Hello again, everyone! The breaking news continues from General Conference. This time, in an unusually-timed announcement, as he concluded his remarks in the Women's Session of General Conference, President Nelson announced 8 new temples. The temples will be built in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Orem Utah; Bentonville Arkansas; Bacolod Philippines; Taylorsville Utah; Coban Guatemala; McAllen Texas; and Port Moresby Papua New Guinea. Additional information is available on the official release from the Newsroom.
It is good to have learned about this. I had the exact location correct for 5 of these 8 temples, but had Fort Worth instead of McAllen, and was caught off-guard by the announcement of temples for both Taylorsville and Orem, though I anticipated at least one new one for Utah this go-round. I look forward to seeing more information released on these temples as plans are developed. With that noted, unless he intends to announce other temples at some other time, I have no idea what, if any, other announcements may be made this weekend. But I will do my level best to stay on top of any other developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it.
In the meantime, I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of it. 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, October 5, 2019
BREAKING NEWS: President Nelson Announces 8 New Temples
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.
12 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.
And in order to better preserve the spirit and pure intentions for which this blog was established, I also hereby request that anyone not commenting with a regular user name (particularly those whose comments appear under the "Unknown" or "Anonymous" monikers, give the rest of us a name to work with in addressing any replies. If such individuals do not wish to disclose their actual given names, a pseudonym or nickname would suffice.
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! How are you and your wife still in health?
ReplyDeleteOn the ads of the temples, those of UTHA are not new, others seem to me because of what I have read in your blog and in that of your friend, and from what I understand they are super necessary.
Bringing temples closer to members is vital for them to feel the blessings closer and visit them and work on their genealogy.
Always what I most expect are the announcements of new temples.
Thanks for sharing, a hug from Santiago de Chile
Hello, Omar! Thank you for taking time to comment, and for your kind inquiries about our health. I have continued to work with several of my doctors and am hoping things are starting to improve. My wife continues to deal with symptoms that none of the doctors can seem to figure out, including a few that have been more problematic lately. Hopefully we will have answers in her case soon enough.
DeleteAs for your comments on temples, for each of the 8 that were announced, they will all serve areas where additional temples are needed. Papua New Guinea and Sierra Leone were both on Matthew Martinich's most recent list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence without a temple in any phase (they were first and second on that list respectively). The Orem and Taylorsville Temples will help ameliorate crowding at the Provo and Mount Timpanogos Utah and Salt Lake Temples, among others. Those two were not on my list this go-round, but they were on one of my two other lists of prospects for further out than now.
Land has been held in reserve for temples in Bentonville Arkansas and Port Moresby Papua New Guinea for several decades now. And the temples in Bacolod and Bentonville will help cut travel distances for members in the areas those temples will serve. The temple in Coban will cut travel and also relieve the burden on the current Guatemala City Guatemala Temple and its' district. And I am thrilled that the Saints in McAllen will get a temple, as that could take some of the strain off of the other four temples currently operating in Texas. Good news all around. Thanks again, Omar, for taking time to comment. Always wonderful to hear from you.
Quite the pleasant surprise of announcements tonight! Bentonville, Port Moresby, and Freetown have been predicted for a long time and I am thrilled to see those announced!
ReplyDeleteA 5th Texas temple was just a matter of time, the only question was where. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see several other temples announced in the Lone Star State in the near future.
Orem and Taylorsville were the biggest surprises for me. I had both (albeit West Valley rather than Taylorsville) on sort of a longer-range pick, so it was definitely a nice surprise to hear both announced.
Eric, thank you for stopping by to share your thoughts. As I noted, I had favored Fort Worth for Texas' next temple, while others had advanced El Paso as more likely. But the Lord knows where He needs temples, so McAllen will get one. As you said, Bentonville, Port Moresby, and Freetown were no surprise. They had been on my list for almost as long as I have been doing lists. And the two in Utah were on my list of more distant prospects. Likewise, I was surprised that half of the total number of temples announced were for cities in the United States. Knowing what I do about the bursting-at-the-seams activity levels for the Mount Timpanogos and Provo Utah Temples, and currently living in Orem, I am thrilled by an announcement for temples there. Hopefully Taylorsville and Tooele will take away from the very busy Salt Lake Temple. And I am thrilled beyond words that Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea are finally getting temples of their own. The temples in Bacolod and Coban are thrilling as well. I am sure that at some point, regular commenter Patzicia will be sharing her reaction to the news of the Coban temple.
DeleteWhat I will be interested to see is whether any other major announcements come out of General Conference tomorrow. Whether that occurs or not, it has been a whirlwind weekend already. Thanks, Eric, for taking time to comment.
The Saints throughout Guatemala rejoice at the news of a third temple in this beautiful country. Elder Packer prophesied that a temple would be built in Cobán about 40 years ago. I understand that the church already owns property and is beginning the work to obtain the necessary permits and authorizations before formally announcing the site. Patzicia.
DeletePatzicia, thank you for sharing these insights. If what you indicated is correct (and I have no doubt that it is), then the Coban temple may well be another that could be fast-tracked. I am assuming that the Church has a relatively solid relationship with the Guatemalan governmental leadears, which should help as well. All of these developments will certainly be interesting to watch. Thank you again, Patzicia, for taking time to share your thoughts here,
DeleteHello again, everyone! The Church News acted quickly to collect reactions from local members in response to the announcement of these new temples. You can find that article at the following web address:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2019-10-05/general-conference-october-2019-temples-president-russell-nelson-163155
My thanks once again to you all for your continued interest and ongoing support.
Here’s my current top 10
ReplyDeleteApril 2020 temples; by % chance
Santa Cruz Bolivia 100
Belo Horizonte Brazil 100
Lubumbashi DRCongo 100
Osaka Japan 100
La Paz Bolivia 100
Jacksonville fl 100
Pachuca Mexico 100
Valparaiso Chile 100
Tacoma wa 100
Maracaibo Venezuela 100
Hello, Steven. I agree with some of your choices and disagree with others. But you must be fairly confident in them if you are giving each a 100% chance. It will be interesting for sure to see how temple announcements and anything else might turn out next go-round, given that the conference will reportedly not be like anything the Church has ever seen. And it seems that even the temple announcements made by President Nelson may be harder to predict than originally believed. Still, my recommendation to you would be to hold on to your list, and within six months, we will know how closely your list matched whatever might actually be announced in that respect. Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts.
DeleteI wonder if a temple jubilee, of sorts, is coming in April; where 50 temples are announced.
ReplyDeleteSteven, thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts here. Given what has been said about President Nelson's temple expansion plans, many people, myself included, have conjectured that a massive number of temple announcements are coming down the pike at some point. Clearly, that has not happened as of yet. But further research on my part indicates that, for the moment, there will be an incremental increase in the number of temples announced. And although there had been a general pattern to the number of temples announced up through April of this year, this last weekend, any previous patterns or trends in those announcements were thrown out, since half of the total number announced were for cities within the United States, and 2 were for Utah. So I have a hard time believing that a mass number of new temples will be announced next April.
DeleteAside from what I have said about trends in temple announcements thus far (or, in reference to the most recent set of temple announcements), based on what President Nelson said about the April 2020 General Conference being entirely different and unique from anything the Church has ever seen in past General Conferences, and with the General Conference specifically meant to be a bicentennial celebration of important events of the Restoration, then any temples being announced would, by comparision, be a much more minor part of General Conference compared to everything else that might happen.
By that I don't mean that temple announcements made during that time won't be important or significant. Rather, everything else that may occur that weekend may rightly be of more significance or prominence than any temple announcements. With that in mind, if any temples are announced, it will not be a large number, and anything else that occurs will likely be more significant in its' nature than whatever comes down the pike as far as temple announcements are concerned.
Of course, I only say that based on my knowledge of the original events for which the bicentennial celebration and historic and unprecedented General Conference is being held. Perhaps in one session, President Nelson and at least one member of the Quorum of the Twelve could speak from the E. B. Grandin print shop, where the first editions of the Book of Mormon were published. And perhaps in another session (maybe the Priesthood Session), a few of the speakers (including the entire First Presidency) could speak live from the banks of the Susquehana River, the spot where, according to the Doctrine and Covenants, the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods were restored.
DeleteAnd it is possible that the First Presidency could also perhaps get approval to hold part or all of a session in the Kirtland Ohio Temple, where the Savior and several Old Testament prophets came to restore the keys of the priesthood in this dispensation. Of course, my main reason for these particular conjectures is that these are the events to which President Nelson specifically referred to by name when mentioning what the bicentennial General Conference will be meant to celebrate.
I also want to be very clear that these conjectures are no more nor less than my own opinion, based on what little President Nelson said by way of the teaser he dropped about the next General Conference during his remarks that concluded last weekend's General Conference, and as such, they are subject to official confirmation, denial, or correction by the First Presidency either before or during that next General Conference weekend.
I would certainly not be upset if you turned out to be right about a mass number of temples being announced, but for the reasons I outlined in this comment, I'm not convinced that will happen, and I'd hate for anyone to hope for something like that and then potentially be disappointed if/when that did not wind up being the case. That said, you are just as free to believe in such a prospect as you are to accept or dismiss anything I have laid out in this comment. Either way, I'd like to thank you, Steven, for taking time to share your thoughts, and express my hope that the observations I have laid out here may hopefully be helpful to you in this case. Thanks again.