June and July 2026 Newsletters

LDS Church Growth · 4 weeks ago · 50 views

Our monthly newsletters for cumorah.com are now available for June 2026 and July 2026. These issues provide in-depth analysis regarding several recent Church growth developments around the world, with particular attention to the expansion of the Church into previously unreached areas, the creation of new congregations and administrative units, and changes in missionary outreach. The June 2026 newsletter examines the organization of numerous new branches in Papua New Guinea, including expansion along the Markham–Ramu corridor northwest of Lae and the creation of additional branches in the Sepik River and Wewak areas. The issue also reviews the continued proliferation of branches in rural western Kenya, where the Church has expanded from only a handful of cities and towns with congregations in 2018 to more than 30 today. Additional developments include the creation of the first district in Togo outside of Lomé, the organization of the first district in northeastern Ecuador, and the increasing availability of Church materials and scriptures in additional languages. The July 2026 newsletter focuses particularly on remarkable recent growth in the Sierra Leone Bo Mission, which was anticipated to reach approximately 10,000 convert baptisms within its first two years as of late July. The newsletter examines the rapid expansion of branches and member groups into rural areas of southern and eastern Sierra Leone, the extraordinary concentration of 30 wards and four stakes in Bo, and comparisons with Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists that illustrate how unusual recent Latter-day Saint growth has been in the country. The issue also discusses rapid, largely member-driven growth in Mali, where prospective converts have been referred by local members, taught remotely by missionaries through technology, and baptized by local priesthood holders as several groups surrounding Bamako prepare to become branches. Finally, the newsletter highlights the creation of four new branches in previously unreached cities in Thailand—Chachoengsao, Chaiyaphum, Lamphun, and Nakhon Sawan—an important acceleration in national outreach after many years of comparatively little congregational expansion. Together, these two issues illustrate several very different patterns of Church growth: rapid rural expansion and congregational multiplication in parts of Africa and Papua New Guinea, member-led growth in areas without a traditional missionary presence, and renewed efforts to expand into previously unreached cities in countries where growth has historically been slow.