New Stakes in Victoria, Australia
I am guessing there will be a few people making similar entries to mine today (Sunday 20th January 2013), with a new stake being organized today for the norther outer suburbs of Melbourne. The creation of this stake (and last week the creation of the Gippsland Stake in the states east) has affected many other wards in the surrounding stakes. Let's backtrack to 1981 when I was baptized in the Geelong Ward (along with my young friend Lisa Wade) on the 8th November. Around that time the Fairfield West Stake was created in Melbourne and I am pretty sure that Ted Anderson was the first president of that stake, and Geelong Ward was a part of it. Prior to that time there was just two stakes in Melbourne - Fairfield and Moorabin. So with the creation of the two new stakes, last weekend and today, there are now eight stakes in Victoria, covering most of the state. I think the only exception would be the branches of the Church to the north, like Wangaratta, Shepparton and Albury, which a