key: cord-0059261-f7u3oqz3 authors: Otterstrom, Samuel M.; Plewe, Brandon S. title: Geographical Diffusion and Growth Patterns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Since World War II date: 2020-07-15 journal: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-52616-0_4 sha: 6c2fdc0a104cbfd507ebf3317fa6cfc9ee8351e7 doc_id: 59261 cord_uid: f7u3oqz3 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also referred to in this chapter as the LDS Church or simply the Church) has grown from its modest beginning in 1830 of 6 members in New York State to over 16 million members globally in 2020. Although currently there are Latter-day Saint congregations in at least 187 nations and territories, this significant growth has not been evenly distributed over time and place. The LDS Church proclaims that it has been given a divine mandate to spread its beliefs “throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” Consequently, missionary outreach—as described in Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-52616-0_2—has been a top organizational priority, both domestically and internationally, since the Church’s founding. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also referred to in this chapter as the LDS Church or simply the Church) has grown from its modest beginning in 1830 of 6 members in New York State to over 16 million members globally in 2020. Although currently there are Latter-day Saint congregations in at least 187 nations and territories, this significant growth has not been evenly distributed over time and place. The LDS Church proclaims that it has been given a divine mandate to spread its beliefs "throughout every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." 1 Consequently, missionary outreach-as described in Chap. 3-has been a top organizational priority, both domestically and internationally, since the Church's founding. As a nineteenth-century religious innovation centered in North America, the most substantial worldwide diffusion of the LDS Church has been a relatively recent phenomenon. It was not until the twentieth century, when church authorities began encouraging converts to stay home and support local congregations in their own countries, that the Church began having a permanent international presence. In 1930, approximately 90 percent of all Latterday Saints lived in the United States. This figure has fallen dramatically. In 1980, only 70 percent of church members lived in the United States. By 1991, this proportion was less than 55 percent, and in 2009, the number had dropped even further to 44 percent. 2 One way of thinking about the growth and international expansion of the modern LDS Church is to borrow from diffusion theories that describe the conditions and ways in which different kinds of market innovations develop and spread in time and place. In this chapter, we discuss a model of religious diffusion that incorporates what historical geographers refer to as both spatial and functional factors in their analysis. We argue that it is precisely these factors that have strongly contributed to the numerical growth and international diffusion of the modern LDS Church. 3 Furthermore, we will show that diffusion factors have played a key role in what may be called an "urban hierarchical pattern" of LDS expansion in different countries around the globe. Spatial diffusion has been the subject of much discussion and research in academic geography. These studies are especially indebted to the early work of Torsten Hägerstrand, who wrote his dissertation, Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process, in 1953. Hägerstrand's diffusion model helped explain the spatial nature of the spread of a particular farm implement innovation in Sweden. He argued that because most contact networks are localized, the diffusion of an innovation would initially be a local process where innovations spread outward in a contagious manner. 4 Hägerstrand's work has had great influence on the many paths that diffusion research has followed. 5 These studies range from the spread of racial and ethnic neighborhoods to the diffusion of influenza in Iceland to the differential growth of cities in the United States. 6 Following Hägerstrand, L. A. Brown summarizes three general patterns that are often associated with the diffusion process: Over time, a graph of the cumulative level of adoption is expected to approximate an S-shape. In an urban system, the diffusion is expected to proceed from larger to smaller centers, a regularity termed the hierarchy effect. Within the hinterland of a single urban center, diffusion is expected to proceed in a wave-like fashion outward from the urban center, first hitting nearby rather than farther-away locations, and a similar pattern is expected in diffusion among a rural population. This third regularity is termed the neighborhood or contagion effect. 7 Later diffusion models also have included the elements of relocation migration and the influence of innovation propagators. 8 Relocation is an important element of Latter-day Saint diffusion because much of the geographic spread of their church historically is attributable to the relocation of its members. This type of spatial diffusion has included large migrations in the Church's early history (e.g. moving from the east and midwestern United States to the Utah Territory and settling new colonies throughout the intermountain west), and movements of families from Utah during the past century for job opportunities, schooling, and other reasons. The relocation process has also been fundamental to the international diffusion of the modern LDS Church. Tens of thousands of youthful and senior missionaries-the main instruments of the Church's spread-are intentionally "relocated" in new countries or regions of countries where the Church has been allowed to proselytize. Other international relocation of American members who are in the military, government, or business fields have also provided the groundwork for the initial diffusion of the Church into a surprising number of countries. Although Brown used business corporations as his examples of "innovation propagators" (e.g. a satellite dish manufacturer, a restaurant franchise corporation, and a department store chain), basic aspects of his conceptual model also help explain the way the LDS Church operates as the propagator of its own faith tradition. Furthermore, Brown argues that it is important to look at a more complete picture of spatial diffusion-considering both market supply and demand factors-rather than solely concentrating on what influences individuals or households to adopt an innovation. 9 Brown describes the role that propagators perform in establishing diffusion agencies in different locations. In the case of the LDS Church as a propagator, LDS mission organizations can be thought of as diffusion agencies through which the Church spreads into surrounding areas, helping to structure its future spread as an innovative religion. 10 Considered as diffusion agencies, LDS mission organizations (or "missions") consist of a defined geographic area of the world that is supervised by a church-assigned mission president and approximately 50-200 full-time missionaries, none of whom are seminary trained. 11 One other important aspect of the diffusion process is the actual adoption of the innovation by individuals who comprise a potentially receptive market. Most business corporations seek to spread their innovations through predictable stages of diffusion for the purpose of increasing sales and profits. The LDS Church follows a similar pattern. Its avowed goal, however, is not financial profit; rather, it is to increase the number and quality of converts to the LDS faith. It should also be noted that the LDS Church is characterized by a centralized ecclesiastical organization that is responsible for deciding the location of its missions and the number of missionaries who are sent to designated areas around the world. According to Brown, centralized decision-making organizations may employ different growth strategies, resulting in different patterns of diffusion, but the typical diffusion pattern is one that moves "hierarchically," from larger urban centers to their satellite communities and increasingly to peripheral areas. 12 This, as we will demonstrate, is also a typical pattern in the international spread of the LDS Church. The growth and spread of the LDS Church in international settings display great potential as subjects for diffusion research. 13 The spatial patterns of the Church's global expansion have been shaped by a number of factors that affect both its rate of diffusion and degree of penetration in different countries. Furthermore, as described by Brown, 14 diffusion can be studied from both a "functional" and "spatial" perspective. Based on these considerations, we have diagramed a conceptual model in Fig. 4 .1 that frames the reminder of our discussion. As shown in the top portion of Fig. 4 .1, the functional perspective in diffusion studies emphasizes supply and demand factors over time, while basic elements of the spatial perspective are represented in a spatial box in the lower portion of the diagram. We incorporate aspects of the functional perspective in our historical narrative of church growth while, in the final part of this chapter, also employing the spatial perspective for showing patterns of LDS spatial diffusion within selected countries of the international church. The functional perspective. Supply and demand factors are both important when looking at the functional manner in which innovations spread over time. In our analysis we must, of course, substitute LDS nomenclature for the general terminology used in the diffusion model. Thus, we may consider Joseph Smith's prophetic claims of Christian restoration to be a nineteenth-century religious "innovation" and the modern LDS Church headquartered in Salt Lake City to be its propagator. A central decision-making body known as the "general authorities" administers the Church's programs, including all missionary efforts. These authorities oversee the affairs of the missionary program and decide when and where new missions will be established around the world, as previously mentioned. The demand side of the equation for new missionary faiths consists of religious seekers who are either unaffiliated or dissatisfied with their current religious affiliation. This must be considered first in our analysis, since without religious demand there is no point in considering religious supply factors. Demand for the LDS faith in different countries varies significantly and is affected by such factors as the amount of religious freedom, religious orientation (i.e., percent Christian), degree of secularism, income characteristics, political stability, cultural attitudes, languages, amount of migration or displacement of a country's people, and population growth rates. It may be inferred that more religious freedom, lower levels of secularism, less per capita income, larger proportions of Christians, and greater political stability exert a positive influence on demand for new religious faiths like the LDS Church. Higher population growth rates also tend to increase demand for the Church, because there will be more second-generation "adopters" of their parents' religion (i.e., there will be more young children of new converts baptized into the Church when they reach the age of eight required for baptism). Thus, for example, the Church has grown and spread significantly in Latin American countries that are predominantly Catholic and meet many of the other criteria for higher levels of religious demand. Latin American countries have also experienced substantial growth in Pentecostal churches, Seventh-Day Adventists, and members of other evangelizing faiths, some of which have grown even faster than the LDS Church. 15 Competitive growth among these newly introduced faiths has prompted significant responses from and within the Catholic Church. Responses include the emergence of the Catholic Charismatic movement, renewed missionary efforts related to "liberation theology," and attempts to fortify religious conviction among local populations in other ways. 16 Religious supply factors are many and, for the LDS Church, they include such things as the number of members who relocate to foreign countries for military, business, or governmental purposes; the supply of volunteer missionaries available for service periods ranging from one to two years; the number of members in a country who actively participate in sharing their faith with family and friends; availability of international transportation networks; and the financial resources of the Church for supporting missions and associated proselyting strategies (e.g., the Internet, radio, television, and print media). It is religious supply factors that we concentrate our primary attention on in this chapter. The greater the number of church members who relocate to foreign countries, especially those with small native-born Latter-day Saint populations, the greater the likelihood that sustained church growth will occur in those countries. A foundation of more seasoned expatriate members can help support membership increases from convert baptisms. Those who join the Church in foreign countries themselves become part of the supply side because all members are strongly encouraged to share their faith with those around them. It is obvious that a greater supply of missionaries means a larger number of places in the world where the Church can place them as "diffusers" of their religion. Although most missionaries' living expenses are typically paid for individually, by their families, or with support from their home congregations, the Church still incurs great expense in funding missionary headquarters around the globe, subsidizing missionary travel, translating and printing church literature in foreign languages, and financially assisting missionaries from less developed countries. As the amount of funding the Church devotes to its missionary programs increases, the potential supply of church resources to more remote locations also grows. This is because increasing distance from Salt Lake City and the United States, where the bulk of Latter-day Saints is still concentrated, increases the cost of diffusing an international Church. The majority of missionaries in foreign lands continue to be exported from the United States, where certain conditions can greatly affect the Church's supply of missionaries. Thus, for example, the federal government can limit the number of missionaries by military conscription (as was the case during the Korean and Vietnam wars), and periods of domestic economic turmoil or global health crises like the recent COVID-19 pandemic may negatively affect the number of American members who can afford or be sent to serve full-time missions outside the United States. Furthermore, the Church's occasionally changing missionary policies themselves may impact the number of missionaries who choose to serve. In 2002, for example, church authorities raised the personal standards required for serving a mission. This policy change was undoubtedly a factor in the decline of the LDS missionary force from over 60,000 in 2001 to less than 52,000 in 2009. 17 More recently, however, lowering the minimum missionary age from 19 to 18 for young men, and from 21 to 19 for young women, produced a double cohort surge in the size of the missionary force. 18 Each country receives different levels of missionary resource support from church headquarters, while simultaneously exhibiting varying degrees of demand for the LDS faith. An increase in demand usually encourages a growth in supply. Conversely, a well-advertised supply may also create a measurable amount of demand. For optimal diffusion rates, however, high amounts of both supply and demand are required. The variable effect that both supply and demand have on diffusion in a particular country is called the "Innovation Diffusion Rate." Let us consider some illustrative examples. If there is high religious demand for the Church but little or no supply, substitute churches may be formed, as was the case in Nigeria before 1978. When LDS missionaries arrived in Nigeria in 1978, they encountered a number of successful churches already bearing the name of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints," which had been locally organized without official approval from church headquarters in Salt Lake City. 19 On the other hand, low religious demand areas may produce only a few converts annually, even with a consistent missionary supply over many years. In 2010, for example, a number of missions, such as the Germany Munich/ Austria and Switzerland Zurich missions, were combined. The Swiss mission had been operating since 1850, so consolidation there was not because of political difficulties with the state. Instead, this shift was attributable to persistently low conversion rates over many decades in an increasingly secularized region of the world. 20 Consolidation of missions predictably signals a decrease in religious supply (e.g., fewer missionaries assigned to those countries), even though there are still millions of people residing there who are not Latter-day Saints. 21 With changing missionary numbers, and varying levels of religious demand and corresponding conversion success, the supply of missionaries continues to be adjusted by church authorities for different countries worldwide. Thus, besides combining Swiss and German missions in 2010, the Church also combined missions in Spain, Italy, Scotland/Ireland, Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Germany (Hamburg and Berlin), Australia, Puerto Rico, Korea, and Japan. Many of these areas had experienced relatively slow growth and diffusion rates. At the same time, new missions were also created in DR Congo, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and Guatemala internationally, and in Utah and New Mexico in the United States. All of these areas had been experiencing more rapid church growth for several decades (see Table 4 .1). 22 Generally speaking, the supply side of LDS diffusion tends to equalize with demand in a country over time. However, supply factors (missionaries, media programs, etc.) may sometimes be increased in regions of low religious demand in an effort to create more interest in the Church and its message. This, in part, represents a commitment to disseminating what Latter-day Saints believe is "the good news" of the restoration of the primitive Christian church to as many people as possible, thereby fulfilling the prophecy of church founder, Joseph Smith, that "The truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done." 23 The religious goal of disseminating its message to all nations has resulted in a wider apportionment of missionary resources than otherwise would be the case if church leaders focused only on world areas where religious demand and conversion success were greatest. The spatial perspective. Discussion of supply and demand effects on the international diffusion of the LDS Church corresponds with the second part of our growth and dispersion model, namely the spatial perspective. Interaction of both the supply and demand aspects of the LDS international growth equation creates a specific rate of diffusion within every country (shown in the Innovation Diffusion Rate box in Fig. 4 .1). Diffusion rates interact with the spatial structure of a country's population (shown in the diagram as the Functional/Spatial Interface). The greater this rate, the faster the religion will spread throughout a nation. In our model, the spatial patterns exhibited by Latter-day Saint diffusion within a country are depicted as hypothetical stages derived from Hägerstrand's earlier work. 24 Whereas Hägerstrand identified three regularities of diffusion (the S-shape curve for diffusion over time, the hierarchy effect, and the neighborhood effect), we identify four phases for describing LDS diffusion, which we refer to as (1) initial introduction, (2) central staging, (3) metropolitan movement, and (4) contagious concentration. Based on this conceptual framework, our principal narrative hypothesis is that LDS international diffusion following World War II has involved a distinct pattern of initial introduction of the Church in a new country by North American Latter-day Saint expatriates, native citizens converted to the Church elsewhere, or by assigned LDS missionaries. This is followed by increasing conversions and the eventual establishment of additional missions in the country's largest cities which, through organized proselyting, produce urban hierarchical patterns of church unit formation, the eventual construction of a temple or temples (the most sacred LDS edifices for worship purposes), and increasingly "contagious concentration" in more peripheral areas of the country. Each country is unique in its population size, area and shape of its borders, and rural/urban makeup, so the spatial manifestation of the different phases of diffusion predictably varies among nations. Consequently, some countries may not conform to our basic model. Nonetheless, in what follows we demonstrate that most countries with large Latter-day Saint populations internationally have exhibited similar spatial characteristics in their growth and expansion since World War II. Before exploring these spatial patterns, however, a review of the data and methodology employed to guide our analysis is in order. Our analysis of Latter-day Saint growth and worldwide dispersion requires both church data and country data. Church data include the locations and dates of the establishment of congregations and missions throughout the world, histories of countries, and the rates of membership growth in various nations. Country data consist of the populations of nations, cities, provinces, districts, and/or states that contain LDS stakes and missions. Populations of specific cities, states, and provinces were obtained for our study from GeoNames. org, which has compiled a large database of place names and populations from around the world. In addition, the LDS Church keeps very detailed statistics of the numbers of its members and their location around the globe. For many years, the yearly Deseret News Church Almanac contained a brief overview of church growth in different countries, nations, and territories which, historically speaking, still constitutes an important data source. Today, however, the Church shares much of this same kind of data through its official, online Newsroom site, which regularly posts updated information and church statistics. 25 From an LDS perspective, most of the world is divided geographically into stakes-organizational units that contain between 5 and 14 separate congregations. 26 Larger congregations are called wards (comprised of 250 to 700 members), while smaller congregations are known as branches (usually having fewer than 250 members). Stakes are created by either dividing one or more larger stakes into additional stakes, or by aggregating multiple large branches from a mission district in order to form wards and then forming a stake. Ecclesiastical leadership in stakes, wards, and branches is provided by a lay clergy of stake presidents, ward bishops, and branch presidents. 27 The names of stake and mission organizations always have some geographic reference. Usually, they indicate the location of the stake center or mission headquarters office, and these places are usually the largest city where one or more wards are established. The stake center is the physical chapel where stake offices are located and stake meetings are periodically held. Although stakes and missions are regional in nature and include greater areas than their component wards and branches, they are easier to pinpoint and their dates of creation are readily available. Because wards and branches worldwide are component parts of stakes and missions, one still gets an accurate feel for the overall distribution Latter-day Saints internationally by referencing them as diffusion locators. As of December 2018, there were some 3383 LDS stakes around the world, with about half located outside of the United States. The Almanac contains the location of stakes and missions in each geographic area and the date each stake or mission was created through 2013. Additionally, various editions of the Almanac contained total membership numbers and short overviews of the history of the Church in different countries. 28 Since the Almanac has ceased publication, the Church News continues to publish the same kind of information on an almost weekly basis. For this chapter therefore we have relied on data from both the Almanac and Church News, as well as from several other sources. 29 The first half of the twentieth century marked a shift from the historical, inward gathering of converts to Utah and other Latter-day Saint centers to an emphasis on members staying in their respective states and countries to strengthen the Church where they resided. 30 Church membership had been climbing steadily, but World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II interrupted missionary activity in many areas for several decades. By the end of World War II, the bulk of Latter-day Saints continued to live in the United States, with all but one stake located in North America. The only stake outside the continental U.S. at that time was the Oahu Stake in Hawai'i, formed in 1935. In 1920 and 1921, Apostle David O. McKay and his companion Hugh J. Cannon took a historic trip around the world using ships, railroads, and even camels to visit every LDS mission and thousands of members outside the United States. The trip took over a year. Fast-forward to 2005 when, in vivid contrast, Church President Gordon B. Hinckley flew around the world in just a few days, visiting thousands of members in Asia and Africa alone. In the intervening 85 years, the Church had grown from half a million members to over twelve million. The distribution of members had shifted from almost 80 percent living in Utah and Idaho in 1920 to 80 percent living outside these states in 2005. Not only had the share of international members increased substantially, but also the diffusion of church members within many countries had moved beyond one or two core cities to smaller communities in the urban hierarchy. On his apostolic voyage, and during his subsequent term as president over the European missions, McKay encountered a church very different from that of his homeland in Zion. "Zion" was comprised of the areas of Utah and surrounding states that were predominately Latter-day Saint in population. There, the Church was a dominating demographic, cultural, and political force. In stakes and wards led by local leaders, the full programs of the Church operated in large ornate meetinghouses. Four large temples anchored the core of the "Mormon Corridor" from St. George to Logan, Utah, while the mostly completed temple in Cardston, Alberta, and the one recently under construction in Mesa, Arizona, established the outposts of Zion. Beyond this concentrated segment of North American-across the United States and around the world-McKay had a very different experience. In the "Mormon Mission Field" outside of Zion during that era, there were no stakes or temples (except for a very small temple recently built in La'ie, Hawai'i), and mostly just small branches. These branches were usually administered by missionaries from Utah or the Western United States, holding meetings and religious services in whatever rented spaces were available. 31 Most mission presidents in foreign lands also came from the United States. As the clouds of world war dispersed in the late 1940s, the Church was poised to take major steps to enlarge and expand its international presence. By the time McKay was ordained president in April 1951, the Church actually had changed very little in the 30 years since his apostolic voyage and subsequent term as president over the European missions. Although total membership had more than doubled to 1.2 million, a smaller proportion of members lived outside the United States (8 percent) than in 1921 (10 percent) and missions and branches were still meeting in rented facilities under missionary leadership. The underlying nature of the international Church, however, was starting to change. First, the migration of international members to Utah and surrounding areas was slowing down. Since 1907, the First Presidency (the highest governing body of the Church) had been requesting international members to cease migrating to Utah, partly for economic reasons: agrarian Utah, Idaho, and Arizona had limited and even diminishing economic opportunities for newcomers. Converts, however, continued to come (although the trend was gradually slowing), believing that fulfillment of their religious aspirations was far more likely to occur in Zion than at home in the "mission field." However, as more and more members obeyed the counsel of ecclesiastical leaders to stay in their home countries, the need to establish more permanent church buildings and stronger local leadership also became apparent. This transition to local leadership arguably began internationally with the experience of the "Third Convention" in Mexico. 32 In the early twentieth century, converts in the area of Mexico City had little intention of moving to the United States. As their knowledge and experience in the Church increased, some started to feel that American missionaries and mission presidents were not treating them as equals. When their petitions to Salt Lake City for local mission leadership received a response of "that is not how things are done," approximately a third of the 2400 members in central Mexico broke away from the Church in 1936 at their "third convention." For ten years, dissident Mexican members operated a semi-independent organization, professing allegiance to the Prophet but not to the American mission president. They appointed their own leaders, built new buildings, proselytized new converts, and even wrote new church materials in Spanish. Over the objection of some Apostles in Salt Lake City, who wanted to excommunicate the dissident members, President George Albert Smith visited Mexico City in 1946 and offered complete amnesty to all who were willing to return, promising that more effort would be put into calling and training local leaders, and prophesying that Mexico City would eventually become an LDS stake completely led by Mexicans. In the first years of his administration, David O. McKay accelerated this changing trend. In 1953, he made an impassioned plea for members around the world not to gather to Zion, but to build up their local branches into fullfledged wards and stakes. 33 He backed up this new vision with material investments, emphasizing a permanent physical presence of the Church through the construction of three small temples in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Switzerland, countries, which at the time had no stake organizations. Here is how McKay explained the new building strategy: "One of the steps which will contribute to the stability and growth of the Church in Europe is the decision to build temples … For some time it has been felt that many of the recent emigrants from Europe, … would have been happier had they had a temple in Europe … rather than to have to come to America for this privilege." 34 At this same time, hundreds of new mission headquarters and chapels were being built in designated countries around the world. As early as the Church's semi-annual October general conference in 1952, President McKay could exult over 99 church-owned buildings in Europe, and dozens more in the South Pacific. 35 Standardized architectural plans made the construction process more cost-efficient. Local-building budgets were subsidized by central tithing funds. Utah-style meetinghouses were built across Europe, often at a size that members could only hope to grow into. In poor countries with great needs, especially in the South Pacific, local "building missionaries" were called, trained, and sent out to build simple but sturdy meetinghouses. In fact, the building program accelerated to the point that in 1965, the Church was experiencing significant financial strain. Consequently, a one-year moratorium on all new meetinghouse construction was imposed while the Church instituted more financially conservative policies. 36 Despite these challenges to church resources, the 1950s building program largely fulfilled its goal of strengthening the permanent presence of the Church in many countries internationally. The international Church quickly grew in response to the increase of missionaries following the lowering of missionary ages in 1960, with the number of convert baptisms tripling between 1960 and 1963. 37 This was especially apparent in Europe (membership doubling from 59,000 members in 1960 to 124,000 in 1964) and the Pacific (doubling from 36,000 members in 1958 to 74,000 in 1964) . Although many of those who were baptized did not continue in their church activity, a substantial portion of the growth was profound and lasting. Soon, several cities and their adjacent regions that had been core mission centers for decades gained a sufficient concentration of members, and a sufficient corps of local leaders, to become stakes: In the late 1960s and early 1970s, growth in Europe and the Pacific slowed, but the Church was accelerating in Asia and especially in Latin America. The Church in Asia had been practically non-existent before a substantial Cold War U.S. military presence there brought local people in contact with Latter-day Saint service members, especially in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. As countries became politically more stable, missionaries arrived to accelerate LDS recruitment. From less than a hundred scattered Asian members in 1947, there were 100,000 by 1979. Growth in Latin America was even more astounding. In 1958, there were half as many members in Latin America as there were in Europe; by 1972, there were twice as many. The Church continued to grow exponentially in Asia and Latin America until the end of the 1990s. Although these regions had initially lagged behind Europe and the Pacific by a few years in their development, the creation of new stakes in major cities headquartered by missions quickly resulted in regional maturation, as indicated by the following examples. • Latin America Stakes: Mexico City 1961 (divided in 1967 ), Buenos Aires 1966 , São Paulo 1966 , Guatemala City 1967 , Montevideo, Uruguay, 1967 , Lima 1970 , Monterrey, Mexico, 1970 , Santiago, Chile, 1972 , Rio de Janeiro 1972 • Asia Stakes: Tokyo 1970 , Osaka 1972 , Seoul 1973 , Manila 1973 By 1964, there were 21 international LDS stakes, which grew to 79 in 1973, 820 in 1995, and by 2009 there were 1380 international stakes out of a total of 2818. 39 During 2009, the 51,000 plus missionary force (mostly young men and women under 25 years of age) baptized an average of 23,300 converts into the Church every month in many countries around the world. 40 Let us summarize the story behind these figures. International Latter-day Saints by the 1970s were contributing more and more to overall church strength. The creation of dozens of stakes outside North America gradually led to another shift in both leaders and members' thinking about the international Church. Similar to President McKay's earlier international outreach, President Spencer W. Kimball took several steps that may have seemed minor at the time but which had a profound and lasting impact on the worldwide Church. Previously, stakes and missions had divided their jurisdictions geographically. In regions that were entirely covered by large stakes (especially in Utah), missions had no actual presence. Instead, local "seventies" (lay priesthood quorums) were responsible for stake missionary work and stake presidents reported directly to the governing board of the Twelve Apostles. In regions without stakes, missions and their presidents were charged with full-time proselyting responsibilities. While this division of labor made perfect sense prior to 1920, jurisdiction gradually became less clear as scattered stakes were formed, first across the United States, then internationally. In 1975, church authorities announced the organization of Utah's first proselyting mission. 41 Thus, at a time when much of "the mission field" was becoming Zion, Utah Zion now was becoming part of the mission field. Fulltime missionaries and mission presidents subsequently would take over the primary responsibility for proselytizing both within and outside of stake boundaries worldwide. At first the full-time missionaries worked together with local seventies, but this arrangement gradually diminished, and seventies quorums were discontinued in 1986. 42 In May 1975, a system of 18 global areas was announced in which LDS general authorities would have authority over church affairs in different parts of the world. 43 In countries outside of North America, designated general authorities were assigned oversight responsibilities for all members and their local stake and ward leaders, but in the United States and Canada, they were only responsible for the functioning of missions. 44 In 1976, a new Quorum of Seventies at the general authority level enabled the further development of this system, giving "area supervisors" authority over stakes in North America as well, and requiring the division of the U.S. Mountain West into ten additional areas. 45 The next year the number of areas multiplied to 50 and were grouped into zones, each advised by a member of the new Quorum of Seventies. 46 The result of these changes was a re-imagining of the division of labor between stakes and missions-from a core-periphery geographic divide to a parallel division of roles, between seeking new converts and taking care of existing members. While church members (especially in Utah) continued referring to "the mission field," this increasingly signified being on a mission rather than being at home. The prominent status of stake centers that had emerged in the 1960s and 1970s was further bolstered by a wave of international temple building. Starting in São Paulo (1978) and Tokyo (1980) , this construction initiative was spurred by the introduction of 2 standardized designs for smaller temples that made them easier to build and, by 1988, 16 additional countries had their own temples. The triumvirate of having a temple, one or more missions, and several stakes gave Latter-day Saints in a number of major international cities the feeling of being every bit a core part of the Church as Utah (or at least as much as major U.S. urban areas like Chicago or Los Angles). This resultant model of contemporary LDS geography is very similar to the Central Place Theory developed by Walter Christaller in 1933 to explain settlement geography. 47 Christaller recognized that larger cities tend to provide a wide array of services, including some that can provide for a large regional market, such as a TV station, as well as more local services, such as grocery stores. Spaced out around a large city would be a set of smaller towns, with fewer, more local services, surrounded by even smaller towns, and so forth, until a small village may have no services at all and be completely dependent on the nearest larger town. The geography of the LDS Church that emerged in the 1970s had this same type of geographic hierarchy, featuring: • Temple cities, with area headquarters, a temple, multiple missions, multiple stakes, and dozens of wards which served a region anywhere from the surrounding towns to several countries • Stake cities, with a stake or two and their affiliated wards belonging to the nearest temple district, and also a mission • Ward towns, with a ward or branch attached to the nearest stake • Member towns, with a few members attached to the nearest ward or branch Based on the number of active lay priesthood holders, these locations were now expected to be ecclesiastically self-sufficient and contribute to additional church growth. At a 1974 leadership training meeting before his first general conference as church president, Spencer W. Kimball laid out this vision (and coined his most memorable catchphrase, "lengthen your stride"), in which each country with stakes would first supply its own missionaries and subsequently produce a missionary surplus to preach in neighboring countries. 48 In addition to contributing their own missionaries, international members began filling leadership roles traditionally held exclusively by those from the mountain west core area of the United States. Twelve (24 percent) of the new 50 mission presidents called in 1975 were from outside the United States-virtually the same proportion as that of all non-U.S. members; at least five of them were the original presidents of stakes formed in their native communities. 49 That same year, Belgian Charles Didier, a former mission president, was called as one of the first four members of the First Quorum of the Seventy, the first resident European called as a general authority in the history of the Church. 50 Over the next three years, several more European seventies were called, as well as Yoshihiko Kikuchi of Japan. It was not long thereafter that general authorities were called from Latin America as well. By 1990, 14 (20 percent) of the 73 members of the Quorum of the Seventies were from countries outside the United. States and Canada, a proportional trend that has continued growing ever since. While many heretofore peripheral areas internationally had become LDS core centers, new mission frontiers continued to appear as the Church obtained permission to preach in new countries, such as in post-Vietnam Southeast Asia. Arguably, however, the primary impetus behind global expansion during this era was the 1978 "Priesthood Revelation" (which declared that, regardless of their race, the priesthood could be conferred on all worthy Latter-day Saint men, including in particular men of African descent who previously had been denied priesthood ordination). Suddenly an entire continent, as well as large swaths of the Americas, became potentially fertile mission field areas. While, from the point of view of LDS missions, Africa began in the same peripheral condition as much of the earlier international Church had done, it was fully expected to achieve maturity as quickly as possible. Within ten years, stakes sprung up in Nigeria and South Africa, as well as predominantly African areas in the Western Hemisphere, such as the Dominican Republic and northeastern Brazil. As applied to LDS international expansion, the "centers of strength" philosophy is one that follows the advancing growth of a designated congregational unit in which a branch becomes a ward, a district becomes a stake, and a stake becomes multiple stakes, which can then anticipate the construction of a temple. This is not just a matter of civic pride; the assumption is that more congregational units mean more trained leaders, more members receiving the "full blessings" of church programs, and more places that reciprocate both spiritually and temporally as much as they receive. Administrative growth also meant "ministrative" growth. Such growth was especially successful in the late 1970s. Since 1975, each year on average has seen 60 new LDS stakes and 500 new wards or branches. Between 1978 and 1981, this average accelerated to 110 new stakes and over 1000 new wards or branches per year. This spurt was likely the result of a concerted effort to catch up with the exponential membership growth then occurring, especially in Latin America. It was also due to the long-term maturation of existing mission areas. By 1981, for example, almost all of the United States, Canada, and northwestern Europe were covered in stakes, except for their most sparsely populated regions. Such rapid stake growth was a source of pride, both for the local areas and for the Church as a whole. 51 Once this pent-up demand was met, administrative growth slowed a bit during the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, it was re-accelerated by the practice of creating smaller wards and stakes. Rather than the traditional seven or eight large wards in a stake, many new stakes were commonly being created with five small wards. This was especially true in rapidly growing areas, such as those in Latin America, where the operating assumption was that more active members and more wards would soon follow from the creation of more stakes. From 1995 to 1997, another growth spurt saw an average of 140 stakes and almost 1000 congregations created each year. Likewise, in Chile from 1994 to 1999, membership grew 45 percent (from 345,000 to 500,000), while the number of stakes grew even more by 75 percent (from 67 to 116). With all of this expansionary success, the next wave of growth was greatly anticipated when the Iron Curtain fell in Eastern Europe in [1989] [1990] . Several erstwhile communist countries still had LDS members from before the Cold War, especially in Saxony (southern East Germany), where the Church had formed a stake in 1982 and secured permission to build a small temple in 1985. It was assumed that tens of thousands of people were prepared and waiting to hear the message of the restored Gospel in a manner similar to what had occurred in western Europe and the Pacific in the 1960s, in Asia and Latin America in the 1970s, and in Africa in the 1980s. This anticipatory hope was captured in the words of Apostle David B. Haight in 1990: "The transformation of once-mighty man-made empires with such speed and determination has released new springs of faith and hope in the hearts of hundreds of millions of oppressed souls. Where there was despair, now the bright light of freedom shines forth. This only could have happened in such a miraculous way by the intervening hand of the Almighty!" 52 LDS missions opened across the region, and branches soon appeared in several countries. While missionary work in Eastern Europe started strong, it soon slowed. Reasons for this likely include the lasting atheistic influence of decades of communist rule, the continuing economic and political struggles that some countries faced, and the commercial sectarianism that many countries adopted from their new friends in the West. The first eastern European stake was not organized until Kiev in 2004, and it is still the only city in the region with a temple in 2020 (although two more have been announced). Many Eastern European countries still have only a few hundred members after decades of concerted effort. Another challenge to global church growth emerged in the early 2000s. During the rapid growth period of the 1980s and 1990s, especially in Latin America and the Philippines, many people were baptized who did not maintain active church commitment. By the late 1990s, the problem was becoming serious enough to warrant several unusually direct talks given by general authorities at general conferences. 53 In apparent response to increasing inactivity rates, in April 2002, Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland was sent to preside over Chile and Apostle Dallin H. Oaks was called to the Philippines. 54 Over the next two years, they refocused the work of local leaders, members and missionaries, especially emphasizing member reactivation over proselytizing. Stakes, wards, and branches that failed to improve their activity levels were eliminated or reduced in status. Between 2000 and 2004, forty-one stakes were discontinued in Chile, six in the Philippines, six in Brazil, and two in Mexico. In fact, the Church as a whole saw a net loss of five stakes in 2002, the only year this had happened since 1842. The major positive initiative during these years was the building of small, standardized temples (about 10,000 square feet in size) starting in 1997. 55 Like earlier waves of small temple construction (Hawai'i in 1919, three others in the 1950s, and several in the 1980s), the stated goal was to bring temples closer to people who were not concentrated in sufficient numbers to support a full-service temple. In the process, dozens of locations both internationally and in North America reached the status of temple cities, creating new centers of strength and extending the geographic hierarchy of the Church. As Church president Gordon B. Hinckley traveled around the world in 2005, he completed this particular initiative by dedicating the 46th and last of the small temples in Aba Nigeria. 56 But his trip was more than that; it was symbolic of the global Church he had helped to forge during his more than four decades in general church leadership. Exponential membership growth continued only in Africa, slowing down considerably everywhere else. Despite longstanding issues of member inactivity in many countries, the Church as an international body had become much stronger in more and more places around the globe. In the remainder of the chapter, we consider spatial diffusion of the LDS Church's global presence while also commenting on key "functional factors" that have shaped its patterns of growth. We offer an overview of the international diffusion of the Church prior to World War II and continuing until the early 2000s. We pay particular attention to church growth in Middle and South America during this period. Consider that Latter-day Saints residing in Middle and South America in 1930 comprised less than 1 percent of the Church's total population; but by 2009, these two regions claimed almost 40 percent of the world's Latter-day Saints, second only to the United States. 57 Before 1950, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay were the only countries in South America to have LDS branches and, between them, they claimed just over 2300 members. Some 60 years later, there were over 1.5 million members in those same three countries. Additionally, there has been significant growth throughout most of the other countries of South America as well (see Table 4 .1). By 2009, there were approximately 3.3 million Latter-day Saints in all of South America. 58 The Middle America region as a whole also experienced greatly increased Latter-day Saint growth following World War II. Beginning in some of its northern areas in 1876, Mexico received the earliest and longest lasting Latter-day Saint missionary efforts in Middle America. Mexico today has the largest population of Latter-day Saints of any country in the world outside the United States. Diffusion of the Church into the other countries of Middle America came much later than it did in Mexico. Table 4 .2 outlines the methods by which the Church first made its way into the more populous nations in the region, as well as the dates the first branches and missions were organized in each country. The diffusion of the Church into Middle America occurred in a variety of ways, not unlike those pursued in South America (compare Tables 4.2 and 4.3 ). It appears, however, that formally assigned missionaries introduced more of the countries in Middle America to the Church than they did in South America. This was most likely due to the greater role Latter-day Saint expatriates from the United States and Germany played in South America. At the same time, the importance of men like Rey L. Pratt (Mexican Mission president from 1907 until 1931), John F. O'Donnal (first district president, as well as a mission president in Guatemala), and others from the Latter-day Saint colonies in northern Mexico in establishing the Church in Mexico and Central America cannot be overstated. 59 In what follows, we outline detailed accounts of the Church's spatial diffusion patterns in Brazil, Peru, and Mexico to explore how their growth patterns correspond with our diffusion model. It should be noted that, after the United States, Mexico and Brazil have the largest LDS populations of any countries in the world, while Peru ranks sixth. Based on five-and ten-year intervals, we use these three countries to show their concurrent diffusion of stakes and missions from 1969 (or 1979) through 2010. Taken together, our maps and tables illustrate these countries' spatial patterns of church growth by city population within the context of each country's unique geography. In 1851-1852, Parley P. Pratt, an early Latter-day Saint leader, along with his wife and another missionary, attempted to proselytize in Chile. Their efforts ended, however, without producing a single convert. 60 This initial failure notwithstanding, South America eventually proved to be the site for some of the Church's greatest diffusion success in the twentieth century. Seventy years after Pratt's exploratory mission, the Church began building an actual foundation in South America. German Latter-day Saint immigrants who settled in Argentina and southern Brazil introduced the LDS Church in both those countries during the 1920s. The South American Mission was organized in 1925 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and, initially, the majority of members were German immigrants. In 1928, missionary work spread from Buenos Aires to the city of Joinville in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. Joinville was home to many other German immigrants (at the time, about 90 percent of the population was German). In 1930, missionaries were sent to Rosario, Argentina, and in 1933 to Porto Alegre, Brazil, another predominantly German city. 61 In 1935, the Brazilian 62 Brazil is larger than the contiguous United States and has a population of over 200 million people. Its population is most dense along the coasts, especially near the huge metropolises of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Sao Paulo, the largest city in South America, was the site for the creation of the first LDS stake in South America in 1966. This was the case even though missionary work first started among Germans in the southern states of Brazil (see Fig. 4 .2 and Table 4 .4 in the Appendix) and it underscores the urban hierarchical diffusion of the Church that has occurred across the country. By the end of 1974, there were nine stakes in Brazil. Three of the new cities with stakes, including the country's second largest city of Rio de Janeiro, had over one million inhabitants. Curitiba and Porto Alegre are the largest cities in southern Brazil in the regions where the earliest LDS missionary efforts in Brazil were concentrated, so their role as stake headquarters early on is not surprising. The other three Brazilian stakes were centered in cities with populations over 350,000. Additionally, all three of these cities-Campinas, Santos, and Sao Bernardo-are within 100 kilometers of Sao Paulo. This proximity may help explain their relatively early history of stake formation, notwithstanding their smaller size. Since the 1978 revelation that lifted the priesthood ban from males of African descent, the Church has grown very quickly in ethnically diverse Brazil. It is especially interesting to note the formation of the Recife Mission in 1979 and the subsequent creation of numerous stakes in the dominantly black northeast. As another indication of Latter-day Saint growth in that region, the Church built a temple in Recife in 2000 and has also constructed temples in Manaus and Fortaleza to go along with Brazilian temples to the south in Sao Paulo, Campinas, Curitiba, and Porto Alegre. Since 1979, the number of stakes in Brazil has increased thirteen-fold. At the end of 2009, there were over 228 stakes and approximately 1.075 million Brazilian members. 63 Additionally, there are now 27 missions in the country. Twenty-eight stakes were centered in Sao Paulo proper, while 97 stakes were located in cities (including Sao Paulo) with populations over one million. Many additional stakes were concentrated around Sao Paulo, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, and Curitiba, manifesting a certain degree of contagious "infilling" which occurs as the Church grows and spreads in and around a metropolitan area (see Figs. 4.3 and 4.4) . In 2009, only ten Brazilian stakes were headquartered in cities of less than 100,000 people, showing the strongly urban hierarchical patterns that are related to church growth in the country. Additionally, distance between cities is also significant as the relatively late organization of stakes in large cities such as Belem, Manaus, and Teresina may be partially explained by the fact that they are located far away from the population centers of the south and are isolated from the coastal metropolises of Fortaleza and Recife in the northeast. LDS missionary success only came later in these cities. Historically, Brazil has shown strong hierarchical patterns of church diffusion. In the future, LDS stakes in Brazil will most likely continue to be concentrated in and around the country's largest cities. At the same time, the current trend of an increasing number of stakes located in more remote and smaller cities is also likely to continue. With an area greater than the states of Texas and California combined, and a population of over 33 million people, Peru is another South American country with a relatively large number of LDS converts. As Peru's capital and largest city, Lima totaled 41 percent of the country's 90 stakes in 2009 (statistics that are similar to those of another dominant Chilean city to the south, Santiago (see Fig. 4 .5 and Appendix Table 4 .5). Owing to the dominance of Lima and several other large urban communities, Peru's stakes were headquartered in only 32 cities in 2009. Trujillo, Peru's second largest city had only 7 stakes compared with Lima's 37. Similar to Brazil, the pattern of stake creation in Peru has followed a strong hierarchical trend. In 1970, Lima became the first city in the country to have a stake center. Nine years later, Lima had seven stakes of its own, while Trujillo to the north was the only other Peruvian city to have a stake. By 1984, the number of stakes continued to increase in the Lima area and started spreading up the Pacific coast, to Iquitos in the Amazon and south to Arequipa and Tacna. All of these new stakes were established in cities that currently have over 100,000 inhabitants. By 1989, the large cities of Cuzco and Ica also had stakes, and so did the smaller cities of Huacho and Mantaro. The less-populated Huacho gained a stake at the end of a five-year interval, which makes it somewhat less anomalous from an urban, hierarchical standpoint. By 1994, diffusion of the Church in Peru began to include more cities of fewer than 100,000 people. Furthermore, the largest urban areas (Lima, Arequipa, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Chimbote, Piura, Iquitos, and Cuzco) all added at least one stake between 1989 and 1994. This indicates the result of a "contagious diffusion" process at work within the satellite spheres of larger cities. The spread of LDS mission headquarters has followed the same hierarchical pattern in Peru. Lima was the site of the country's first mission in 1959 and the five current missions in Lima are consistent with its large size as a fertile field for missionary work. Arequipa, Peru's second most populous city, became a mission headquarters in 1978, while the third and fourth largest urban places-Trujillo and Chiclayo-were designated as missions in 1985 and 1993 respectively (the Chiclayo mission is now headquartered in Piura). In 2010, new missions were opened in Lima and Cusco for a total of nine Peruvian missions, over half of which were headquartered in Lima. Peru has shown a pattern of urban hierarchical diffusion very similar to the countries of Argentina and Chile that also have primary core cities. The dominant role that Lima has played as a center for diffusion and adoption of the Latter-day Saint faith in Peru is very clear, and its dominance is highlighted by the announcement of a second temple to be built there. Diffusion of the LDS Church in Peru will probably continue to exhibit hierarchical patterns for years to come. Mexico's proximity to the United States and the early establishment of Latterday Saint colonies in northern Mexico decisively aided diffusion of the Church into a Latin American country. The (Colonia) Juarez Stake, Mexico's first, was created in 1895 in the northern state of Chihuahua. It was comprised of Latterday Saint colonists who had emigrated from the United States as a result of federal prosecution of polygamy in the Utah Territory. The formation of the Juarez Stake was an anomaly relative to normal hierarchical diffusion patterns because it consisted of the wholesale relocation of a Latter-day Saint population into a largely rural area. A large population base to increase potential converts, therefore, was not required. The colonies in Chihuahua have remained small Latter-day Saint communities to this day. By 2009, the advantages of early migration in the late 1800s, coupled with many native converts thereafter, had produced 1,158,236 Latter-day Saints in Mexico. Besides Mexico, only the United States and Brazil currently claim more than one million members. Diffusion of LDS membership in Mexico also has followed a typical hierarchical pattern, dominated by the primary urban center of Mexico City. In 1961, Mexico City was unsurprisingly the country's second city to become headquarters for an LDS stake (after Colonia Juarez). Table 4 .6). There are varying estimates of Mexico City's population, depending on how its outlying districts are included and counted. This can result in widely varying population counts (some of which are well in excess of 20 million people). Whatever Mexico City's actual population might be, its sheer size helps account for the 41 LDS stakes that were headquartered there in 2009. By 1974, there were five stakes in Mexico City and two in Monterrey, the largest city in Northern Mexico. Besides the Colonia Juarez Stake, by then there were also stakes in Tampico, Monclova, and Valle Hermosa. The early creation of stakes in the smaller cities of Monclova and Valle Hermosa is likely related to the fact that they are close to the LDS colonies in northern Mexico and to the United States. This proximity and the early establishment of missions in the nearby cities of Torreon and Monterrey have helped multiply stakes in the whole region. In comparison, Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city, but further removed from the United States, did not gain its first stake and mission designation until 1975. During the five years between the end of 1974 and 1979, the number of stakes in Mexico increased rapidly to 53. Correspondingly, the number of cities with stakes grew to 31, which showcased the continuing pattern of stake distribution over the entire country. Forty of these stakes (75.5 percent) were located in cities with over 100,000 people. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Puebla (southeast of Mexico City) together accounted for 22 of the 53 stakes. The large cities of Merida, Poza Rica, and Veracruz had two stakes each. The remainder of LDS stakes in Mexico was distributed in smaller communities with only one stake apiece. In 1984, there were 77 Mexican stakes distributed throughout the country. Latter-day Saint growth in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Puebla continued, while Guadalajara finally gained its second stake. Fifty-nine (76.6 percent) of Mexican stakes were in cities with populations of over 100,000 people. By 1989, there were 105 stakes in the country, with 80 (76.2 percent) of them located in cities of more than 100,000 people. In 1994, the ratio of stakes in large cities over 100,000 to the total number of stakes in the country was 92 out of 126 (73 percent). It is interesting to note that, although the total number of Mexican cities with stakes continued to rise, the share of stakes in communities over 100,000 has remained relatively constant at about 75 percent. It is also noteworthy that, while Monterrey is smaller than Guadalajara, it has ten stakes to Guadalajara's seven. This shows the greater success that the diffusion of the Church has had in Monterrey historically, as well as its advantage of having a mission located there earlier in time. The late (1989) creation of the first stake in the tourist destination of Acapulco may also be related to the factors that led to later growth in Guadalajara. Mexico's three stakes and five missions in 1969 were only precursors to the rapid diffusion of Latter-day Saint stakes and missions throughout the country over the ensuing 40 years. By 1994, there were 124 stakes and an estimated 800,000 church members. Fifteen years later in 2009, LDS membership in Mexico had increased to over 1.1 million and the number of stakes had swelled to 220. Additionally, there currently are thirteen LDS temples (with one under construction) distributed in most of the significant Latter-day Saint centers throughout the county-a number second only to that of the United States (Figure 4.8) . Nonetheless, Latter-day Saints make up just 1 percent of Mexico's population, leaving plenty of potential for continued LDS expansion. If the past is prologue to future developments, LDS stake growth should continue in hierarchical fashion throughout the country. In most countries around the world where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints has been successfully established, the correlated patterns of mission and stake diffusion provide a basis for understanding how this has happened. This method of tracking church diffusion shows that the creation of a country's first LDS mission, followed later by the formation of a stake, usually occurs in a country's largest city. From there, the spread of missions and stakes has generally proceeded outward and down a "hierarchy of urban places" (i.e. from larger to smaller settings), as well as expanding contagiously within the immediate vicinity of a central city. The specific LDS growth rate subsequently determines how fast stakes are formed and thereafter spread throughout a country. The conceptual model we displayed earlier in Fig. 4 .1 specifies four Latterday Saint diffusion phases (compared to Hägerstrand's three). These four phases nonetheless are very similar to Hägerstrand's analysis, emphasizing that LDS diffusion within nations has followed a natural pattern, often utilized in studies of the geographical spread of different kinds of innovations. Mechanisms of supply and demand (expounded in the "functional perspective") affect the specific rate of growth within a country; thus, the faster its growth rate, the faster the LDS Church spreads by progressing through the four general phases of spatial diffusion outlined in Fig. 4.1 . A country's population size, unique area and shape of its borders, and rural/urban makeup contribute to a certain amount of historical variation between countries in terms of LDS spatial diffusion. The particular countries selected for comparison in this chapter, however, have followed a basic diffusion pattern during the modern era, as summarized here. Phase 1: Initial Introduction period. The diffusion of the Church into a new country begins in one of three ways: by expatriate Latter-day Saints, usually from North America or Europe, who move into a country; by citizens of the country who join the Church elsewhere and return to their own land; or by missionaries who are assigned to the country from an LDS mission in a neighboring country (see Figs. 4.9, 4.10, 4.11) . Missionaries must be allowed into a country by government officials, while expatriates or returning citizens can often begin meeting together before the Church is officially recognized by political authorities. In either case, under favorable political conditions, the Church eventually obtains recognition, missionaries begin to proselytize, and branches are organized for local church members and new converts. In most instances, these branches are located in the largest city or cities of the country. As a country nears the end of phase one, a mission is formed in or near the country to increase the supply of missionaries. The mission also is headquartered in or near one of the major cities where branches already are established. By this time, most of the members are not expatriate North Americans. Phase 2: Central Staging period. Proselyting activity is concentrated around the large city that houses mission headquarters. The headquarters acts as a central point of diffusion in the region. The mission president uses available information to determine the best locations to place missionaries. Over time, missionaries are sent to "open" other cities, which often are larger metropolitan areas nearest to the mission headquarters. Diffusion success results in the Phase 3: Metropolitan Movement period. This phase is marked by the creation of additional stakes in the central or primary city where the first stake was created, and the manifestation of an urban hierarchical pattern of stake creation in other large cities around the country. These new stakes encourage the establishment of new missions headquartered in other large urban places in the same country, as well as division of the existing mission in the country's central city. The ability to create more missions, however, depends on a growing supply of missionaries from the United States or other countries that are self-sufficient in native missionaries. The additional stakes and missions function as new dispersion sources for yet greater diffusion. Because of their closer proximity to existing church centers and member resources, missionaries are able to expose more people in lower order urban areas to their faith. This development brings a country to the last phase of the diffusion model. Phase 4: Contagious Concentration period. As missions and stakes spread across a country, missionary activities become more localized. Small towns and rural areas are more easily reached by missionaries, and new church units are organized in these places. The diffusion of the Church becomes more contagious in its pattern, emanating from the centers of already existing missions and stakes. Contagious patterns of growth occur in conjunction with the creation of new congregational units in order to accommodate increasing membership, which, in turn, results in more missions and stakes becoming increasingly concentrated in smaller areas. At this point, there are both more members and more missionaries to spread the Church's message of religious conversion to more people in smaller areas. Theoretically, this phase continues indefinitely, with increasing numbers of missions and stakes being created in more locations throughout the country, until all those in the population who are disposed to join the Church have done so. This level of diffusion has not yet occurred in any country, and, in fact, only the small countries of Samoa and Tonga display significant Latter-day Saint shares of their country's total populations (see Table 4 .1). An interesting additional example is the Philippines, another country with significant numbers of Latter-day Saints. The diffusion of LDS stakes in the islands of the Philippines was initially hierarchical, from Manila outward to other areas of Luzon Island, as well as to the islands of Cebu, Negros, and Mindanao. It appears that after this early diffusion, the relative insulation of these various islands lessened the influence of Manila in the hierarchic order (except on Luzon Island). Growth of the Church in the Philippines thus highlights the fact that each country's distinct geography affects its particular diffusion process and how closely it adheres to our four-stage model. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown significantly throughout the world since 1830, and especially since World War II. This growth notwithstanding, it is still a relatively small religion internationally with about two members per one thousand people worldwide. For Latter-day Saints there is a long way yet to go before their message is spread to "every nation, kindred tongue and people." Nonetheless, the global diffusion of the LDS faith continues in a methodically planned, hierarchical manner that, thus far, has proven successful in the process of its transformation from a nineteenthcentury American religious "innovation" into an international church of substantial stature in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. CITY POPULATION b 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 ,002 2 7 10 18 22 32 33 37 5 Arequipa 841,130 1 2 3 6 6 6 1 Trujillo 747,450 1 2 2 3 7 7 7 1 Chiclayo 577,375 1 2 3 5 5 5 Iquitos 437,620 1 2 3 3 3 3 Huancayo 376,657 1 1 1 1 Membership Growth Brings Per Capita GNP Decline The International Diffusion of the Mormon Church Spatial Diffusion Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective The Negro Ghetto: Problems and alternatives The Spatial Dynamics of U.S. Urban Industrial Growth Innovation Diffusion Innovation Diffusion Innovation Diffusion, 51. 11 Innovation Diffusion, 63. 13. Earlier geographic studies of domestic and international church growth and diffusion include The Geographic Dynamics of Mormondom 1965-95 On the Trail of the Twentieth-Century Mormon Outmigration An Analysis of the Spread of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Salt Lake City, Utah Utilizing a Diffusion Model The Latter-day Saint Diaspora in the United States and the South A Distributional and Diffusionary Analysis of the Mormon Church 1850-1970 A Simulation Approach to the Diffusion of the Mormon Church Mapping Mormons across the Modern West Divergent Growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States International Spatial Diffusion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Innovation Diffusion Lands and Peoples How Latin America Saved the Soul of the Catholic Church The Rise of Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America The Greatest Generation of Missionaries there were over 65,000 full-time missionaries around the world, and as of January 2020, there were 399 Latter-day Saint missions The International Church More Nations Than One': A Global History of the LDS Church History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Propagation of Innovation Waves Innovation Diffusion The word "stake" comes from a reference in the Bible (Isaiah 54:2-3) see Encyclopedia of Mormonism International Spatial Diffusion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The International Church; Van Orden Reaching the nations: international church growth almanac The International Church McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Lamanite conventions: From darkness to light A new era in Church history begins as President David O. McKay visits Europe Conditions in Church Encouraging -Prospects Bright Deseret News Church Almanac 2010 dates for establishment of the stakes listed in the previous few paragraphs are found within different country entries Church Almanac New Missions Created Godly Characteristics of the Master Assistants to Live Abroad New Mission Program Area Supervision Worldwide Ensign Central Places in Southern Germany When the World Will Be Converted," (transcription of April 1974 regional representatives seminar) Mission Presidents Called the-time-to-labor-is-now. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many general authorities were called who had been born outside the United States, including President John Taylor Location of New Stakes Shows Church's Rapid Growth: 107 during 1978 Filling the Whole Earth Converts and Young Men Elders Oaks Some Thoughts on Temples, Retention of Converts, and Missionary Service Nigerian temple to bring a healing The International Church The International Church Historical Development of International Mormonism The Greatest Generation of Missionaries. Ensign The Geographic Dynamics of Mormondom 1965-95 Innovation Diffusion: A New Perspective Latin America and the Caribbean: Lands and Peoples How Latin America Saved the Soul of the Catholic Church Island Epidemics Church Almanac Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, various issues and years listed in notes Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, various conference months and years listed in notes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Lamanite conventions: From darkness to light A New Era in Church History Begins as President David O. McKay visits Europe. Improvement Era The Propagation of Innovation Waves. Lund, Gleerup: Lund Studies in Geography On the Trail of the Twentieth-Century Mormon Outmigration An Analysis of the Spread of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints from Salt Lake City, Utah Utilizing a Diffusion Model The Latter-day Saint Diaspora in the United States and the South See Church News. Louder, D R. 1972. A Distributional and Diffusionary Analysis of the Mormon Church 1850-1970 A Simulation Approach to the Diffusion of the Mormon Church Mapping Mormons Across the Modern West Encyclopedia of Mormonism Conditions in Church Encouraging -Prospects Bright. Improvement Era The Negro Ghetto: Problems and alternatives Spatial Diffusion The International Church Divergent Growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United States The Diffusion and Dispersion of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: An Overview The Spatial Dynamics of U.S. Urban Industrial Growth David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism The Rise of a New World Faith Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Almanac More Nations Than One': A Global History of the LDS Church. Unpublished student packet POPULATION b 1969 POPULATION b 1974 POPULATION b 1979 POPULATION b 1984 POPULATION b 1989 POPULATION b 1994 POPULATION b 1999 POPULATION b 2004 POPULATION b 2009