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

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.