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This devotional address entitled, Grounded, Rooted, Established, and Settled, was given on September 15th of 1981 by Neil A. Maxwell, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President, Sister Holland, brothers and sisters all, even more fervently than you,

I wish President Kimball were here today to be appropriately honored as was planned.

However, what was postponed, as President Holland has indicated, can now be anticipated,

which I joined with you in anticipating.

Since President Kimball is not here today, and since we're out of the immediate range of his modesty,

it is perhaps appropriate to share several statistical indicators about church growth in this vibrant era.

Thus far, in present Kibble's not quite eight years as President, the Church has grown from

a membership of about 3.3 million to a membership of nearly 5 million.

As a better indicator of true growth, the total number of stakes has grown from 630 to

1285, 663 additional stakes, more than doubling in less than eight years.

The 109 missions have grown by 85 to a total of 187.

19 more countries outside the United States have been added to the 47, where the church

is established, opening the work for a total

of 66 countries wherein units of the church operate. The language areas in which the church

now functions have grown by 27, from 31 to 56, so that as the scriptures foreshadow, individuals

can hear the gospel in their own language.

A symbolic statistic is this one. There are now more stakes and members of the church in

Chile than in Canada, with 28 stakes and 82,000 members in Chile. The indicators just

recited do not have even a close parallel in church history.

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