Some of the posters to RFM say that the essentially flat membership growth of the church in the U.S. and Europe is compensated for by strong growth in Latin America. This may be true. But in addition to growth there, Cumorah.com has listed some of the “challenges”. The following are excerpts from some of the reports Cumorah.com has prepared:

Mexico

Mexico City: Many of the most favorable conditions for church planting appear to be in lesser-reached municipalities with lower living standards.

Monterrey: Essentially stagnant congregational growth within the past few years notwithstanding congregational growth achieved in the 2000s.

Chile

Santiago: Some of the lowest member activity and convert retention rates in the world; perhaps as few as 10% of members on church records.

Brazil

Rio de Janeiro: Several stakes have the minimum number of congregations needed to operate, suggesting that some of these stakes may be in danger of being discontinued if active membership growth does not occur and no additional congregations are organized.

São Paulo: Among the most self-sufficient cities in Brazil in terms of the size and strength of local leadership. No other city in Brazil has as many stakes, and stakes require certain numbers of active Melchizedek Priesthood holders to function, indicating that there are large numbers of priesthood manpower available to concentrate on expanding outreach.

Belo Horizonte: The Church has a significantly smaller presence in Belo Horizonte despite the operation of two missions in the city between 1994 to 2009 and steady congregational growth over the past several decades. Low member activity and convert retention rates appear widespread, resulting in many congregations with hundreds of inactive members.

Brasilia: Activity and convert retention rates are low, resulting in significant numbers of inactive members on church records. Quick-baptize tactics and a disconnect between the missionary efforts of full-time missionaries and local members appears primarily responsible for activity rates as low as 20-25%.

Argentina

Buenos Aires: Stagnant membership growth. After many years of steady, positive congregational growth, slight congregational decline occurred during the early 2010s as the number of congregations declined from 208 to 201. Only one new stake was organized in the 2000s and only two new stakes were created in the early 2010s.

Uruguay

Montevideo: Worsening member activity rates within the past decade as evidenced by membership growth rates surpassing congregational growth rates and a net decrease in the number of congregations. More than a dozen wards and branches were discontinued between the early 2000s and early 2010s. Missionaries continue to baptize many new converts year to year, but convert retention appears poor.

Peru

Lima: Due to only a few dozen new wards and branches organized and a dozen or more ward and branch closures, the total number of units in the Lima area only modestly increased in the 2000s.

Panama

Panama City: The number of congregations declined from 63 in 2002 to 39 in early 2014 -- one of the most extreme cases of congregational decline in Latin America. As few as 10-15% of members regularly attend. Panama City is one of the few metropolitan areas in Central America and the Caribbean that has had a stake discontinued within the past decade due to activity problems and leadership shortages. These conditions pose serious challenges for future growth due to enormous numbers of inactive members and persistent problems with convert retention.

Venezuela

Caracas: Although the Church achieved a net increase in the number of congregations between the early 2000s and present day, within the past couple of years, the Church has closed five congregations (three wards, two branches) within the Caracas metropolitan area. This finding indicates problems with member activity and convert retention rates, as well as shortages of local priesthood holders to staff essential ward and branch callings.

Colombia

Bogota: Dramatically slower growth than in most other populous metropolitan areas in South America. The number of congregations in Bogotá declined by approximately 10 within the past decade despite steady numbers of convert baptisms and increasing nominal church membership.

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https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=-6.751896,-75.234375&msa=0&spn=60.478481,93.076172&mid=zbv3-8dIlf6k.k1V-zGrDk-Lo

spending hundreds of hours crunching data and maintaining the spread sheets for this pro Mormon web site.

He thinks he's doing the morg a favor by being realistic about growth, baptisms, congregation numbers, etc. I'm surprised he hasn't been told to shut up.

He's so in love with his beloved cult that he's oblivious to the fact that the cult could care less about him as a person. I hope some day he'll wake up and smell the Postum and join us here at RfM as a flaming apostate. LOL!

In the mean time I'm exhilarated by the decline numbers posted. Thanks for cutting and pasting this information kingbrigham.

I have a respect for this man. i think he has genuine intentions and values that reflect on the idealistic qualities of Mormonism.

My expectation is that he would embrace the sayings, "the Truth shall make you Free" and "Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good."

There are some loaded and subjective words in these sayings that might explain how his intentions might be at odds with the intentions of Mormon leadership and its PR machine.

Two cliches spring to mind: the road to hell is paved with good intentions; and the devil is in the details. Take, "the Truth shall make you free." Sounds great. But what is freedom and where does truth come from? If you're taught agency means the freedom to justify and rationalize whatever you're told;, and truth means a gut feeling supported by authority figures who coerce one opinion and are openly hostile to its opposite, truth and error are not objectively different. This is where critical thinking and education come in. Wisdom cannot operate within a philosophy composed of a collection of unexamined slogans without depth or content. With "truth" and "freedom" given no content or process for achievement, one can readily walk to hell holding tight to the intention of pursuing truth and freedom. The details of these intentions need examination.

Also, the proposition must be taken to a logical conclusion to see whether it's valid. The news reported this morning on Romney's speech at BYU. The report said he focused on religion and drew the loudest applause when he proclaimed America the greatest country on Earth. That's sounds all very sweet on the surface; but what in the world does it mean to send missionaries out, all over the world, to attempt to create a world religion, when, essentially, the religion's members demonstrate a parochial, Utah, closed society, composed of jingos who love only themselves? The logical conclusion of members of a proselyting religion cheering their own country as the greatest on earth, is that the members want to spread their religion around the world only to boost their own egos. They obviously don't care about helping their converts become more successful than themselves, which is the mark of a "true" teacher (there's that word again!).

If Romney had insight, he'd have been embarrassed (But, of course, he said it only to inflame their jingoist tendencies in order to make himself popular). Over and over, in his presidential campaign, Romney demonstrated that he's got nothing beyond a will to win and a willingness to reflect the aspirations and desires of whatever group he's standing in front of, no matter how craven, petty, inconsistent, or just plain wrong, those aspirations are. If that's truth, it's very poor. It's certainly not leadership or independence; and therefore, cannot be free.

I feel sorry for the non-member or inactive husbands of faithful Mormon women in those countries. The pressure to become worthy priesthood leadership types is probably worse than anything going on in the US. The shortage of priesthood holders in Latin America is one reason I predict that several lower level leadership callings will eventually be "de-priesthood-ized" so that women can do those jobs.

Wow the Mormons are obsessed with numbers. I mean wow. But alas they the most dishonest people on the planet. Does anybody have the real numbers? I just don't trust ANYTHING the church or it's members produce for stats or numbers.

show the church is losing congregations and has low growth. You think they are lying about that?

I thought most South Americans were Catholic, albeit cafeteria Catholics/cultural Catholics (who may not follow the rules exactly, or ignore the rather quaint advice from the Pope, or don't go to church often).
I don't care how much growth is allegedly there; from an international perspective, it's irrelevant. Globally, it's just considered a quaint and wierd American cult from Utah.

Adonde ve Ecuador?

Ecuador

Quito: Revitalizing church planting strategies has enormous potential to reverse recent stagnant growth. The formation of branches in lesser-reached areas of the city has some of the most promising prospects for growth. With perhaps a few exceptions, all wards appear to have hundreds of inactive and less-active members.

The natives use the church as a way to make U.S.A. contacts and as a stepping stone to get the hell out of those countries. So much for staying put and making their countries better.

I respect this guy and am glad he's going it. Maybe he'll be the last person to resign.

I have many times wondered about all of this so called growth of the church. Just think of all the money they spent on building temples in countries where there will be not enough members to keep them manned and running.