Updated Country Profile - Switzerland

Click here to access the updated Reaching the Nations country profile for Switzerland. Switzerland has the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints of any Central European country, although only 0.11% of the population is a Latter-day Saint on Church records. The Church in Switzerland has a strong and highly self-sufficient leadership which contributed to Switzerland's selection as the location for the first European temple in the 1950s. Furthermore, Church leadership in Switzerland is also skilled and has very few Church employees who also serve in local lay positions. Nevertheless, very slow membership growth has occurred for decades and only 34% of Church-reported members regularly attend worship services. Significant ethnic diversification of Latter-day Saint congregations in Switzerland has occurred in the past two decades due to higher receptivity among immigrants, particularly from Latin America and Africa. See below for the Future Prospects section of this article:

Slow Latter-day Saint membership growth and a decline in the number of congregations during the 2000s and 2010s indicate modest convert retention rates and no recent expansion of national outreach. The creation of two new stakes and the maturation of several branches into wards during this period illustrates some progress strengthening existing congregations and local leadership, but many of these developments may be due to the influx of immigrant converts. Switzerland demonstrates that a mature church presence that has been established for decades longer than in most European nations does not guarantee greater potential for national outreach expansion, and, more often, national outreach declines over time as active Latter-day Saint populations form tight-knit socio-religious communities and reduce their interaction with the general population. Latter-day Saint populations appear much more stable in Switzerland than in many other Central European nations, but little church growth will likely occur unless greater member involvement in missionary activity occurs, along with adapting proselytism and teaching approaches to nominal Christian and secular Swiss populations. The creation and growth of the Frauenfeld Ward in the 1990s and 2000s and the growth of the church among English and Spanish-speakers in Geneva and Zurich illustrate that potential for church growth remains but requires vision, flexibility, and utilization of opportunities by local members and church leaders alike.

Five New Missions to be organized and Five Mission to be Consolidated this July

New missions will be organized in the following locations:

• Benin Cotonou
• Mexico Mexico City Southeast
• Peru Chiclayo
• Philippines Quezon City North
• Zambia Lusaka

Missions to be consolidated are as follows:

• Connecticut Hartford 
• Georgia Macon
• Portugal Porto
• Switzerland Geneva and France Toulouse to create the France Lyon
• Toronto Canada East and Toronto Canada West to create Toronto Canada

France Toulouse and Switzerland Geneva Missions to consolidate into the France Lyon Mission this July

Missionaries report that the France Toulouse Mission and Switzerland Geneva Mission will combine into a single mission this July.  The mission will be renamed the France Lyon Mission and administer LDS missionary work throughout southern France and Francophone Switzerland.  Some areas will also reportedly be transferred over to the France Paris Mission as part of the consolidation.

This mission consolidation as well as others that will occur this July are part of a redistribution of mission resources from less productive, more self-reliant areas to more receptive, less self-sufficient areas and also represents the challenge of expanding mission outreach worldwide with a finite number of LDS missionaries.  The consolidation of missions in less productive nations often does not significantly affect the number of convert baptisms and often convert retention rates remain constant or improve as a result of greater involvement of local members in mission activity.  Consequently, we are most likely to see additional mission consolidations in North America and Europe in the coming years.  The primary reasons for the limited number of LDS missionaries include a decline in LDS birth rates in the United States, consistently low rates of North American members serving full-time missions (where the bulk of the LDS missionary force originates), and the failure of developing totally self-sufficient missionary manpower in the nations which draw the greatest numbers of missionary resources.  In 2010, all new missions that were organized were created in nations which have seen increasing numbers of full-time missionaries serve or supply a large number of full-time missionaries, such as Guatemala, Mexico, the DR Congo, and Nicaragua.  Below are a list of some potential new missions we may see organized in the coming years.

• Angola Luanda
• Brazil Fortaleza South
• Cameroon Yaounde
• Ethiopia Addis Ababa
• Ghana Kumasi
• Mexico Toluca
• Peru Iquitos
• Tanzania Dar Es Salaam
• Togo Lome

More New Missions and Missions to be Discontinued

New Missions in Mexico

Missionaries report that at least two new missions will be organized in Mexico this summer.

The sixth mission in the Mexico City area will be created from a division of the Mexico Mexico City North and Mexico Mexico East Missions and will be named the Mexico Mexico City Northwest Mission. The new mission will include 10 stakes. Mexico City experiences some of the highest numbers of baptisms in the Church and regularly sees additional congregations created. The highest baptizing mission in Mexico last year was the Mexico Mexico City East Mission with over 3,000 converts. Retention has been a persisting problem in this area for decades and appears to have only slightly improved as congregational growth is less than membership growth. An additional mission will allow for greater focus on retention and increasing member activity by more frequent visits and training from mission leadership to local leadership. The new mission may increase the likelihood of a future temple in Pachuca in the coming years.

The Mexico Villahermosa Mission will be created by a division of the Mexico Tuxtla Gutierrez Mission. An additional mission in southern Mexico will provide greater missionary resources to open additional small cities and towns. These areas also have many Amerindian groups who have received increasing outreach such as in the San Cristobal de las Casas area. Several stakes in the Villahermosa area may split as they have added several new congregations over the past couple years.

Missions to be Discontinued in Europe

A member in Central Europe reported that the Switzerland Zurich and Germany Hamburg Missions will be discontinued. Central Europe has seen a trend of decreasing mission outreach over the past two decades. I will provide additional information once it becomes available. Like other areas experiencing mission consolidations, the number of missionaries serving in these areas have likely already been reduced over the years to prepare for consolidation. Many areas in Central Europe have seen small increases in convert baptisms with fewer missionaries through outreach to young adults. The Central European country which experienced the greatest increase in growth in 2009 was the Czech Republic.

A full report on which missions will be discontinued and created this summer will be included in the Church News this weekend.