On Oct. 24, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the opening of 55 new missions around the world in 2026.

“The 55 new missions, which will be created by adjusting the boundaries of existing missions, will bring the number of Church missions around the world to 506,” said Church Newsroom.

The list includes 16 new missions in Africa, five in the Philippines, three in Brazil, four in Europe, eight in the United States, one in Mexico, and many others across the world.

The creation of new missions is an indicator of the Church's growth. At a meeting at the Provo Missionary Training Center in June, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said the Church gained 308,000 new converts in 2024. From June 2024 to May 2025, the Church experienced the highest amount of convert baptisms for a single year in the entire history of the Church.

"It's a blessing to see how each missionary contributes to the individuals they teach and serve as they share the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ," Elder Cook said at a meeting with mission leaders, according to Church Newsroom.

Katelyn Ray, a junior and psychology major at BYU-Idaho, served in the Colorado Fort Collins Mission from Aug. 2023 to Feb. 2025. The Fort Collins Mission currently covers parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska, but the mission boundaries will be adjusted to make way for the new Wyoming Cheyenne Mission next year.

Ray said that she was both surprised and not surprised that her mission boundaries would be split.

“I think it means that there just needs to be more missionaries, and they need more missionaries,” Ray said. “One mission can’t handle that many missionaries for one mission president. I definitely can see why they need to split it.”

Carson Ries, a freshman and elementary education major, also served in Fort Collins until Feb. 2025.

“I remember on my mission how they split a lot of missions. I remember that last year,” said Ries. “I just never thought that it could happen to my mission, especially in Wyoming.”

Ries and Ray both said they had a lot of success finding and baptizing in Fort Collins. Ray estimated there were about 30 baptisms a week.

The thing Ries is most excited about is the members in Wyoming, and the fact that they get to have their own mission now. Cheyenne will become the first mission centered in Wyoming.

“The members in Wyoming love missionaries,” Ries said. “I’m really happy for them to finally be able to get put on the church map. It just makes me really happy for the members there to finally get their own identity in the Church as a mission.”

Ray said that by the time she got home, the mission had requested more missionaries to speak Haitian Creole.

“I also think that it’s great that this mission is splitting because there’s a zone in Colorado that had a lot of Haitian Creole-speaking missionaries,” Ray said. “If they do get them eventually, then having a much smaller mission would be good, because then it’s not like they’re staying only in one place.”

Ries said that he is excited for a mission centered in Wyoming, but mostly excited for the future missionaries who will end up there.

“Wyoming is a great place, it’s going to be such an amazing mission,” Ries said. “Whoever gets called there is just going to enjoy it so much. The members there are awesome, the work is awesome.”