Musings on the Progress of the Arequipa Peru Temple & Potential New Temples

Hello again, everyone! Yesterday, I passed along (among other things) an update on the Arequipa Peru Temple. I wanted to post a brief note to share something I did not notice until today. It would appear that with exterior work nearing its' completion for that temple, attention will turn to the temple's interior work. I also heard in passing that this temple may be slightly ahead of schedule, and depending on the degree to which that may be true, I might have to rethink yet again those estimates I have offered for anticipated temple-related events.

It continues to amaze me how temple progress has evolved, even at times on a day-to-day basis. I will be keeping my eyes open for any and all related temple information and pass those updates along as I become aware of them. In the meantime, I continue to work on my list of potential temple locations in preparation for General Conference.

In that regard, it has been a while since we have seen a new Church President announce new temples in his first General Conference. As some of you may recall, the first temples announced during President Monson's administration came between late April and late May 2008, and the first three locations were all in Arizona.

So it would be understandable if President Nelson opted to not announce any new temples until either sometime after General Conference or until his second General Conference as Church president.

With that said, I don't anticipate that occurring for President Nelson. Both Presidents Nelson and Monson acted fairly quickly (in President Monson's case, prior to his ordination as Church President) to announce the first temple news of their administrations. Many of you may recall my mentioning that the Rexburg Idaho Temple was originally scheduled to be dedicated on February 3, which was postponed one week in view of President Hinckley's passing, making the Rexburg dedication the first over which President Monson presided.

And while no temple event had to be shifted in view of this year's reorganization of the First Presidency, it is interesting to note that this new First Presidency acted right away in making major announcements related to temples, including the closure of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple (which was likely in the works prior to President Monson's death), the closure of temple visitor's centers in conjunction with their nearby temples, and, just yesterday, the rededication announcement for the Houston Texas Temple, it very much seems as though the first temple announcements during President Nelson's administration are likely to occur at his first general conference.

This is especially true when we consider that President Monson was 85 days into his presidency when he made the first temple announcements of his administration. Based on the volume of temple news that  we have seen released by the Church since President Nelson became the Church President on January 14 of this year, it wouldn't surprise me to see him announce new temples at his first General Conference as such, although he will only have been Church President for 77 days when that occurs.

When we add to that Elder Wilson's statement (made last April a couple of weeks after General Conference) to the effect that 80 potential locations were under consideration to be announced in the 15 years following (which would be late April 2032), I very much doubt that President Nelson would opt to delay announcing temples in his first General Conference. And since he is taking such an active role for someone who is the second oldest man to ever become Church president, I feel confident that we will see such announcements during this General Conference.

Regarding the subject of future temples, I also should note that I have been hard at work in the last little while to fine-tune my list of potential locations in which a temple may be built. I know I promised to post it before now, but the need to extensively overhaul the format of the list has delayed my ability to do so. Just know that I am in the process of getting that ready to publish here, which I hope to do before the end of this month, if not sooner. Just wanted to note that it is in progress.

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.