Stokes Sounds Off: 03/01/16

Search This Blog

Leaderboard

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

My picks for the most likely temple sites that may be announced in the near future

Hello, everyone! I'm back, this time with a different type of post. As many of you know, I follow Matthew Martinich's LDS Church Growth Blog. I have his permission to share his posts on my blog. One thing he does regularly round about general conference time is give his top picks, be they ten or five or more or less, of cities around the world that may have a temple announced soon. Some comments on his latest blog post focus on potential temple sites that may be announced soon. Many of these sites are cities with a strong LDS presence. I had to get on board with that and give my top picks, based on the LDS presence and number of congregations reported in each city I picked. At the top of my list were temples that have been publicly proposed by apostles and Church presidents. I came up with a list of 30 that I think are the most likely ones, which I wanted to share with you in this post. Here's the list, provided with commentary about why I picked them:

1.      New Dehli India (proposed in 1992 by Elder Neal A. Maxwell; this temple may be a long time in coming)
2.      Vilnius Lithuania Temple (proposed in 1993 by Elder M. Russell Ballard: one of the newest ones listed on the LDS Church temples sites, though the proposal is more than 20 years old)
3.      Nairobi Kenya Temple (proposed in 1998 by President Gordon B. Hinckley; this temple is very likely to be announced soon because of extensive and explosive Church growth)
4.      Maracaibo Venezuela Temple (proposed in 1999 by President Gordon B. Hinckley; South America has been another region that has really grown in the Church, and I can foresee a day when every country in South America will have a temple.)
5.      Singapore Temple (proposed in 2000 by President Gordon B. Hinckley; the promise of a temple here is prophetic and will happen soon.)
6.      Southwest Salt Lake Valley Temple (proposed in 2005 by President Gordon B. Hinckley; he stated at the time he mentioned it that a site had been purchased, but they were not ready for an announcement yet. Another temple in the Salt Lake Valley would help combat the heavy load of the temples currently there.)
7.      Managua Nicaragua Temple (proposed in 2012 by Elder Russell M. Nelson; as noted above, the Church in South America has been growing quite a bit, and I foresee a day when every South American country will have a temple.)
8.      Kasai Region Democratic Republic of the Congo (proposed in 2016 by Elder Neil L. Andersen; the Church in Africa has really grown, and another temple in the DR of the Congo may be needed very soon.)
9.      Lehi Utah (This is Amy's hometown. Not many cities "need" a temple. Lehi definitely does to combat everything that is going wrong there.)
10.  Layton Utah (This city has really expanded. It may very well be the property President Hinckley alluded to above.)
11. Toole, Utah (The Church membership is high there)
12.  Pocatello, Idaho (This is the only major Idaho city that doesn't currently have a temple, and having one here would be fabulous.)
13.  Tacoma, Washington (With a large number of LDS congregations and no temple within 200 miles, this city is a great candidate for a temple.)
14.  Benin City, Nigeria (The Church has grown a lot in Africa, and a second Nigerian temple would surely be a blessing to the Saints there.)
15.  Maracaibo, Venezuela (Again, I see a day when every South American country will have a temple.)
16.  Brasilia, Brazil (With a high Church presence, Brazil may be a good candidate for several more temples in the near future, especially since no progress has been made on the Fortaleza Brazil temple since its 2011 groundbreaking.)
17.  Salvador Brazil (see above)
18.  Harare, Zimbabwe (The Church has grown so much in Africa that a Zimbabwean temple makes sense.)
19.  Puebla, Mexico (Mexico Church membership has increased substantially.)
20.  Queretaro, Mexico (See above. Multiple new temples for Mexico makes sense.)
21.  Cagayan de Oro, Philippines (With the growth of the Church in the Philippines, another Filipino temple makes sense.)
22.  Santa Cruz, Bolivia (Again, I see a day when every South American nation will have at least one temple.)
23.  Quito, Ecuador (See above.)
24.  Auckland, New Zealand (The Church has grown a lot in the Pacific.)
25.  Bentonville, Arkansas (There's not a temple within 200 miles of this city, so having one there makes sense.)
26.  Jacksonville, Florida (Not sure how busy the other Florida temples are, but a third would surely be a blessing to the Saints there.)
27.  San Pedro Sula, Honduras (Honduras may be ready for a second temple.)
28.  Salem, Oregon (The one other temple in Oregon is busy enough, and the Church has grown enough in Oregon that another temple there makes sense.)
29.  Belem, Brazil (Brazil may be ready for several new temples, especially as no progress as been made on the Fortaleza Brazil temple.)
30.  Budapest, Hungary/Vienna, Austria (Of the two, I see a temple in Austria as the more likely possibility. In this, I am not affected by the fact that Amy served her mission there. It would be great to have a temple there.)

I should mention that it would only take 27 of these being announced to make it to the 200 temple mark.With the possibility of having 154 temples by the end of this year, with 160 by the end of 2017, and considering that there may be 3-6 more under construction by then, if an average of 3 temples were completed a year, with an average of 5 temples announced every year, 200 temples by Apirl 6, 2030 could become a reality.

Well, what do you think?