For example, in the April 2018 edition, of that list, 3 of the nations on it went on to have temples announced the following October: Puerto Rico, Cambodia, and Cape Verde, which had ranked second, seventh, and eighth respectively on that list. Matt went on to revise that list for October 2018, and during the subsequent April 2019 General Conference, only 1 of the nations on that edition of the list had a temple announced: namely, American Samoa, which then ranked fourth on that list.
I could perhaps have pulled the data from earlier editions of that list as well, but I think the most recent 3 serve as an example of what I want to illustrate. Given the fact that President Nelson has focused both on announcing so many new temples (with 27 new ones announced in his first three General Conferences as prophet) and on doing what he can in between each conference to keep clearing the queue, I think it may be safe to assume that temples will continue to be announced every six months for the foreseeable future, with perhaps others being announced in between each April, October, and subsequent April.
And I would likewise anticipate that the temple announcements he makes over the next several years will be for many of the locations on every new list of the top 10 nations with the stronges Church presence that do not have a temple in any phase. In fact, it seems safe to assume that each new set of annouoncements will see 1-3 temples announced for nations on each edition of that list.
With this information, and the latest edition of that list in mind, I have taken the opportunity to do my own analysis on each location and to compile pertinent facts about each. I will post that analysis below, but have one or two other thoughts on this subject which I wanted to share first. Given my research below, I feel like I could narrow the most imminent prospects on this list to the first most likely as follows: Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, and Mongolia.
Aside from the distances involved, the relevant reasons I narrowed down the 10 below to the 4 I named above are as follows: The Church has held land in reserve in Port Moresby for at least the last decade; Sierra Leone has seen an outstandingly significant amount of congregational growth and overall strength, Madagascar is separated from the rest of the African continent by water, which requires both rigiorous travel and expense; and that none of the temples in operation, under consstruction or announced are within a reasonable distance for the Mongolian Saints to go.
If the whispers about the extent and timing of President Nelson's plans is any indication, it seems more likely than not that within the next 2-3 General Conferences, the list of the top ten nations could look entirely different than it currently is. Having noted all of these things, I would like to now share my list, which follows below. In order to not disturb the flow of that information, I will end here and now as I always do:
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 made in accordance 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.
May 2019 Notes on the Top 10 Nations with the Strongest
Church Presence without a Temple
1.
Papua New Guinea—The Saints in the capital city
of Port Moresby currently travel 1,706 miles one-way to worship at the Sydney
Australia Temple, and 2,177 miles to the Suva Fiji Temple, to which PNG is
currently assigned. Additionally, land has been set aside for a temple there
for the last decade or longer, so it seems more likely than not that a temple may
be built there sooner rather than later.
2.
Sierra Leone—In order to get to the temple to
which the Sierra Leonean Saints are currently assigned (Accra Ghana) requires a
one-way journey of 1,290.1 miles. Once the Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire Temple is
dedicated, that will cut the distance to 960 miles one-way. Also, given the
consistent Church growth in Sierra Leone (where three new stakes were created
in a 3-week period in late 2017), this nation recently went from third to
second on this list. With all of that in mind, a temple in Freetown seems to be
merely a matter of time as well.
3.
Kiribati—For the Saints in the capital city of
Tarawa, their currently-assigned temple is Suva Fiji, and getting there
requires a one-way journey of 1,402 miles. Since no other temples which are
under construction or announced will be any closer, a temple there is surely a
possibility at some point.
4.
Uganda—The Saints in Kampala currently have a
one-way journey of 2,471.2 miles to worship in the Johannesburg South Africa
Temple. Once the Nairobi Kenya Temple is built and dedicated, the distance will
shrink down to 403.7 miles. With that in mind, a temple in Kampala seems
feasible within the next 3-5 years, if not sooner.
5.
Liberia—Getting to their assigned temple in
Accra requires a one-way trip of 976.1 miles for the Monrovian Saints. Once the
Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple is dedicated, that mileage will be reduced to 646.
If a temple were to be built in Freetown Sierra Leone, the distance would then
go down to 322.3 miles, which is still above the 200-mile goal set by previous
Church Presidents.
6.
Mozambique—When the Maputo Saints travel to the
Johannesburg South Africa Temple, that involves a one-way journey of 338.3
miles. A temple there could be possible within the next decade.
7.
Madagascar—This nation is separated from the
remainder of the African continent by water, so for the Saints in Antananarivo
to get to any temple presents somewhat of an undue hardship. A one-way trip to
Johannesburg requires a journey of 1,338 miles. Once the Harare Zimbabwe Temple
is built and dedicated, that distance will be cut to 1.082 miles. Since part of
President Nelson’s focus is on placing temples in more remote areas, a temple
in Antananarivo may be announced within the next 2 years or less.
8.
Mongolia—The Hong Kong China Temple district
includes Mongolia, and the Saints in Ulaanbaatar journey 1.811 miles to get
there. No other currently-operating or announced temples are closer than that,
so a temple in Ulaanbaatar is surely just a matter of time.
9.
Malaysia—Saints in Kuala Lumpur currently
journey 1,566 miles one-way to worship at the Hong Kong China Temple. Once the
Bangkok Thailand Temple is dedicated, that distance will be cut to 914.5 miles.
10. Vanuatu—The
Saints in Port Vila (where the only Vanuatu stake is based) travel 665 miles to
worshipm at the Suva Fiji Temple. AFAIK, no other announced temple is closer than that. A teple there seems possible within the next decade, if not sooner.
Hello again, everyone! Many more significant Church news items and temple developments have been reported, but I am currently dealing with another minor illness that hampers my ability to share details on such things. So for the moment, I will merely share again the links to the relevant sites, and you can catch up on your own at your leisure. Hopefully I will feel better in the next 1-3 days, at which point I can resume regular updates.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/
https://www.lds.org/church/news?lang=eng
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/
My thanks again to you all for your ongoin interest and support.
Hello again, everyone! Just wanted to pass some additional information on to you about the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple. I found out yesterday evening that, due to the fact that that temple will be built as part of a new community that will be established, a groundbreaking on the temple could be delayed to some degree or another until the housing part of that community is more developed. That is one of many factors I am considering as I work on yet another revision to sections of my temple construction progress report, and on updating the estimates I have previously provided for future temple events.
ReplyDeleteBut that delay should not be surprising at all. As some of you may recall, the artist's rendering for the Bangkok Thailand Temple was released in March of last year, while the groundbreaking arrangements were not announced until 8 months later, and it took two more months before the groundbreaking actually took place. How Bangkok's situation might compare to that of the Richmond Virginia or Saratoga Springs Temples may not be so clear for the next little while.
And in relation to the Bangkok Thailand Temple, since it is a larger one than we have seen built in a while, I was directed to information that construction on the temple proper could potentially be delayed until early next year. How exactly that might change when it could be completed is another question, and one to which there may be no easy answer.
And that leads me to the final point I want to make here: I am again revisiting the "Groundbreaking anticipated" and "Announced" sections of my temple construction progress report, and my specific estimates for known temple events, and intend to post those at some point within the next couple of weeks, if not sooner than that, in addition to a few other projects I am working on. Stay tuned for all of that. Thanks, everyone
On Saratoga Springs, this will be a larger temple so we have to go in a way with how long it took from start to finish with Gilbert as that was about the ame size, and while Gilbert was taller as it had five levels, this one will have three so it will have a larger footprint.
DeletePayson was built in an area that already had one development that had gone in at least two years before the 2010 announcement and other development went in much later and that is still ongoing, Saratoga Springs will mirror that in basic design although it will obviously be unique in other ways. So I think the Church will want to get some of its infrastructure in ahead of the housing developer and that will make things easier on both if they choose to do it that way.
Another note: I discovered today we have about the same number of announced temples that have not had a groundbreaking as we did at the end of 2012, so that indicates they will want to get some more started soon to get that even with what else is going on that they want to do. It seems they want the backlog to be around 35 or so, slthough other factors may necessitate changing that some.
Hellio, James Anderson, and thank you for taking time to comment. You raise some very interessting and weel-taken observations. The process of building each temple has been intriguing to watch, especially in recent years. While I don't know particularly what infrastructural measures will need to be done for the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple, what I have heard from many of the sources I have available is that the residential developments will need to get to a specific phase of progress before anything might be done with the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple. While not a lot of specific information is available, it seems that even a groundbreaking and preliminary work on the temple site may be delayed at least for the next 4-8 months. Of course, that is based solely on what my research shows, and the Lord has been known to surprise us with unexpected developments, so anything is possible.
DeleteWhat you said about 2012 intrigued me, so I did some research on my end. "The wayback Machine" has two relevant captures around the end of 2012. This first one is from December 6, 2012, and is a copy of the "Construction Status" page on that date:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130116141518/http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/construction/
On January 13 of the following year (2013), the Wayback Machine took 3 identical snapshots of that same page as follows:
https://web.archive.org/web/20130116141518/http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/construction/
From both of those construction status pages, I only see 14 announced temples which did not yet have a groundbreaking scheduled, although there were an equal number of temples under construction. So I am not sure what you mean when you say "we have about the same number of announced temples that have not had a groundbreaking as we did at the end of 2012", because the 31 temples currently which have not yet had a groundbreaking appears to be more than double the number we had at the end of 2012. Also, I am not sure what you mean when you say "they want the backlog to be around 35 or so". Insofar as I understand it, the plan is to do whatever can be done to focus on clearing the backlog between eacb April, October, and subsequent April in such a way that more temples can then be announced in every General Conference for the foreseeable future. So any clarification you can offer would be appreciated. Thanks, as always, James Anderson, for taking time to comment.
Hello again, everyone! As scheduled, Elder Enrique R. Falabella, who serves as president of the South America Northwest Area, presided over the groundbreaking for the Quito Ecuador Temple this morning. The Newsroom released the following article about that:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/groundbreaking-for-second-ecuador-temple
Most of the sources from which I gather temple information put the completion estimate for the Quito Ecuador Temple between late 2021 and early 2022 and, more specifically, between that of the Pocatello Idaho and Urdaneta Philippines Temples.
I will continue to keep my eyes open for temple updates. In the meantime, I also wanted to note that I am presently having some additional health & computer issues which may impact my ability to share content here for the next few days. My thanks again to you all.
Primero
ReplyDeleteAgradecer este excelente blog, con temas tan interesantes.
Aunque soy ex mormón, siempre estoy al tanto de lo que sucede, soy Chileno y me alegraría por los que aman el templo que hubiesen más para que puedan asistir.
Hello again, everyone! Many of you have surely seen the comment above. Since that coment was written in Spanish, I ran it through Google Translate with the following result:
ReplyDelete"First
"Thank this excellent blog, with such interesting topics.
"Although I am an ex-Mormon, I am always aware of what happens, I am Chilean and I would be happy for those who love the temple that there would be more for them to attend."
I appreciate that comment, and would like to thank the person who wrote it, whomever that may be. Hopefully that means that what I am doing and how I am doing it here on this blog is having more of an impact than I might have realized. As always, if any of you have any feedback on what is or is not working for you, please do let me know. My thanks again to the person who made this comment, and to all of you for your ongoing interest and support.