Belnap said the complexity of cultures and ethnicities is a rare mix nearly always lacking in LDS regions around the West. "In many respects we're a first-world church, but we're also a Third World church here, with real problems that are very much indicative of life in some parts of Latin America."

Missionaries in New York's five boroughs hail from countries such as Finland, England, Uzbekistan, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Russia, many of them speaking native languages in order to teach the city's widely diverse population of immigrants, students and business people.

The Canal Street branch is situated among the largest concentration of Chinese-speaking people in North America, and has grown from one or two members to more than 50 within the past four years, Belnap said.

Yet with all the demographic surveys and even the temple's construction, he "can't fully explain" the growth of the church in Manhattan. "We live and breathe it every day. It's hard to not just stand it awe, and it's almost happening despite ourselves. It seems we're seeing a formula for astronomical growth."

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