Stokes Sounds Off: 12/19/17

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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Feedback Requested--Most Likely Location for Nevada's Third Temple

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to revisit my thoughts on the most likely site for Nevada's next temple, and the hope is that I can, with your assistance, narrow the four possibilities I see for that honor down to the most likely prospect. The four final cities I have on my list right now are Elko, Ely, Fallon, and Henderson. Let me share my thoughts on the merits of each.

The saints in the two stakes the Church has established in Elko currently reside within the Salt Lake Temple district, and that makes their journey to their assigned temple a distance of 229.6 miles, which is above the goal set by President Monson. A temple in Elko would likely serve the Saints in that city and some surrounding regions and might cut down the number of stakes assigned to the Salt Lake temple.

The Saints in Ely travel a fair distance as well. Their assigned temple in Cedar City Utah has been built 201.1 miles from those Saints. Not too far above the 200 mile goal, but still enough of an inordinate distance to warrant a potential temple in Ely.

As for the Saints in Fallon, Nevada, with their assigned temple located in Reno, they have a journey of 62.9 miles to their currently assigned temple in Reno. Not too much of a distance, but the Church could easily build a temple there to save them and the Saints in the surrounding regions from making such a drive.

Rounding out the four is Henderson. The Saints there have the shortest journey of the four possibilities, as they have only 15.8 miles to drive to get to their assigned temple in the capital city. It has seemed to me from my research that the Las Vegas Temple district, which, as noted previously, covers 28 stakes in southern Nevada and two from northwestern Arizona, needs to be split somehow.

A second option to accomplish that would be to build a second temple elsewhere in the Las Vegas area, which is not out of the question since the Church has announced second temples for major cities such as Manila Philippines and Lima Peru. Another option I want to mention (which may or may not be likely) is for the Church to announce a temple for Nevada's capital, which is Carson City. There is one stake of the Church in that city, and that would break up the Reno district as well.

I had asked for additional feedback on this subject before, but after I adjusted my thoughts, I wanted to discuss these candidates in an entirely new post. So you can see that I have my own thoughts on this subject, but I wanted to give you all the opportunity to make any additional comments on these adjustments so that I can narrow these prospects down to the most likely candidate city for Nevada's third temple.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.


Status Updates Provided For Two Temples

Hello again, everyone! While I have not forgotten my promise to try and finish the series of posts on current and future temple sites, I wanted to deviate from that subject to share some exciting developments regarding the construction progress that has recently been noted on the Concepcion Chile and Durban South Africa Temples. So let's dive right in and talk about the newest updates for both of these temples.

As many of you may remember, the Concepcion Chile Temple was at one point the second-to-last new temple anticipated to be completed in 2018. Based on the progress reported today, I can definitely see why it has been moved up in anticipation of being the first new temple dedicated during next year.

While the installation of millwork and hanging of light fixtures continues, the stone cladding of the exterior is being finalized, and curbing and parking is being poured on the temple grounds. I was pleased to find out about these developments, but, as I have previously noted, I am not seeing anything in this status update that would alter the completion estimate of late 2018 that I have previously provided.

Miracles have been known to happen, but unless something significantly changes, I don't think we will see this temple dedicated prior to the final quarter of 2018. That said, such a dedication could (and likely will) occur on one of the Sundays following the October 2018 General Conference. Since there are three such Sundays that will be left in that month, the dedication of this temple could easily occur on any one of the three. And if that happens, then the Church could easily have that dedication before the really rainy months that will occur as 2018 draws to a close.

Moving on now to the Durban South Africa Temple, there have been several new developments reported. Decking for the roof is being installed and waterproofed and the foundation of the temple is being backfilled. In the meantime, roof trusses are being set for the adjoining missionary housing facility.

While these reported developments for South Africa's second temple are tremendous, to be sure, I concur with the information others have provided about the potential time-frame for this temple's completion. Where it was thought for a while this year that this temple could be dedicated before the end of next year or in the early part of 2019, it makes more sense that the dedication of this temple will only occur at some point within the first six months of 2019. 

Additionally, most sources I have available for temple-related matters have indicated that the time-frames both the Kinshasa and Rome temple dedications would be in either late 2018 or early 2019, the progress of both seems to indicate that Kinshasa will be more likely completed on the earlier side of that estimate (prior to the end of 2018) and that Rome will likely be delayed in its dedication until the early part of the following year.

With that in mind, it appears that the Rome, Durban, and Port-au-Prince temple dedications and the rededications of the Memphis Tennessee, Oklahoma City Oklahoma, and Asuncion Paraguay temples are all anticipated to occur within the first 6-8 months of 2019.

If any of these temples experience delays in those processes, then that would push the probable completion of other temples (both new and those that have been scheduled to start renovation early next year) back a bit. I am keeping my eyes open for any new information on any of these temples and will do my level best to pass any needed changes along as I become aware of them.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.