Stokes Sounds Off: Cedar City Temple Groundbreaking announced

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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Cedar City Temple Groundbreaking announced

The Church also announced today the groundbreaking date for the Cedar City Utah temple. That sacred event that marks the commencement in the building process will take place on Saturday August 8. The event will be broadcasted via satellite to those in the temple district. Attendance at the site is by invitation. Based on the general 2 1/2 year estimate on temple completion, we can anticipate that the temple will be done sometime in early 2018.

So that brings us to the question of who will preside at the Cedar City Utah Temple groundbreaking ceremony. Any of the First Presidency could do it, though it would likely either be President Henry B. Eyring or President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, as President Thomas S. Monson's health may not be very good at the moment. Of all the 12 apostles who might be asked to do it, the most likely candidate is Jeffrey R. Holland, who was raised in St. George, a mere 51.2 miles from Cedar City. It could be any member of the Presidency of the Seventy (who hold joint presiding responsibility for areas in the US and Canada), with the most likely candidate being Elder L. Whitney Clayton, who presides over all areas of Utah. The temple will be in the Utah South Area. It could be any other general authority with ties to Cedar City, though the closest I've come to finding one has been Elder Kent D. Watson, who is a former member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy (released in October 2013), having been born there. So time will tell.

In the meantime, with all the temple news lately, I wanted to post my updated list of temple progress. In addition to the groundbreakings and announced dedications, I have altered the order of announced temples where appropriate so that temples closest to a groundbreaking are listed first. I had that mostly done, but there were one or two in the wrong place. Here's the latest:

Temples Undergoing Renovation:
26. Mexico City Mexico Temple: Scheduled to be rededicated Sunday September 13, 2015.
86. Montreal Quebec Temple: Scheduled to be rededicated Sunday November 22, 2015.
91. Suva Fiji Temple: Anticipated to be completed in early 2016.
33. Freiberg Germany Temple: Anticipated to be completed in mid-2016.
8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple: Anticipated to be completed in late 2016.

Under Construction:
145. Cordoba Argentina Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday May 17, 2015.
146. Payson Utah Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday June 7, 2015.
147. Trujillo Peru Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday June 21, 2015.
148. Indianapolis Indiana Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday August 23, 2015.
149. Tijuana Mexico Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday December 13, 2015.
154. Provo City Center Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2015-early 2016.
150. Rome Italy Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.
155. Hartford Connecticut Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.
156. Fort Collins Colorado Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.
151. Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-to-late 2016.
152. Sapporo Japan Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2016.
157. Paris France Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2016.
158. Meridian Idaho Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2017.
159. Star Valley Wyoming Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2017.
153. Fortaleza Brazil Temple: Projected to be completed in 2018.

Announced:
160. Cedar City Utah Temple: Local government approval phase; site plan presented at January 2015 meeting; groundbreaking scheduled for Saturday August 8, 2015.
168. Tucson Arizona Temple: Construction approval phase; general contractor selected; groundbreaking pending.
161. Concepcion Chile Temple: Approval phase; temple and site design plans complete; groundbreaking pending.
165. Barranquilla Colombia Temple: Planning and approval phase; temple and site designs complete; groundbreaking pending.
162. Lisbon Portugal Temple: Planning and approval phase; land purchase finalized; groundbreaking pending.
169. Arequipa Peru Temple: Planning and approval phase; final piece of land for temple site acquired; groundbreaking pending.
164. Winnipeg Manitoba Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.
167. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.
170. Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.
163. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.
166. Durban South Africa Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.
171. Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.
172. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.
173. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

I am grateful for the mammoth progress on temples that we have witnessed ever since President Hinckley gave us his goal of having 100 temples by the end of 2000. Temple building isn't as fast as it was when we had that temple building boom as a result of that goal, but I have done some figuring. Assuming all the temples under construction were completed by the end of 2018, that would be 3 and 1/3 temples completed per year, or 10 every 3 years. Continuing at that rate, we could easily have 200 temples by or before the 200th anniversary of the Church. I look forward to seeing if that is possible.

Thanks for reading this post, in addition to all the others. Just one more for tonight.

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