Church Growth News

Update on Growth in Nicaragua

Missionaries report that the Church is calling unprecedented numbers of additional missionaries to staff the two missions in Nicaragua - one of which just opened earlier this month. Total missionaries serving in this Central American country will likely reach 400 in the coming months, with 200 missionaries in each mission. Additional groups or dependent branches have also been recently organized. In Puerto Cabezas, a fourth branch was just created, the El Caminante Branch. The three additional branches in the area are the Puerto Cabezas, Bilwi, and Loma Verde Branches. A future district based in Puerto Cabezas appears highly likely in the coming months although there are no official reports that this will occur.

New Branches in East Malaysia

The three originally branches in Kuching were realigned to create two new branches. The Kuching East Malaysia District now has five branches. With five congregations, the district can work towards becoming a stake in the future although the number of active members and Priesthood holders remains insufficient. In the Sibu East Malaysia District, a fourth branch was created in Sibu Jaya. Missionary activity occurs exclusively among non-Muslims in Malaysia.

City Opens for Missionary Work in Mozambique

Missionaries report that Chimoio, Mozambique has opened for missionary work. What was previously the city with the most inhabitants without a Church presence, no branch has been organized and the Church meets as a group under the Mozambique Maputo Mission Branch. The opening of Chimoio is a significant development as low convert retention and struggles to develop local leadership have prevented additional areas of the country from receiving missionaries. In the past couple years, several cities which had branches previously established have had full-time missionaries assigned, including Nampula and Tete.

Breakthrough in the Solomon Islands: Members Meeting in Three Congregations

The Solomon Islands have remained the least reached by LDS mission efforts among all the islands of the Pacific despite boasting one of the largest populations in the region of over half a million. The first branch was organized in the mid-1990s in the capital of Honiara and slow membership growth occurred between 2000 and 2007. It appears that the Honiara Branch has recently been divided and two new congregations have been established in Honiara. Although LDS missionary work remains severely limited in the country, the creation of additional units allows for expanded outreach and greater opportunities to spur local leadership.

Branch Discontinued in Paramaribo, Suriname

One of the seven branches in Suriname was recently discontinued in the Blauwgrond region of the city. It is unclear whether the branch continues to meet as a group or dependent branch of a neighboring branch or whether members in the area now travel to a different location for Church meetings. Suriname has experienced strong membership growth in the past five years, but modest convert retention rates and poor local leadership development resulting in dependence on foreign missionaries for administrative tasks.

New Group in Suriname

A group was recently created in Suriname in Kwarasan. It is still too small to be a branch, but has a space rented out to meet in. I am not sure where Kwarasan, but figure it is in the outlying area around the capital.

News From the West Indies Mission

1,000 Members in Suriname

Rapid membership growth continues in Suriname. This last Sunday the 991st member was baptized and confirmed and after next Sunday there will be 1,000 members of the Church in this country of 500,000. At the end of 2006 there were 687 members in two branches. There are six branches in the country today and the West Indies Mission President's wife, Sister Robison, indicates much of the growth is yet to come. Many youth are preparing their paperwork to serve missions.

New Branch Created in Guadeloupe.

The seventh branch of the Church was recently organized in Le Gosier, which was the city with the largest population without a branch in it (25,400 inhabitants). There were only a little over 300 members in five branches at the end of 2006 and many have been joining the Church on this French speaking island in the Caribbean.

On the above map, the green squares indicate branches.

Recent Church Growth News

I decided I should periodically write some of the exciting news I come to find out regarding the growth of the Church occuring right now (or very recently). I'll give an update once a month or so of this nature.

Number of Branches in Suriname triples in the past year

At the end of 2006, there were two branches in the country of Suriname (Paramaribo and Wanica). One branch was organized around the Spring of 2007, the Blauwgrond Branch, and another two where organized a few months later, the Nickerie and Tamenga Branches. Finally, towards the end of 2007, the Uitkijk Branch was organized for a grand total of six in the country. I have not been able to find information regarding baptisms in Suriname for 2007, but in 2006 there was a noticable increase in membership. The second branch in Suriname, the Wanica Branch, was organized in the Fall of 2002.

New Branches in Cambodia

Less than a week ago, I was going through Church unit listings on www.mormon.org/worshipwithus and I noticed two new branches were created recently in Cambodia. What is so exciting about these branches is that they are in cities which have never had branches before, Siemreap and Kampong Thom. There is only one other city which has a branch in it that is a considerable distance from the capital city of Phnom Penh which is Battambang. Hopefully this indicates an increase in convert baptisms and activity among members, since the number of new branches created in Cambodia has declined in recent years along with baptisms.

47 New Stakes Organized in 2007 and Counting

From information provided by http://www.lds.org/ on temple district listings, I have found at least 47 new stakes created in 2007 and five stakes which were dissolved (three in California, one in Louisiana and one in Liberia). In 2007, 13 stakes were organized in Brazil, which is the highest number of new stakes organized in that country since 1998. Furthermore, in Peru, four new stakes were organized (all from mission districts) which is the largest number of stakes created in that country since 1997. Two-thirds of the stakes created were outside of the United States and Canada and the net increase for stakes in the United States and Brazil was almost the same (Brazil had two more).

Recently Organized Mission Districts

Something I have noticed over the past year or two is that the number of new mission districts being created has declined. Over the past year, the only new mission districts I know of that have been organized where in Oldenburg Germany, Nkawkaw Ghana, Monrovia Liberia and Monrovia Liberia Bushrod (both from the dissolved stake), Monte Plata Dominican Republic, and Nicosia Cyprus. Furthermore, 12 of the organized stakes in 2007 were created from mission districts, which indicates that the trend of declining mission districts which began in 2005 will continue. Of course it is a positive thing to have districts maturing into stakes (which require a lot of active, devoted LDS Church members) but the creation of new mission districts signifies the Church moving into areas of the world (or nations which it is already in) which it has not had a strong presence in before. The majority of districts are created in countries where there is a strong LDS presence, and decisions to form districts is made up to local, regional and global Church leadership.
I do have a list of potential districts to be organized, which I will save for a later date.

The New Delhi India Mission

The First Presidency organized the second mission in India last November which not only covers the northern half of India, but also Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. There are several reasons for why this new mission was organized.

1. This very populated area of the world has very few LDS members; all of India has 7,000 and is the country in the region with the most LDS members. This mission will allow for more emphasis on training current Church leadership in New Delhi and Pakistan which have a small but active LDS membership. The mission president will also not have to travel as far as before to train and meet with missionaries and members.
2. The growth of the Church in Sri Lanka and Malaysia has been impressive. Church membership in Malaysia jumped from 2,917 in 2005 to 3,633 in 2006 and Sri Lanka's membership has increased from 963 to 1,108 during that same time period. The new mission in India administers to several of the countries originally covered by the Singapore Mission such as Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Now the Singapore Mission is responsible only for Singapore and Malaysia. The India Bangalore Mission is now only responsible for Southern India along with Sri Lanka. This allows for more missionaries to be focused in this region along with more access for the mission president with missionaries and members.
3. The two original missions covered very large regions of Asia; now the only mission which covers a very large area is the India New Delhi Mission and this mission has very few members in it (almost all of whom reside in the city of New Delhi or in Pakistan).