Personal Update/Additional Church News and Temple Developments Reported

Hello again, everyone! This post will serve 3 purposes: First, a personal update; second, a discussion of recently-reported Church news; and finally, to share a few temple updates which have crossed my radar. So let's get right into all of that. On the personal front, my procedure has been scheduled for 2:00 PM MDT, and I anticipate the whole process will take between 2-3 hours. I will then be released to start a 1-2 day at-home recuperation, and have been instructed to not do anything strenuous for 2 weeks or so after that. I look forward to getting that procedure taken care of.

With that said, in non-personal news, the Church News shared the following articles recently: two Latter-day Saint siblings are now rising opera stars, Elder Stevenson's address to graduates at the commcement for LDS Business College, Elder Holland's commencement address to the graduates from BYU-Idaho, a BYU professor's top ten finish in the recent Boston Marathon, and the reaction of Sister Sharon Eubank, director of LDS Charities and First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, to the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, which had personal impact on her.

Meanwhile, recent news reported on the Church's official website include: the First Presidency's official Easter message; the newest General Authority and General Officers chart, complete with the 119 General Authorities of the Church and all 15 general auxiliary presidency members, including the newly-sustained Sunday School General Presidency; a large print edition of the "Come Follow Me" manual; and an article about how differrent editions and printing schedules for "The Liahona" help to bless the worldwide Church.

And while I may or may not have reported many of the newest stories from the Church's official Newsroom, the one which I know I have not passed along is the latest edition of "Latter-day Saints Around the World". The latest edition features articles from Australia (from which there were 2), Jamaica, Guatemala, the Pacific, Canada, and India. It was good to read the summaries of all of these articles.

We now conclude with some temple updates. With the Fortaleza Brazil Temple open house now just 9 or 10 days away as of the publishing of this post, covered walkways and tents are being assembled for it. The open house will go from April 27-May 18. Meanwhile, there has been another outstanding update on the Durban South Africa Temple, where the tiling of floors and walls and the sanding and painting of walls is making progress, in addition to which doors and frames are being fitted, and progress has been made on the cladding of both the grand staircase and entrance retaining walls. Also workers are preparing to add pavement to the west side of that temple's parking lot.

On temples which have a groundbreaking scheduled, I have found information indicating that the demolition of the Yigo chapel is officially underway for the temple in Guam, and that heavy equipment is helping to clear the site for the Quito Ecuador Temple. And finally, in regards to temples undergoing renovation, the open house tours for the Memphis Tenessee Temple will end on the day after the scheduled annoucement detailing plans for the Salt Lake Temple renovation.

At the Washington DC Temple, while exterior wall grout and stained-glass window repair continues, work is underway inside on the elevators within the temple. And at the Mesa Arizona Temple, forms have been set for the north reflecting pool, while landscaping structures are being installed, and progress has been made in the planting of trees on the grounds of that temple. And as the Pacific Area prepares for visits from President and Sister Nelson and Elder and Sister Gong next month, the Hamilton New Zealand Temple has seen scaffolding erected in preparation for the refurbishment of the exterior.

I do continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and am committed to bringing you word of such news here 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, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyoed 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.