New Stake in Utah; Districts Discontinued in Guyana and French Guiana

Utah

A new stake was created in Utah last Saturday. The Riverton Utah Harvest Park Stake has eight wards and was created from a division of the Fort Herriman Utah Stake which had 15 wards prior to the creation of the new stake. There are now 547 stakes in Utah.

Guyana

Full-time missionaries serving in Guyana report that the Canje Guyana District was discontinued at the end of 2010 and branches pertaining to the former district now report directly to the West Indies Mission. Guyana experienced rapid membership and congregational growth in the late 2000s. Growth came to a dramatic halt following the removal of nearly the entire North American missionary force in September 2009 and the implementation of stricter standards for convert baptisms under a new mission president who began serving in July 2009. A combination of low convert retention, inadequate numbers of active priesthood leadership to fill branch and district presidencies, apostasy, and reliance on full-time missionaries for church administrative duties contributed to the discontinuation of the district. Many of the new congregations established in the late 2000s continue to operate under local leaders, indicating that some self-sustaining progress has been achieved in recent years. There are no signs that the Georgetown Guyana District will mature into a stake in the near future and much of the excitement and anticipation for strong church growth in Guyana exhibited only a couple years ago has disappeared. Increasing sacrament attendance has been reported in some branches in the New Amsterdam area over the past couple months.

French Guiana

Organized in 2009, the Cayenne French Guiana District was discontinued and the Kourou Branch was closed. Full-time missionaries serving in French Guiana reported that staffing leadership for congregations in Cayenne has been a major challenge. Inadequate numbers of local leaders appear the primary reason for the discontinuation of the district. The LDS Church has always struggled in French Guiana due to high rates of emigration and a transient migrant worker population.

New District In French Guiana

The first district of the Church in French Guiana was recently organized. French Guiana is located just east of Suriname and is part of the West Indies Missions. The Cayenne French Guiana District will serve members which live in the branches located in Cayenne and Kourou. The Church initially grew rapidly once it was first established in French Guiana 20 years ago but slow substantially once membership reached 200. In 2007 membership increased to 287 and like the rest of the West Indies Mission, likely had many converts baptized last year.

On an interesting note, the district of missionaries serving in French Guiana report that they usually attend zone conference in Suriname. In order to get there they have to go by taxi, bus and canoe.