The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Thursday morning it would create five new missions and merge 19 others with adjoining missions.
The following five missions will open:
Brazil Rio de Janeiro South
Coe d’Ivoire Yamoussoukro
Nigeria Ibadan
Philippines Cabantauan
Zimbabwe Bulawayo
The 19 missions that will experience boundary changes include, in part, the Utah Logan, New York New York South and Greece Athens missions.
According to the church’s statement, changes to mission boundaries are common. Since the change in ages for missionary service in 2012, the church has created 76 missions to accommodate a surge in missionary service. Numbers for missionaries went from 58,000 to 88,000 missionaries. As anticipated by the church, “the initial wave of missionaries has since receded to about 68,000 missionaries.”
With fewer missionaries now, the church says there is “heightened importance of a more strategic placement of missionaries.”
You can read the church’s announcement of the mission changes along with the full list of missions affected at https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/mission-adjustments-2018.
