New posts of U.S. and Canada Blog

I have added two new posts on my other blog, http://ldschurchgrowth-us-canada.blogspot.com about two new stakes created in Nevada and Texas as well as the Church in California.

Exciting developments in Africa

The Church has just given authorization for a branch to be created in Gulu, Uganda. This will be the first branch over 100 miles away from the capital, Kampala. Currently, a group functions in the city and has high attendance at Sunday meetings. The formation of a branch in this city has been delayed due to conflict in the region. Missionary activity has not been authorized for Gulu yet (as well as Rwanda which had its first branch organized in March).

The Mission President for the Uganda Kampala Mission has recently been given approval to look for member activity in the Sudan. Reports on member activity in this war-torn country are limited, but there may be as many as a couple hundred members meeting in the South of the Country (possibly in the vicinity of Juba). Many Sudanese refugees have been baptized in the United States (for example, a branch temporary functioned in Omaha, Nebraska in Nuer which is a language from this area). Some of these members have returned to their homeland. The southern part of Sudan is predominantly Christian, while the north is Muslim.

The Church in France

France is one of the first countries in Europe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was established in. As of the end of 2006, there were almost 34,000 members. Today there are nine stakes and two districts in the country. There is no temple in France, but President Hinckley told members in a meeting five or so years ago that a temple will someday be built. There are only two missions in France now. Even though there has been a dramatic drop in the number of branches in the country (from 82 in 2000 to 63 in 2006), new branches have been created in the past few years in places where branches did not function previously (Like the city of Gap). Wards have also increased during this time period from 43 to 61. So the overall number of units has not really changed since 2000. As for possible new stakes, the Nice France Stake is rather large and could split someday (it's had around 10 wards and a few branches, but for quite sometime). Yellow squares represent wards; green squares represent branches.

The Church in Spain and Portugal

Some of the strongest growth the Church has experienced in Europe in the past 10 years has been in Spain. In 2000, Spain had 31,695 members in seven stakes and 40 wards. There were a total of 124 branches as well and 16 districts. In 2006 Spain had 41,188 members, the most out of any country in Europe except the United Kingdom. Today there are 66 wards, 55 branches, nine stakes, and nine districts. The stakes in Madrid have growth fairly large (around 18 wards and six branches in two stakes) as well as the Elche Stake (10 wards and four branches). New stakes are likely to be organized in these two regions of the country. The northern portion of the country still does not have a single stake in it, but rather five districts. Up until a year or two ago there were three districts in the Canary Islands but these have all been consolidated into one (perhaps to create a stake in the near future, but growth rates have been relatively stagnant here). The temple in Madrid was dedicated nine years ago.

Portugal is an interesting story. Growth was very strong in the late 80's, but has slowed significantly in the 90's. Membership increased from only 35,146 in 2000 to 38,130 in 2006. Yet Portugal has the highest percentage of members out of any country in Europe (0.36%). There are six stakes in the country with 35 wards as well as four districts (two are on islands). Portugal is the country with the second largest membership with no temple after Nicaragua. I imagine a temple will be built someday in Lisbon to serve the Cape Verde Islands as well. Portugal is probably the European country with the highest inactivity.

The yellow squares represent wards and the green squares represent branches

New International District Created in China

The Church recently organized the second district in China, the Shanghai China International (English) District. I made a recent post about the Church and China, and please refer back to that post for more information. Something else I wanted to add is that there are around 40 million Christians in China, but no Chinese citizens attend the branch services in China; only foreigners do.

Rapid Church Growth in Guyana

Membership and activity have recently been growing rapidly in Guyana; part of the Trinidad and Tobago Mission. Out of the over 200 baptisms in the mission last March, 150 occurred in Guyana. The city of New Amsterdam has been one of the areas of growth. The New Amsterdam Guyana District now has six branches. A new branch was created sometime in the past six months or so in the city as well (New Amsterdam 2nd Branch). Furthermore, a new branch was created in Crabwood Creek in the past month (a town of 10,000 on the Guyana-Suriname border). Many of the converts in Guyana are of Indian or Ameri-Indian descent. The Church has not released membership figures for 2007 for individual countries yet, but there were 2,072 members in 11 branches at the end 0f 2006. Now there are at least 14 branches in the country. In 2003, membership was 1,340. The branches are shown with the pink squares.

Districts Maturing Into Stakes

One of the most exciting events many members in nations where the Church has been establish enjoy is when the district they reside in matures into a stake. This is particularly true for those countries in which a stake has never been organized before. The last country for which this was the case was Hungary back in 2006. This year, it is almost certain that Mongolia and Trinidad and Tobago will have their first stakes organized. Cambodia is also quite likely to have its first stake organized this year in Phnom Penh. Mongolia and Cambodia both have around 8,000 members in around 20 branches and have been preparing for stakehood. Growth has slowed in both of these nations, but a missionary in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission reported that in the first four months of this year, there have been more baptisms than during all of 2007. The number of native, Mongolian missionaries has risen from 19 back in August to 50 now in April. Furthermore, many families are joining the Church together.

I know I stress the importance of stakes a lot in this blog, but the formation of a stake is a very important event. It brings many blessings unavailable to members living outside of stakes, such as patriarchs. It takes an active, balanced membership to accomplish this feat, and therefore symbolizes Church growth in every aspect.

Here is a map of Trinidad and Tobago. The green squares are were branches are located. I also wanted to add that Church services were held for the first time in Point Fortin and the city has been opened to missionary work.

Potential Temples in the United States

Predicting where the First Presidency announces temples in the United States can quite difficult. This is evident with yesterday's announcement of the two temples in Arizona. Although most saw two or more new temples likely to be announced in the coming years in Arizona, few anticipated one would be so close to the Mesa Arizona Temple and the other not being in Tucson.

Keeping that in mind, here is a list I have compiled with likely cities to receive temples in the coming 10 years. These predictions are made as a combination of the size of existing temple districts (the number of stakes and districts assigned to a particular temple) as well as number of stakes in a particular geographic region. The first number in the parentheses represents the number of stakes the temple would serve and the second number represents the number of districts the temple would serve. The bold number shows the number of stakes located within the metropolitan area of the named city.

• Indianapolis Indiana (8,0) 3
• Kansas City Missouri (9, 0) 5
• Layton Utah (30, 0) 18
• Miami Florida (7,8) 5
• Milwaukee Wisconsin (6,0) 2
• Pensacola Florida (6,0) 1
• Pocatello Idaho (20, 0) 10
• Price Utah (8,0) 5
• Rogers Arkansas (6,0) 2
• Spanish Fork Utah (26,0) 23

These cities represent regions where a temple is either far away or where there are many members that attend a temple with a large number of stakes in its temple district (75 stakes are assigned to the Ogden Utah Temple for instance).

The United States currently has 67 temples operating, under construction or announced. No other country in the world comes close to accommodating Church membership in such a way (because the lack of members or inactivity). Because of this, it is unlikely that many new temples will be announced in the United States until further growth is experienced in conversions and reactivation. However, the small, 10,700 square foot temples can be built to accommodate just two or three stakes (The Colonia Juarez Temple serves only two stakes and two districts and Bismarck North Dakota Temple serves three stakes and one district). As I mentioned in an earlier post, these temples tend to be located in isolated areas.

Perhaps rising gasoline prices may help to initiate temple construction in the United States in other cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania or Augusta, Maine.

Two New Temples Announced in Arizona

The First Presidency recently announced that two new temples will be built in Arizona, The Gila Valley and Gilbert Temples. Church member density and activity is rather high in the Gilbert area and is rapidly developing (this is in the same vicinity as Queen Creek, where five stakes have been organized in the past six years). The number of stakes assigned to this temple will probably be around 30-40, depending on whether the stakes in Tucson will be assigned to this temple or the Gila Valley Temple. The Gila Valley Temple will likely serve less than five or six stakes if the stakes in Tucson are not in the temple district. However, the Gila Valley is home to Mormon colonies established in the 1870s and have been far away from a temple for some time (The Colonia Juarez Temple is another example of how Church members living in an isolated region for over a hundred years get a temple). The size of the temples has not been specified yet, but I imagine that the Gila Valley Temple will be one of the small, 10,700 square foot temples the the Gilbert Temple being a large, 60,000 square foot temple.

I have not created any posts on potential temple sites in the United States, and will do so in the coming weeks.

2,800 Stakes in the Church

In the past couple weeks, the Church has reached over 2,800 stakes. Below is a table of the number of stakes at the end of the year shown along with the increase of stakes of that year

• 2007 - 2,790 +45
• 2006 - 2,745 +44
• 2005 - 2,701 +36
• 2004 - 2,665 +41
• 2003 - 2,624 +22
• 2002 - 2,602 -5
• 2001 - 2,607 +26
• 2000 - 2,581 +39
• 1999 - 2,542 +37
• 1998 - 2,505 +81
• 1997 - 2,424 +128
• 1996 - 2,296 +146
• 1995 - 2,150 +142
• 1994 - 2,008 +40
• 1993 - 1,968 +49
• 1992 - 1,919 +82
• 1991 - 1,837 +53
• 1990 - 1,784 +45
• 1989 - 1,739 +32
• 1988 - 1,707 +41
• 1987 - 1,666 +44
• 1986 - 1,622 +40
• 1985 - 1,582 +75
• 1984 - 1,507 +49
• 1983 - 1,458 +66
• 1982 - 1,392 +71
• 1981 - 1,321 +103
• 1980 - 1,288 +126
• 1979 - 1,092 +102
• 1978 - 990 +105
• 1977 - 885 +87
• 1976 - 798 +61
• 1975 - 737

As for this year thus far, there have not been many stakes created. On the Church's official website lds.org, the temple district lists have been updated slower than usual for the international temples (which may be a reason why for the lack of new stakes this year). However this month we have seen a larger number of new stakes created from what I know. The overall trend over the past five years has been a positive one, with 45 new stakes added last year (actually 50 were created, but five were dissolved).

From the above information, it is clear that around 40 new stakes a created a year and then every so often 100 stakes a created a year for a few years. The average number of new stakes created a year since 1975 is 66 and the average number of congregations created a year is 635. Something that I have noticed is that a good rule of thumb to know if healthy growth is occurring is when there are 10 congregations created for every stake created. This 10 to 1 ratio has held fairly true over the past five years and is a good predictor of how many new congregations are created in a year (if you know the number of stakes organized).

Lastly, I wanted to comment on the noticeable drop in 2002 of five stakes. Around 20 or so stakes were created this year, but the number of dissolved stakes exceeded this number. Please refer to my post I made back on March 2nd for more information.