DiscussMormonism.com

Chile currently has 74 stakes. The "News of the Church" in May 1977 reports the following prophecies:

Later, Elder Bruce R. McConkie described what lies ahead for the Church in Chile, declaring, “The day will come when there will be a temple in Chile. I do not say when, but it surely will be.”

He also spoke of the time when the seven stakes in Chile “will be seven times seventy,” and the “250 native Chilean missionaries will be increased by the thousands.”

(Source: http://LDS.org/ensign/1977/05/news-of-t ... h?lang=eng)

This is attributed to Elder McConkie but I think it may have been President Kimball who actually said it, along with a comment about prophets once roaming the chilean hills. The Santiago Temple was built in the early eighties, fulfilling that prophecy. My question for those of you with latin american experience is about the number of stakes. For comparison:

Chile: Population 16.7M / 74 Stakes = 225,675:1
Mexico: Population 112.4M / 221 Stakes = 508,597:1
USA: Population 310.2M / 1465 Stakes = 211,740:1
(Population sources: CIA Factbook. Stake sources: LDS.org.)

Do you think a country like Chile could ever reach 490 stakes? It could be argued that the US has plateaued on growth of stakes, or will not ever make major gains again, and has reached its "saturation level." Chile is also near that ratio. Of course, with God anything is possible, but what is really probable given the demographics of that country?

In the same article, President Kimball is reported as saying:

‘As I look into the future, I see other Lamanites from the isles of the sea and the American continents rise to a great destiny. …

“‘I see you children of Lehi with flocks on thousands of hills. Instead of seeing you work for others, I see you managing; the owners of farms, ranches, homes and gardens. …

“‘I see you as the masters of banks and businesses; engineers, builders, building lofty bridges and great edifices.

“‘I see you in great political positions and functioning as administrators over the land. I see many of you as heads of governments [and] in legislatures. …’”

He described how many of the Lamanites would become attorneys; administrators and teachers in schools and universities; doctors; great lecturers; publishers; artists; moviemakers; and playwrights.

“You have already arrived in many ways to make dreams real,” the prophet said, challenging parents to make the required sacrifices to provide educational opportunities for their sons and daughters.

Again, for those of you with experience in Latin America: Do you think this dream/vision/prophecy has been fulfilled or partially fulfilled in the last 33 years? I assume he's predicting this for Mormon lamanites, since non-mormon lamanites have already achieved these things. Obviously Pres. Kimball believed wholeheartedly that all the native inhabitants of these lands were direct descendants of Lehi. Given that he may have been wrong about the identity of the lamanites, could he also be wrong about the above prophecies? The skeptic in me thinks that it is fairly easy to prophesy about something you have control over (temple construction), but risky to prophesy about conversions and Church growth, that are dependent on individual agency.

Count your Lamanites
Name them one by one
Count your many Lamanites and see what the Lord has done
la la la

oh. zero.

Problem with counting Lamanites in Chile is that not everyone who has a dark skin is even remotely related to any native peoples. Ask my wife. She is dark skinned, even mistaken as native in Canada but definitely not native.

The number of true natives in Chile are a very very small number, most being wiped out during the Spoanish invasion and many being wiped out by disease.

You'll need a better definition of who is lamaminte than skin colour. Try DNA. Oops, forget that, cause the natives of Chile have DNA that relates them to chinese.

I see these sorts of "revelations," along the lines of...

I see that someday my children will grow up and have children of their own.

I see that someday there will be those who try to harm America.

I see that someday there will be new inventions of which we can't even imagine.

I see that someday I will redecorate my house.

I see that someday I may die.

In other words, it was always the plan for the LDS church to build temples all over the world. And, if anyone looked around they would have known that the laws and opinions of the land were moving to embrace minorities and provide equal opportunities.

Just keeping it real.

~td~