How the Global Missionary Force Has Grown in a Year

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By Scott Taylor, Church News

Over the past 12 months, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has noted three specific areas in growth in its global missionary force — the number of full-time missionaries serving reaching and surpassing prepandemic highs, an increase of 36 missions to a highest-ever total of 450 worldwide, and the addition of two new missionary training centers.

And the three are obviously connected — more missionaries worldwide mean more missions and MTCs around the globe.

When two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other members of the Church’s Missionary Executive Council met with media representatives in November 2023 to announce the latest missionary totals and talk about the 2024 addition of 36 new missions, the number of full-time missionaries serving was 72,721.

Church statistics announced in April 2024 stated the end-of-2023 total at 67,871 full-time teaching missionaries, with 27,070 senior service missionaries and 2,736 young service missionaries. Due to seasonal variations, the number of missionaries had decreased at the end of 2023 but has surpassed 74,000 in August 2024.

And in 2024, the Church has added two new MTCs — the Thailand Missionary Training Center in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Missionary Training Center in Kinshasa, DR Congo.

Increase of Missionaries Serving

When Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met with the media late last year to announce the increased missionary totals, they pointed to the Prophet as the catalyst.

“It has really been remarkable to see — we think it is President Russell M. Nelson’s prophetic call that is the driving force behind all of this,” said Elder Cook, who serves as chair of the Missionary Executive Council.

He singled out the President of the Church’s call for more missionaries that he made in an April 2022 general conference address.

“The Saints really responded to the Prophet, who did that invitation in such a beautiful fashion. President Nelson made this — in my view — seminal, prophetic call that missionaries have a priesthood obligation to serve, and he did it in such a loving way.”

The result of the overwhelming response was missionary totals returning to and exceeding those going into the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to expand the number of missions worldwide to accommodate — and provide more personal leadership to — the increasing number of missionaries.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019 and early 2020, the Church counted some 69,000 young teaching and service missionaries and senior missionaries. The pandemic resulted in international closures and restriction and the resulting return of many missionaries — some released from service and others reassigned, mostly to home countries.

The number grew to 56,000 at the end of 2021, to 65,000 at the end of 2022, and to more than 72,000 in late 2023 — serving in more than 150 countries and teaching in more than 60 languages.

In his October 2023 general conference address, Elder Rasband spoke of the Church’s need for more senior couples to serve missions. Of the 72,721 full-time missionary count as of November 1, 2023, nearly 5,300 were senior elders and sisters serving around the globe.

Elder Rasband acknowledged in November the overwhelming response in the following weeks after his invitation the month before.

“Where we are at right now is people filling out applications,” Elder Rasband said last year, adding that even within a month’s time, “the number of applications that have been started for these missionary couples has exceeded anything else in history. That is in just one month.

“So that process will continue — we will go from starting their applications to getting their medical approvals done and everything else ready so they can receive a call to serve from the President of the Church to serve as missionaries. And then they are going to be out throughout the world serving the Lord, which makes me personally very, very happy.”

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Church projections suggest a continued growth — in small, steady increases — over the next 10 years, Elder Cook said. “We are going to have over the next 10 years not a huge increase in the number of missionaries, but it is growing,” he said of Church projections. “So we don’t think we are going to have any problem coming back and looking at this [increase of missions] in three or four years. In fact, we think there will be a need for more missions. That is our expectation.”

Church leaders also acknowledged a policy adjustment, with prospective new missionaries able to submit their missionary applications to the Church up to 150 days prior to their availability date rather than the 120 days previously allowed.

The benefits of the change are multifold — giving prospective missionaries more time to prepare for their missions, shortening the period between a prospective missionary’s availability date and mission start date, and helping to reduce visa delays for missionaries assigned to serve outside their home countries.

More Missionaries Mean More Missions

At the same time of announcing the increase totals of new missionaries, the Church also announced the planned creation of 36 new missions worldwide.

“We have to accommodate this great big number of missionaries, and we need the 36 missions to do that,” said Elder Cook, explaining that the increase in missionaries comes despite the relatively fewer numbers of Latter-day Saint youth available to serve.

Beginning on July 1, 2024, the 36 new missions were based in seven U.S. states and 20 other countries. Joining the 414 existing missions across the globe, the addition of the new 36 brought the total to 450 missions — the most ever.

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The 36 new missions, created out of existing missions, became effective July 1, 2024, and are in 18 of the Church’s 23 worldwide administrative areas.

Africa Central

• Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa South
• Democratic Republic of the Congo Kolwezi
• Kenya Nairobi East

Africa South

• Madagascar Antananarivo North

Africa West

• Ghana Accra North
• Ghana Takoradi
• Nigeria Calabar
• Nigeria Port Harcourt North
• Sierra Leone Bo

Asia

• Cambodia Phnom Penh East
• Thailand Bangkok East

Asia North

• Japan Sendai

Brazil

• Brazil Manaus South

Caribbean

• Dominican Republic Santo Domingo North

Europe Central

• Germany Hamburg

Europe North

• Portugal Porto

Mexico

• Mexico Mexicali
• Mexico Puebla East

North America Central

• Montana Missoula

North America Southeast

• Florida Tallahassee
• South Carolina Charleston

North America Southwest

• Nevada Henderson
• Texas Dallas South
• Texas El Paso

North America West

• California Modesto

Philippines

• Philippines Dumaguete
• Philippines General Santos
• Philippines Tuguegarao

South America Northwest

• Bolivia Cochabamba South
• Ecuador Quito West
• Peru Lima Northeast

South America South

• Argentina Tucumán
• Chile La Serena

Utah

• Utah Salt Lake City East
• Utah Saratoga Springs
• Utah Spanish Fork

Leaders of the new missions joined other new mission presidents and companions who were trained at the 2024 Seminar for New Mission Leaders in June at the Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

More Missionaries and Missions Mean More MTCs

The Church of Jesus Christ announced the addition of two new MTCs for 2024 — the Thailand Missionary Training Center and the Democratic Republic of the Congo Missionary Training Center. The addition brings the Church’s total worldwide to 11.

MTCs provide training to new missionaries, most of whom participate in online training at home for the first week of their missions. Missionaries are then assigned to a missionary training center to complete training, which can run from two weeks to as long as eight weeks if learning a language other than their native tongue.

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In December 2023, the Church announced the January 2024 opening of the Thailand MTC. It is located in the annex adjacent to the Bangkok Thailand Temple, which was dedicated and began operations in October 2023.

Located to the north side of the six-story house of the Lord and separated by a small courtyard, the annex also houses administrative and other Church offices, two chapels, meeting rooms and a FamilySearch center.

The Thailand MTC helps accommodate the training of new full-time missionaries who are from Southeast Asia and other regions.

And in June of this year, the Church announced it would open a new missionary training center in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The projected August 2024 opening has been delayed for several months.

With a planned capacity of up to 200, the new MTC will serve missionaries who already speak French or will be learning French for their assigned service.

For two years, a limited number of local missionaries have received training at a temporary facility. The new, permanent training center will help accommodate an increasing number of missionaries from central Africa.

The new training center — the third MTC on the African continent — is located a short drive from the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, which will allow training missionaries to attend the temple while at the MTC.

The Church’s 11 MTCs are:

• Brazil Missionary Training Center in São Paulo, Brazil
• Democratic Republic of the Congo Missionary Training Center in Kinshasa, DR Congo
• England Missionary Training Center in Chorley, England, near Preston
• Ghana Missionary Training Center in Accra, Ghana
• Mexico Missionary Training Center in Mexico City, Mexico
• New Zealand Missionary Training Center in Manukau City, New Zealand, near Auckland.
• Peru Missionary Training Center in Lima, Peru
• Philippines Missionary Training Center in Quezon City, Philippines, in metro Manila
• Provo Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah
• South Africa Missionary Training Center in Roodepoort, South Africa, near Johannesburg
• Thailand Missionary Training Center in Bangkok, Thailand

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