Eleven New Missions Formed This Year

Further indication of the Church’s growth comes with the announcement by the First Presidency of the formation of eight new missions. This brings to eleven the new missions formed during the first four months of 1976. There are now 145 missions, 101 of which were formed within the past twenty years. Of that 101, 60 were formed between 1965 and 1975.

The eight new missions will be based in Okayama, Japan; San Salvador, El Salvador; Lima, Peru; Barcelona and Seville, Spain; Manchester, England; Goteborg, Sweden; and Tampa, Florida.

The three new missions announced earlier this year are headquartered in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; and Houston, Texas.

The Japan Okayama Mission will be formed from a realignment of the Japan Fukuoka and the Japan Kobe Missions. Church membership in the three missions is approximately 11,000. Japan now has seven missions.

The El Salvador San Salvador Mission will be formed from a division of the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission and will have approximately 12,000 members. There are more than 17,000 members in Guatemala.

Full-time missionary work in Spain started in 1968 under the jurisdiction of the French Mission. Membership is now approximately 1,000, and the Spain Madrid Mission formed in 1970 has been divided to form the Spain Barcelona and Spain Seville Missions.

The Sweden Goteborg Mission, with 2,500 members, is being created by a division of the Sweden Stockholm Mission, which will have 3,000 members.

The existing Peru Lima Mission is being divided into the Peru Lima North Mission and the Peru Lima South Mission, with 8,000 members in the north and almost 7,000 in the south.

Around the other side of the world, in Britain, the England Leeds Mission will be realigned to form the England Manchester Mission. The new mission will have approximately 8,000 members, while the Leeds Mission will have 11,000.

In the United States, the Florida Tampa Mission, with 12,000 members, will be formed by the division of the Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission, which will have 7,000 members.

Of the three new missions announced earlier this year, the Texas Houston Mission has been formed from the Texas San Antonio Mission. Each of these missions has approximately 13,000 members and each is covered by stakes.

To the north, the Canada Winnipeg Mission has been created from portions of two other missions, the Canada Calgary Mission, and the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. The new mission area will encompass all of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the west and a small portion of southwest Ontario in the east, and will have approximately 4,200 members.

With 3,600 members, the new Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission has been formed from the Taiwan Taipei Mission that has 4,600 members.