Hello again, everyone! The Church News today shared a major announcement from the First Presidency. Effective July 1, one new mission, to be named the Mozambique Beira Mission, will be created. That will bring the number of total missions in the Church to 408 as of that date. Although it has become somewhat customary in recent yearz for the Church to announce the creation of multiple new missions and the consolidation of several others, as 2021 continues to unfold, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have obviously impacted today's announcement.
Aside from the newly-created mission, a total of 105 new mission leaders have been called to serve around the world. At a glance, that includes one current GA Seventy (Elder Juan Pablo Villar, who is currently serving in the South America South Area Presidency), a number of current and former area seventies, and Sister Lisa L. Harkness, the current First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency. I have no doubts that Matthew Martinich, author of the Church Growth Blog, will have analysis on this development at some point within the next week or two.
In the meantime, I myself am planning to post a more extensive analysis of the list of new mission presidents as soon as I can complete that. Added at approximately 11:15 AM: I have completed my analysis of the new assignments that will go into effect in July of this year, and I have compiled notes on it. In summary, the list of new leaders includes, as mentioned, Elder Villar and Sister Harkness, 10 current area seventies, and 2 or 3 former area seventies. So there are bound to be changes noted in General Conference as a result of at least some of these calls. Having said that, we now return you to your previously-published content.
That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. Until my next post, I ud wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Hello again, everyone! The Newsroom has also covered the calls of the new mission presidents:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-calls-105-new-mission-presidents
But an additional statement from Church spokesman Sam Penrod has noted the death of another full-time missionary, this one due to an Arkansas car crash:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/missionary-dies-in-arkansas
My thanks once again to you all.
The Church News also reported on the death of that Utah missionary serving in Arkansas:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-01-08/missionary-dies-arkansas-car-accident-elder-smith-201416
My thanks once again to you all.
Additionally, an update has been noted on the Syracuse Utah Temple:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/syracuse-utah-temple/
That temple is one of a few for which a groundbreaking announcement may soon be coming down the pike. Thanks again, all!
Hi James. Did you catch that the Mozambique Beira Mission was also announced in January 2020, but apparently that mission was never organized due to the pandemic. So it was re-announced this year. With the exception of the now discontinued Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission, I am glad to see no missions consolidated this year, yet.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking time to comment. I seem to recall reporting the creation of that mission last year on this blog. And now that you mention it, I also vaguely recall hearing that the creation of that mission was delayed due to COVID-19. I appreciate the reminder you provided on that. Whom may I thank for the information?
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