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
Is it possible that Africa will save the church as Europe and Nordic countries did previously?
ReplyDeleteOn 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.
Delete"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.
Delete"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.
Delete"Elder Soares Meets with French Senator in Paris"
https://news-europe.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-soares-meets-with-french-senator-in-paris
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.
DeleteExcellent 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.
ReplyDeleteAlso, 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.
Other Noah here.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Matt! Nice analysis as usual. It's amazing to me how much the church is thriving in central Africa. Hurray for Israel!
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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteTo 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.
ReplyDeleteIn 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).
ReplyDeletehttps://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'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.
DeleteI'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.
DeleteThe 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.
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteWhat 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.
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.
Delete5% 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.
The Makurdi Nigeria District will become a stake on December 15th. Hundreds of converts have been baptized in Makurdi in the last two years.
ReplyDeleteGreat News
DeleteWhile unlikely to happen in the short term, this elevation could allow for a Temple to be announced for Makurdi sometime down the road.
DeleteCraig H
Thank you for the comments everyone. I updated the 2024 new stakes list. Also, the Tumauini Philippines Stake was organized today.
ReplyDeleteMatt, 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.
DeleteAlso, 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.
Hi Matt, just curious if the active membership of each unit is much, much higher than in other areas of the world. You stated:
ReplyDelete"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.
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.
DeleteThe 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?
DeleteYour 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.
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
ReplyDeleteI'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.
DeleteI 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?
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.
DeleteNew 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDelete"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
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.
DeleteAlso, recently, Elder Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve, had a 10 day ministry to the Netherlands, Greece, Bulgaria, and Italy.
ReplyDelete"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."
ReplyDeleteTemple for Antarctica!
DeleteMatt, thanks for the Update.
ReplyDeleteAlso 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.
ReplyDeletehttps://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.
Sorry, the above post was me, Chris D., I wasn't automatically logged into the blog.
ReplyDeleteAlso, 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
ReplyDeleteWe 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.
ReplyDeleteStarting 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.
ReplyDeleteThere 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.
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.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1pz3KDYnyQacSCNz88pQ_o2aPBpIK6PM&usp=sharing
Here's my temple predictions map. It's still being tweaked.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1G7hdBBWl07qNmfixCPEyCf7dAOKzzjw&usp=sharing