reaganaut: I have lost my earlier post regarding declining numbers of LDS. Do you have a reference?
Ireland Dublin Mission, one of the missions in Chicago, and a mission or two in Australia will be discontinued.
New missions include Peru Cuzco, Guatemala, Philipines, Democratic Republic of Congo Lubumbashi and more. All new missions being formed outside the U.S. are in areas that have indisputably high illiteracy rates.
A new mission in St George, Utah will stretch all the way to Farmington, New Mexico and is likely being built to support LDS immigrants to the areas of traditional LDS communities.
However, it is interesting to note the total number of missions worldwide will fall by four from 344 to 340.