Countries likely to get their first stake soon

[Admin]

Which countries do we think will be getting their first stake soon?

[james]

Good subject. Thanks. I only know what has been indicated on the LDS Church Growth blog. My specialty seems to be more with General Conference predictions than those for unit changes. But I am excited to see what others think and feel about this. If I have time later, I might be able to look over what was posted there and offer some thoughts. I will see what I can do. In the meantime, thanks for opening this up for discussion. I hope that others will have more insight in this regard than I do at the moment.

[Seth]

It sounds like Belize is on the cusp of getting their first stake, hopefully sometime this year. Most of us in the "Church Growth Field" get most of our information about new stakes from local members and missionaries, and there have been times when these sources have been very far off. I recall in 2002, shortly after Kenya received their first stake, that missionaries serving in Uganda were adamant that Kampala and Jinja were both going to get their first stakes within the year. Well, it took 8 years for Kampala and 13 years for Jinja to actually get their first stakes. But I am thrilled they now have stakes, and also thrilled that Kampala has now split into two. So even though the locals anticipate the first stake in Belize, it could still be several years off. The locals in Guyana, in about 2009, were also sure that they were going to get their first stake, but then we had some setbacks in that country, and we've consolidated branches and districts, and we still don't have a stake there.

Notwithstanding, my list of countries to receive their first stakes within the next couple of years are:

- Belize
- Guyana
- Cameroon
- Angola
- Malawi
- Swaziland (some of the current branches used to be wards when they were part of a South African stake)
- Pakistan
- Malaysia
- China (mainland)
- Romania

I also hope that Armenia gets their stake back, but that could be 5-10 years away, to make sure the leadership and membership are ready again to have a stake.

I am eager for the Church to start expanding and growing in Tanzania, which has an incredibly receptive population, but mission resources are still spread too thin across East Africa. It will happen tho.

[james]

That's a great list, Seth! Thanks for sharing. I would love to see a stake in any or all of these place anytime in the near future. I know that Matt (the blogger who posts on the blog for which this forum is named) at one time last year was saying that his reports indicated that a new stake in Belize would happen within the next year if not before. He had to later correct that report. But I could see it hapen this year, just as surely as I could see it happen for any of the other countries that made Seth's list above. I would be particularly happy to see Romania and Armenia have their first stake soon. While I have no direct connection to either country, I do have a very humble Armenian brother as one of my two most excellent home teachers currently. And, with how much I was in and out of the hospital when I was younger because of my health, I was touched to have a very sweet nurse looking after me at one point, and, as I got to know her, she told me she was from Romania and was a Latter-day Saint. She talked with great fondness and almost a wistfulness about how thrilled she was to be witnessing just how fast the Church was growing in Utah compared with how it was growing in her motherland. She must have moved on to another opportunity by the time I had my next hospital stay. But I have never forgotten how humbly she spoke of her love of the gospel and of her homeland, and how much she expressed her hopes and desires to see Romania even 10% as strong in the gospel as Utah is, especially her wish to particularly see a first stake in her motherland. I wish I were even partially as good at predicting new stakes as I have become in predicting new temples. Alas, I am far from it. But I look forward to seeing where and how doors open worldwide for the first stakes in many lands, and the possibilities mentioned above are just as good as if not infinitely better than any I might come up with, given time and further studying. It would really be something if all of the possibilities mentioned above, plus several additional others which have yet to be identified were created by or even well before the end of this year. Those are just some additional thoughts I have had. Thanks.