Change to Open House Dates for Philadelphia Pennsylvania/Significant Posts about Church Growth from Matthew Martinich

Interesting developments on the temple news front. The Church has announced a change in the dates during which the Philadelphia Temple open house will occur, though the reason for it remains to be seen or officially made known. The good news is that this change in open house dates will in no way impact the dates of either the cultural celebration or temple dedication, which are still set for September 17 and 18 respectively. Originally slated to run from Friday August 5-Saturday September 3, the open house will now run from Wednesday August 10 (five days later than previously announced)-Friday September 9 (six days later than previously announced), so the open house will actually pick up 1 additional day in the process, allowing for additional visitors to the temple. I also wanted to let you know that I am keeping a careful eye on developments as articles are written about new General Authorities which will identify their quorum affiliation. I also wanted to remind my readers that an excellent article in the April 2016 Ensign by Elder M. Russell Ballard introducing Elder Ronald A. Rasband to the world.

Additionally, Matthew Martinich, whose interesting posts I frequently share, has done a number of noteworthy posts. He posted yesterday to let his readers know that the first stake in Benin is set to be created in 8 days. He has also posted about congregational growth by country for 2015 (devoting two posts to that very subject), the most populous countries without an LDS mission, the districts that are most likely to become stakes in the not-too-distant future, and a Church-growth related analysis of the temples that were announced in General Conference earlier this month. All of these posts are very interesting and well worth the read. Check out his blog by following this link. Hope you all are enjoying my posts!