Updated Country Profiles - Belarus, Israel, Kazakhstan, and Palestine

We have updated the following Reaching the Nations country profiles on www.cumorah.com:

• Belarus
• Israel
• Kazakhstan
• Palestine

The Church in Belarus has continuously operated since the early 1990s. Today, the Minsk Branch numbers among the most self-sufficient congregations in the Baltic Mission with approximately one hundred active members and many families and children. However, the Church in Belarus operates an official branch in only two cities at present, and the Vitebsk Branch has only a few active members. There are 469 members in Belarus.

The Church in Kazakhstan reports only approximately 200 members nationwide. Most members live in the most populous city of Almaty. Current government restrictions prevent the Church from expanding to additional cities outside of Almaty and Astana. Nevertheless, the Church has achieved good progress with the establishment of a self-sufficient Latter-day Saint community in Almaty.

The Church in Israel and Palestine also reports an extremely limited presence. Altogether, there are approximately 300 members in both nations. Most members in Palestine are native Palestinians who have joined the Church abroad, whereas most members in Israel are foreigners. The Church is reliant on foreign members to meet most of its leadership needs in Israel and Palestine.

Central Eurasian Mission to be Created in July

Today the Church announced that a new mission will be organized this July from a division of the Bulgaria Sofia and Russia Novosibirsk Missions. The Central Eurasian Mission will be headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey and include the following nations within its boundaries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. Although the Church did not explicitly state that Turkmenistan will be included in the Central Eurasian Mission, a graphic supplied in an LDS Church News article suggests that this nation will also be included within the new mission. The realigned Bulgaria Sofia Mission will subsequently only administer Bulgaria whereas the realigned Russia Novosibirsk Mission will solely administer central Siberia. The Church currently reports four branches in Turkey, two branches in Kazakhstan, and one branch for expatriate members in Azerbaijan. Full-time missionaries have served in Kazakhstan since 2004 and Turkey since 2012.

The announcement of the new mission came as a complete shock to me. All but two of the countries (Kazakhstan and Turkey) have never been assigned to an LDS mission before. All of these nations experience governmental and/or societal restrictions on religious freedom. Governmental restrictions on religious freedom have intensified within Central Asia during the past two decades as a result of the resurgence of Islamic identify following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, political efforts to curb the emergence of radical Islamist groups in the region, and concern that nontraditional Christian groups pose threats to local cultures and national identities. The Church missed its window of opportunity to establish a presence in most Central Asian republics and Azerbaijan during the 1990s when conditions were more favorable to missionary-focused Christian denominations. Consequently efforts to establish the Church in Kyrgyzstan were unsuccessful in the mid-2000s. There have not appeared to be any recent efforts to establish the Church in additional nations in the region such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, or Uzbekistan.

The decision to organize the new mission stands as the most audacious and proactive initiative by the LDS Church to expand its outreach into vast unreached areas of the world since the 1990s. The Church has organized no new missions within an area with as few members and congregations since the organization of the Russia Vladivostok Mission in 1999. No LDS scriptures have been translated into languages indigenous to Central Asia or Azerbaijan and only the Book of Mormon has been translated into Turkish.  Many of the most commonly spoken languages have no translations of LDS materials available such as Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Tajiki, Turkmen, and Uzbek. The organization of the new mission will provide the Church an exciting frontier to pioneer Muslim-specific outreach if determined by mission and area leadership as the percentage of Muslims in the population range from as low as 70% in Kazakhstan to as high as 99.8% in Turkey.

The new Central Eurasian Mission will have over 150 million people within its boundaries. The mission will tie with the Uganda Kampala Mission as the mission with the fourth largest population in the world after the India New Delhi, Indonesia Jakarta, and India Bangalore Missions.

Case studies on cumorah.com pertaining to the nations within the new Central Eurasian Mission can be found below.

• Beginning LDS Missionary Work in Turkey
• Missed Opportunities for LDS Outreach in Azerbaijan
• Missed Opportunities for LDS Outreach in Kyrgyzstan
• Missed Opportunities for LDS Outreach in Tajikistan
• Missed Opportunities for LDS Outreach in Turkmenistan
• Missed Opportunities for LDS Outreach in Uzbekistan
• Recent LDS Church Growth Developments in Kazakhstan

I will write a case study on cumorah.com in the coming month or two providing further analysis of this exciting and unprecedented development.

Church Growth News

LDS branch officially created in Burundi

Senior couple missionaries serving in the DR Congo Lubumbashi Mission report that the first official branch has been created in the country of Burundi. LDS services have previously operated as a group. A branch once operated in Burundi in the 1990s, but was discontinued as members left the country as a result of war. Dozens of converts have been baptized since full-time missionaries were assigned last September. Prospects appear to be materializing for mission outreach to expand outside of Bujumbura in the coming months and years.

New stakes to be created

Full-time missionaries serving around the world report that new stakes will soon be created in the following locations:

• Donetsk, Ukraine
• Kananga, DR Congo
• Quetzaltenango, Guatemala area
• Granada, Nicaragua

It is unclear whether First Presidency approval has been granted for each of these potential stakes and I will provide updates once they become available.

Nepal Update

Although not recognized by the government and operating unofficially, the LDS Church in Nepal was reported by the Church to have 133 members in the sole branch headquartered in Kathmandu. No active proselytism occurs in Nepal and Nepalese youth have begun to serve full-time missions in increasing numbers in recent years.

City in Kazakhstan opening for missionary work

Full-time missionaries serving in Kazakhstan report that for the first time in LDS Church history, a second city will have full-time missionaries assigned. Only Almaty has LDS missionaries at present, but next month the capital city of Astana should also have full-time missionaries assigned. There have been plans for years to eventually open Astana for full-time missionary work and it is unclear whether current plans will materialize as past plans never came to fruition.

City in Uganda opens for missionary work; first branch to be created at the end of January

The city of Lira, Uganda has had full-time missionaries recently assigned and the Uganda Kampala Mission President will create the first branch in the city later this month. Full-time missionaries report that sacrament attendance has increased to over 50 and that there are now five priesthood holders.

New missions in 2011 rumors

Although no official plans have been announced, there has been discussion on new missions which may open in July 2011. I announced a couple months ago concerning plans to open a new mission in Lusaka, Zambia. Potential new missions which may be created this year are listed below. These potential new missions have been cited by full-time missionaries serving in the field.

• Ethiopia Addis Ababa
• Angola Luanda/Mozambique Beira
• Togo/Benin

Church planting in the United States

Full-time missionaries serving in Little Rock, Arkansas report that mission and stake leadership have experimented with church planting approaches recently. A group operates in the Little Rock area with a full-time missionary companionship assigned that has grown to 25 some members attending weekly - all of which are recent converts. Missionaries report that they started the congregation from scratch and are hoping to organize an independent branch from the group in the near future as local priesthood leadership develops. This church planting example illustrates the need for such missionary approaches worldwide for the LDS Church in order to improve convert retention, member self-sufficiency, and long-term church growth.