been created and two new stakes have been organized since January of 2024. There are now 29 stakes and 3 districts. One temple has been completed and dedicated (Kinshasa in 2019) with three more temples planned (Lubumbashi, Kananga, and Mbuji-Mayi). Latter-day Saint statistical information for the DR Congo going back to 1987 can be accessed here.
The potential for continued rapid growth in the DR Congo appears favorable. Population estimates for the entire country typically range from 105 to 115 million. There remain dozens of large cities without an official ward or branch. Translations of the Book of Mormon are available in the first, second, or third language of most Congolese. There are only six cities with an official branch in the entire northern half of the country. Huge swaths of most areas of the country remain totally unreached by Latter-day Saints. Many cities have had isolated members or prospective members who have waited years, or even decades, for an official Church establishment, such as Kikondja and Fizi. Some cities have had two branches organized at the same time when an official Latter-day Saint presence is first established (such as Tshikapa and Kamanda).
The following 16 stakes appear likely to divide in the near future (next 2 years):
- Kananga Democratic Republic of Congo Stake (12 wards)
- Katuba Democratic Republic of Congo Stake (11 wards)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo Stake (10 wards)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo Binza Stake (10 wards)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Kimbanseke Stake (10 wards)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Mpasa Stake (10 wards, 1 branch)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Lukunga Stake (11 wards, 1 branch)
- Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo N'Djili Stake (9 wards, 2 branches)
- Kolwezi Democratic Republic of Congo Stake (12 wards, 2 branches)
- Katoka Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (12 wards)
- Lubumbashi Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (11 wards, 1 branch)
- Luputa Democratic Republic of Congo Stake (9 wards, 1 branch)
- Malandji Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (11 wards)
- Mbuji-Mayi Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (9 wards)
- Ngandajika Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (9 wards, 2 branches)
- Ruashi Democratic Republic of the Congo Stake (11 wards, 1 branch)
The following 2 districts appear likely to become stakes in the near future (next 2 years):
- Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo District (6 branches)
- Matadi Democratic Republic of the Congo District (6 branches)
The following 9 cities (provided with the current number of branches in the area in parentheses) appear likely to have districts organized from mission branches in the near future (next 2-3 years):
- Bandundu (3 branches)
- Boma (2 branches)
- Bukavu (2 branches)
- Kamanda (2 branches)
- Kikwit (3 branches)
- Luiza (2 branches)
- Muanda (2 branches)
- Tshikapa (2 branches)
- Uvira (2 branches)
The following 22 cities and towns appear likely to have official branches organized in the near to medium terms (cities in bold appear most likely):
- Beni
- Bumba
- Bunia
- Butembo
- Fizi
- Genema
- Ilebo
- Inkisi/Kisantu
- Isiro
- Kamaniola
- Kasangulu
- Katanda
- Kikondja
- Kindu
- Lisala
- Lodja
- Lukalaba
- Lungutu
- Luvungi
- Mbanza-Ngungu
- Miabi
- Tshilenge
The following cities appear likely to have missions organized in the next 3-5 years:
- Bukavu
- Kinshasa (4th mission)
- Kisangani
- Likasi
- Lubumbashi (2nd mission)
- Luputa
- Matadi
- Mwene-Ditu
The following cities appear likely to have temples announced in the next 5-7 years:
- Kinshasa (2nd temple)
- Kolwezi
- Likasi
- Luputa
- Matadi
- Mwene-Ditu
I predict that by the year 2030, the Church in the DR Congo will likely have the following if current trends continue:
- 300,000 members
- 50 stakes
- 700 official congregations (i.e., wards and branches)
- 10 districts
- 15 missions
- 70 cities, towns, and villages with an official Church presence
- 10 temples
- 1 area that also includes the Republic of the Congo
192 comments:
Is it possible that Africa will save the church as Europe and Nordic countries did previously?
Excellent analysis, thank you Matt! The growth of the Church in the DR Congo is very exciting. Do people here think that in the long run, the DR Congo will be the country with the most church members in Africa? Perhaps even the most outside of the United States? It certainly has a ways to go to even catch Nigeria, which is also growing fast, and a long ways to go to catch countries like Peru, Mexico, or Brazil, but if the current growth continues, it doesn't seem completely out of the question.
Also, does anyone have any ideas on how receptive the residents of the DR Congo are, as compared to the receptivity of Latin American residents in the years after missionary work was started there. For example, most Latin America countries were truly opened to large amounts of missionary work about 60-70 years ago, and in that time, most of these countries now have 1.5-2.5% nominal membership in the church as a percent of total population. Obviously, this is a bit of a generalization, as some (like Colombia) are markedly lower, and other (like Chile or Uruguay) are somewhat higher. Does it seem reasonable to think that nominal church membership could one day exceed those numbers in the DR Congo. What if 5% chose to join the church there? Or 7%? That would equate to many millions of members in the DR Congo, and with population growth there so high (fertility rate is above 5 children per women) that would translate into millions more in subsequent generations.
On that note, here is an article from the Newsroom yesterday, detailing the recent visit of the Ambassador from Bulgaria visit to the First Presidency in Temple Square.
"First Presidency Welcomes Bulgarian Leader to Temple Square"
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-bulgarian-ambassador
And Elder Gong recently met with the President of Paraguay.
"President of Paraguay Receives Visit from Elder Gong"
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-gong-meets-with-president-of-paraguay
And Elder Soares, recently met with a French Senator in Paris.
"Elder Soares Meets with French Senator in Paris"
https://news-europe.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-soares-meets-with-french-senator-in-paris
Other Noah here.
Thank you, Matt! Nice analysis as usual. It's amazing to me how much the church is thriving in central Africa. Hurray for Israel!
I wouldn't say the Church needs saving. However, the influx of converts from Africa will certainly provide the Church with many new ideas, bright young men and women to serve as missionaries, and faithful Saints who will hold the gospel light high in their communities. It doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that at one point, if fertility rates continue to drop in the Americas and Europe, more and more African missionaries will begin to serve in those nations. That would likely be quite a ways in the future.
One thing that stood out to me in Saints Vol. 4 was the statistic thry had on the Kinshasa mission when Zaire became the DR Congo. There were 17 full time missionaries in the mission. It covered 5 countries besides DR Congo. That small number of missionaries just blew my mind.
I believe the Book of Mormon is still not translated into KiKongo. This will be needed both to expand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Aaints more fully in thd Boma and Makrudi area, but also to expand more in the area across the border in Kongo province in Angola.
I would also not be surprised if DR Congo is the first country in Africa to have a 3rd general authority called from it. I am notoriously bad at making general authority call predictions though so who knows.
The state of things in DR Congo is very encouraging.
The president of the Kinshasa Temple is a native of Kisangani, although he has been resident in Kinshasa a while. His wife comes from Kamina, which is as far south as Kisangani is north, so I expect thry have been in Kinshasa for decades.
I hope both Luputa and Kisangani get missions soon.
We have at times in the past had missionaries called from Uganda and Nigeria in my branch here in Detroit. Currently the Detroit mission has no missionaries called from outside the US. We have a missionary born and partly raised in what is now South Sudan, but he left on his mission from Utah.
I have also known missionaries here in Detroit from Liberia and Ghana, but thry came to the US prior to starting their missions.
One of the temple workers on my shift at the Detroit Temple is a Congo native who is currently a resident on Canada.
I am greatly encouraged by these developments in DR Congo.
The last comment was by me.
I look forward to a general conference when temples are announced in both Boma, DR Congo and Goma, DR Congo. That will not be super soon, and they might not be at the same time.
Boma is the main Atlantic area port of DR Congo and one of the furthest west cities in the country. Boma is near the eastern boundary of the country, I believe close to Rwanda.
DR Congo is the country with French as its official language with the most members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whether it has more French speaking members than France is harder to say. Only about 40% of DR Congo's population has some level of proficiency in French.
The Book of Mormon is in Lingaka, which is a lingua franca developed by Catholic missionaries in the late 19th-century to better communicate in the region starting at Kinshasa and going north and east. It is available in Tshilubu, which is essentially the language of the Kasai region, which has 2 announced temples.
The Book of Mormon is also available in Swahili, which is the regional lingua franca across the eastern third of so of the country, from Lubumbashi in the far south, but also in the far north.
The Book of Mormon being in Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda, opens its use by speakers of that language in DR Congo, and possibly those who speak some closely related languages.
Language issues in Africa are complex. In some ways it surprises me the Church has not translated the Book of Mormon into motley languages. One of the area seventies from the DR Congo is also a key figure in the Church's translation department.
Goma is an interesting location because it has 2 significant dangers - one to the north, and one to the south.
To the north is Mount Nyiragongo, one of a handful of volcanoes with an active lava lakes, one of 16 volcanoes designated as "decade volcanoes" (the U.S. only has 2 of them - Mauna Loa and Rainier), and is considered the deadliest volcano in Africa. As recently as 2021, lava flows destroyed part of the city.
The one to the south is Lake Kivu. There were 2 incidents in Cameroon in the mid-1980s, where 2 different lakes became oversaturated with carbon dioxide. It is believed that a landslide caused both incidents, but the lake became disturbed, and released all of the trapped carbon dioxide into the surrounding area. The first incident resulted in the death of a few dozen people, while the second well over a thousand. Later on, Lake Kivu was found to have the same properties as these two "exploding lakes," but where the danger lies, is Lake Kivu is significantly larger than the other two, but there are millions of people that live around the lake.
In fact, volcanic activity at Nyiragongo, could actually disturb Lake Kivu and cause a "limnic eruption," whether it's earthquakes, or lava flows reaching the shore. In Cameroon, degassing pumps were installed to prevent a similar incident from happening, but Lake Kivu presents challenges due to its sheer size and the volume of carbon dioxide it contains.
Matt, FYI, According to my sources, the Cedar City Utah South Stake was organized on 11/03, and the Spanish Fork Utah Legacy Farms Stake was organized on 11/10. When you go to update your side list at a later date.
In other news, the "Itapetininga Brazil District (617857)", originally organized on October 4th, 1998. Currently in the Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission, has been merged with the Sorocaba Brazil Stake (511528). And the Itapetininga Branch has become the Itapetininga Ward (331694).
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/511528
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/331694
I'm not sure what other branches were in the previous district before the merger.
Does anyone know what date this happened in the last month, since conference? Maybe having access to when the Ward Bishopric was called in CDOL?
I hope a Soracaba Brazil Temple is announced soon. I also hope we have several more groundbreaking announced this year. 2024 is on track to have the 2nd most temple dedications ever, after 2000 and 1 ahead of 1999. It would be nice if we saw more temple constructions start. There are about 52 temples that have had groundbreaking, unless it is 54, so we may be able to break the 3 years and 4 months it took to go from 50 to 100 temples in going from 200 to 250 temples M However it would be nice if we could see the rate of starting work on temples pick up to be closer to the rate thry are announced. I understand there are a lot of factors involved, but it would still be nice if we could see more construction starts.
I'm told the Itapetininga Ward Bishopric was sustained on November 3rd. So it's highly likely that the merger took place on that date. Thanks.
I'm also told there is a planned merger next week of 2 stakes in the Cottonwood area of Salt Lake City. I just don't know which ones.
The Salt Lake Little Cottonwood Stake shows to have 4 wards, as does the Salt Lake South Cottonwood Stake. Perhaps these are the two. Strangely enough, the location that shows as the South Cottonwood Stake center, doesn't show up on the meetinghouse locator, even though there's an obvious LDS chapel there, and when clicking on the map there, it says that location has no assigned residential ward.
I believe the projections for 2030 for the DRC are too conservative. There may well be 4-500K members by the end of the decade, but it might also take a much sharper turn and end up way higher than that. Probably the biggest driver I see for this is the tremendous number of active youth from the country who are going to serve missions until then; I would not be shocked if each stake sent out 100 missionaries per year on average, that's how lopsided the demographics of the Church in the DRC are. Outreach expansion, if it is possible to properly scale, will really accelerate in the next couple of years. Logistics (e.g., finding sufficient missionary housing in newly opened areas) may truly become a limiting factor, but I am hopeful that we will have a sufficient number of centers of strength in the near future that it becomes possible to strategically build out from them.
What is the endgame? I doubt that the DRC will end up anywhere near becoming an "African version of Utah", but: (i) some neighborhoods, towns, even small cities might; and (ii) I would be shocked if within a generation, Church membership in the DRC is not a higher population percentage than that of any country in Latin America. 5% - which would amount to some 10 million members at current population projections - is absolutely realistic.
The Makurdi Nigeria District will become a stake on December 15th. Hundreds of converts have been baptized in Makurdi in the last two years.
Great News
I believe that this announcement will only occur when the São Paulo Brasil East Temple is in advanced construction. But, yes; This is the next development slated to divide the São Paulo Brazil Temple district, certainly.
Thank you for the comments everyone. I updated the 2024 new stakes list. Also, the Tumauini Philippines Stake was organized today.
Matt, don't forget to add the "Itapetininga Brazil District (617857)" that was merged into the Sorocaba Brazil Stake on or around November 3rd, when the Itapetininga Branch became a Ward.
Also, JTB posted this on November 10th in 2 feeds ago.
"The Forney stake will be created from a division of the Dallas East stake and one ward from the Health stake on December 8th.
Dallas East: Lakewood, Lake Highlands, Dallas 1st, Dallas 9th, Dallas YSA 2nd, Garland 1st, Casa Linda
Forney: Forney 1st, Forney 2nd, Forney 3rd, Kauffman, Rio Trinidad, Skyline, Mesquite
As of now no new units are going to be created
November 10, 2024 at 11:32 AM"
I have heard that next sunday a Cottonwood area Utah consolidation will happen, and on December 8th same day as the Texas split. A stake in Pocatello Idaho will split also.
I'm curious as to what is different about DRC and places like Mexico/Brazil where growth was initially strong but activity is now very low, leading to lackluster growth and low percentage-to-population membership.
5% for LDS alone is such a high percentage for a country when the combined percentage of Kimbanguist, Celestial Church of Christ, Salvation Army, Tenrikyo, Jehova's Witness, Sevent Day Adventist, and LDS total only 9%, and the church in this instance got a slow start on building momentum.
Hi Matt, just curious if the active membership of each unit is much, much higher than in other areas of the world. You stated:
"The Church in the DR Congo has typically achieved member activity and convert retention rates in excess of 80% which numbers among the highest in the world... A recent article noted that the number of Latter-day Saints in the DR Congo has surpassed 130,000 - an increase of more than 15,000 since January of 2024...There are now 29 stakes and 3 districts."
Putting these numbers together, and conservatively allocating ~500 members per district or potential district that's 3,100 ACTIVE members per stake, or roughly 310 active member per ward.
If we take just the 15,000 members converted since January, that should amount to approximately 39 new ward units. Obviously there is a lag in unit creation, but that would mean there are some absolutely huge ward and stake units out there.
Maybe one reason the unit growth does not keep up with the membership growth is that it may also take time to properly train new members into leadership roles before splitting units and building new meetinghouses. L. Chris Jones
New members can be hit and miss as far as training for leadership and organization. But it is exciting to think that in places with little education or money, there will be the resources to get them doing things in the priesthood and other groups to live up to the Lord's standards. Other faiths and churches have their strengths, but we believe this to be THE Restoration of ALL things. No minor task. But a marvelous work and a wonder. A marvelous work and wonder! Quoting the prophets from thousands of years ago. No small fete.
I hope the French speakers of Congo and other lands can go to places of small growth like Martinique and Guadeloupe, and help the Gospel grow there. Or everywhere else, Haiti and French-speaking lands, and English, Spanish, and all the others.
We need a lot more emissaries of Christ with His priesthood. We are woefully short. And then there is the attrition and deactivation.
What are the next three countries in Africa to get new missionaries?
Asia?
How is Guyana doing?
What is the state of missionaries in Venezuela?
Recently, Sister Yee of the Relief Society, made a 10 day ministry to 4 north Europe countries, namely, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
"Sister Yee Encourages European Saints to Develop Relationship with God"
I wonder how likely the first 3 of those could get their 2nd temple announced.
https://news-europe.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/sister-yee-encourages-european-saints-develop-relationship-with-god
Also, recently, Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve, had a 10 day ministry to the Netherlands, Greece, Bulgaria, and Italy.
"Elder Stevenson Ministers in Four Countries Across Central Europe"
I wonder how likely it is after the Bulgarian Ambassador visit to church headquarters, and this visit be Elder Stevenson to the country and the recent reorganization of the 7 Bulgarian branches into a District again. That a Sofia Bulgaria Temple could be in the planning process or even to create the first Stake in the country. Or even better a Athens Greece Temple, even with just 2 Greek branches in the country.
https://news-europe.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-stevenson-ministers-in-four-countries-across-central-europe
I'm a big dreamer, and a famous 1980's movie about baseball, had a famous quote that i love. That said "If you build it, they will come". I believe this can be used here saying that "If you build the Temple, House of the Lord, They (the Saints) will come after."
Matt, thanks for the Update.
Also confirmed today the new Stake.
Tumauini Philippines Stake (2274019)
- Created 17 November 2024
- Philippines Cauayan Mission (2010038)
- Urdaneta Philippines Temple (1471171)
If anyone is interested, this is a shareable Google My Maps. My personalized Church Area Map (with hyperlinks) of one of the 23 Church Worldwide Admin Areas (Church Areas). Specifically, the Africa Central Area, as this post for growth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo suggests. I will improve it as time goes on. And I plan to add the local Administrative/Statistical Boundaries of each of the countries.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1F7Mjbqt6hXVbe315ZnVQJK7Cvf__J2s&usp=sharing
Let me know in comments of you find this useful. I will also later add more data about each church unit as i have time to make changes. For ex. known dates, and known past and present Stake Presidents, etc.
Each of the current Temple markers has a link to Rick's Temples website for that temple for more information.
Especially in Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, there are probably some very large wards by attendance. Keep in mind that the bulk (some 70-80% I would assume based on reviewing some pictures from the Church Newsroom) are children and youth in many units. With the Church making new unit creation largely dependent on participating adults, that can mean you have 500 people attending but not enough people to split a ward. This is actually my best guess for why unit creation in the metro areas of the DRC is relatively slow compared to membership growth.
Sorry, the above post was me, Chris D., I wasn't automatically logged into the blog.
Also, here is a start to my Church Utah Area Map project. I hope you enjoy the link. It includes the States and Counties that have Stakes or Districts in the Utah Area. So you can count how many are in each county, etc. For now i have just included the 28 Stakes in my current version of the Bountiful Utah Temple District. And all the suggested Potential Sites for this area for all of you consolidated. I will add the rest of the Utah Area Temples as Stakes as time permits.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1MWum92kOjubcpMGzNSzXedYy6w6aDT0&usp=sharing
Wife of first black general authority passed away this week. https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2024/11/18/sister-ruda-martins-obituary-dies-brazil-pioneer-wife-1st-black-general-authority/. L ChrisJones
We were talking about the Giving Machines in our meeting tonight, and I decided to look up where the other one was (because I saw there were going to be 2 locations in Alaska). The other one is in North Pole, Alaska at the aptly named Santa Clause House. I also discovered they apparently won't be running simultaneously. The machine will be available starting Friday in North Pole for a couple of weeks, then it will be moved to a mall here in Anchorage to begin operation on the 13th of December.
Starting two years ago there were several giving machine's that moved around. The one here in Michigan is at Campus Martius in the heart of downtown Detroit until Dec. 8. Then it moved to Grand Rapids. It's past destination is designated as "Midland" but may not be actually in that city.
There are some locations that have the giving machine the whole time. This year the Church News shared less specific information. That is probably a function of going from 61 locations to 106.
I'm not arguing there shouldn't be a lag, or that there aren't good reasons for a lag. But assuming a natural lag, it would mean an immense number of active members per ward if the 80% retention rate is correct. Just since January, it would mean ~100 more ACTIVE members PER EXISTING UNIT. Imagine taking any ward outside of Utah and adding 125 to the rolls in 10 months, and keeping 100 of them active, with no end in sight to the people walking through the doors. As a former Bishopric member of a well-established ward, just the idea of assigning visits and keeping track of people like that is daunting.
I know in Mexico in my mission it was very difficult to baptize in high numbers and simultaneously have high retention. People would fall through the cracks too easily. The lack of a robust leadership would lead to too many people to track and care for. And I imagine the pool of leadership resources in DRC is even more shallow, so it's (1) curious how they have maintained such high retention, and (2) makes me wonder if it is sustainable, particularly as unit sizes become immense. At its current trajectory, we're talking about an average of 500 active members per ward by year end 2025.
Clearly, the model for how things are done in DRC must be different from how they were done in Latin America or Philippines. The question is - what's the key difference?
The youth/children-to-adult ratio being so high does help explain some things, but even if we assume only 20% of converts are adults, we're talking roughly 22 new adults added per unit just since January and retaining 20 of them as active. Look, that's just unprecedented (which is the title of Matt's post - I'm not arguing it's not real!). I just wonder how in the world this is happening. Combining high conversion with high retention has never been a working formula for the church in the past, so what's different this time?
Your point is really interesting, because many argue that the best way to measure real growth (rather than nominal church-reported membership growth) is to look at units. But units don't reflect a key component for current and long-term growth: children and youth membership. On one hand, it means that in areas with lots of kids, the real membership in that area may be understated when looking at wards/branches, because it's full of future adults built in but uncounted. On the other hand, in aging areas where wards have been consolidated, we can't say it's because young families have moved out - children shouldn't count when it comes to unit determination. Those unit closures have to be for some other reason than the aging of the neighborhood.
Temple for Antarctica!
At this point, I don't believe it is very likely. Finland and Sweden are large by area and there are some decent signs of growth coming especially out of Finland in the last decade or so. However, membership is also so concentrated in the southern metropolitan areas that temples in the capital with patron housing serve the whole respective country quite well. Personally I doubt that another temple will be announced in Scandinavia for many years.
It is also important to note that there are likely many groups that have opened in the DR Congo that we do not know about. There may be hundreds, if not thousands, of new members in member groups.
As i just finished adding the Units to my personized Map of the Utah Area. Here is the start of my personized map of the Mexico Area. That i a currently uploading to My Maps online shareable from Google Earth.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1pz3KDYnyQacSCNz88pQ_o2aPBpIK6PM&usp=sharing
While unlikely to happen in the short term, this elevation could allow for a Temple to be announced for Makurdi sometime down the road.
Craig H
Here's my temple predictions map. It's still being tweaked.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1G7hdBBWl07qNmfixCPEyCf7dAOKzzjw&usp=sharing
Along with my previous posts of the early versions of My Church Areas Maps of the Utah Area and Mexico Area. Here is the link to my "North America Central Area" church and admin map. Enjoy. I will be be also tweaking later the colors and icons. after i finish uploading all the data form my Earth .kmz files format.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1y5GQYnwcEW1n49xcfx0zJZ4WCNXJ_WQ&usp=sharing
Craig Shuler asks,
Does anyone have a list of the 58 missions that were created in 2013, the year the age for young missionary elders dropped from 19 to 18? I know that Utah Salt Lake City East and Utah SLC Central were included and
In 2015, there were 11 missions created, including Utah Logan and Utah Orem. Utah Salt Lake City Central was discontinued.
In 2016, many of the 2013 missions and their names were discontinued, including Utah Salt Lake City East and California Temecula and a split of Costa Rica San Jose Mission into San Jose East and West.
Utah Logan Mission was discontinued in 2018 and Costa Rica San Jose East and West were put back together.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2013/3/5/23224648/new-mission-presidents-by-area-for-2013/
Here is the link to my North America West Church Area. I just started this one again. Trying to get past the errors.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Xod6xiay8epxBkGwBBW7TR0TqlWvFFo&usp=sharing
Chris,
For list of missions by year, the wikipedia page shows the list of new missions. However, if it's reorganizing a previously discontinued mission, the date of reorganization is shown but will be located in order when the mission was first organized.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_of_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#By_date_of_formation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missions_of_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#By_date_of_formation
This is some really cool work. Well done, I know how time-consuming putting together stuff like this is.
Thank you, Jonathon F.
The Casper Wyoming Temple was dedicated. One person they quote in the article is the president of the South Dakota Rapid City Stake, who has a black son. However what I noticed is that stake has 15 wards and branches. I believe this is partly because it got some of the old Pierre District. If thry were all wards splitting would be doable. Also if they could split that stake, getting a temple in Rapid City would seem more doable. With Caper being an hour closer and having less severe weather than Bismark, hopefully temple attendance will go up a lot.
I learned today from a missionary in my branch who spent 6 weeks in Ann Arbor,before coming back to my branch, that there are efforts underway to form a Chinese-lamguage group in Ann Arbor Michigan. Our current mission president has been pushing hard to get more language outreach.
Also our mission received 16 new missionaries this transfer.
Our former temple president of the Detroit Temple, who served 4 years ending in August 2023, is now serving as a full time missionary with his wife in New York City. I saw them at stake conference. He was born and raised and lived most of his life as an adult in Michigan. He would tell the youth about how when he was a teenager they would do outdoor sports on the very land where the temple is now.
The Detroit Temple is on the same plot of land as the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake Center. That is a challenge dedicated by President David O. McKay.
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/11/23/enrollment-growth-at-latter-day-saint-universities-rebuts-narrative-about-young-adults-losing-faith/
Article from the Deseret News about enrollment growth at CES institutions. The BYU numbers don't particularly surprise, for the most part just small growth at the BYU institutions within the US, and rapid growth for BYU-Pathways. (It is unclear to me how much BYU-Pathways growth reflects church growth - it is open to anyone and so cheap that it would be a hard pass for many people from lesser-developed nations seeking a cheap, quality education.)
However, the seminaries and institute numbers jumped out to me. There has been a large jump in enrollment, and the article states that 57% of eligible teenagers are enrolled in seminary. That's a pretty high percentage!
If anyone is interested, I just started to add my version of the "South America South Area" Temples, Stakes, Districts to My Maps in Google. Like I did to some of the North America and Utah and Mexico Areas last week. Here is the shareable link. It is a work i progress. Thanks.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1EX7oz1GcHKPwxlERZ__p8CWY-b6ONs8&usp=sharing
Sorry. Forgot to sign is to my Google account. I'm Chris D.
JPL, The Rapid City SD stake has 8 wards 7 branches (15 units as you mentioned). That's gets to be a lot for a stake presidency to handle.
A Rapid City SD Temple is a possibility, but I don't think splitting the stake would warrant a temple announcement. If you split it, you're also requiring splitting the leadership requiring additional leadership (2 stake presidencies, 2 high councils, etc) - leadership that could otherwise be used to fill positions in the temple. I don't know the health of these wards and branches and considering it required consolidation, it means at least at one point they were in decline.
I have been in two stakes that had 16 units each (North Little Rock & Memphis North). They both since split to create the Searcy Arkansas Stake (stake center in Jacksonville) and has allowed for additional units to form. However, the Jonesboro Ward and Paragould Branch are now further from their stake center than when they were part of the Memphis North Stake.
I can see the organization of a Scottsbluff Nebraska Stake (at least in terms of units). It would primarily split from the Cheyenne Wyoming East Stake.
It would take 4 wards from the Cheyenne Wyoming East Stake: the Alliance, Chimney Rock, Scottsbluff, and Sidney Wards. This would leave the Cheyenne Wyoming East Stake with 4 wards and 1 branch. To compensate, the Monterey Heights Wards would be transferred from the Cheyenne Wyoming Stake to make 5 wards and 1 branch in the stake.
1 ward and 1 branch would be transferred from the Cheyenne Wyoming Stake to the Scottsbluff Nebraska Stake, the Torrington Ward and the Pathfinder Branch (a correctional facility branch based near Torrington). With the Monterey Heights Ward also being transferred, the Cheyenne Wyoming stake would be left with 5 wards and 1 branch.
The Scottsbluff Nebraska Stake would also take the Sandhills Branch from the Kearney Nebraska Stake (leaving it with 7 wards and 5 branches) as well as the Lusk Branch from the Casper Wyoming East Stake (leaving it with 6 wards).
Finally, a ward and branch would be transferred from the Rapid City South Dakota Stake (they are nearly equal distance from Scottsbluff and Rapid City, with Scottsbluff barely closer in terms of travel time), the Chadron Ward and the Gordon Branch. This would leave the Rapid City South Dakota Stake with 7 wards and 6 branches.
In total, the new Scottsbluff Nebraska Stake would encompass 6 wards and 4 branches, the Alliance, Chadron, Chimney Rock, Scottsbluff, Sidney, and Torrington Wards and the Gordon, Lusk, Pathfinder (Correctional Facility), and Sandhills Branches.
The only concern I can see that would prevent this from happening is it might stretch the two Cheyenne Stakes too thin with only 5 wards and 1 branch each.
Chris, Thank you for your input.
On the issue of BYU-Pathway growth, I believe at one point Church membership was required. That is not the case anymore. However people have to take Institute as part of it, so they are being instructed relative to the Church.
Church universities and membership have very different population draws. In the case of BYU-Pathway we are still in the roll out and expansion phase. So what we are seeing is reaching new places. I believe the new president of the New stake in Lagos works for BYU-Pathway as a coordinator for some area, I am not sure exactly how much area.
There is a Brazilian stake on the map: Ponta Porã Brazil
BYU pathway requires either church membership or "A close tie to the church." I'm not sure what that means. I guess it means friends, neighbors, and relatives of members. Maybe investigators.
I saw that article as well and think the Seminary & Institute increase is a little misleading since it is comparing apples and oranges. The age range for Institute went from 18-30 to 18-35, so naturally there was a large increase in enrollment, as people ages 31-35 are now encouraged to attend. A more interesting and insightful apples-to-apples comparison would be the change in 18-30 year-olds attending Institute.
--Felix
Regarding BYU-Pathway Worldwide, the meaning of "close tie to the church" varies by country, but in much of the world it does not mean you have to be a friend, neighbor, or relative of members, or an investigator. In practice that requirement means nothing in much of the world (however in some countries where there are laws related to proselyting and religious education this requirement is important). There is a limit on the ratio of members to non-members in a given geographic region. If my memory is correct, that ratio is 30%. Were it not for that cap, enrollment would be considerably higher in some countries.
Thank you, Daniel for that reminder. The Ponta Pora Brazil Stake is inside the Brazil Area. But it is assigned to the Asuncion Paraguay Temple District. Same as the 2 Tarija Bolivia Stakes are also on this map, since they were recently reassigned to the Salta Argentina Temple District. And the Bermejo, Tupiza and Yacuiba Bolivia Districts.
These are the only 6 exceptions that are physically outside the Area that were assigned to Temples inside the Area. That I am aware of currently.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/asuncion-paraguay-temple/district/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/salta-argentina-temple/district/
I believe the main number I look at here is Seminary enrollment. It's great it looks very solid. Those are our missionaries in the next 3-7 years. Expect a lot more missions to be created next summer and in subsequent years.
Thanks Chris for the explanation. Now I understand.
Groundbreaking for the Tacloban City Philippines Temple announced for the 18th of January.
Also, the location and rendering of the Fairbanks Alaska Temple have been announced. It's being built exactly where I thought it was going to be built when the temple got announced. The rendering looks the same as Grand Junction New Mexico, but smaller. The Grand Junction New Mexico Temple is about 25,000 sq ft, while the Fairbanks Alaska Temple is stated to only be 10,000 sq ft.
I just updated my online North America West map to reflect the correct location of the Fairbanks AK Temple within the city and added the road routes from the 2 Stakes (Fairbanks and North pole AK), and a 50 mi radius circle around it.
There is a Grand Junction, Colorado Temple. I assume that is what you mean. New Mwxico has Farmington and Albaquerque.
I am very glad there are advancements on temples. I wish we could see more progress, but I am glad we are seeing what we are. Still hoping we get sites for Dubai and Beira very soon. Also Shanghai, although I have doubts how openly announced progress will be there.
Russia I am not holding my breath on.
There are a kit more sites and ground breaking needed. I am glad we got one of each. I an hoping one of these Kondays we get a new site, a ground braking date and a dedication date, but I am glad progress is happening.
I meant Mondays. I guess I should proof read my statements better before making them.
The growth of BYU-Pathway is very encouraging.
Yeah, sorry. I was looking at the Grand Junction Colorado and the Farmington New Mexico Temples at the same time when I went to see renderings similar to Fairbanks. Interesting how Tacloban City, though has a groundbreaking, still doesn't have a rendering.
Mediated settlement agreement reached in Fairview, with a reduction in size and height of the temple but allowance for a central tower as part of the compromises. Settlement is still subject to approval by planning and zoning and city residents will still have a chance to offer their views.
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/collin-county/fairview-mormon-church-reach-mediation-agreement-temple-construction/287-5945ea36-9243-4cdf-a95c-bfcd1ce6de04
I should clarify, the result of the settlement (revised plans negotiated during the mediation) still need to be submitted to the P&Z. But I suppose the take away is that the city board can live with this version.
It appears the Fairbanks Alaska temple will have a similar floorplan as the newly dedicated Casper Wyoming temple, even though there's noticable differences on the outside appearance.
Regarding BYU Pathway. There are several senior missionaries in the Salt Lake City Headquarters mission that are assigned to conduct eccleastical interviews of prospective BYU Pathway students around the world who are not members of the Church. About 40 percent of non-member BYU Pathway students eventually join the Church.
Here is the link to the beginning work of my personal vision of the "Brazil Area" of the church.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1PotR4EzuFjS_zY4Dmq6jB7Q1V2lEzmk&usp=sharing
Disclaimer: It is going to take me some time to update this online version with my currently 6,280 Municipios, Intermediate and Intermediary Regions. Minus the 27 States/D.F. and 5 Macro Regions already added.
Good Job!
The Salt Lake Little Cottonwood Stake was discontinued on Sunday, and the Salt Lake South Cottonwood Stake became the Salt Lake Cottonwood Creek Stake.
The "Phuthaditjhaba South Africa District (2104644)", in the Durban South Africa Temple District, has recently merged with the Ladysmith South Africa District (2104636)
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2104636
Can you tell me when the District leadership was released? If you have access to that information in the CDOL?
Also, interesting fact, the town of Ladysmith, South Africa, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, was renamed uMnambithi this year 2024.
https://www.britannica.com/place/uMnambithi
I wonder if the church plans to rename the Ladysmith Branch and Ladysmith South Africa District to the new name? Like they did a few years ago to the Port Elizabeth South Africa Stake to the new name Gqeberha South Africa Stake.
I believe that there was recently a Hiram Ohio Stake formed primarily from the Youngstown Ohio Stake but also from the Akron Ohio Stake. I am wondering if with this development we will see the Cleveland Ohio Mission brought back.
With the new plans for the McKinney Texas Temple representing a 33% reduction of thereabout in the temple size I hope we get anoylther metro Dalkas Temple announced doon. I do not think this temple will be enough at thst size to meet the temple needs of metro Dallas.
More sad news.
The "Matsuyama Japan District (613215), in the Fukuoka Temple District, has merged with the "Takamatsu Japan District (602744)" and the combined district has been renamed the "Shikoku Japan District (602744)"
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/602744
Thanks, Anonymous, The "Youngstown Ohio Stake (495352)" has indeed been renamed the "Hiram Ohio Stake (495352), at least on the Meetinghouse website.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/495352
Confirmed on the meetinghouse website.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/503800
I'm told some of the branch leadership called on October 6th. Possibly that is the date of the merger.
Chris, do you know if any branches were discontinued with either district consolidation? If not, I wouldn't say this is necessarily sad news. Individual units closures and openings are honestly a much better sign of church vitality than district/stake closures and openings.
On the original topic of this post, the church is growing so fast in the DR Congo that this post is already out of date. It appears that in the last couple weeks 6 new branches were organized in the Kisangani DR Congo District, bringing the total number of branches in the city to 12.
The six new branches were all created on Sunday, November 17th. The Saturday before, the Kisangani district held a combined baptismal service for all 6 branches, in which 62 people were baptized.
Ok, one more comment. Here's an interesting youtube video about the Church in Pakistan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDwVQr-qhHU
In terms of church growth, according to the Pakistani Members who are interviewed in the video, there are two groups functioning within the Faisalabad Pakistan District, in addition to the three branches. Those groups function in the cities of Samundri and Mamunkanjan.
None of the branches were discontinued during the consolidation. Perhaps it was done to better utilise existing resources and leadership.
I'm think 2 good locations for the Dallas metro area could be Plano and Arlington
Here is my work on the Europe Central Area map, that I just started to upload to My Maps.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1OEzThLlMw4d29OjUikgg7QvLjnSaglY&usp=sharing
Thank you Cfunk for these updates - I was not aware of them. With six branches being organized in one weekend, I am thinking Kisangani may be a less likely location for a temple once we get a couple stakes there. The district in Kisangani was organized just back in 2023.
Last year, 2023, the First Presidency announced the creation of the new 2024 Missions on November 1st, 2023. I wonder if now being Thanksgiving in the USA, if they will announce this week or next, the 2025 new missions to be organized. Now being a month later in the announcement than last year. In this thread its been mentioned our missionary force has increased in the last 12 months that would warrant an increase in Missions worldwide.
Anyone want to venture a guess where the next missions may be announced? I know Matt posted his list in a previous post.
I forgot to post the link from last year 2023.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2023/11/1/23941779/full-time-missionaries-exceeding-72000-church-creates-36-new-missions/
The current President of the Kinshasa Temple was born in what is now Kisangani. I think it may have been still called Stanleyville when he was born. So if Youngstown Stake was renamed Hyrum Ohio Stake, was a new stake created somewhere else? My first guess is Further south and east. That might leave us with the new stake staying with Pittsburgh Temple and the Hyrum Stake going to the Cleveland Temple.
I think this makes the possibility of getting a Charleston West Virginia Temple better. I also am crazy enough to hope for a Dayton Ohio Temple.
Are all 12 branches in Kisangani in that city? Are the 6 new branches all in that city? I thought Kisangani district included some other cities in the far north of DR Congo. I am hoping there is a stake there in not too long. I am also rooting for a DR Congo Kisangani mission in 2025.
Back to the temple president in Kinshsa, his wife was born in Kamina, the sane city where Elder Kyungu, the Africa West Area president, was born. That is a city far to the south, not too far from Kolwezi, and far closer to Lubumbashi than Kisangani. For this reason alone I suspect that President Egombe has not lived in Kisangani for a long time. Most likely the Egombe's joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kinshasa a few decades ago.
In my most likely list I put a temple prediction for Togo/Benin. These countries are both have French as their official language. They have a visa-free policy with each other and when combined, has more members than any other country without a temple.
Year end 2023 stats
Togo 7,141 members in 19 wards and 6 branches
Benin 6,140 members in 21 wards and 5 branches
Current
Togo, 3 stakes (19 wards, 9 branches)
Benin, 2 stakes, 1 district (22 wards, 10 branches)
It appears that Benin is the faster growing of the two. Consequently, I would say Benin is now the most likely of the two to get a temple.
Elder Stevenson just did an extensive tour of the Europe Crntral Area. He was in the Nethlands, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. OK, so not the whole area, but several parts.
Sister Porter and Sister Dennis recently went to Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Sister Dennis and her husband Jorge were leaders of the Guayaquil Ecador East Mission. They also served later as counselor and assistant matron in the Guayaquil Temple Presidency.
Brother Dennis is a native of Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. That is where the Dennis'first met, when Sister Dennis was there with a group of BYU students. The Dennis'first child was born in Mexico. It was very emotional for Sister Dennis to be back in Ecuador.
They just released 3 more parts of the Saints Vol. 4 podcast. I am glad they released so many at once.
Ultimately I think both Togo and Benin will get a temple. Interesting that Togo has more stakes, but Benin has more wards. With that many wards in Benin them getting a 3rd stake soon might be easy.
I think I did figure out it is about the sane distance from Cotonou to Lome as from Cotonou to Lagos. However Lagos Temple will probably be primarily English and hopefully Yoruba. I am also not sure how crossing the border balances out. Lagos is a sprawling city and I was not sure of the temple 5thaddress, so my calculations could be a bit off. I think I will do some more study.
Lome is on the border with Ghana. Even at that the travel time from Lome to Cotonou is 40 minutes less one way than from Lome to Accra Temple. Based on the location of the Lagos Temple it is 4 minutes less from Cotonou to Lagos Temple than Cotonou to Lome. I just did the search at about 9:00 PM eastern US time. That I think is fairly early in the morning in Nigeria and Benin. Lagos traffic might at times cause the travel to take longer. We are basically talking 3 hours driving either way. Although most people in Brnin do not have cars, so you have to negotiate bus fare or such. I have no idea how long it takes yo cross either border.
Based on more wards in Benin, and how travel times work out, I suspect Cotonou Temple will be announced first.
The 2nd stake in Benin is just to the west of Cotonou, basically in its urban complex. If they built the temple in that area it would be even more convenient for those in Lagos.
Looking at the map of Lagos at least based on where stake centers are I could so the Agege area of Lagos getting a temple. Maybe not super soon, but in the not duper distant future. Although Lagos become the first city to have a 2nd temple announced before the first is complete would not shock me. It is the only city with a planned temple and no operating temple I could see having a 2nd temple announced.
If another Temple gets announced for the Dallas Metroplex, I would lean towards it being somewhere in the West/Northwest of the Metro area.
Craig H
No new stake was created in Ohio. In the Youngstown stake two ward were closed (Alliance & Warren) an New Castle was downgraded to a branch. Ashtabula Ward was moved to the Kirtland stake. The Hiram Ward was moved form the Kirtland stake to Youngstown (renamed Hiram stake). Also the Tallmadge 1st Ward Tallmadge 2nd branch and Easthill (YSA) Branch were moved from the Akron stake.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We got an unexpected announcement today:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/11/28/new-temple-presidents-kenya-colorado-utah/
The work progresses, even on a holiday. My thanks once again to you all.
Not directly related to our church growth, but I saw that the UMC released US membership numbers for YE 2023, and that their membership declined by about 22% from 5.4 million as of YE 2022 to 4.2 million as of YE 2023 (https://www.umdata.org/statistics). Average weekly attendance dropped from 3.1 million in 2022 to 2.2 million in 2023 (https://www.umc.org/en/content/united-methodists-at-a-glance), a roughly 30% decline, suggesting that a greater proportion of active members left the faith.
I have no additional commentary as my knowledge of the recent schism is surface level at best, just thought it was interesting considering that as of recently they were the fifth largest denomination in the US, behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (counting nominal membership).
JTB - yes, there has been a steep decline for UMC, but this appears to be mostly due to many congregations separating from the official body of the church and becoming independent congregations. My son's preschool is in a UMC church and that church recently split off to be its own independent church.
Matt - Agreed, this isn't a mass disaffecting with Methodism/belief, just from the UMC. From my understanding it's primarily conservative congregations leaving in response to changes or proposed changes in policy (with higher percentages of congregations leaving in the South). Reminds me of the schisms that occured in the RLDS church in the 1980s.
For those following my Google Maps Area projects earlier this week, I have finally decided to combine into just 7 Subcontinental Maps, instead of 23 separate Church Areas maps with all 367 Temples and all Stakes/Districts and driving routes and local State/Province + County/Municipality borders.
Here are the first 3 links.
North America Areas
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1MWum92kOjubcpMGzNSzXedYy6w6aDT0&usp=sharing
South America Areas
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1EX7oz1GcHKPwxlERZ__p8CWY-b6ONs8&usp=sharing
Mexico, Central America + Caribbean Areas
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1pz3KDYnyQacSCNz88pQ_o2aPBpIK6PM&usp=sharing
It is an ongoing work to complete.
I will post the next 4 ones for Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific/Philippines Areas, later this week or next.
Disclaimer: None of the information on these maps is owned by me. It is all public information easily found on the internet and church websites. I have just taken the liberty to imagine what the new temple districts would look like if they were completed construction and already dedicated.
I have also while uploading these from my offline maps, have located several errors on my part for assigning units. I will make the best educated corrections as time allows.
I hope you all enjoy this work done over last several years.
I have even while uploading the Stakes in the Utah Area, had added the organization dates and name changes, and known Stake Presidents for the Bountiful Utah and Brigham City Utah Temple Districts.
P.D. Matt, I hope you don't mind that I post these links here as public knowledge.
Here is the updated Europe Areas map.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1OEzThLlMw4d29OjUikgg7QvLjnSaglY&usp=sharing
Matt, that's a good point about groups, although (sorry to beat a dead horse), retaining members in member groups is even harder than in branches and wards. 80% retention is blowing my mind.
Question about groups - how can people really tell how large groups are without attending it? We have 2 groups in my stake - a Filipino and a YSA group, but a couple of people I know attend the Filipino group do not show up in our stake directory. I'm just wondering for recording purposes, but it seems the records of the people attending the groups exist outside our stake. On LDS Tools, I am unable to see how many people are on record for either group.
I think the Filipino group was working on becoming a branch, which at that point, all of their records would be returned to our stake, but I'm not quite understanding why groups aren't just considered official congregations? From the handbook, branches only need a minimum of 20 members, at least 4 of whom need to be active full-tithe paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders. I'm not quite grasping why we even have groups if they can't even meet the minimum requirements for a branch?
Thanks Chris!
This is a copy of a comment I just made higher up in the comments (33rd from the top as of posting this), just commenting here at the bottom in case the comment doesn't get seen and my questions unanswered.
Question about groups - how can people really tell how large groups are without attending it? We have 2 groups in my stake - a Filipino and a YSA group, but a couple of people I know attend the Filipino group do not show up in our stake directory. I'm just wondering for recording purposes, but it seems the records of the people attending the groups exist outside our stake. On LDS Tools, I am unable to see how many people are on record for either group.
I think the Filipino group was working on becoming a branch, which at that point, all of their records would be returned to our stake, but I'm not quite understanding why groups aren't just considered official congregations? From the handbook, branches only need a minimum of 20 members, at least 4 of whom need to be active full-tithe paying Melchizedek Priesthood holders. I'm not quite grasping why we even have groups if they can't even meet the minimum requirements for a branch?
The United Methodist Church probably lost over half their membership in the recent break-up. To understand what is going on you have to understand unlike most Protestant Churches the United Methodist Church is not a largely American body, possibly affiliated with a larger international network. That is the case of the other 6 of the 7 sisters of Mainline Protestantism, and is also the case for the Southern Baptist Covention, and several other bodies. Although there are also a lot of fully independent Protrstsnt and Pentecostal Churches.
The Seventh-day Adventists and the Jehovah's Witnesses, like the Catholics and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are truly international bodies. Of those 4 The Church of JesusChrisy of Latter-day Saints is by far the highest percentage made up of members in the US.
The Episcopal Church, which has had the most US presidents as members of any religious body, is almost completely American. It also has operations in Taiwan,and I believe very small ones in a few Latin American countries. It in theory is part of the larger Anglican communion, although 80% of regular worshippers in the Anflican Communion belong to Churches that see the Episcopal Church as out of line. By Churches in this case I am referring to large national groups, made up of many dioceses, some dioceses have 100,000 members of even much more than that. The Anglican Communion has about 90 million members worldwide, well under 10% are in the US.
The United Methodist Church is not the only Methodist Church. However for various reasons it has almost as many members in DR Congo as in the US, and also large menlmbership in Liberia and several other places. The majority of members live outside the US. They have a very different view on the normative value of scripture than many of the United Methodist in the US.
The alliance with its power base in DR Congo was able to prevail in conventions on key policy votes. They would have prevailed by larger margins if it was not for the fact the United Methodist Church always holds its meetings in the US and that some appointed delegates do not manage to come because of the red tape involved in coming into the US.
Even though the Congo based alliance prevailed thry could see that since the beauracracy was controlled by Amerivans who disagreed with their views on the normative Authority of scripture keeping the Church together would not work. However because they were in the majority they forced an agreement that allowed them to leave the UMC with their Church buildings intact. Although it was never fully worked out because the bearacraxy used Covid as an excuse not the ever hold the meetings on an amicable separation that were planned.
The group leader for the Arabic group in my stake shows up under the membership list of the ward he lives in, which might also be the sponsoring unit for the ward. Of course one of the counselors in the bishopric in my parent's ward has hos account such that as someone elsewhere in the stake I cannot see him listed at all, so the directory do not actually list all active members.
When the branch I live in was formed in 1994 as a branch in a stake it had 1 active Melchizedek priesthood holder. Today I would have been formed as a group not a branch. This means that some figures on membership per church unit over time are thrown off because in the past much smaller units were designated branches than is the case today.
On a totally different note the Church News published the first presidents and matron for 3 new temples.
The Nairobi Kenya Temple will be lead by President and Sister Kogo. This was a key test to see how the new trend towards calling in district temple presidents instead of outsiders, which for 2023 and 2024 all new temple presidents either resided in their district of the temple they were called to preside over or if not were at least nationals of that country. The Allen's in Abijan do not fit this, but thry were called in 2021, when such was more common,although since about 2014 there seems to have been a much higher tendency to call local temple presidents.
The Nairobi Kenya Temple will be the first in Africa with a first president from that country.
I doing my study for this I realized the Mkabela's lead the Johanesburg South Africa Temple from 2019-2022. They may be the only black South Africas to have lead that temple to date. Sister Mkabela was on the young woman general board during the time they had a board meeting up of people from many countries. Brother Mkabela was an area Seventy, they Aldo lead the mission in Zimbabwe. Despite hVavnd ended in 2022, there have been 2 presidents of the Johanesburg Temple since.
I was wrong. Durban Douth Africa Temple had its 1st president as someone from Africa. Both its temple presidents to date have been white men born in Cape Town. The President of the Johanesburg Tem p le from 2022-2024 was also a white man born in Cape Town. I believe it was not really until the 1960s that the Church started trying to teach the gospel in Afrikaans. Before that missionaries in South Africa operated in English. Membership was mainly white, English speakers, and the Chur h was more concentrated in Vape Town than either the Johanesburg Area or Durban.
The first temple president in Johanesburg, Harlan Clark, was a Salt Lake City lawyer who had been a missionary and mission president in South Africa, a missionary in the q930s. He died while he was time president, in 1987 2 years after the temple was dedicated.
President and Sister Koga who will lead the Nairobi Krnya Temple come from the Elkoret Krnya district to the far west of Krnya. They were both born even further west in Kitale, which is a different district. Kitale is just a little closer to Kampala than to Nairobi. Although with processing cost and border delays it is probably both much cheaper and probably less actual travel time consuming to go to the Nairobi Temple. With 3 districts in the general area of Elkoret, and a 4th just over the border in Uganda, I suspect that a temple will be built there some day, but not maybe until after some of those districts become stakes.
Ana, Accra, Abijan and Kinshasa Temples all had 1st presidents who were Ameri and. Praia's 1st president was a Brazilian. With the exception of Abijan all have nationals of their country as temple president. I would not be surprised if the Allen's in Abijan are replaced by a local Ivorian couple as president and matron in 2026. I would be a little surprised if they do the transition in 2025. The 2026 turn over would be essentially what was done in the Praia Temple.
The Grand Junction Twmple and Syracuse Temple have locals called to preside. The Intermountain west has pretty much always had temple presidents called locally.
I was waiting for someone else here to connect the dots on this Newsroom post yesterday. But here goes my thoughts.
Recently, Elder Gong visited a popular Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Namely the Garahan Hospital to make church donations.
I wonder during his stay in the capital city, if he had the opportunity to visit any possible future sites for the already announced previously, Buenos Aires City Center Argentina Temple. The 2nd in the Area Metropolitana Gran Buenos Aires, to be constructed. To take back his recommendations and inspired thoughts to the First Presidency to deliberate and make a soon announcement to the final choice of sites in the "Autonomous City of Buenos Aires".
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-donation-doubles-pediatric-care-capacity-for-hospital-in-argentina
Here is a link to my early version Google My Maps of the 4 Africa Areas (Africa Central, Africa South, Africa West and Middle East/Africa North).
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=17lG0JWBBr1dRQU5V5Cn8czbNlh5o6_w&usp=sharing
The Rigby Idaho South Stake (1105388) has recently been renamed the Rigby Idaho Garfield Stake (1105388).
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/1105388
I don't know if the name change was from a Stake split? or just because most of the wards in the stake are now called Garfield and numbered?
Suggestions?
It doesn't seem to be a stake split. Most of the wards were already called Garfield and numbered but it seems that some wards have been added/created.
I was thinking how come they didn't just rename the stake as the Garfield Idaho Stake, but looking at the addresses, the chapel in Garfield has Rigby listed as the city. Same with Grant further to the west, Rudy to the east, and Labelle to the northeast, they all list Rigby as the city in the address. Milo to the southeast of Rigby and Coltman just south of Grant have Idaho Falls listed as its city. It makes me wonder if any of these places are incorporated, because I think if they were, they would be listed as the city, not Rigby or Idaho Falls. The Rigby Idaho Holbrooke Stake also seems to cover the southern part where the airport is, just in the eastern section, while the Rigby Idaho Garfield Stake covers the western section.
Also interesting that there are 5 meetinghouses marked on the map (4 in Rigby, one near Ririe) that don't show any assigned wards, but they all have TBD listed as their street address.
Chris, it appears the Trujillo Peru Jerusalen Stake still shows up in the meetinghouse locator.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2225964
Here is the link to the beginning of my Google My Maps of the 2 Asia Areas.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1nt3lT2upIb3IjOvtiJAqS1JIFyHz4qw&usp=sharing
Here https://news-africa.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/the-church-promotes-marriage-in-kananga--a-collaborative-effort-with-the-dr-congo-government-and-the-country-rsquo-s-inter-faith-council-(cnrp) is an article on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participating in Kananga with other groups encouraging policies that lead to kore marriage. https://news-africa.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/the-church-promotes-marriage-in-kananga--a-collaborative-effort-with-the-dr-congo-government-and-the-country-rsquo-s-inter-faith-council-(cnrp) Elder Willy Binene, who is heavily featured in Saints Vol. 4, Madd lots of comments. There are some policies in DR Congo lead lead to entering marriage being very expensive, and he spoke on how such things need to change. The bride price issue comes up in several countries in southern and Eastern Africa. I do not think I have seen it mentioned as an issue in West Africa. The issue about exorbitant fees to actually have a marriage performed I have not seen brought up before.
A little digging suggests the various locations listed by Ryan are, in fact, either unincorporated communities or just neighborhoods of either Rigby or Idaho Falls.
Craig H
I just started on my last Google Maps - Pacific / Philippines Areas Map.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1QDUSHJKqrFdFmW8Vk27F7-6gYQZLdc0&usp=sharing
The Church will release a new missionary preparation manual in January, as announced in the latest edition of the Church News podcast:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2024/12/03/episode-217-elder-mark-bassett-david-weidman-missionary-department/
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/12/04/africa-west-area-ministry-tamara-runia-tracy-browning/ Here is an article on Sister Broening and Sister Runia going to Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria. The article speaks mainly of statements and actions iI would love if at some future n Accra. However thry also went to Abuja. We have a picture of them and their husbands with about 70 or so missionaries from the Abuja Mission. Based on that picture I could believe every missionary there is a Nigerian (I think the mission president is Kenyan). The mission may have some missionaries from other countries though, maybe a few from Ghana. The only Ameri ans there are almost certainly the Runia's and the Brownings. ister Browning was born in New Rochelle and currently resides in West Jordan so she Is without doubt American. She did live some of her formative years in Jamaica where her ancestors are from, but she was baptized as a teenager in New Jersey.
The area Presidency and wives who get mentioned and with the wives shown are none of them Americans, although Alfred and Lucie Kyungu are not from the Africa West Area. They are from DR Congo.
Even as recently as 5 years ago you could not have taken a picture with 3 wives of general authorities that would have looked like the top picture in the article. I would love it at some future day we get another picture with the wives of area Presidency of the Africa West Area that is more completely local to the Africa West Area because it has Sister Ruth Goury. Just to blow minds. Ruth Goury was born Ruth Bennett and is a native of England by both birth and ancestry. Elder Martin Goury is a native of Gagnoa, Ivory Coast, and they lived in Ivory Coast prior to his call as a general authority Seventy. However for maybe 2 years or so. Before that thry presided over the mission in Togo and Benin. Before that they lived in Nigeria. However in the early years of their marriage (thry married in about 1993 or so) they lived in England. Elder Goury at one point had work duties that connected him with Cameroon, but I get the impression they did not live there.
I am going to predict that Lagos Nigeria will be the first city to have a 2nd temple announced before its first temple is done. Looking at maps I would think the 3nd temple will be built in the Agege area of Lagos. At least of all cities with a temple announced but none dedicated Lagos is the only one I could see having a 2nd time announced.
Thanks, Matt, for the update late last night or early this morning. With the split of the Lubumbashi and Ruashi DRC Stakes, last sunday, 12/01 to create the new Kasapa DRC Stake (2276488) in the northern suburb of Lubumbashi.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/stakes/2276488
The Lubumbashi Stake now has 8 wards and 1 branch. And the Ruashi Stake now has 8 wards.
It looks like there was a new stake as well in Kinshasa, the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Mikonga Stake.
Also, the Guatemala City Central Stake was renamed to just Guatemala Central Stake. Curious as to why this is.
The Guatemala City Utatlán Stake and the West Jordan Utah East Stake have been discontinued, as well.
Ryan, looks like the Guatemala City Central Stake was renamed when the neighboring Guatemala City Utatlán Stake (to the west) was discontinued. That would be my best guess.
I was just wondering why they removed "City" from the name, because now, just on the name, it's not clear if the stake is actually in Guatemala City itself.
Further curious why the Hualpén Chile Stake was renamed Chile Hualpen Stake. These just appear to be mistakes rather than actual renaming.
Matt, More great news from Ghana.
Oda Ghana District (2250713) - created 1 Dec 2024
- Oda 1st Branch (285943)
- Oda 2nd Branch (1997343)
- Asene Branch (2099012)
Parent: Ghana Accra West Mission
And the existing Busia Kenya/Uganda District has split between both countries last month.
Busia Uganda District (2282550) - created 17 Nov 2024
- Buchicha Branch (2252368)
- Kisenyi Branch (2115646)
- Sofia Branch (1911635)
Parent: Uganda Kampala Mission (470317)
Busia Kenya District (2132419)
- Busia Branch (1102761)
- Mundika Branch (2252376)
Parent: Kenya Nairobi West Mission (2012995)
And another new district organized last month.
Mbale Uganda District (2282534) - created 17 Nov 2024
- Malaba Branch (2272083)
- Mbale Branch (1631772)
- Mugiti Branch (2130459)
- Tororo Branch (2135825)
Parent: Uganda Kampala Mission (470317)
Hey, Chris! Not sure if you saw my comment in the previous thread, but I have posted my 2025 General Conference predictions, including a list of potential locations in which a Temple could be announced:
https://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2024/12/update-october-2024-general-conference.html
Thanks, James. I did not see that. Thanks again for the reminder.
I think my other comment didn't get posted, so sorry if this shows up twice.
Starting on August 1st, 2025, there will be a brand new Canada Area, that will be a division of the North America Central, Northeast and West Areas. It will be headquartered in Toronto.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/canada-area
The First Presidency has created a Canada Area from a division of the North America Central, North America Southeast, and North America Northewest AreasL
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/canada-area
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2024/12/06/first-presidency-announces-new-canada-area-effective-august-1-2025-toronto/
https://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2024/12/breaking-news-first-presidency-creates.html
This is quite exciting that there is a Canada Area and that ot is headquartered in Toronto. In the days before area presidencies when you have 1 general authority assigned to oversee things, I think there was a point where Canada was its own unit. Those units were much less stable than areas are.
Based on the map it seems that the plan is to put Yukon Territory in the Canada Area. Is part of Maine still in a Canadian mission? Alaska will evidently become a place geographically detached from the rest of the North America West Area. Although Hawaii already is in such a situation, although Hawaii is detached from everywhere. Portugal is in Europe North Area, although Spain is in Europe central, and Cabinda is in Africa South with the rest of Angola, although it is separated from the rest of Angola by part of DR Congo, so such an argument is not unprecedented.
I think with the goal being to have a Canada specific Area,they will move Yukon to a different mission.
I wonder if there will be any changes in the boundaries of areas in the US? I also wonder if any other areas will change names. In theory will Canada its own area the 5 areas that use North America in their name should now be called United States/USA or something like that.
The Busia district split is interesting. Especially with the low number of branches. I hope thry get more branches soon.
3 new temples presidents were called. Hartford has a new temple president, actually as of last month and San Juan is getting one this month. Both were counselors in the temple Presidency. My guess is the previous temple president or matron had health issues that prevented continued service, but I do not know.
Ciudad Juarez had a new president and matron called who will start in September 2025. This seems a little early to call them. Normally they do not begin announcing calls for the regular turn over until about the start of February. It used to maybe be even later but for the 2020 turn over theyvshifted turn over time to September from November.
Ciudad Juarez has an in district president and matron, although out of country. Thry live in El Paso, where the president was born, the matron was born in Southern Utah.
We have now had I think 8 temple presidents and matron called for what looks to be the 2025 season, although since 5 are for temples that do not have dedication dates it is not easy to say exactly when they will start. The Allen's who will lead the Abijan Temple when it is dedicated in June 2025 were called in July 2021.
With the creation of the Canada Area, do you think the "North America" areas will be renamed as "United States"?
Maybe I am looking at it wrong, but it appears that the map at churchofjesuschristtemples.org has both Busia Districts on the Ugandan side of the border.
Craig H
All area boundaries currently end at country borders-except for NA Areas. I've thought for a while that it would make since that all of Canada would be at least part of one area (ie NA northeast). Making its own area makes it the smallest areas by membership, congregations, etc in the Western Hemisphere and one of the smallest in the world.
Here is a Church News article today about a high number of members being called as missionaries for the Church.
"Responding to the call of a Prophet: More missionaries serving, more people joining the Church"
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2024/12/07/missionary-work-changes-prep-course-sacrament-meeting-invitations/
With that being said, I hope the First Presidency releases soon the list of new Missions to be organized next July 2025.
The creation of a Canada area seems likely to benefit the administering the North America Central area, which contains a large number of stakes over a large geographic area; and this change will reduce the number of stakes in the NA Central area by about 10%. I wonder if Brazil will be split back into multiple areas in the near future, because it too has the challenge of administering a large number of stakes over a geographically large area.
I am puzzled at the location of the area headquarters for the Canada area in Toronto, rather than in Calgary. Over half of all stakes in Canada are in Alberta, and 3/4 of all stakes in Canada are in the western provinces (BC, AB, SK, and MB). Locating the area offices in Toronto means *a lot* more travel time by the area presidency to where most members are (and while Toronto is much larger than Calgary in total population, because church employees must be temple recommend holders the labor market available for the area office to hire from will be much smaller (due to the smaller number of members in Toronto).
--Felix
Sorry. I meant North America Northeast, not Southeast. My thanks once again to you all.
It doesn't appear new comments are posting
The labor market to higher from though in many key ways is at least the country where you are operating, not just the city the area office is in. Anyway Toronto metro is 6.7 million to Calgary's 1.6 million. Torobto has 16 million people, Alberta less than 5 million.
Anyway a lot if Church roots in Alberta are American expatriate. For vaguely similar reasons the Church headquarters in Mexico have always been in Mexico City, not in Chihuahua State. If you want to center the Church to the pulse of the country you place Church operations in Totlronto or Ottawa. In fact since some area operations are interfacing with the government placing headquarters closer to the government has some advantages.
Church areas peaked at 31 in 2006-2007. In 2019 there were 21. We are now heading back up to 24.
As of now the Canada Area will cause Utah area to become the one with the most temples at 30. North America Central and North America West will drop to 28, and North America Southwest will be at 27. Mexico is at 26. Some of these numbers may be adjusted up in April, so we might not actually have Canada Area causing Utah area to end up thd most temples, and US areas may have boundary adjustments.
I could see the North America Central area with in the US getting 3 new temples announced in April,possibly one I. Eastern Idaho, maybe South Dakota, a 2nd for Wiscondin, another for somewhere in Illinois, and maybe another in Kansas, or maybe Pueblo or San Luis Vallrley in Colorado. Also somewhere like Nampa, Idaho I could see getting a temple, or maybe even in the part of Oregon in North America Central Area. I could also see 3 new temples announced on the North America West area,maybe 2 more in Calolifornia, and 1 somewhere else in the area, Juneau Alaska or Salem Oregon seem the most likely.
I am thinking Coeur d'Alene Idaho is in the North America West Area.
Although Spanish Fork, Utah I really expect to get a temple announced in April. Another additional temple in Utah would not shock me either. Right now Utah and North America West are tied. But Utah might clearly pull ahead in April pre-Canads loss. I do not think Utah Area could pull ahead of North America Cental pre-Canada loss. That would require 5 more temple announced for Utah area and none for North America Central. I do not expect it,but it would not be thd most shocking development in temples lately.
Felix, regarding Brazil I don't believe this. It seems to me that the distribution of living locations for the Area Seventies who serve Brazil demonstrates that the entire territory is being properly reached by the leadership. Furthermore, São Paulo is a suitable hub to support the presidency's travels, when necessary. However, if this were to happen again, I wonder if Fortaleza, and no longer Recife, would be the new area headquarters.
Other Matt here.
The only branch in the Yukon is Whitehorse, which is part of the Juneau Alaska Stake. Don't know if this branch will be part of the Canada Area or North America West Area.
Perhaps Dawson City will have its own branch , with Yukon being its own district at some point.
Yes I agree that unless there's some realignments of existing stakes, the Area boundaries is not going to be the national boundaries.
Changing existing stake boundaries to go along with international boundaries has been done before. Sault Ste. Marie used to all be in one ward in the Sudbury Ontario Stake. Boundaries were later adjusted so that there is now a ward on the Canadian side and a branch in Traverse City on the American side.
I strongly suspect Yukon will be moved out of the Juneau Alaska Stake.
With the creation of the Canada Area, this will leave southwest Asia and North Africa as the only area directly administered from Church headquarters.
I have been told the delay with the Dubai United Arab Emirates Temple, now 4.5 years past announcement is that thr authorities there were unimpressed with the fairly small temple the Church planned to huild. Thry evidently showed something like the San Diego Temple as what they had in mind.
I was just thinking if the Church were to create an area office and build the area headquarters and related buildings as part of the project this might allow a more ornate and bigger overall set of buildings. Although since that area has just 2 stakes and a few scattered branches I am not sure how large of area operations are actually needed. I believe Turkey, the only place in south-west Asia where the church has somewhat of a presence among locals, is not in the area.
I have this crazy idea that it might do good to have a Filipino general authority in that area Presidency, considering a majority of Church members in that area are Filipino.
The Tallahasee Florida Temple will be dedicated today. The Stake president there all his grandparents and maybe further back were local members. The first branch organized in Florida, in about 1904, was about 30 miles from Tallahassee.
The mission president and companion in the Tallahassee mission are African-American. This is quite exciting. Tallahasee is the part of Florida that has the most antebellum roots and it has a major HBCU. Outreach to African-Americans there is crucial, and has issues more Dimitar to Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi than to other parts of Florida.
Elder Corbitt is one of the general authorities there for the dedication. Elder Xotlrbitt is one of two African-American general authorities and is in the Presidency of the North Akerica Southeast Area. He as a missionary department employee was a key organizer of the 2018 Be One celebration that commemorated the 40th anniversary of official declaration 1. At the start of the event he is sitting next to President Eyring, he is the only person at that point sitting directly next to a member of the first Presidency, since the rom ended on the other side of President Oaks.
Elder Corbitt was also about the same time a key person in starting up the Church's higher level interactions with the NAACP. He was a key figure in the Tabernacle choircperformance with the glee clubs of Morehouse and Spellman Colleges, amount the most elite HBCUs, back in September.
However I learned do.etging that made me truly happy. I believe I have mentioned that I am a whirlte man with an African-American wife. James Robinson, the area seventy over the coordinating council that includes Tallahassee is a white lan with an African-American wife. Her name is LaTiesha, so it may have crossed my mind that she might be African-American when he was called, but I had no way to know for sure, and I have seen enough La+ and other names that some think are African-Amerifan held by white Utahs, I could not be even close to sure. I think I could convince dome people that BYU's coach Edwards was African-American based on his first name for example.
That last comment was from me. So while the Robinsons are clearly there in Tallahasee per the picture thry sermon to libe in Miramar, Florida in Broward County in meteo Miami. He was president of the Mismi Lakes Florida Stake from August 2012 (age 37) until sometime not all the way through 2023 when he was called as an area seventy at age 48. That means he is 49 or 50.
I misspelled her name. It is LaTeshia. The new stake presidents announcement gives it as Lateshia, in full Lateshia R.Dallas Robinson. He appears to be one of 4 Florida area seventies, another is John Amos an African-American with an African-American wife who was previously mission president in Baton Rouge. He actually joined the Church as an HBCU student in Baton Rouge and Sister Amos joined the Church with massive numbers of relatives at once in Mississipoi.
Back to Elder Robinson. His wife's name is in the recent church news article picture caption, in the announcement of his call in 2023 with 90 other area seventies and in the listing of him with other area seventies is written LaTeshia.
Also, this is Elder Kearon's first time dedicating a temple, and with only the 10:00 AM EST session, he should make it back to Church headquarters on time for the First Presidency's Christmas devotional tonight.
The Forney Texas Stake was officially created today from a division of the Dallas Texas East Stake and a ward from the Heath Stake, with Elder Anthony Perkins presiding over the division.
As mentioned earlier, the new stakes are constituted of the following wards and branches:
Forney Texas Stake
Forney 1st Ward
Forney 2nd Ward
Forney 3rd Branch
Kaufman Ward
Mesquite Ward
Skyline Ward
Rio Trinidad Ward (Spanish)
Dallas Texas East Stake:
Dallas 1st Ward
Dallas 9th Ward
Dallas YSA 2nd Ward
Lakewood Ward
Lake Highlands Ward
Garland 1st Ward
Casa Linda Ward (Spanish)
During the conference, Elder Perkins mentioned that the breakdown of young missionaries serving is about 70,000 teaching missionaries and 10,000 service missionaries (which is a huge jump from the 3,800~ that were serving at the end of 2023). He also mentioned that the number of people who will be baptized this year will be the highest in decades (which of course is anecdotal as he did not mention the specific number, but I thought it was interesting).
I can see arguments going both ways for Yukon. This is going under the presumption that the Whitehorse branch would be reassigned to the Prince George British Columbia Stake.
Pros:
-This would mean that missionaries serving in the Alaska Anchorage Mission would no longer require passports.
-Likewise, members there would not need a passport to attend their new assigned temple (Vancouver). A flight to Vancouver would only take 2 hours and 15 minutes (estimated $434) opposed to a flight to Anchorage with close to 10 hours and estimated $1,452.
-The Whitehorse Branch is already almost detached from the rest of the stake, because none of British Columbia is part of the stake. It only attaches geographically in the section near Yakutat.
Cons
-Prince George is three times as far from Whitehorse as Juneau. A drive to Prince George is just under 18 hours, while a drive (and ferry) to Juneau is just over 9 hours. This is mitigated by Zoom technology that might render this point meaningless, however, the Juneau stake is likely already using this technology, since there are no roads to Juneau. The only 3 branches a person can drive to (without the use of a ferry) is Whitehorse, Haines, and Skagway.
-Driving to the Anchorage temple would take nearly 13 hours versus a 26 hour drive to the Vancouver temple.
-The extreme northwestern part of British Columbia can be reassigned to the Juneau stake, giving total road access within the stake between Whitehorse and Haines/Skagway.
I can probably think of more reasons on both sides, but I gotta get to Church now.
The problem with a Dubai temple seems opposite of the problem we are having else. It seems most pushback we get it that locals think the temple is too large for the neighborhood (even for relatively small temple). However Dubai seems to go big with everything. So I hope we can move forward soon. I know some delay was with COVID and the delayed start to the expo. I understand that the proposed site was on part of the expo land. But it still has been a couple of years since that ended. I hope we move forward soon. I wonder if we can make it a multipurpose building with a stake center/meetinghouse, temple and maybe even move a Middle East area office and a humanitarian, Family Search, and visitors centers intobtue same building justify a larger building. L. Chris Jones
Great News, JTB. I was just about to ask here if anyone had knowledge of that stake creation today. I appreciate your update.
I don't blame them for that idea. Dubai is more than a city, it is an open-air theme park, trying to concentrate all types of tourist activities in its surroundings. And we must agree that the San Diego Temple is the most beautiful ever built by the Church. If there is some type of state support in the construction, in addition to the donation of the land, the Dubai Temple will certainly be very beautiful and, like the SLC temple, it could have some tourist influx of endowed members.
Dubai is an international hub. Also, it's the logical destination for Pakistani members as it's one of the few countries nearby that they can travel to visa free, and being an international hub would be an easy destination to get to. Downside, the church would probably have to pay for the flights as these members don't have much monetary means.
Long term building a temple in Pakistan would be the best think for members in Pakistan.
The issue with Dubai is there are 2 stakes in the Persian Gulf region plus Arabia. Even worth the 3 or 4 districts in Pakistan, that will make keeping anything much above 12,000 square feet of a temple well used would be hard. Staffing the temple with temple workers might also be an issue.
Almost 90% of UAE residents are expats, often from countries with relatively high receptivity to the Church (e.g., Philippines). If we had missionaries in the UAE to work with expats on a referral basis, we could likely have more than two stakes there eventually. ;-)
I believe the square footage could reasonably be doubled. I don't believe it will or should look like San Diego.
Looks like there were at 4 stake closures today in Utah. The existing 5 stakes in Kearns were reduced to 2 stakes. 2 stakes were also combined into one in Ogden.
However, it doesn't appear any ward consolidations happened with the mergers of the stakes. All ward consolidations took place earlier this year.
Cfunk, do you know which 4 stake names where closed today in Kearns and Ogden?
Other Matt here...
From what I'm seeing on Facebook for Kearns, there is now a Kearns Noth Stake and Kearns South Stake
Kearns North Stake:
Western Hills 1st Ward
Western Hills 4th Ward
Kearns 10th Ward
Kearns 2nd Ward (Spanish)
Kearns 14th Ward
Academy Park Ward
Pesaga Ward (Samoan)
Westwood Heights Ward
Kearns South Stake:
Fox Hills Ward
Kearns 21st Ward
Copper City Ward
Olympic Park 1st Ward
Olympic Park 3rd Ward (Spanish)
Parkwood Ward
Valley Ridge Ward
Walnut Hills Ward
Sunview Branch (Care Center)
Thank you for the updates everyone - I updated the lists of new and discontinued stakes and districts for 2024. Can all of you please check to make sure I did not miss any? I did not include the discontinued Kearns stakes since I was not sure which stakes were discontinued yesterday.
Itapetininga Brazil District is missing (discontinued in 11/03/2024)
Thank you! Itapetininga Brazil District was added to the list of discontinued districts.
Matt, these Districts were also recently discontinued in October or November 2024.
Phuthaditjhaba South Africa District (2104644)
Matsuyama Japan District (613215)
I use Rick's Unit Changes page when he updates his Temple's website as a reminder of the recent changes in last 90 days.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/units/
Thanks Chris - I missed those two. They have been added.
The Ogden Utah Lorin Farr and Rock Cliff Stakes have merged to form the Ogden Utah East Ridge Stake.
For those interested in a bit of Church History, the Ogden Utah Lorin Farr Stake (502154), (or by the Church News Stake #198), was organized on November 16, 1952, as the Lorin Farr Stake, and renamed the Ogden Utah Lorin Farr Stake, on January 14, 1974 (with the standardization churchwide of Stake names).
And the Ogden Utah Rock Cliff Stake (503460), (or by Church News Stake #314), was organized on November 20, 1960, as the Ben Lomond South Stake. And was renamed the Ogden Utah North Stake, also on January 14, 1974, with the same standardization on Stake names. Then, sometime between 2013 and 2024 (unknown to me the exact year or date), was again renamed the Ogden Utah Rock Cliff Stake.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2010/2/2/23268855/united-states-information-utah/
Based on this list, the Kearns Utah North Stake seems to be a reorganization of the Kearns Utah East Stake.
-All 4 wards from the Kearns Utah East Stake
-2 wards from the Kearns Utah Stake
-1 ward from the Kearns Utah Central Stake
-1 ward from the Kearns Utah South Stake
Kearns Utah South Stake
-2 wards retained
-4 wards from the Kearns Utah Central Stake
-2 wards and 1 branch from the Kearns Utah West Stake.
However, there are 6 other wards not accounted for in this list.
-Georgetown, Valley View, and Western Hills 3rd Ward from the Kearns Utah Central Stake
-Western Hills 2nd and Western Hills 8th (Spanish) Wards from the Kearns Utah Stake
-Sun Ridge Ward from the Kearns Utah West Stake.
The Georgetown and Valley Ridge Wards meet between the chapel that has the Parkwood and Valley View Wards and the chapel that has the Olympic Park 1st and Olympic Park 3rd (Spanish) Wards, so curious why they aren't included in the Kearns Utah South Stake.
The Sun Ridge Ward practically meets across the street from the chapel that has the Western Hills 1st, Western Hills 2nd, and Western Hills 8th (Spanish) Wards. Very close by is the chapel that has the Western Hills 3rd and 4th Wards.
My guess is that after the initial plan (of which the size I have no actual idea) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had people look over how the temple and related buildings could be expanded and otherwise made more impressive.
I am not sure how the UAE would feel about missionaries of any kind. A lot of the expatrriates there are from Pakistan. On the other hand a lot are from the Phillippines, so there is probably potential for outreach, assuming it would be allowed.
I suspect that there are also lots of marginally active members in the UAE. So it might not even be baptisms and just reactivation that would be needed to increase the number of stakes.
James, only two stakes in the Cottonwood area of the SL Valley had recent ward consolidations, but these two stakes have already been combined. The remaining stake is the Salt Lake Cottonwood Creek Stake. All other stakes in the region have at least 5 wards, though some, like the Murray Utah Little Cottonwood Stake, at only 5 wards that cover very little area (and thus likely fewer active members than when they were created) still seem likely to face possible consolidations in the next 5-10 years if you ask me.
It's possible that those areas could be renamed, with the exception of the Utah Area. I like the idea of a United States Central, United Xtates Northeast, United States Southeast, United States Southwest, and United States West Area. On another note, I will be intrigued to learn where the Canada Area fits in terms of its' Area Seventies Quorum. I have tentatively placed it in the Tenth Quorum, but that puts that Quorum at 4 North America Areas, so we could also see the North America Southeast Area transferred to the Eleventh Quorum. Just my thoughts.
I visited San Luis Valley, CO for the first time in August for Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park. I didn't realize then that his area is the home of two stakes despite it's small population. Early Mormons colonized this area. This would be a great location for a temple since it is so isolated - halfway between Denver and Albuquerque.
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