Nine Missions Announced, Four Lands Dedicated in the Americas

The Church has announced the establishment of nine new missions in Latin America. The new missions will begin operation on July 1.

Shown above: Nine new mission headquarters cities; four countries dedicated for preaching of the gospel.

In addition, three countries in South America and one island nation off the north coast of that continent have been dedicated for the preaching of the gospel.

Four new missions have been designated in Mexico and Central America:

El Salvador San Salvador East, from the El Salvador San Salvador (West) Mission: 2 stakes, approximately 7,700 members, and a total population of more than 3 million in the eastern half of El Salvador.

Honduras San Pedro Sula, from the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission: 3 stakes, approximately 11,600 members, and a total population of 2.2 million in northern Honduras and Belize.

Mexico Oaxaca, from the Mexico Tuxtla-Gutierrez Mission: 2 stakes, 6,500 members, and a total population of nearly 2.6 million in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

Mexico Tijuana, from the Mexico Hermosillo Mission: 4 stakes, approximately 8,000 members, and a total population of nearly 2.3 million in northern Baja California.

South America will have five new missions:

Argentina Mendoza, from the Argentina Cordoba Mission: 3 stakes in its boundaries, approximately 10,000 Church members, and a total population of more than 2.1 million in western Argentina.

Argentina Resistencia, from the Argentina Rosario Mission: 1 stake, approximately 6,500 Church members, and a total population of nearly 2.3 million people in northeastern Argentina.

Argentina Trelew, from the Argentina Bahia Blanca Mission: no stakes, approximately 8,400 members, and a total population of nearly 1.5 million in southern Argentina.

Brazil Manaus, from the Brazil Brasilia and Brazil Fortaleza missions: 1 stake, approximately 7,200 members, and a total population of more than 6 million in northern Brazil.

Brazil Salvador, from the Brazil Recife Mission: no stakes, approximately 4,000 members, and a total population of nearly 11 million in east central Brazil.

Late in February, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve dedicated Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago for the preaching of the gospel. The first three countries are on the north coast of South America, and the two-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago is located just off the north coast of the continent.

Elder Ballard was accompanied by Elder Charles Didier of the Seventy, President of the South America North Area.

Trinidad and Tobago was dedicated February 22 at the proposed site of a meetinghouse in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Guyana was dedicated February 23 in Georgetown. Suriname was dedicated February 24 in the city of Paramaribo. French Guiana was dedicated on February 27 at a spot about five miles from Kourou; Elder Didier translated Elder Ballard’s prayer into French for the members present.

In the dedicatory prayers he offered, Elder Ballard asked the Lord to bless the leaders of governments in the countries involved. Members were promised that the Church would grow steadily, that there would be wards and stakes presided over by local leaders in their areas, and that their countries would help in the work of the Lord by sending missionaries to other nations. The Church has been established for less than two years in each of the four countries.

Noting that his grandfather, Elder Melvin J. Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve, had dedicated South America for the preaching of the gospel sixty-five years earlier—in 1925—Elder Ballard commented that it was a “warm and beautiful experience” to take part in the four dedications.