The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently created its first branch in the West African nation of Guinea-Bissau (population 2.2 million). The Bissau Branch was organized under the Espargos Cape Verde District.
Previously, Guinea-Bissau was under the direct supervision of the Africa West Area via the Africa West Area Branch until approximately one year ago, when it was assigned to a mission for the first time—namely, the Cape Verde Praia Mission.
There were 45 Latter-day Saints in Guinea-Bissau as of year-end 2013 (the most recent year with published membership data), most of whom appear to have been baptized and confirmed in other countries (especially Portugal) before returning to their homeland.
Several factors appear to have delayed the establishment of a formal Church presence in Guinea-Bissau:
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The absence of a U.S. embassy
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A comparatively small population (by West African standards)
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Its Portuguese-speaking population
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Its remote location
In recent years, both formal and informal missionary efforts have resulted in convert baptisms within Guinea-Bissau, under the supervision of the Cape Verde Praia Mission. Prior to the branch’s creation, the country pertained to the Cape Verde Praia Mission Branch. Full-time missionaries now appear to be serving in Bissau, further signaling an increased focus on outreach.
Prospects for Church growth in Guinea-Bissau appear highly favorable, given:
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Good receptivity among Bissau-Guineans
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The relatively light administrative burden of the Cape Verde Praia Mission, which currently oversees only Guinea-Bissau and the four stakes and one district in Cape Verde.
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Burkina Faso
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Mauritania
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Niger
Among these, only Burkina Faso has a known member group, which was slated to become a branch in 2020, although this has yet to occur.
Below is a list of West African countries and the year their first branch was organized:
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Ghana – 1978
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Nigeria – 1978
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Liberia – 1987
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Sierra Leone – 1988
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Côte d’Ivoire – 1989
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Togo – 1999
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Benin – 2005
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Senegal – 2016
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Guinea – 2017
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Mali – 2017
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The Gambia – 2022
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Guinea-Bissau – 2025
28 comments:
I sent an email to Cumorah about the recent ABC4 news report on Beijing shutting down the church, but I just saw another newspaper that says it's all over the country, not just Beijing. They're planning on switching to video calls and the church in China website is still up. Having the temple have patriotic artwork up and need to be ready at any time for investigations was going to be super awkward--so this might be for the best so it can be done right when it finally is built.
The First Presidency have recently called the first Temple President and Matron of the new Yorba Linda Temple
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2025/07/10/new-yorba-linda-california-temple-president-and-matron/
That’s interesting that the is branch is apart of a district in Cape Verde, I surprised there not apart of one closer!
Since The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is operating in Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau it makes sense to pair it with another place where the Church also operates in Portuguese.
All the more so because there is no mission and no stake in mainland west Africa beyond Sierra Leone.
I think the first analysis is not what district but what mission to put a place in. The mission president oversees Melchizedek Priesthood advancement, temple recommends and mission calls among other things. So does much of what a stake president does in a stake.
So the choices are Cape Verde, Sierra Leone or somewhere else.
Sierra Leone probably needs a 2nd mission. It has 3 districts, and probably several independent branches directly under the mission. It has 8.4 million people. Cape Verde has 1 district and 600,000 people. I am ignoring stakes.
Guinea-Bissau has 2 million people. Over 1 million of them are Christian, almost 1 million Muslim.
I think this also means Guinea-Bissau is in the Europe North Area. This is slightly odd, but it will be no harder for an area seventy to travel from Europe than from Nigeria to this area.
At some point it will probably make sense to place Guinea Bissau and Cspe Verde in the Africa West Area, or in a new area formed from dome of the Africa West Area. However that time seems not to be yet.
When the Church starts trying to form units in local languages some boundary changes might be needed.
However for now it makes sense to bearing missionaries who know Portuguese, a mission president overseeing Portuguese dealers, counselors who know Portuguese, a district president who knows Portuguese and so on.
At one point Angola and Mozambique were in the same mission.
I do wonder if they will assign Sak Tome to Angola or to Cape Verde. That country has less than 300,000 inhabitants. Still bigger than Tonga, but when Angola has 39 million, over 100 times as many people, it can seem not a big priority to go somewhere that small.
The Praia Temple is the closest temple to Guinea-Bissau. It is also closest to Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia, at least until Freetown in completed.
Is there a church presence in Sao Tome and Principe? I know I read once about a senior couple in Timor Leste but I am not sure if there is a branch or group operating there. Are there any other Nations with Portuguese as an official language that don't have a church presence yet? Maybe autonomous regions?
David, the Church has the Dili Branch in the capital of East Timor / Timor Leste.
https://maps.churchofjesuschrist.org/wards/2255499
Thank you for finding that for me, Chris. I was thinking that was the case but couldn't remember off of the top of my head.
It looks like that there are hardly any wards, branches that still cross the US / Canada border. The only one I still found was Point Roberts in Washington thats part of the Richmond 1st ward in the Surrey British Columbia Stake. Wards that were in the other country's stake, were moved to stakes in the same country. Does anyone know why this append. Did US / Canada boarder crossing become so much more difficult?
I believe it was more so to have as much of Canada in the new Canada Area to be formed next month as possible. I had made a note of this in the past month where I found 10 congregations that crossed the border, now it's down to 3. The Richmond 1st Ward you mentioned, the Republic Branch in the Colville WA Stake that covers part of British Columbia, and the Whitehorse Branch, that while the branch boundary is entirely within Canada, it is assigned to the Juneau AK Stake. I had also made suggestions on how to "fix" this.
The Whitehorse Branch I feel can easily be reassigned to the Prince George BC Stake, and while a long drive to get there, I feel it is mitigated by technology (Zoom) that they likely have to use for stake conference with Juneau anyway.
For the Republic Branch, I had the part of British Columbia initially split between the West Kootenay Ward (located in Trail) of the Cranbrook BC Stake and the Osoyoos Branch of the Vernon BC Stake. The largest town in this part appears to be Grand Forks, which is a slightly faster drive to Trail, BC than Osoyoos, BC, but not by much. Depending on how many members live there, they could potentially form their own branch. This new branch would likely be part of the Vernon BC Stake rather than Cranbrook BC, because it's 30 minutes faster to Vernon and (not that is terribly matters) in the same time zone.
Point Roberts is kind of the only one I think ought to stay where it is. There are debates on whether they should just join Canada. I believe students there used to attend school in Canada, now they have to travel to Billingham. It seems silly to me to reassign them, because in order to attend church, they would have to drive through Canada to get back into the U.S., so if they have to cross into Canada regardless, why not keep them there and not have to deal with double the border crossings every Sunday?
Plus, a new branch in Grand Forks could theoretically allow for a split in the Vernon BC Stake, which currently has 9 wards and 3 branches. It could have the Vernon BC Stake with 5 wards (Kamloops 1st & 2nd, Salmon Arm, and Vernon 1st & 2nd Wards), and a new stake in Kelowna with 4 wards and 3 branches (Kelowna 1st & 2nd, Penticton, and West Kelowna Wards and the Merrit, Osoyoos, and Okanagan YSA Branches). A branch in Grand Forks would obviously be assigned to Kelowna (which is 30 minutes closer than Vernon).
That what I was thinking, they had to put it with a Portuguese speaking district
This DN article has some more insight into the increase in concerts, including that 40,000 of those recent baptized are individuals who had been taught by missionaries before eventually meeting with the missionaries who brought them to baptism:
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2025/07/11/church-of-jesus-christ-sees-record-growth-global-membership/
There IS a 2nd mission in Sierra Leone. The Bo mission was opened last summer.
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/36-new-missions-church-of-jesus-christ
Just a quick housekeeping note.
The next time the 2025 Stakes Sidebar is updated, the entry for Canete, Peru needs the year added.
Craig H
It appears the Cape Verde Praia Mission Branch was technically discontinued? I remember seeing the branch covered all of Guinea-Bissau and the island of Santa Luzia in Cabo Verde, which is the exact same area covered by the new Bissau Branch. I had wondered if the Bissau Branch was just a renaming of the Cape Verde Praia Mission Branch, however I was still able to search for the Cape Verde Praia Mission Branch, which shows no boundary at all. Both branches state they are meeting at the same address (which is not marked on the meetinghouse locator), but the Acting Branch Leader does not have the same name of the Branch President.
Grand Forks technically has its own building they rent and run as a group.
In other news from Paris, the French government announced tody, the south pacific territory of New Caledonia, will become a "State".
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2025/07/12/state-of-new-caledonia-created-in-hard-won-agreement-with-french-government_6743299_5.html
I almost feel like I'm out of the loop on some things by finding out about them a week later. First was a video about Church Leaders that are converts sharing their experiences being invited to Church (I suggested we show it in EQ tomorrow), the other is an update to the Gospel Library app that released on the 3rd (found out about it just now) that featured two noteworthy (to me) additions, the first being that all paragraphs in Conference talks are now numbered, which can make it easier to follow along. Now, the instructor doesn't have to say "a few paragraphs later," instead they can now say "paragraph #5. Second will be the ability to view your Patriarchal Blessing with its own tile card. The feature is said to only be available in Mexico and Brazil to start, but will be rolled out to everyone else soon enough.
Ryan, you can also find your Patriarchal Blessing online by logging into your LDS account, for example, on the Newsroom site, then select Resources in upper right corner. And select Patriarchal Blessing, at the very bottom of the dropdown list. And request an online PDF copy of your Patriarchal Blessing, if you haven't already. I requested mine years ago, since i misplaced the original paper copy in one of my moves. So, I can read it online any time i want to consult my guidance in general for this life's journey. Not sure how much time i would save with a "tile card". i kind of like it more hidden from general view.
I am aware, it has apparently been a requested feature for many years now. I personally don't know how much I would use it, because there will be 3 different ways I can view it now.
The video from Patrick Kearon, Elder Corbitt, Sister Broening, Sister Spannaus, Elder Dube, Elder Martinez, Elder Klebingat, Elder Wada and Elder Choi came out on June 25. So almost 3 weeks ago. We watched it in Sunday school in my ward last week.
Elder Corbitt mentions being invited to youth conference. He was baptized on his 18th birthday in August 1980. I think this was Summer 1980, but am not sure. Elder Martinez though a native of Puerto Rico joined the church while in Mississippi doing advanced medical training. It was a really cool idea for a video, showing how current church leaders were introduced to the Church.
They cane no where near exhausting using all convert church leaders.
While the new Canada Area was likely planned before that, it was probably done with good timing as US/Canada relations has deteriorated since the beginning of the year. Increased border restrictions may make it harder for members/leaders to cross the border.
In years past, I thought they'd put all of Canada into one area, but as part of the North America Northeast Area. It will be the smallest area in the Americas in the way of membership - Half the size of the next smallest (Caribbean Area). It will be by far the smallest in population outside of the United States. And it's church size less than a quarter of that of the next smallest country (the Philippines).
* Canada is the 13th largest country in the way of membership. Peru, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nigeria, Bolivia, Colombia; all have more members - Every country in the South America Northwest area has more members.
* Canada is the 14th largest country in number of missions. Again, every country in the South America Northwest Area has more missions.
* Canada ranks 9th in both number of stakes and congregations in a country. Peru, Argentina, Chile, Nigeria have more.
The Canada area also covers part of France (Saint Pierre and Miquelon), but there's no congregations there.
While still smaller in size, it's still similar in membership and congregational size of European areas (excluding Europe East which was created in conjunction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine), and wondering if it will take parts of Western Europe in the future.
Outside of the creation of the Canada Area, is there any other realignments for Areas?
The only ones I'm aware of are the North America Central, Northeast and West Areas, will be realigned in the process and renamed United States Central, Northeast and West Areas. In addition, the North America Southeast and Southwest Areas will be renamed United States Southeast and Southwest Areas. As was posted on the new Area Presidencies chart previously. We won't know until after August 1st if any of those 5 boundaries will change other than the national USA-Canada border to the north.
If the new Canada Area just takes the 54 Stakes and 3 Districts in the Dominion. That would currently leave according to my count,
United States Central - 266 + 0 (+ 33 Stakes to Canada)
United States Northeast - 131 + 2 (+14 Stakes to Canada)
United States Southeast - 137 + 0
United States Southwest - 275 + 4
United States West - 271 + 0 (+7 Stakes to Canada)
But, disclaimer, those are only my predictions. We'll see next month what the reality on the ground is.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2025/04/14/area-presidency-assignments-for-2025-2026-announced/
United States West - 271 + 0
For those of you, like myself, follow the weekly Stake and District changes on the Map.
Here is a Microsoft Word document i just put together to share the July 2025 links for the current 23 Church Areas and 451 Missions worldwide links to the online Meetinghouse Locator maps. That show the associated locations of each in the sidebar.
Disclaimer, the links only work after you have signed into the site using your LDS account.
Your welcome.
https://1drv.ms/w/c/1db9589a4503c3cf/ETLjFFeG3C1LpwnXkqkWVtUBTnkyLYVb2B2IAIT_nf_FMg?e=lVT41C
I just added 380 of the 382 Temples also at the bottom.
Does anyone know if the new Canada Area will be assigned to the 10th or 11th Quorum of the Seventies? Since they both have parts of the new Area to be organized.
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