3 new stakes in August (Samoa, Mexico, & Provo)

A new stake was created in Samoa called Upolu Samoa Malie.  This is the second new stake in Samoa in 2012. They now have 18 stakes. The last stake created in Samoa was in 1996. Tonga also has 18 stakes, Tahiti 7 and America Samoa and Fiji have 4 each.

A new Young Single Adult stake (YSA) was created in Provo. There are 560 stakes in Utah, but this is only the 2nd stake created this year in Utah.

A new stake was also created in Mexico called Puebla México Nealticán North. Nealticán is a small town west of the city of Puebla that has one of the highest percentage of Latter-day Saints in Mexico.  With only 11,500 inhabitants, Nealticán has nine wards or one ward per approximately 1,300 people. This is the 3rd new stake in Mexico in 2012.

There are now 225 stakes and 36 districts in Mexico.
Brazil has 244 stakes.

There are now 2,980 LDS Stakes worldwide, at this rate in 2012, the 3,000 stake would be created on Christmas day, 2012.

1,502 stakes are in the US (50.4%) and 1,478 are outside the US.  22 of the 34 new stakes this year are foreign (65%)

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/ - great site.

34. Upolu Samoa Malie - August 5th, 2012
35. Provo Utah YSA 19th - August 12th, 2012
36. Puebla México Nealticán North - August 12th

Maps

Enjoy ! 

2 new stakes - Nigeria & Japan

Two new stakes were created on June 24th.

This is the third new stake in Nigeria in 2012 and there are now 21 stakes there. But this is the first stake in Central region of the country of Nigeria, in it's capital city. There is a temples in Aba, Nigeria dedicated in 2005.  There are only 3 temples in all of Africa with two more under construction.


This is the first new stake in Japan since 2003, almost ten years, in fact 4 stakes were consolidated in Japan in 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2008, so this is good news that things are stabilizing.  Japan's population is shrinking and the church has only been growing at a rate of 6.6% increase over the first decade (2000-2010.) This compares to USA decade LDS growth of 44%.  Japan used to have 31 stakes, but now is back to 29. CNN reported that the Japanese government released a report that "Japan's population will shrink by a staggering 30% by 2060, according to a new estimate by the country's government."

Nevertheless, there are two temples 1) Tokyo and 2) Fukuoka in south and one under construction 3) Sappora in the north part of Japan.  

32. Abuja Nigeria - June 24th, 2012
33. Tokyo Japan South - June 24th, 2012

There has been an increase of 31 stakes in 2012, 20 of which have been outside the US. There are now 1,501 stakes in the US and 1,476 stakes outside the US.  We are still on track to hit 3,000 stakes worldwide this year.

Maps:

Tijuana México Temple groundbreaking announced for 8/18/2012

Groundbreaking Ceremony Announced
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Tijuana México Temple will be held on Saturday, August 18, 2012, at 9:00 a.m. The services will also be broadcast by satellite to all stake centers in the temple district.

This will be Mexico's 13th temple.  11 of the smaller temples were built and dedicated from 1999-2002.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/tijuana/

Here are two maps, one showing how close the temple will be to San Diego - Members currently have to cross the border to attend the San Diego Temple (actually north in La Jolla, CA) and a second showing all the temples in Mexico.

"The First Presidency has announced open house and dedication dates for the Calgary Alberta Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). The public is invited to visit the temple during an open house from 29 September through 20 October 2012, excluding Sundays and Saturday, 6 October. Free reservations for the open house can be made through the www.calgarymormontemple.org website in the coming weeks."

mormonnewsroom.org/calgary-alberta-temple-open-house-dedication-dates

This will be the 3rd temple in the Province of Alberta and the 8th Canadian Temple. Cardston was the 6th temple created in 1923, after the Hawaii temple and the first out of the United States.  The 9th temple in Canada is under planning in Winnepeg, Manitoba.

Since the LA Kings won the Stanley Cup, Canadians don't have much else to cheer about except these temples.

http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/calgary/

4 New YSA stakes created in Phoenix, AZ

Following the pattern in Utah, Idaho and recently Virginia, the church is converting it's university stakes to Young Single Adult Stakes (YSA).  Four were created in the Phoenix - Mesa area this week

http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/

27. Gilbert Arizona YSA - June 9th, 2012
28. Mesa Arizona YSA East - June 9th, 2012
29. Mesa Arizona YSA West - June 9th, 2012
30. Phoenix Arizona YSA - June 9th, 2012


There are now 95 stakes in Arizona and 1,501 in the US.  There are 2,976 worldwide but still 50.4% are in the US. 19 of the 30 stakes created this year are outside of the US and surprisingly only one stake this year is in Utah.

The Church is on track to create 65 stakes this year or 1.3 per week. That translates to completing 5 or 6 wards and branches a week and probably 2 or 3 buildings a week. The Church has not created more than 50 stakes a year since 1996.

Year	Members	Stakes	Add New
1969	2,807,456	496	23
1970	2,930,810	537	41
1971	3,090,953	562	25
1972	3,218,908	592	30
1973	3,306,658	630	38
1974	3,409,987	675	45
1975	3,572,202	737	62
1976	3,742,749	798	61
1977	3,969,220	885	87
1978	4,166,854	990	105
1979	4,404,121	1,062	72
1980	4,639,822	1,218	156
1981	4,920,449	1,321	103
1982	5,162,619	1,392	71
1983	5,351,724	1,458	66
1984	5,641,054	1,507	49
1985	5,919,483	1,582	75
1986	6,166,974	1,622	40
1987	6,394,314	1,666	44
1988	6,721,210	1,707	41
1989	7,308,444	1,739	32
1990	7,761,179	1,784	45
1991	8,089,843	1,837	53
1992	8,404,087	1,919	82
1993	8,689,619	1,968	49
1994	9,025,914	2,008	40
1995	9,340,898	2,150	142
1996	9,694,549	2,296	146
1997	10,070,524	2,424	128
1998	10,354,241	2,505	81
1999	10,752,986	2,542	37
2000	11,068,861	2,581	39
2001	11,394,522	2,607	26
2002	11,721,548	2,602	-1.0
2003	11,985,254	2,624	22
2004	12,275,822	2,665	41
2005	12,560,869	2,701	36
2006	12,868,606	2,745	42
2007	13,193,999	2,790	42
2008	13,508,509	2,816	26
2009	13,824,854	2,869	40
2010	14,131,467	2,898	29
2011	14,441,346	2,946	48
2012	Actual	2,976	30

The Church membership doubles about every 18 years, or in less than a single generation and has done so since it's first year after being restored in 1830.