Growth in the LDS church

Over a year ago, Claire sent me the link to this very interesting blog. I'm linked to it on my Blogger dashboard as a follower and I've been reading the interesting articles as they appear. Check it out. The right side bar gives a list of all the countries in the world where we have members and missionaries. You can look up the articles of interest for a particular country to see what growth is taking place in that country. There is also another blog that give similar statistical information for missions in the United States and Canada here. Some man named "Matt" is the author of the blog. I congratulate him became he is doing a very good job of gathering information and keeping it up to date. It is an interesting blog. I always watch for information from the countries of Argentina (my mission), Peru (Rick's mission), Portugal (Dave's mission), Venezuela (Jord & R's mission), Spain (Jake's mission), Zimbabwe (Dusty's mission) and of course Mongolia (Andy's mission) among others. Here are some recent reports from those countries. I found the one from Argentina particularly interesting since I've been to Obera and I've very sad to hear about the high inactivity rates reported in my mission in Resistencia, Argentina. This area near the boarder of Brazil is a very remote jungle and I'd imagine that transportation makes it difficult for members to assemble. We consistently pray for missionary efforts to succeed in those lands and hope that the challenges can be surmounted.
Good news comes from Mongolia according to the report! Andy is one of the zone leaders in the Darkhan Mongolia district. It's great to hear about the growth that is taking place in that land.

This report from the blog:

9,000 members of the Church in Mongolia and a new branch

In a recent speech about religious freedom becoming more threatened in the United States, Elder Oaks recounted the history of the Church in Mongolia. He reported that membership now stands at 9,000, which is an increase of nearly 600 since the beginning of the year. Membership growth in Mongolia was very rapid in the late 1990s to the early 2000s and then slowed until the beginning of 2008. Considering there are two more months left in the year, we may see membership climb to 9,200 for the end of 2009. Membership grew in Mongolia by 9.36% last year and if membership totals 9,200 for 2009 the growth rate will drop a fraction to 8.95%. Also, a new branch was organized in Mongolia in Erdenet. The Erdenet Branch was divided and the Erdenet 2nd Branch was created. Erdenet is part of the Darkhan Mongolia District.

District Discontinued in Argentina

A district was discontinued in northern Argentina by the border with Brazil. The Obera Argentina District was discontinued and the two branches part of the former district now report to the Argentina Resistencia Mission. The Obera Argentina District was originally created in 1993. Another district was discontinued in Argentina early 2009 in Gualeguaychu near the border with Uruguay. No other districts in Argentina appear likely to be discontinued in the near future.

Argentina experienced an increase in congregations each year throughout the 2000s until 2008 while most Latin American countries saw a decline in congregations followed by a weak rebound. Growth appears strongest in Buenos Aires and larger cities were there is an ample supply of members and leaders. Areas covered by the Argentina Resistencia Mission have especially high inactivity according to missionaries.