Additional News Reported Relating to the Rome Italy Temple Dedication

Hello again, everyone! Some additional news has been reported from Rome Italy as the dedication of that temple continues. All living apostles gathered in Rome for the dedicatory events gathered for a set of historic photographs. Two of those photos show the entire First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, one in their white temple suits, and the other in their "street clothes". As some of you may be aware, it has been a tradition of sorts for the Church to feature new separate photographs for the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles anytime there is a change in either of those leading Quorums of the Church. But this is the first time in around 2 decades or so where a photo was taken with all of the apostles together.

There is even more significance in this development, however. For the first time of which I am aware, a group photograph was also taken featuring almost all of the wives of the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The only one missing from that photo was Sister Kathleen J. Eyring, wife of President Henry B. Eyring. As President Eyring mentioned in his address during the last General Conference, his wife is dealing with some significant health issues incident to her age, so she has not been actively able to accompany him to such occasions and assignments for the last several years.

But there is even more significance involved in these developments: In this article from the Church News, a quote from President Nelson emphasizes that the Lord inspired him to gather all of his apostolic colleagues in Rome for this dedication, and he apparently met with each of them individually to extend that invitation personally. It is very wonderful to know that we have a prophet who is not hesitant at all to highlight exactly how much of his actions and decisions have been inspired by the Lord.

As BYU students were told in 1980 by then-Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one of Fourteen Fundamentals relating to following the prophet is that the prophet does not need to say "thus saith the Lord" to give us modern scripture or instructions that the Lord has inspired him to give. But we have a prophet who is absolutely fearless in declaring how much of what he does in his ministry has been directed by the Lord.

All of the articles I have cited so far are well worthy of your time. But in addition to that, President Nelson's wife, Sister Wendy W. Nelson, took time while in Rome with her husband to share her testimony and firsthand witness of the foreordination and divinely-inspired calling of her husband as the Prophet of the Lord and President of the Church. One thing she mentioned is that her husband's practice of writing down many instructions from the Lord has accelerated and not slowed at all in the last year. She also again referred to his willingness to be innovative, and to do things differently, in view of the ultimate goal is making the Church run more effectively in every way.

And so history continues to be made in Rome, most notably because today marked the first time in around a decade or so that a temple dedication has been scheduled to be longer than a single day. Dedicatory services will have wrapped up by this time tomorrow in Utah time. And more reports will be provided about this temple's dedication within the next 36 hours or so. I will monitor such developments and pass word of them along to you all as I receive it.

In the meantime, I wanted to pass along a couple more new temple updates before I conclude here. First, with the time in Kinshasa now being just after 8:30 PM, the Church has wrapped up VIP/Media tours for the first temple in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In around 12-13 hours, that temple will be open to the public for an 18-day period, until March 30, with the exclusion of the relevant Sundays. As previously mentioned, that temple will be dedicated the Sunday following General Conference, and I anticipate that event could somehow coincide with another leg of President Nelson's ongoing Global Ministry Tour.

Another update has been reported relating to the Durban South Africa Temple, where efforts are underway to clad the baptismal font in marble, and where ceiling and tiling work continues. On the grounds of the temple, walkways are being poured, and the walls of the water feature are being prepared for their installation. Meanwhile, at the Raleigh North Carolina Temple, stone cladding has been completed.

I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. 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.