Additional Temple Developments and Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! Some additional temple developments and Church news items have been reported. The nature of these updates is such that it is more practical for me to put them in a new post, rather than trying to share them in comments. So let's get right into all of that. We will start with the temple updates, then conclude with the Church news.

Progress has been reported on two temples undergoing renovation. On November 30 of this year, I had noted a minor update on the status of the renovation process for the Frankfurt Germany Temple. And today, just 10 days later, we have another update noted. Landscaping irrigation is being installed while trees and shrubs are being planted on the temple grounds.

I am hoping that, given the timing and nature of this update, there may be a chance (however slim it might be) that this temple might have its' general estimate moved up, which in turn would allow me to move my more specific estimate up. In the meantime, as I have mentioned a few different times in the past, I am anticipating that, whenever the First Presidency sets that rededication to occur, that they will ask Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, our native German, who is a senior member of the Twelve, and who has previously presided at many temple dedications and rededications during his decade in the First Presidency, to preside at this rededication.

We now turn to the other temple update. The last time progress was noted on the Washington D. C. Temple was on Monday November 12, at which time I noted that the interior had been completely dismantled and that exterior renovations were progressing. The new information I have today indicates that Christmas lights are now on display (as per the usual tradition for that temple) as renovation work continues.

With that noted, I wanted to mention something here to which I have previously referred. As many of you might recall, both the Washington D. C. and Mesa Arizona Temples closed earlier this year (the former on March 4, and the latter on May 20). Both are anticipated to have their renovations completed at some point in 2020. Based on the fact that both temples are also on the larger side (with the former being the larger of the two), I set a general estimate of mid-to-late 2020.

But in view of the fact that this is the second time the Mesa temple has been renovated, I have also offered my opinion that the rededication of that temple could occur before that of the Washington D. C. Temple. Since I have no verification of that through any other source I have available, it may be another 6-12 months before we know for sure whether or not that is a reasonable assumption. I will be monitoring all future temple developments and will be sure to make any adjustments to previously-offered general or specific estimates as more information comes to light.

We now turn to the Church news updates. First, a Church News contributor recently sat down for an interview with Val Chadwick Bagley. If that name sounds familiar to any of you, there is a good reason for that. He has contributed gospel-themed cartoons for the Church magazines for the last 40 years, in addition to authoring and providing illustrations for several Church-themed books. He has enjoyed drawing such cartoons throughout his entire life.

But because he had trouble originally getting anyone to take his talent seriously, the path leading to his current opportunity to create such cartoons for the Church magazines involved a couple of detours with jobs not related to cartoons, including adding labels to different cheese products. In the due course of time, he was able to transition to cartooning full-time, and, as already noted, he has had a prestigious 40-year career (thus far) drawing such cartoons for the Church magazines.

Moving on to the official Church website, from the News & Events page, we have a report on some additional resources which are now available relating to the ministering program of the Church. Also, I may or may not have mentioned this previously, but the Church has announced that Jake Shimabukuro, a viral ukulele musician, will keynote RootsTech on March 2, 2019.

And finally, from the official English Newsroom, today marks the 4th anniversary of the release of the fourth article in a five-part series on why faith matters to and makes a difference in society today. Since the five-part series on that subject is more relevant today than it ever has been, the links to the other four parts of that series can be found under the "Additional Resources" section at the bottom of that page.

I recognize that this post was a long one, and I apologize for that. But I hope the information herein is interesting to most if not all of you who read it. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all as soon as I can after I become aware of such things. It appears that I have bounced back enough from my most recent health ordeal that such updates will be as thorough as they have previously been in the past.

I have also not forgotten or neglected the projects which I have mentioned will be published on this blog by the end of this year (the latest apostolic milestone update, which will be published this next Sunday; the birthday tribute to Elder Gerrit W. Gong one week later; my April 2019 General Conference predictions, for which I am finalizing the necessary annotation; and a New Year's Eve look at temple progress which has occurred during 2018).

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are in harmony with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.