New Stakes Created in Brazil, Guatemala, and Texas; New District Created in Kiribati; District Discontinued in Colombia

Brazil
The Church organized a new stake in Goias State, Brazil on January 31st. The Rio Verde Brazil Stake was organized from the Rio Verde Brazil District and the Brazil Goiana Mission. The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Bandeirantes, Itumbiara, Jataí, Morada do Sol, and Rio Verde Wards and the Popular Branch. The original Rio Verde Brazil District was organized in 1997. There are now six stakes in Goias State.

There are now 258 stakes and 38 districts in Brazil.

Guatemala
The Church organized a new stake in the Guatemala City metropolitan area on January 21st. The Linda Vista Guatemala Stake was organized from a division of the Amatitlán Guatemala Stake and the Villa Nueva Guatemala Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Alamedas, Eterna Primavera, Linda Vista, Naciones, and Sonora Ward. There are now 21 stakes in the Guatemala City metropolitan area.

There are now 45 stakes and 16 districts in Guatemala.

Texas
The Church organized a new stake in the Dallas area on February 7th. The Irving Texas Stake was organized from a division of the Dallas Texas Stake and the Carrollton Texas Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Dallas 6th, Grand Prairie 1st, Grand Prairie 2nd, Irving, Pioneer (Spanish), and Shady Grove (Spanish) Wards. There are now 19 stakes in the Dallas metropolitan area.

There are now 68 stakes and three districts in Texas.

Kiribati
The Church organized a second district in the Micronesian nation of Kiribati. The Tarawa Kiribati North District was organized from a division of the Tarawa Kiribati East Stake. There are six branches in the new district: the Abaokoro, Abatoa, Buota, Tearinibai, Temaiku 1st, and Temaiku 2nd Branches - two of which were organized since the beginning of the year. Senior missionaries serving on Tarawa have reported over the past year or two plans to organize the district in an effort to ultimately establish a third stake on Tarawa Atoll. Significant progress has been noted on North Tarawa Atoll and this progress has played a vital role in the establishment of the new district.

The Church in Kiribati has good promise for a temple one day to service the Micronesian subregion of Oceania. Church-reported membership accounts for approximately 16% of the national population - a remarkable feat since no LDS presence operated on the islands prior to 1975. The most rapid growth in Kiribati within the past decade has occurred on remote Kiritmati (Christmas) Island where a district was established in 2014. The Marshall Islands Majuro Mission, organized in 2006, has aggressively opened several previously unreached islands in Kiribati during the past five years. Some islands have had as many as three member groups established such as Nonouti Island. However, the Church in Kiribati experiences one of the lowest member activity rates in Oceania. The average ward or branch has 646 members on its rolls - significantly more than the approximately 50-150 active members in most congregations.

Colombia
The Church recently discontinued the Barrancabermeja Colombia District. All three branches in the former district have been reassigned to the Colombia Bogota North Mission. The district was likely discontinued due to no realistic prospects for the district to organize additional branches and become a stake within the foreseeable future. A shortage of local leadership manpower may have also influenced this decision.

Official LDS Membership Statistics Released for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro

The Church has released official, year-end 2014 membership statistics for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro for the first time. According to the statistics page on mormonnewsroom.org, the Church reported 61 members in Bosnia and Herzegovina and six members in Montenegro. These statistics indicate that church-reported membership in Bosnia and Herzegovina constitutes 0.0016% of the national population, or one LDS member per 63,394 people. Church-reported membership in Montenegro constitutes less than 0.001% of the population, or one LDS member per 107,846 people. The Church assigned the first young, proselytizing missionaries to Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2012 and to Montenegro in April 2012. Both countries pertain to the Adriatic North Mission.

Exponential LDS Growth in Africa?

On February 12th, the Church published a news release on its mormonnewsroom.org website in regards to rapid LDS growth in Africa. The news release coincided with information on the groundbreaking of the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple. In the news release the article states:

"Indeed, the Church in Africa has grown exponentially in the past 30 years — a fact surprising even to those who understand best the culture and complexity of this vast region of the globe — whether they are leaders and converts living and serving in Africa, or those who have come to Salt Lake City to help guide the affairs of the global Church."

Some additional noteworthy points in the article include:

"In 2014, more than 12,000 people joined the Church in Southeast Africa (about 4 percent of growth Churchwide) and 24,000 people joined in West Africa (about 8 percent of the 296,000 converts around the globe)."

"To appreciate this rapid growth, historical context helps. In Africa 30 years ago, the Church had 137 separate congregations and about 22,000 members. Today, there are more than 1,600 congregations and half a million members — that’s 11 times more wards and branches and 20 times more members than in 1985."

"What’s more, the Church will soon have a new missionary training center in Accra that can train 400 missionaries at a time to support the faith’s global missionary force."

In addition to the news release, the Church also posted a video providing additional details on LDS growth in Africa. In the video, Elder Joseph W. Sitati of the Seventy stated:


"As we look to the future, this controlled growth will enable the Church to grow in a way that if that had not happened, the numbers would be much higher than what we have today. But I think the Church would be much weaker."

The Church has indeed experienced rapid growth in many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa within the past three decades. The most rapid growth has occurred in Nigeria, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), and Cote d'Ivoire. More than half of LDS membership in Africa resides in these four nations. During the 19-year period between 1995 and 2014, LDS membership increased from 28,000 to approximately 130,00 in Nigeria, 14,000 to 62,031 in Ghana, 5,300 to 42,689 in the DR Congo, and 2,800 to 27,052 in Cote d'Ivoire. Between 1995 and 2015, the number of stakes increased from three to 33 in Nigeria, two to 15 in Ghana, zero to 13 in the DR Congo, and zero to nine in Cote d'Ivoire. Rapid congregational growth has also occurred in all four of these nations within the past two decades, suggesting that commensurate "real growth" has occurred in these nations in regards to increasing numbers of active members. The Church in Cote d'Ivoire has recently experienced some of the most rapid expansion of the Church into previously unreached areas ever witnessed in modern church history. Significant increases in the number of West African and Congolese members serving full-time missions has warranted the Church to build a new MTC in Ghana with approximately quadruple the capacity of the original Ghana MTC constructed in the early 2000s.

Despite this progress, LDS growth in Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be extremely limited. Overall growth trends have appeared much more modest than the "exponential" growth claims in the recent LDS news release. Here are some figures that support this argument:

• LDS membership exceeds 20,000 in only six of the 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where there is an official LDS presence, namely Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, DR Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Zimbabwe. Most the population in these six nations does not live in an area where an LDS congregation operates. Entire regions of these nations have absolutely no LDS presence whatsoever. In the DR Congo, the entire northern half of the country was totally unreached until the creation of the Kisangani Branch approximately one year ago. In Ghana, two administrative regions have no official wards or branches. There are approximately 100 cities in Nigeria inhabited by 100,000 or more people that have no LDS congregations, most of which are located outside of traditionally Muslim areas. Five of the 12 administrative districts in Cote d'Ivoire remain unreached by the Church.
• The Church in Sub-Saharan Africa reports fewer than 10,000 members in 20 countries where there is an official LDS presence.
• LDS membership and congregational growth rates are best described as linear or cubic in nearly all African nations.  
• The Church in Ghana and Sierra Leone reports the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in the population among African nations - a mere 0.25%, or one LDS member per approximately 400 people.
• LDS growth trends over the past two decades have been slow or stagnant in seven nations, including Angola, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, and Tanzania.
• Four or fewer cities have an LDS presence in 17 Sub-Saharan African nations.
• There are 12 Sub-Saharan African countries where there are no official LDS congregations that operate despite sufficient religious freedom to conduct proselytism and no legal barriers for the Church to obtain government recognition. 
• Six Sub-Saharan African nations with an LDS presence - Burundi, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania - are inhabited by over 10 million people each have no LDS missions headquartered within their geographic borders.

A lack of international church resources allocated to Africa, combined with a conservative interpretation of the Church's "centers of strength" policy, appear the primary causes for an extremely limited LDS presence in Africa today. The interpretation of this policy has vastly differed between the Church's two African administrative areas during the past six years in particular. The Church in the Africa West Area has maintained some of the most successful and efficient policies governing LDS growth in the worldwide Church as evidenced by the organization of the first LDS branches in more than a dozen cities in Cote d'Ivoire during 2015. Recent congregational and membership growth rates have reached as high as 20% in some West African nations with good convert retention and member activity rates reported. However, the Africa Southeast Area has typically implemented policies that have stifled growth. For example, dozens of locations in the DR Congo have groups of isolated Latter-day Saints or prospective members that have been denied permission to organize official branches. The Church in Tanzania reports only six branches despite an LDS presence for over 20 years. The previous area policy that required proselytism and church services to be conducted exclusively in English rather than Swahili was a significant barrier for growth. No LDS mission operates in Ethiopia despite significant language barriers between mission leadership in English-speaking Uganda and an Ethiopian target population of nearly 100 million. Inadvertently, this conservative implementation of the centers of strength policy in the Africa Southeast Area has restricted LDS missionary resources into a handful of select locations, some of which have never matured into true centers of strength despite decades of proselytism, such as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Blantyre, Malawi; Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Maseru, Lesotho; and Windhoek, Namibia.

Despite these limitations, the Church in Africa has excellent opportunities for continued growth. These opportunities appear most likely to be taken advantage of in West Africa where sizable numbers of LDS missionary resources are allocated and where mission and area leaders regularly open additional cities to proselytism. Prospects for LDS growth in other areas of the continent also appear favorable, but the outlook for growth will depend on the Church assigning more missionaries to these areas, opening more cities to proselytism, and mission and area leaders engendering greater self-sufficiency in local church leadership.

LDS Congregations Worldwide by Spoken Language

Within the past week, the Church has released a beta version of a new meetinghouse locator website at beta.lds.org/maps. For the first time since the Church has maintained an online meetinghouse locator, information regarding the spoken language of each congregation is provided. This information provides valuable information regarding the study of the growth of the Church among specific ethnolinguistic groups. For example, I was unaware that the Church in Cote d'Ivoire operates two congregations that conduct worship services in Baule, and one congregation each that conducts worship services in Bete and Gwere. Additionally, the website notes scores of congregations in Nigeria that conduct worship services in the Igbo language and dozens of congregations that conduct worship services other Nigerian languages such as Efik, Ibibio, and Yoruba.

I plan to update the LDS International Atlas to include information on the spoken language of each congregation. See below for an example of an updated map for the Nigeria Calabar Mission.

Stakes Likely to Split in the United States - February 2016 Version

Below is a list of stakes in the United States that appear likely to split within the near future. Previous lists are available for 2013 and 2009.

• Anchorage Alaska North (10 wards, 2 branches)
• Fairbanks Alaska (9 wards, 6 branches)
• Wasilla Alaksa (15 wards)
• Chandler Arizona East (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Flagstaff Arizona (12 wards, 1 branch) 
• Goodyear Arizona (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Mesa Arizona Alta Mesa (12 wards)
• Queen Creek Arizona (11 wards)
• Queen Creek Arizona North (12 wards)
• Taylor Arizona (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Thatcher Arizona (12 wards)
• Gilbert Arizona Higley (12 wards)
• Mesa Arizona Desert Ridge (13 wards)
• Phoenix Arizona (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Queen Creek Arizona North (13 wards)
• Queen Creek Arizona South (12 wards
• Los Angeles California Stake (12 wards)
• Poway California (12 wards, 3 branches)
• Temecula California (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Colorado Springs North (14 wards)
• Colorado Springs East (12 wards, 1 branch)
• Meeker Colorado (12 wards, 3 branches)
• Sugar Hill Georgia (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Ammon Idaho Foothills (12 wards)
• Declo Idaho (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Meridian Idaho South (11 wards)
• Middleton Idaho (11 wards, 1 branch)
• St. Anthony Idaho (11 wards, 1 branch) 
• Cambridge Massachusetts (12 wards, 4 branches)
• Springfield Missouri South (11 wards, 2 branches)
• Billings Montana (11 wards, 4 branches)
• Omaha Nebraska (12 wards, 1 branch)
• Las Veas Nevada South (13 wards)
• New York New York (13 wards, 2 branches)
• Oklahoma City Oklahoma (11 wards, 2 branches)
• Columbus Ohio North (11 wards) 
• Reading Pennsylvania (11 wards, 4 branches)
• Providence Rhode Island (10 wards, 5 branches)
• West Columbia South Carolina (10 wards, 2 branches)
• Allen Texas (12 wards, 1 branch)
• Austin Texas Oak Hills (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Houston Texas North (11 wards)
• Richardson Texas (11 wards, 1 branch) 
• Hurricane Utah West (12 wards)
• La Verkin Utah (12 wards)
• Lehi Utah (13 wards) 
• Mapleton Utah (13 wards)
• Morgan Utah (12 wards)
• Morgan Utah North (12 wards)
• Nibley Utah (12 wards)
• Pleasant Grove Utah Manila (12 wards)
• Pleasant View Utah (12 wards)
• Provo Utah East (12 wards)
• Provo Utah South (12 wards) 
• St George Utah Bloomington Hills (12 wards)
• St George Utah Washington Fields (12 wards)
• Salem Utah (12 wards)
• Saratoga Springs Utah (12 wards)
• Saratoga Springs Utah Crossroads (14 wards)
• Spanish Fork Utah Canyon Ridge (12 wards)
• Ashburn Virginia (12 wards)
• Fredericksburg Virginia (13 wards, 2 branches)
• Mount Vernon Virginia (13 wards)
• Bellevue Washington (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Maple Valley Washington (12 wards, 1 branch) 
• Moses Lake Washington (11 wards, 1 branch)
• Tacoma Washington (12 wards)
• Vancouver Washington East (11 wards)
• Casper Wyoming (12 wards, 2 branches) 
• Cody Wyoming (13 wards)
• Laramie Wyoming (12 wards, 1 branch)

January 2016 Monthly Newsletter

Please click here to access the January edition of monthly newsletter for cumorah.com.

New Stakes Created in Brazil, Honduras, Peru, Texas, and Washington; District Discontined in Chile

Brazil
The Church organized a new stake in Alagoas State, Brazil on January 24th. The Maceió Brazil Colina Stake appeared to be organized from a division of the Maceió Brazil Stake. Information on congregations assigned to the new stake is currently unavailable.

There are now six stakes in Alagoas State. There are now 257 stakes and 39 districts in Brazil.

Honduras
The Church organized a new stake in northern Honduras on January 24th. The Palermo Honduras Stake was organized from a division of the San Pedro Honduras El Progreso Stake. The new stake includes the following five wards and one branch: the Bendeck, La Sarrosas, Las Palmeras, Palermo, and Santa Rita Wards and the Morazan Branch.

There are now 24 stakes and seven districts in Honduras.

Peru
Local members in Peru report that the Church organized a new stake in the Lima area on January 17th. The Barranca Peru Stake was organized from the Barranca Peru District. No information is currently available on which branches in the former district have become wards. Established in 1979, the Barranca Peru District numbered among the oldest in the Church in Peru.

There are now 101 stakes and 19 districts in Peru.

Texas
Two new stakes have been organized in Texas.

The Church organized a new stake in El Paso on January 17th. The new stake was organized from the El Paso Texas and the El Paso Texas Mount Franklin Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards and one branch: the El Paso 1st, El Paso 3rd (Spanish), El Paso 4th, El Paso 12th (Spanish), Hondo Pass, and Transmountain (Spanish) Wards and the Chaparral Branch (Spanish). There are now three stakes in El Paso.

The Church organized its seventh stake in San Antonio on January 24th. The new stake was organized from a division of the San Antonio Texas Hill Country and San Antonio Texas West Stakes. The new stake includes the following seven wards and one branch: the Boerne, Fair Oaks, Kerrville, Leon Springs, Leon Valley, Parkwood, and San Antonio 9th Wards and the Balcones Branch (Spanish).

There are now 67 stakes and three districts in Texas.

Washington
The Church organized a new stake in the Vancouver area on January 24th. The Ridgefield Washington Stake was organized from a division of the Vancouver Washington North and Vancouver Washington West Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Alpine Heights, Battle Ground 1st, Battle Ground 2nd, La Center, Ridgefield, and Salmon Creek Wards.

There are now 58 stakes in Washington.

Chile
The Church discontinued a district in southern Chile. The Los Lagos Chile District was discontinued and its five branches were reassigned to the Valdivia Chile and Valdivia Chile Calle Calle Stakes.

There are now 77 stakes and 17 districts in Chile.

The Church will organize at least 10 stakes during the month of January based on reports I have received - the largest number of stakes organized during the month of January since 1995 (11 new stakes were organized in January 1995). The largest number of stakes ever organized during January was set in 1988 when 16 stakes were organized (primarily due to the organization of seven new stakes in Lima, Peru in one weekend). The second most stakes ever organized during the month of January was in 1995 (11 stakes) and the third most stakes ever organized during the month of January was in 1982 (10 stakes).

Updated Full-Time Missionary Figures

A recent article in the Deseret News reported that the number of full-time missionaries serving has decreased to 75,000. This indicates that the full-time missionary force has decreased by 10,000 (12%) within the past year as Church reported 85,147 missionaries at year-end 2014. Church leaders initially speculated that the full-time missionary force would decrease into the high 70,000s following the end of the double cohort of missionaries that resulted from the reduced age of missionary service. A larger decrease in the number of full-time missionaries than expected suggests that the Church may be struggling with consistently increasing the number of members serving full-time missions despite the reduced age for missionary service. Fewer missionaries serving than expected has also likely delayed the organization of additional missions as plans for only three new missions have announced for 2016. However, this most recent figure of 75,000 full-time missionaries may indicate an end of the double-cohort surge that temporarily raised the number of missionaries serving to approximately 90,000 in late 2014.

Church leaders nonetheless remain optimistic that the number of full-time missionaries serving will increase in the near future. LDS apostle Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speculated in early 2015 that the Church may reach 100,000 full-time missionaries serving by 2019. If correct, this increase would indicate significant growth and progress increasing the percentage of young adults in the international church who serve full-time missions.

As for my prediction, it is my opinion that we will likely see a return to steady increases in the number of full-time missionaries serving comparable to the early 2010s. The Church appears likely to exceed 80,000 missionaries within the next one to two years and 90,000 missionaries by 2021. The Church may focus on greater redistribution of mission resources in the near future from less productive to more productive or recently opened areas of the world, such as in Africa and Asia.

New Stakes Created in Florida, Nevada, Taiwan, Texas, and Uganda; Stake Discontinued in Utah; District Discontinued in Bolivia

Florida
The Church organized a new stake in south Florida on January 10th. The Vero Beach Florida Stake was organized from a division of the Cocoa Florida, Sarasota, and Stuart Florida Stakes. The new stake includes the following five wards and two branches: the Fort Pierce, Palm Bay 1st, Palm Bay 2nd, Sebring, and Vero Beach Wards, and the Lake Placid and Okeechobee Branches.

There are now 30 stakes in Florida.

Nevada
The Church organized two new stakes in Nevada in December.

The Las Vegas Nevada Skye Canyon Stake was created from a division of the Las Vegas Elkhorn Springs and Las Vegas Nevada Lone Mountain Stakes. The new stakes includes the following six wards and two branches: the Centennial Pointe, Egan Crest, Grand Teton, Providence, Skye Canyon, and Valley Crest Wards, and the Beatty and Indian Springs Branches.

The Las Vegas Nevada Shadow Mountain Stake was organized from a division of the Las Vegas Nevada Tule Springs and the Las Vegas Nevada Highland Hills Stakes. The new stake includes the following six wards: the Aviary Park, Copper Crest, Deer Springs, Los Prados, San Miguel, and Waterfall Wards.

There are now 37 stakes in Nevada.

Taiwan
The Church organized a new stake in southern Taiwan on December 20th.

The Kaohsiung Taiwan North Stake was organized from a division of the Kaohsiung Taiwan East (renamed Pingtung Taiwan Stake) and Kaohsiung Taiwan West Stakes. The new stake includes the following five wards: the Chishan, Kangshan, Nantzu, Sanmin, and Tsoying Wards.

There are now 16 stakes and one district in Taiwan.

Texas
The Church organized its sixth stake in the San Antonio area on January 10th. The San Antonio Texas Cibolo Valley Stake was organized from a division of the San Antonio Texas East Stake. The new stake includes the following eight wards: the Cibolo, Converse, Garden Ridge, Live Oak, Randolph, Schertz, Universal City, and Woodlake Wards. One or two additional stakes appear likely to be organized in the San Antonio area within the near future.

There are now 65 stakes and three districts in Texas.

Uganda
The Church organized its second stake in Uganda on November 29th. The Jinja Uganda Stake was organized from the Jinja Uganda District (organized in 1993). The new stake includes the following five wards and two branches: the Bugembe, Iganga, Jinja, Mpumedde, and Njeru Wards, and the Lugazi and Walukuba Branches. Missionaries report preliminary plans to organize a third stake in Uganda from a division of the Kampala Uganda Stake (organized in 2010) although the stake currently lacks a sufficient number of wards to create a second stake in the city (7 wards, 5 branches) unless several branches become wards.

Utah
The Church discontinued a stake in Salt Lake City in early January. The Salt Lake Sugar House Stake was discontinued and its wards and branches were reassigned to surrounding stakes. The Salt Lake Sugar House Stake is the twelfth stake in Utah to be discontinued since 2002. Stake growth in Utah nonetheless remains steady despite a dozen stake consolidations within the past 13 years. 111 new stakes have been organized in Utah since year-end 2001.

There are now 579 stakes and one district in Utah.

Bolivia
The Church recently discontinued the Titicaca Bolivia District. The five branches that previously pertained to the district now directly report to the Bolivia La Paz Mission. These branches operate in Aymara-speaking rural communities on the southeast shore of Lake Titicaca. The decision to discontinue the district appears attributed to problems with local leadership development and member inactivity.

There are now 27 stakes and nine districts in Bolivia.

Three New Missions Announced

Today the Church announced the formation of three new missions in Africa and Asia "on or before July 1, 2016."

Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo Mbuji-Mayi Mission will be organized from a division of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Lubumbashi Missions. Based on maps provided in the official news release, the new mission will include three stakes (Kananga DR Congo, Katoka DR Congo, and Luputa DR Congo) and two districts (Mbuji-Mayi and Mwene-Ditu). The Church has experienced some of its most rapid growth in the international church in the central DR Congo within the past decade. The Church has significantly expanded its missionary operations in western areas of Central Africa during the past six years. The Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa initially included the entire DR Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea in early 2010, whereas today the Church operates the Democratic Republic of the Congo Lubumbashi Mission (organized in 2010) to service the southern DR Congo and Burundi and the Republic of the Congo Brazzaville Mission (organized in 2014) to service the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. The realigned Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa Mission will service all seven stakes in the Kinshasa metropolitan area as well as mission branches in Matadi and Kisangani. The realigned Democratic Republic of the Congo Lubumbashi Mission will include three stakes (all in Lubumbashi) and two districts. The country of Burundi will also continue to be assigned to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Lubumbashi Mission.

By July 2016, there will be three LDS missions headquartered in the DR Congo.

Nigeria
The Nigeria Owerri Mission will be organized from a division of the Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission. Based on maps provided in the official news release, the new mission will include the Nigerian states of Abia and Imo where there was a combined population of approximately eight million people as of 2011. Six stakes and two districts currently operate in Abia and Imo States. The realigned Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission will service the Nigerian states of Bayelsa and Rivers where there was a combined population of approximately eight million people as of 2011. Rapid LDS growth has occurred within the current boundaries of the Nigeria Port Harcourt Mission within the past decade. Three stakes and two districts operate in Bayelsa and Rivers States.

By July 2016, there will be six LDS missions headquartered in Nigeria.

Vietnam
The Vietnam Hanoi Mission will be organized from a division of the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission. The new mission will include the entire country of Vietnam where over 94 million people reside. The Church currently operates one district (Hanoi Vietnam - organized in 2010) that administers the four branches in the country. The Church obtained official recognition from the Vietnamese government in 2014 and has assigned Vietnamese-descent members on full-time missionaries to Vietnam since the mid-2000s. Prospects appear favorable for the establishment of official branches outside of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City where currently there are no official congregations of the Church.

The Vietnam Hanoi Mission is the first LDS mission ever to be organized in Vietnam.