New Missions Created in Mexico, Belgium

The First Presidency has announced the creation of three new missions, two in Mexico and one in Belgium, bringing the total number of missions in the Church to 116. They are the Mexico Guadalajara Mission, the Mexico Villahermosa Mission, and the Belgium Antwerp Mission.

The Mexico Guadalajara Mission was formed from a division of missions headquartered in Mexico City, Torreon, and Hermosillo. It will be headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second most populous city with 1.5 million inhabitants. The mission will include all of the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Queretaro, Aquascalientes, plus parts of the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi. Approximately 15 million people live in this area.

The Mexico Villahermosa Mission was formed from a division of the Mexico Veracruz Mission. It is one of the fastest growing areas of Mexico and the population of Villahermosa, now 150,000, is expected to double in the next five years. The mission includes all of the states of Campeche, Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucatan, the territory of Quintana Roo, and the eastern tips of the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz. The state of Tabasco is the center of a new oil discovery, the biggest in Mexico.

The two new missions bring the total number in Mexico to seven. There are also 14 stakes in the country.

The Belgium Antwerp Mission will include about half of the nation and nearly six million people in 28 cities. It has been formed from a division of the Belgium Brussels and Netherlands Amsterdam Missions to include areas where Flemish is spoken. Its headquarters, Antwerp, is the second largest city in Belgium, a principal seaport, and has a population of nearly one million. Missionaries have been laboring in the area for about the last year.