New LDS Church Locator Tool

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released a beta version of a new tool for finding local church buildings at http://beta.maps.lds.org/, which will replace the current meetinghouse locator. When you type in a location the results will show the closest meetinghouses as well as the assigned wards/branches for the area. This new tool is great because it's much more user friendly and interactive. You can also choose between maps hosted by Microsoft or Google.

In the search results the acronym YSA means Young Single Adult and is a branch or ward for those who are single and between the ages of 18 and 30. Listings that say "student single" are the same as YSA except regular worshipers also have to be students of the local university/college. Visitors are always welcome to worship with us, so feel free to find a LDS Church building near you as well as the time of worship, who the bishop is, and even directions on how to get there.

Thanks to LDS Media Talk (previously LDSWebGuy) for this news. Their blog post, "New Meetinghouse Locator on LDS.org - Beta Release" also gives a list of the new features available with this application.