https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.or ... rk-meetingThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has created the first stake (similar to a diocese) in the Republic of Armenia.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was joined by Elder Per G. Malm and Elder Araik Minasyan of the Seventy to form the stake in a special meeting with members and newly called local leaders in the capital city of Yerevan Sunday, 16 June 2013.
“We have good [Church] leadership here, strong people in the gospel,” Elder Nelson remarked.
The long road to official government recognition of the Church to exist in Armenia, then part of the Soviet Union, began in the mid-1980s.
The Republic of Armenia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. A year later the Soviet Union was dissolved, and in 1992 two people were baptized as the first members of the Church in the newly formed country.
“This is a Christian nation,” explained Elder Nelson. “The spirit of Christianity has been in Armenia a long time. Our relationship with the government is outstanding.”
Here is what Nelson prophesied at the time...
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/chu ... a?lang=eng“It is literally a miracle—22 years ago there was not a Latter-day Saint living in the country of Armenia,” he said. “From that dedicatory prayer offered by Elder Dallin H. Oaks with me at his side, it has been built up now to a population large enough and strong enough to support itself. This stake will stand, and there will be other stakes here in the future.”
That was back in 2013. Has the stone rolled forth on the back of that good leadership and strong-in-the-gospel membership?
2016
https://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/20 ... ke-in.htmlMultiple missionaries serving in the Armenia Yerevan Mission report that last Sunday the Church discontinued the Yerevan Armenia Stake in a special stake conference. Organized in 2013, the stake has been returned to district status and all wards have been downgraded to branches. Missionaries report that the primary reason the stake was discontinued was due to improper handling of church administrative responsibilities by members and local church leaders. Many of the previous church leaders were released from their callings during the conference. Missionaries indicate that a large portion of members attending the conference, perhaps as large as one-third to one-half of those in attendance, left the conference early after the announcement was made that the stake was discontinued in protest of the decision.
Within 3 years the stake Russell M. Nelson organised, that he prophesied would stand and be added to, gets disbanded.
May 2021
http://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/202 ... menia.htmlRecently, the Church posted on its meetinghouse locator website that both of the districts in Armenia have been discontinued. Also, all of the branches in Armenia except for four branches (the Arabkir, Artashat, Vanadzor, and Yerevan Central Branches) have been discontinued which resulted in the number of branches decreasing from 11 to four. This is an unprecedented development for the Church in Armenia where a stake briefly operated between 2013 and 2016. Some of the branches discontinued were the only branches of the Church in the city where they operated. Moreover, some of these branches, such as Gyumri, had as many as 65 active members 7-9 years ago. The Church in Armenia had nearly 3,600 members as of year-end 2019 which means that, with year-end 2019 membership totals, the Church in Armenia has the highest ratio of members-to-congregations of approximately 900. There has not been any other country in the world to have experienced such a dramatic decline in congregations, national outreach, and active membership as Armenia during the past several decades of the worldwide Church.
So what has happened to the prophesy Russell M. Nelson gave for Armenia?
