Hello again, everyone! With August 17 having officially dawned here in Utah, the end of the open house for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple is going to be marked today, as will the start of the open house for the Lisbon Portugal Temple and the groundbreaking for the Belem Brazil Temple. Tours for the Lisbon Portugal Temple will kick off at 9:00 AM Portugal time, which, because Portugal is 7 hours ahead of Utah time, means that tours of the temple start less than two hours from now.
As I noted earlier, I anticipate that the groundbreaking for the Belém Brazil Temple will take place between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM Belém time, which would be anytime between 7:00 AM and 1:00 PM here in Utah. And tours for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple will wrap up at 7:00 PM Haiti time this evening, which will be 5:00 PM Utah time. While I am unsure how those times convert to other time zones, that's how those break down according to Utah time, with which I am most familiar. I will provide whatever coverage I can of each of these 3 developments as they are reported.
In the meantime, I wanted to note that President Nelson has seemed to have a method to his temple announcements up to this point. Based on the information I provided in the previous post, I can confirm that President Nelson has (not yet) announced any temples in each of the following areas: Africa Southeast, Middle East/Africa North, North America Central, North America Southeast; North America Southwest, and South America Northwest.
As I have also mentioned, I fully anticipate that President Nelson may announce 14-16 temples at minimum. Based on further personal analysis of the methods and patterns of the prior 3 sets of temple announcements, although I would be elated if any of the prospective locations from my last published list had a temple announced, I believe that the breakdown of those 14-16 likely locations may be along the following general lines:
2-3 temples in Africa (1 each in Africa Southeast, Africa West, and (possibly) Middle East/Africa North. If no temples are announced for the Middle East/Africa North Area, there could be 2 announced in either of the other 2 current areas, or just one for each.
1-2 in Asia (Asia and/or Asia North)
1-2 in Brazil
1 each in Central America and the Caribbean
1-2 in Europe (or 1 each in Europe and Europe East)
2-3 in North America (including 1 in Utah) or US territories
1 each in the Pacific and the Philippines
1-2 in South America Northwest and South America South
I should also mention that, due to the factors mentioned in the references accompanying my latest list, I cannot narrow down my selections per area to just these general parameters and numbers. But I can additionally note the following: If President Nelson repeats (and builds on) what he did last October, at least a few of the nations on the April 2019 edition of the list of locations with the strongest Church presence that do nott currently have a temple in any phase will have a temple announced in October of this year.
It is my opinion that, among the top contenders from that current list, we are most likely to see temples announced in Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, and Madagascar, which currently rank first, second, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Even if only 3 of those are announced, (with Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar being the most likely 3 in my mind), that in turn will alter the next edition of that top ten list in a remarkable way.
From my July list of the most likely prospects, I would also like to share those locations which I believe are the top contenders: Antananarivo Madagascar, Freetown Sierra Leone, either Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Jakarta Indonesia, or Singapore, Belo Horizonte or Florianopolis Brazil, Coban Guatemala, Edinburgh Scotland or Berlin Germany, Torreon Mexico, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, Santa Cruz Boliva, Bahia Blanca Argentina, Missoula Montana, Bentonville Arkansas, Queen Creek Arizona, Victoria British Columbia, and Herriman or Heber City Utah.
That said, I want to make it absolutely and abundantly clear that I will be absolutely overjoyed by any temples which are announced, whether or not they are on my list, and whether or not more or less than the 14-16 I have suggested here wind up actually being announced in October. This concludes the mini-series of posts I wanted to do on the temple construction program of the Church, so that does it for now.
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.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Additional Thoughts and Observations on the Temple Construction Program of the Church: Part Three—Temple Announcements Likely to Be Made During the October 2019 General Conference
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
2 comments:
In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.
At the same time, however, I recognize that we live in a time when incivility, discourtesy, unkindness, and even cyber-bullying has regrettably become part of online interactions. With that in mind, while anyone who wishes can comment on anything if they choose to do so, I hereby reserve the right to immediately delete any comments which are critical, unkind, lack civility, or promote prodcuts, services, and values contrary to either the Church, or to the rules of online etiquette.
I'd also like to remind all who comment here that I try to respond personally to each individual comment as I feel is appropriate. Such replies are not meant to end the conversation, but to acknowledge earnest feedback as it is submitted.
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Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.
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Hello again, everyone! By 1:00 PM Utah time today, the Belem Brazil Temple groundbreaking had already been held and reported on:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-for-the-bel%C3%A9m-brazil-temple
And it appears that the sources available to me concur with my assessment that its' completion will occur sometime during 2022. I am still hopeful that full-scale construction may begin sometime during the next week or two, just as I hope that full-scale work will soon commence for the Yigo Guam, San Juan Puerto Rico, and Lima Peru Los Olivos Temples, but time will tell. For now, my thanks once again to you all for your continued interest and ongoing support.
Applying the longer list of potential temples from your previous post:
ReplyDeletehttps://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2019/07/revised-and-expanded-list-of-potential.html
to your proposed quota of 14-16 possible temple announcement for this October 2019, I have come up with the following predictions.
I've narrowed the choices down a bit by the areas you mentioned as likely to have temples announced in them soon. The reason I have included multiples in some areas is due to: (a) either one or two temples being just as likely as another in that area (in my opinion); (b) me not wanting to leave one or another off the list due to personal preference; or (c) me not having enough information at this time to make an informed enough decision to choose one over another.
Criteria I used for these predictions were: (a) number of stakes & membership in the pertinent country or state; (b) proximity to closest temple; (c) difficulty in traveling to nearest temple (i.e. driving or flying in a 1st world country versus driving or flying in a 3rd world country or island nation); (d) whether or not the temple in question had been publicly proposed by a general authority (or privately proposed, as in the rumor that Elder Bednar proposed a Missoula Montana Temple at a stake conference a few years ago); (e) whether or not said temple would be the first temple announced in that country or state; (f) if not the first temple, then taking into account how many other temples said country or state already contains (either fully completed or announced), and how recently those other temples had been announced or completed; (g) whether or not the the potential temple would follow some of the recent patterns introduced by President Nelson (i.e. temples recently announced in island nations that have low membership but long distance to nearest temple - such as Cape Verde, Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico); (h) how fast the Church has been growing in said country or state in recent years (i); personal bias.
2-3 temples in Africa:
1 in Africa Southeast: Antananarivo Madagascar or Kampala Uganda
1 in Africa West: Freetown Sierra Leone or Monrovia Liberia
(possibly) 1 in Middle East/Africa North: Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates
1-2 in Asia (Asia and/or Asia North):
1 in Asia: Ulaanbaatar Mongolia or Singapore
1 in Asia North: Osaka Japan
1-2 in Brazil:
Belo Horizonte or Florianopolis
1 each in Central America and the Caribbean:
1 in Central America: Coban Guatemala
1 in Caribbean: Kingston Jamaica
1-2 in Europe (or 1 each in Europe and Europe East):
1 in Europe: Oslo Norway
1 in Europe East: Vilnius Lithuania
2-3 in North America (including 1 in Utah) or US territories:
Utah: Herriman or Heber City Utah
Mexico: Torreon Mexico
North America Central: Missoula Montana or Rapid City South Dakota or Pueblo Colorado
North America Northeast: Cleveland Ohio
North America Southeast: Charlotte North Carolina
North America Southwest: Bentonville Arkansas or Fort Worth Texas
North America West: Fairbanks Alaska or Bakersfield California
1 each in the Pacific and the Philippines:
Pacific: Port Moresby Papua New Guinea or Tarawa Kiribati
Philippines: Tacloban or Bacolod
1-2 in South America Northwest and South America South:
South America Northwest: Santa Cruz Bolivia or Iquitos Peru or Maracaibo Venezuela
South America South: Bahia Blanca Argentina or Vina del Mar Chile or Ciudad del Este Paraguay