Now, I also wanted to note a
caution here: While I appreciate the optimism expressed by many who see the
calls of the presidents for all the new temples anticipated to be dedicated
next year as a positive sign that such events could occur sooner than
anticipated, and while I am not dismissing the prospect that part of President
Nelson's plan in having the temple department hire a number of new employees
could be to add manpower to the construction of temples already in progress,
which could potentially accelerate the temples now under construction, in
addition to enabling new ones to be rapidly built, the latter point seems to be
a less likely prospect.
I say that because my brother
took a class in high school in which he was part of a construction crew for
existing projects in American Fork. And no matter what they were working on, the
size of the crew was far more likely to diminish than increase as some of them
either quit the project and the class or were transferred to another project. I
recognize that the Church projects may be more contractual than a job done by a
high school class, but, that said, nothing I have heard through the sources I
have available have indicated that the most recent estimates offered for the
temple events anticipated to occur next year will be accelerated beyond the
more general time-frames I have previously provided.
As a review, when I posted the
news of the first president for the Lisbon Portugal Temple one week ago today,
in that same post, I provided the latest general estimates I had for temple
events anticipated to occur in 2019. Unless there is something big about which
I and the sources which I have available for such information are not aware,
AFAIK, those estimates have not changed at all.
That same post from one week
ago shared the complete list I had assembled of temples which have had or may
yet have a new president called. I refer you to that full list for any
information on those temples. But that brings the total number of temples which
have had a new president announced this year to a grand total of 66, with the
only other temple on my list of those which may get a new president being the
one in Washington DC. But wait, you might be saying, didn't that temple close
for renovation in March of this year, and isn't it only anticipated to be
rededicated in 2020?
Yes, that is the case. But the
Asuncion Paraguay Temple, which closed almost a year ago (last November) and
for which, AFAIK, the renovation process has yet to fully begin, had a new
president announced earlier this year (as evidenced by the list I linked to
earlier). So it would not be unreasonable, in my opinion, to assume that a new
president could similarly be announced for the Washington DC Temple.
Sorry for that aside. Getting
back on topic, once all 6 of the new temples anticipated to be completed next
year are dedicated, the total number of dedicated temples will increase to 167.
That means that roughly 40% of all operating temples will get a new president
within the next 12-15 months, which makes sense, given that temple presidents
serve for a period of roughly 3 years, so roughly 1/3 (or 33.33% of all
temples) will have a new president announced each year.
The new temple presidents
announced during this year is slightly above that average, but when we subtract
the 6 temples for which a dedication will not occur until next year, that means
161 temples will be in operation by this year's end, and that 60 temples will
have new presidents start serving this year, and that works out to 37%, which
is closer to the average I mentioned above.
That does it for my report of
this development. But before I end in the usual way, I also wanted to mention
what I have coming up on this blog in the near future. In addition to reporting
important Church news and temple developments, which I monitor on an ongoing
basis, my hope this weekend is to publish another update on the ages and tenure
milestones of our current apostles in the First Presidency and Quorum of the
Twelve Apostles. I will also continue to fine-tune my General Conference
predictions as needed. So if any of you want to comment on either of the posts
I did on that subject recently, you can find the summary of what molded those
predictions here, and the updated version of those predictions here. I will continue to accept comments on those predictions up until Monday October 1 (so I will have time to do any updates that are needed on them and post them here before General Conference weekend begins the following Saturday).
As
always, I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will
try to bring word of those to you all here as I become aware of them. That does
it for this post. Any and all comments on any post are, as always, welcome and
appreciated at any time they are made. Thank you for the privilege of your
time, and for wading through another lengthy post from me. 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.
