Mission Name Changes Reflect Church Growth

Changes in mission names and the creation of several new missions reflect the steady growth and expansion of the Church.

New mission titles now include the state, province or country where the mission is located, the mission headquarters, and, where there is more than one mission with the same headquarters, a geographic designation.

Examples:

The California North Mission is now the California Sacramento Mission, the Norway Mission is the Norway Oslo Mission, and a division of the Argentina South Mission creates the Argentina Buenos Aires North Mission and the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission.

The accelerated growth of the Church and the need for a more uniform mission title system necessitates the title changes. The location of the mission headquarters now determines the mission title.

The recent announcement by the First Presidency of several new missions, including the California San Diego Mission, the Philippines Cebu City Mission, the Idaho Pocatello Mission, the Japan Sendai Mission, and the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission, accompanied the announcement of the mission title changes.

In addition to the changes in mission names, stakes in the Church were recently renamed. New stake names include the city where the stake center is located, the name of the state, province or country, and, if there is more than one stake in the same community, a geographic designation (see the March 1974 Ensign).

The creation of new stakes from former stakes and mission districts continues regularly, some of the newer additions including the Copenhagen Denmark Stake, the Upolu Samoa South Stake, the Heber City Utah East Stake, and the Belfast Ireland Stake.

As of July 1, 1974, the Church Missionary Department lists 111 missions, compared with 75 missions in 1964 and 88 missions in 1969. Stakes as of July 1, 1974, number 650, showing a remarkable growth from 400 stakes in 1964 and 496 stakes in 1969.