My best-guess estimation for when future groundbreakings may be announced and scheduled to take place

Based on what we know about the imminence of an announcement for the future site and groundbreaking ceremony for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple, I am venturing my best guess for when that will happen. I will also offer some additional comments about how soon other future temple events may be announced and scheduled. This new post is in addition to what I projected the last time I wrote about the subject of when future temple-related events may be announced and scheduled.

In my mind, it is likely that the site announcement for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple will be made within the first few months of 2017. I will say I would expect both the site announcement and the groundbreaking to take place by March of next year. I believe a site announcement for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple will take place by no later than May, and a groundbreaking will be scheduled for sometime between the already-scheduled Paris France dedication on May 21 and the rededication for the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple on June 4.

As for the future temples in Arequipa and Rio de Janeiro, I have firsthand knowledge about how any obstacles to construction can be swiftly dealt with and completely swept away. I am therefore venturing my opinion that groundbreakings for these two temples will be announced and take place within early or late summer 2017, no later than August or September. In the meantime, I can see a site announcement for Bangkok in early fall 2017, with the groundbreaking to take place in October. By the end of the year, I could also see site announcements and groundbreakings taking place in Urdaneta and Abidjan, assuming any current barriers preventing such events can be broken down. And, given how fast things happened in Harare, I would not be surprised to have potentially as many as two or three other site announcements happen in either the late months of 2017 or the early months of 2018. You can be sure that I will be keeping a faithful eye on any and all future developments and will make future predictions on such events as such knowledge crosses my radar.

As always, please feel free to leave me any feedback you may have on ideas I have presented in this post or any and all others I have previously done. Such feedback helps me to fine-tune my educated guesses in such matters. I appreciate, more than ever, your readership and comments.

Revised List of Cities for which I feel a future temple announcement is most imminent

Based on the most excellent and mammoth amount of comments and feedback I have received on the last post, both on that post itself and on the LDS Church Growth blog, I have put more study into the matter of cities for which I feel a future temple announcement is most imminent. I am posting right here, right now, with the results of my study and in response to that feedback. I have fine-tuned my list, in some cases refining my picks to the most likely city for such sites. Where I could not narrow it down to any specific location, I have multiple cities listed for some nations, any one of which I feel could be likely. I have also added a location or two that I feel are appropriate.

I hope that, in whatever feedback follows the posting of this updated list, there will be an appropriate degree of appreciation and deference to the research I have done. But, as I always have and hopefully always will, I acknowledge my weakness as being just one person who, at the end of the day, is basing this information on the resources I could find on the subject, limited though that information may be. So if anything has been overlooked by me, I would welcome the clarification and correction. I hope that this most updated list can generate the same degree of thoughtful discussion and feedback which has characterized any previous version of this list that I have ever done.

As I have done in the past, I have tried to prioritize this list by the order in which I feel they will be announced. If any of these selections need to be reordered, please be sure to bring that to my attention.

Thanks in advance to all who will review this list and please do let me know your earnest and honest opinion on my work.

Managua Nicaragua

Port Moresby Papua New Guinea

Bentonville Arkansas

Freetown Sierra Leone

Kampala Uganda

Nairobi Kenya

Lehi Utah

Layton Utah

Budapest Hungary

Pocatello Idaho

La Paz Bolivia

Fort Worth Texas

Puebla Mexico

Missoula Montana

Brasilia Brazil

Jacksonville Florida

Belo Horizonte Brazil

Rapid City South Dakota

Benin City Nigeria

Salvador Brazil

Montpelier Vermont

Lagos Nigeria

Richmond Virginia

Port Harcourt Nigeria

Edinburgh Scotland

Salem Oregon

Tacoma Washington

Neuquen Argentina
Kumasi Ghana
Chile (top locations: Antofagasta/Valparaiso/Santiago (2nd temple)

Important Strides Made in Renovation of Frankfurt Germany Temple

When I checked Rick Satterfield's excellent LDS Church Temples website yesterday (Monday), I learned, much to my great surprise and delight, that important strides have been made in the renovation of the Frankfurt Germany Temple. Where before, Rick had just noted that the temple was undergoing renovation, now he indicates that some exterior stone has been removed, the foundation has been exposed, and the old meetinghouse on the temple site has been razed. This is remarkable news. And even though that temple will likely not be rededicated until 2018, this progress report is most significant. For a variety of reasons, I have not been able to report on this until just now. But I hope that this information is helpful and of value to you all. I so very much appreciate that this blog has become the success that it is, and that is because people have been so kind as to read and comment on posts that I have done. Any success I claim as a blogger is because of the feedback I get, and is not related in any way to the content of this blog. I am truly humbled by all those who continue to express an interest in and support for the effort I put into what I do. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.