Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple Dedicated May 2014

The Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple was dedicated on May 5th, 2014 by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

It is the Church's 143rd operating temple. The Fort Lauderdale Temple will be the second temple built in Florida.

The Fort Lauderdale measures 28,000 sq. ft. The next closet temple, in Orlando Florida is 2.5 times larger at 70,000 sq ft. built in 1994 - the 46th temple.

Coverage of the dedication service can be found on lds.org

More information and maps and pictures can be found at www.ldschurchtemples.com/fortlauderdale/

The six Florida stakes in the new temple district

It is 215 miles from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale

It is 435 miles from Orlando to Atlanta, GA

The LDS Church created 2 new stakes in April 2014

The LDS Church created 2 new stakes in April 2014 (both were in the US)

One new stake was created in New York City.  There are now 16 Stakes in New York and 2 temples.

One new stake was created in Utah.  There are now 570 Stakes in Utah and 14 temples (with three more under construction.)

14. Lynbrook New York - April 13th, 2014
15. Bluffdale Utah South - April 20th, 2014

From ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, later confirmed at http://www.deseretnews.com/faith/lds-church-news

There are now 3,069 stakes worldwide, with 1,526 in the US (49.8%) and 1,543 outside the US.

The Lynbrook New York stake is personally gratifying to me. My parents moved to New York in 1960 and there was just one stake covering about 12 million people in the "tri-state" area.  Now there are 15 stakes and one district.  When I was a youth, I lived in a branch, that then became a stake. It is amazing. We were in the London Temple District but Salt Lake City was easier to get to. Now there is the Manhattan temple in what used to be my stake center and temples being built in both Hartford, CT and Philadelphia, PA

Stake	Temple District	Create date	State
New York New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	9-Dec-1934	NY
Morristown New Jersey Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	28-Feb-1960	NJ
Hartford Connecticut Stake	Boston Massachusetts Temple	18-Sep-1966	CT
East Brunswick New Jersey Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	26-Mar-1967	NJ
Plainview New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	20-Aug-1967	NY
Albany New York Stake	Boston Massachusetts Temple	8-Jun-1969	NY
Yorktown New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	30-Apr-1978	NY
Caldwell New Jersey Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	12-Apr-1981	NJ
New Haven Connecticut Stake	Boston Massachusetts Temple	30-Aug-1981	CT
Brooklyn New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	14-May-1991	NY
Scotch Plains New Jersey Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	15-Sep-1996	NJ
Newburgh New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	2-Mar-1997	NY
Westchester New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	9-Nov-1997	NY
Paterson New Jersey District	Manhattan New York Temple	16-May-1999	NJ
Queens New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	21-Nov-2004	NY
Lynbrook New York Stake	Manhattan New York Temple	13-Apr-2014	NY

Here is a map of the Lynbrook stake (East part of Queens and Western Long Island)

Lynbrook boundaries in thick light blue, other stake boundaries in green - gospel rolls forth. The LDS church doubles about every 18-20 years, so in my lifetime (born 1964), it has grown seven-fold from 2.2 million to 15.2 million.

The Bluffdale Utah South stake is right at the point of the mountain on the west side of I-15 and is a short driving distance to four temples.

April Conference, the Annual Statistical Report (Yeah!)

As you can guess, this is one of my favorite parts of April Conference, the Annual Statistical Report:


For the information of the members of the Church, the First Presidency has issued the following statistical report regarding the growth and status of the Church as of December 31, 2013.

Church Units	Number	Increase*	Percent Increase
Stakes	3,050	47	1.56%
Missions**	405	58	16.71%
Districts	571
Wards and Branches	29,253	239	0.82%
Church Membership
Total Membership	15,082,028	299,555	2.03%
New Children of Record during 2013	115,486
Converts Baptized during 2013	282,945	10,615	3.90%
Missionaries
Full-Time Missionaries	83,035	24,045	40.76%
Church-Service Missionaries	24,032	1,071	4.67%
Temples
Temples Dedicated during 2013	1
(Tegucigalpa Honduras)
Temples in Operation	141

* Increase and Percent Increase are my own calculations
** The church added 58 new missions in early 2013, crating a total 405 missions for about 85,000 missionaries. Two new missions were announced for July 2014 - both in Africa, bringing the total to 407.

Additional reporting and analysis is here: ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2014/04/2013-statistical-report

With a 40% missionary growth rate and a year long emphasis on the Work of Salvation, I was expecting a higher convert baptism rate and I was especially expected a higher total membership number.  Total Baptisms at 400,000 is 100,000 higher than the growth rate, that means a lot of deaths or names removed - a lot.

Surprisingly, 8 year old child of record baptisms was down 6,800 or -5.6%

Rounding up to 283,000 converts is the best number in 12 years, since 2002, but an overall growth rate of 2.03% is the worst since 1947 the year the church reached 1 million members.

Lots to chew on, but my son is a full time missionary in Washington - Tacoma and is loving every week.

Gilbert Arizona Temple Dedicated March 2014

The Gilbert Arizona  Temple was dedicated on March 2nd, 2014 by Thomas S. Monson.  

It is the Church's 142nd operating temple. The Gilbert Arizona Temple will be the fourth temple built in Arizona with the fifth under construction in Phoenix and the sixth planned in Tucson.

At 85,326 sq. ft. it is the largest structure in Gilbert and the largest LDS temple built since the Mt Timpanogos temple in 1996 - the 49th temple.

Coverage of the dedication service can be found on lds.org

More information and maps and pictures can be found at www.ldschurchtemples.com/gilbert/

There are 69 dedicated temples in the US and 73 outside.  There were 170 temples announced as of April Conference 2013. No new temples have been announced at the last two General Conferences. As many as ten temples may be finished in 2014 and 2015.

The LDS Church created 7 new stakes in March 2014 (Brazil has 250 stakes)

The LDS Church created 7 new stakes in March 2014 (3 of 7 were in the US)

One new stake was created in South Africa.  There are now 14 Stakes in South Africa and 1 temple (with one more under construction.)

Two new stakes were created in Utah.  There are now 569 Stakes in Utah and 14 temples (with three more under construction.)

One new stake was created in Albania.  This is the first Stake in Albania.

One new stake was created in Brazil.  There are now 250 Stakes in Brazil and 6 temples (with two more under construction.)

One new stake was created in Micronesia.  This is the first Stake in Micronesia.

One new stake was created in Arizona.  There are now 96 Stakes in Arizona and 4 temples (with two more under construction.)


7. Bellville South Africa - March 2nd, 2014
8. Tirana Albania - March 9th, 2014
9. Eagle Mountain Utah Cedar Pass - Mar. 16th, 2014
10. Joinville Brazil South - March 16th, 2014
11. Pohnpei Caroline Islands - March 16th, 2014
12. San Tan Valley Arizona - March 16th, 2014
13. Saratoga Springs Utah Israel Canyon - March 23rd, 2014


From ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com, later confirmed at ldschurchnews.com/callings

There are now 3,067 stakes worldwide, with 1,524 in the US (49.7%) and 1,543 outside the US.

That is quite a milestone for Brazil - 250 stakes! Mexico has 226 stakes, California has 157, Idaho has 128 and Peru has 100.

The first Stake in Brazil was created in Sao Paulo, Brazil in May 1966, so in less 48 years, Brazil has created 5.3 stakes a year. As a comparison, even Utah with it's 569 stakes has only created 3.4 stakes a year.

Brazil's 8 temples:

You can see more maps at lds.org/maps,
As a bonus if you are a member of the church and you log in, then you can see boundaries for any ward, stake or mission in the world!

The Church creates its first stake in Albania & Micronesia

The Church now operates stakes in 81 countries and an additional 5 areas or territories.

This includes 14 new countries that created their first stake this decade since Uganda in Jan 2010

73	Uganda	Kampala Uganda (2870)	19-Jan-2010
74	Guam	Barrigada Guam (2893)	10-Dec-2010
75	United Arab Emirates	Abu Dhabi Stake (2910)	15-Apr-2011
76	Indonesia	Jakarta Indonesia (2923)	22-May-2011
77	Russia	Moscow Russia (2926)	5-Jun-2011
78	Cape Verde	Praia Cape Verde (2962)	29-Apr-2012
79	India	Hyderabad India (2967)	27-May-2012
80	New Caldonia (France)	Noumea New Caledonia (2968)	27-May-2012
81	Botswana	Gaborone Botswana (2987)	4-Nov-2012
82	Sierra Leone	Freetown Sierra Leone (3000)	2-Dec-2012
83	Armenia	Yerevan Armenia	16-Jun-2013
84	Togo	Lome Togo (3048)	8-Dec-2013
85	Albania	Tirana Albania (3059)	9 Mar-2014
86	Micronesia	Pohnpei Caroline Islands (3062)	16 Mar-2014

During the time President Monson has been the Prophet, 17 countries have grown enough to have their own stake. That compares to:

Spencer W. Kimball  26 countries (1974 - 1985)

Gordon B. Hinckley 15 countries (1995 - 2008)

David O. McKay 15  countries (1951 - 1969)

All other Prophets had 4 or less, most (seven prophets) had no new countries with a first stake.

Map of Albania Stake:

It's a long, long trip to either Swiss or Kiev, Ukraine temple, until Rome Italy temple is finished in 2015

Map of Micronesia Stake:

It's a long, long trip to either Fiji or The Philippines temple, until ?

I live in Orange County, CA and there are 4 temples within 75 miles. :) 

Maps from lds.org/maps and www.ldschurchtemples.com/maps