Sure, it is Escondido, CA. There used to be 2 stakes, Escondido South and Escondido. Now, it is just Escondido. It is quite a large geographic region for a southern CA stake.
OMH! I was born in Escondido in 1950, my dad was the baseball coach at that time for Escondido High School, and when I was 18 months we moved straight out to the coast to Cardiff by the Sea.
My brother bought and renovated the old beach house that my folks bought there in 1951 for $16,000 and is currently the Stake Pres. of the Stake there on the coast, do not know what it is called, but Escondido is just 30 min. inland.
He is a great guy, and even though he knows I do not believe and am no longer mormon, always treats me with the greatest of respect. I spoke to him just a couple of weeks ago when down there on vacation, but religion is a subject that we NEVER speak, since I left the church 4 years ago this month.
No, I have not lived in that area for 42 years, since my marriage at 18 in the middle of my first year at BYU.
But I am returning home to the Carlsbad area, which is also just out to the coast from Escondido, and 15 min. north of where my bro. lives in Cardiff by the Sea as soon as I sell my house here in SL.
Shortly before I left the church, my Stake Pres. bro. ( and I believe his stake includes Cardiff, Encinitas, Leucadia, Solana Beach, Del Mar ( all ritzy little coastal towns) and then Rancho Santa Fe which kind of runs just inland and behind them all. Many rich and famous people live in Rancho Santa Fe. I know Arnold Schwartsnagar has a huge home there for one, and there are many others, most all of the homes are gigantic mansions, whereas out on the coast homes are mostly very nice, but relatively small, but still costly being so near the ocean.)
Anyway, before I left my brother told me that the Glendale Stake had closed and that 2 other stakes in the larger LA area somewhere, not sure where,had combined into one. That would have been just over 4 years ago.
Actually I think it is the called the Del Mar Stake, the one he is pres. of, but not sure. No, now I think maybe he was bishop Del Mar ward before becoming stake pres., not sure. Like I said, I love him to pieces, but we just don't talk about these things ever any more. He respects me and I respect him.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2011 10:55AM by think4u.
No, just above Rancho Bernardo/Poway. It starts at the North County Fair Mall. To give a comparison to Utah, it would be an area equivalent to Bountiful to Murray, and equal distance East to West.
No, the Vista Stake lies between Escondido and the Ocean.
A member of a stake presidency in SD County told me directly that the San Diego East Stake (La Mesa area) was nearly dissolved 3 or 4 years ago. I can't speak for the rest of CA, but it seems that the Church in SD County has been in a downturn. A lot of meetinghouses in East County are being used well under capacity.
I just looked over a list of stakes in California and the blog that Sonoma referenced, and it looks like 20 stakes have been organized in California since 1990, but 13 have been dissolved since then as well. When you consider how much California has grown since 1990, it becomes obvious that the Church isn't doing so well with a net growth of 7 new stakes in that period.
The top ten of countries with the greatest percentage decrease include ten countries in Europe and two in Latin America. And even with those huge official decreases of 20 to 35%, many congregations are now branches instead of wards.
I'm not surprised. I would venture to say Europe is pretty secular and Latin America, well, when I lived in Santiago, Chileans love their coffee, tea,and cigarettes and wine at every meal. The church totally runs against their culture.
The church is so Utah-centric that I'm surprised it's had any modicum of growth internationally at all.
There are more Mormons in Guyana, or Liberia, or the Marshall Islands than there are in DENMARK!! Mongolia has more members than Sweden!! In the 20 countries with the highest annual membership growth rates for 2010, only 2 countries have more than 10,000 Members TOTAL! More than half of the 20 countries have less than 1000 Members.
Not so surprising. Every Scandinavian has internet access and a good understanding of English. TSCC only still grows in places that speak a language that has not been blessed with a lot of exmo info one can easily find on google. Over the past few years, a lot of the American exmo info has been translated into Spanish and Portuguese on blogs in those languages, and the growth in those Latin America and Iberia has stalled as a result.
Now we need Canadian exmos to provide French translations in order to save Africans I guess.
Who writes this and are they are talking about stakes and wards? I do not think it is very understandable and it would be much more so if he were to talk about member conversions (excluding bic baptism) from one year to the next. It does not make much sense to me.
this will soon be the Stake I live in, they already hold joint Stake conferences, it's only a matter of time. And again, in a conservative rich and white area of So-Cal, not some liberal metropolitan area.
Just for fun, I ran search on 'France' (where I live) on the LDSgrowth site and found this:
"France is one of the first countries in Europe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was established in. As of the end of 2006, there were almost 34,000 members. Today there are nine stakes and two districts in the country. There is no temple in France, but President Hinckley told members in a meeting five or so years ago that a temple will someday be built. There are only two missions in France now."
One of the first countries where LDS was established in Europe, with a population of more than 60 million people... only has 34,000 members.
Now that's what I call the world's fastest-growing church... NOT!
I love living in France!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2011 07:17AM by Soft Machine.
Well they're buildin' one in Rome ... they'll build one in Paris just to say they did it and for the p.r. even if it ends up being open only two days a week.
Originally the title of a - very weird - novel by William S. Burroughs.
I chose it because it was then the name of my favourite - reasonably weird - British rock band in the 60s/70s (they actually toured the US as the support band for Hendrix in 1968).
I think I must be a bit weird myself!
;-)
ps. LOL, you're right. I hadn't noticed the activity rate. Not bad! Mind you, the French are like that about religion in general: the vast majority just aren't interested!
I grew up in Southern California's "East Long Beach" stake. They have about half as many wards as they did in 1978. Ward boundaries look to be about twice as large as they were then. From what I can tell, it looks like active membership in that area has shrunk back to mid 1960s levels.
The TBMs will probably shrug this off saying that many mormons are moving back to Zion, or the area is aging and all the young people have moved elsewhere.
Still, even they can't deny most of the membership of TSCC only exists on paper.
I'd move back to CA in a heartbeat if I could afford it ... it's freaking expensive. I got me a decent condo in Arizona for $35K in 2010 ... within commuting distance to CA, lol.