BREAKING NEWS: Open House and Dedication Dates Annnounced for Winnipeg Manitoba Temple/Other Major Developments Reported in Response to COVID-19

Hello again, everyone! Much to my surprise, one of two big announcements from the Church today was regarding the opening dates for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple. The Open house will be held from Thursday October 22-Saturday October 31, with the exception of Sundayh October 25. Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside over the 3 dedicatory sessions,on on Sunday November 8, which will be held at 9:00 AM, noon, and 3:00 PM Winnipeg time, which is equivalent to 8:00 Am, 11:00 AM, and 2:00 PM here in Utah. A youth devotional for those in Aaronic Priesthood Quorums and Young Women classes, along with their leaders and parents, will be held the night before. This announcement suggests to me that the Church anticipates tthat COVID-19 conditions will have cleared sufficiently to allow the open house and dedication of this temple as scheduled. That in turn means that perhaps the Church will not have to change the planned arrangements for the open house and rededication of the Washington D.C. Temple. But one thing this announcement does not change is that the revised open house and dedication dates for the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple are still pending. Hopefully the Church can soon announce those revisions, but for now, the arrangements for that temple are yet-to-be-determined. The other major announcement from the Church today was that the First Presidency has determined to cancel all treks and pageants that would have otherwise been held this year. That is a result of the Brethren's ongoing concern about COVID-19. But the Church has also donated cash and commodities  and Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff has provided a statement on how the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are handling missionary reassignments in the wake of COVID-19.General details on some of these developments can also be found for missionary work, Church pageants, and youth camps, conferences, and treks. And late yesterday, the Newsroom shared an article about how Latter-day Saints in Wales are partnering with local organizations to provide relief due to COVID-19 conditions in that nation.

It is plain to see that, even in the midst of COVID-19 conditions, the work continues to make outstanding progress on a wide variety of fronts. I continue to monitor all such developments and will pass word o all Church news updates and temple construction milestones and will be sure to pass word of htose along to you all ASAP after I learn of them. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Interior Renderings Released for Tooele Valley Utah Temple; Groundbreaking Arrangements Set for Feather River California Temple

Hello again, everyone! Breaking temple news on two fronts has been reported this morning. Firstly, the First Presidency released the interior renderings for the Tooele Valley Utah Temple. Project leaders have obtained sufficient city approval for the release of those renderings, and the groundbreaking arrangements for that temple at a later date. The renderings appear to draw direct inspiration from the architecture of buildings in the area, and many of the design elemnts are comparable to the beautiful natural scenes from many outdoor areas in Tooele. Aside from these notes, I will let the images speak for themselves, but if any of you have any other insights to share on these designs, I'd love to hear from you. If that were the only breaking temple news, it would be wonderful enough, but the First Presidency additionally announced this morning that the groundbreaking has been set for the Feather River California Temple. Oddly enough, that temple groundbreaking will be held in mid-July, on Saturday July 18, to be precise, marking the first time since the late 1990s-early 2000s under the Hinckley-era temple building boom that the Church has set a groundbreaking ceremony to take place in July, which is typically a recess month for all General Authorities of the Church. Elder Scott D. Whiting, a General Authority Seventy who currently serves as an Assistant Executive Director in the Temple Department and as First Counselor in the North America West Area, has been asked to preside over that groundbreaking ceremony. In a period of time where the latest temple groundbreakings have been conducted by apostles, members of the Presidency of the Seventy, or primarily the presidents of the areas in which the temples are being built, it is nice to see the status quo being shaken up in that respect a little.

Elder Whiting becomes the first representative from the Temple Department to preside at a groundbreaking since Elder Larry Y. Wilson, who at the time was the Executive Director of that Department, presided over the groundbreaking for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple after the original arrangemenst for that temple's groundbreaking (which would have seen Elder Ulisses Soares, then of the Presidency of the Seventy, preside thereat) had to be altered. Attendance at the Feather River California Temple site for the groundbreaking will be by invitation only, but additional details will be provided to those within the anticipated temple district closer to the date of that groundbreaking. With the news of the Feather River California Temple groundbreaking, there will be a 5-week period between the previously-scheduled groundbreaking for the Auckland New Zealand Temple (which is set to occur on Saturday June 13) and the groundbreaking for the Feather River California Temple. Based on the unexpected timing whereby this groundbreaking was set, and also based on the unexpected scheduling arrangements for it, I have no doubt many other surprise announcements relating to temples that will soon have a groundbreaking will be coming down the pike.

The Feather River California Temple thus joins the Alabang Philippines, Layton Utah, and Auckland New Zealand Temples as being scheduled for a groundbreaking, and the Tooele Valley Utah Temple also remains at the top of my list of temples for which a groundbreaking is anticipated to be announced soon. And that also opens up the possibliy that the Moses Lake Washington, McAllen Texas, and Bentonville Arkansas Temples (all of which will be on the smaller side) could have groundbreakings scheduled later this year, with those announcements scheduling those groundbreakings around the groundbreakings for some of the larger US temples. And I cannot in good conscience rule out the prospect that other surprise groundbreakings may be scheduled at unexpected times with an announcement made earlier than anticipated.

I continue to monitor all such developments and will do my level best to bring word of the latest Church news and temple updates to you all here as I become aware of such developments. 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.

Prayers Would Be Appreciated (Yet Again)

Hello again, everyone! Earlier this afternoon, my wife Amy got an update on her dad, who is around the same age as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. While we may not have all the details at present, what we do know about her dad's present health isutaion troubles us deeply. As a result of Amy having chatted with one of her brothers (who lives next door to her dad), they have made the determination that she needs to go stay with her dad. She will be heading out to do so later this evening. Because we have a cat here at home, and due to my not feeling well, I will be staying here at our house during the time she is gone. Your prayers woul again be very much appreciated on behalf of her dad (Gene Nuttall), and on behalf of my wife and myself during this time, especially since, with all temples still closed due to COVID-19, we will not be able to put our names and her dad's name on the prayer roll at the present time. Although there may be logistical changes to my availability to report Church news and temple developments during the period of time when my wife will be staying with her dad,  I will still do my level best to bring you all word of any Church news, temple updates, or anything else, as I become aware of such things. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: PDF Version of May 2020 Ensign Now Available

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to be able to report a breaking news development. The PDF version of the May 2020 Ensign is now available. Aside from my running a comparison between how my mock-up of the possible table of contents for this Ensign compared to the actual thing, I gleaned a couple more interesting insights from that layout. First of all, the Church managed to pack all the content from the conference into a 128-page magazine, rather than using the 144 pges which have been somewhat standard for the May Ensign most years, and occasionally has been the case for the November edition. That suggests to me that a 128-page edition may be the new standard going forward. As a result of it being a 128 page edition, the chart showing the current General Authorities and General Officers of the Church was on pages 64-65, not 72-73 as I had conjectured. And oddly enough, rather than having two full-page images on either side of that chart, this edition saw the text of General Conference messages take up pages 63 and 66. There were some talks by the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, GA Seventies, Presiding Bishopric, and General Officers of the Church which also took up a different amount of space (some more, and some less) than I had predicted. But one of my biggest takeaways from this General Conference edition is something in the photographs that I had not anticipated. We had been aware, of course, that the Church had requested images from members of them watching General Conference in their homes, of which many were featured. But I wasn't exactly sure how the First Presidency had handled the positioning of those who spoke or prayed in each session. We did see in the sessions that the First Presidency members were observing a 6-foot distance between each other, and that the apostles were seated the same way by seniority per session. But apparently, aside from the apostolic participants, the decision was made to have all other speakers and the two leaders giving the prayers in each session sit in the audience seats of the auditorium, then come up to the podium from there when it was their turn to speak or pray. That ensured that any who were participating in any manner were always at least 6 feet apart. It makes sense that was done, but I hadn't considered it as a possibility. With that said, I did want to note that I am still working on some of the other projects to which I have previously referred, and which I hope to post ASAP.

I have even put together a preliminary edition of my predictions for the October 2020 General Conference. I may hold off on publishing that here for the time being so I can continue to make any necessary adjustments. As of right now, it is my hope that the October 2020 General Conference may be more of a normal one, being able to convene in the Conference Center without limitations on attendees or the number of participants taking part in each session, but I am holding off on putting anything solid in that respect up on this blog until more is known about any adjusted meeting regulations. The Utah Governor, Gary Herbert, spoke during a press conference earlier this afternoon, nd stated he hoped to be able to initiate a soft reopening of some of this state one week from today. If that happens, and is a successful step in opening Utah fully, that might lift restrictions on social distancing, and would enable the October 2020 General Conference to proceed with the standard number of participants (with most General Authorities and General Officers able to attend most sessions) and being able to be held in the Conference Center for a capacity congregation (21,000 individuals). Stay tuned for those predictions once I figure that out, and for all other projects as I am able to complete them.

I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all here as I become aware of them. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Site Location and Preliminary Details Confirmed for the Bentonville Arkansas Temple

Hello again, everyone! Right after publishing my most recent comment in the threads of the previous post, something prompted me to refresh my browser on the Newsroom website. When I did, I came across a brand new breaking news development. The First Presidency has confirmed the location and preliminary details for the Bentonville Arkansas Temple. It will be built on an 8.8 acre site at 1101 McCollum Road. In addition to retaining the on-site meetinghouse, the site will feature a single-story temple of roughly 25,000 square feet. Project leaders in the coming months will work with city leaders through the approvals process. And it would not shock me at all if a groundbreaking for this temple could take place before the end of this year, which seems more likely than not. The temple, originally announced in October 2019, becomes the fourth of the eight announced during that General Conference, to have preliminary details officially confirmed.

As anticipated, President Nelson is not letting the proverbial moss grow under his feet, and is taking serious action on the backlog queue of announced temples. I continue to monitor all such developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things.

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.

Updates Made to Temple Construction Progress Report

Hello again, everyone! In this post-General Conference season, I have kept somewhat busy updating many of my files with relevant information. Among those files has been my temple construction progress report. Above and beyond sharing those updates, some of the work I have done requires additional context.  Firstly, as previously noted when I last shared the full version of this report, I have post-dated it in order to negate the need to continuously update thaat date. As a result, the information about the amount of time between that date and the bicentennial anniversary of the Church is ahead of what it actually is as of today. If anyone wants the current data in that respect, please let me know. Next, new information on the Puebla Mexico Tmple has clarified that site clearing is complete, but that full-scale construction on the temple is pending, and, as a result, I have moved that temple from the queue of those under construction to those for which full-scale construction is pending, and have followed the example of the sources available to me for temple information in removing a more general completion estimate for that temple for the time being. As previously noted, because the report is post-dated to May 24, I have also put information in that report as if the groundbreaking for the Alabang Philippines Tempale has already taken place, because it is set to occur on May 2, with the date on the report being 22 days after that groundbreaking will have taken place. An update has slso been provided on the Layton Utah Temple, for which a groundbreaking will be held on the Saturday following the date currently noted on that report. The next major revisions involved a complete reworking of the "Groundbreaking Anticipated" section. With the approval process for the Tooele Valley Utah Temple anticipated to be expedited, it seems very liely that temple could be the next to have a groundbreaking set. And with the updated information that has been shared within the last week regarding approvals for the Washington County and Orem Utah Temples, it seems likely either or both of those could be next to have a groundbreaking. Depending on how quickly things happen for the Taylorsville Utah Temple following the demolition this month of the on-site meetinghouse, the groundbreaking for that temple could very well be one of the next ones to have a groundbreaking. if the next phases of approval for the Brasilia Brazil and McAllen Texas Temples go quickly, those two could each have their groundbreakings, and the same applies to the Feather River California and Moses Lake Washington Temples. In the meantime, I also anticipate more official details to be announced for the Phnom Pehn Cambodia and Bengaluru India Temples, in addition to the Harare Zimbabwe, Nairobi Kenya, San Pedro Sula Honduras, Coban Guatemala, and Managua Nicaragua Temples.

Moving on to temples undergoing renovation, I realized that new information on the Mesa Arizona Temple may confirm my previously-offered theory that that temple could (and likely will) be rededicated before the rededication of the Tokyo Japan Temple occurs, so I have adjusted that accordingly. A new update has also been reported on the Salt Lake Temple, so that is included as well. And the final updates to my report involved a thorough review of the extent of the information I had for the temples that have not yet gone beyond an announcement. Information that was more speculative (such as when more than one potential location may be under consideration for any on the list), or that was subject to future confirmation (such as the timing of the Dubai 2020 Expo, which will impact how soon that temple could have a groundbreaking), that led me to reorder some temples, moving them up or down as was appropriate based on that analysis. And of course, any information I offer is subject to change as official announcements are subsequently made.I will be sure to keep my eyes open for all such updates and will pass them on to you all here, along with any additional Church news, as I become aware of such developments. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Announces 2020 Area Leadership Assignments

Hello again, everyone! A short while ago, I was notified of a breaking news update through the Church News app. This afternoon/evening, the First Presidency announced the changes in area leadership that will go into effect on August 1. For the first time, the leadership assignments included some demographic data and notes about unique elements related to these changes. Although a more complete analysis will be added  to this post later on tonight as I have a chance to complete that, I wanted to note the news for now. And I also wanted to note that, as expected, Elder L. Whitney Clayton is being released as Senior President of the Seventy and will almost certainly be released from active service and desiganted an emeritus General Authority in October. That results in Elder Patrick Kearon officially becoming the first intternationally-born Senior President of the Seventy. But the big surprise came with the announcement of the new member of that Presidency who will begin serving on August 1. The First Presidency announced that Elder Brent H. Nielson, who was called as a GA Seventy in April 2009, and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Church Missionary Department, will be the new member of that Presidency. So it appears there will be a reshuffling in the leadership of the Missionary Department. More information on that, and my more in-depth and specific analysis on this will be added to this post later today. For now, my thanks to you all. (Added at 8:57 PM) I have been able to complete my analysis of changes in area leadership. I have set up a new shareable document detailing those changes. There was a lot to unpack, above and beyond what the Church News reported on these changes. I also wanted to present again the document showing the most likely changes I had anticipated being announced.  I have not had a chance to run any analysis on the accuracy of the changes I had predicted vs. those that wound up actually being announced, but it appears I did have quite a few of those predictions correct. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring word of all such developments to you here as I become aware of them. 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. data-ad-slot="7053987612">

Prayers Would Be Appreciated

Hello again, everyone! This will be a brief personal update based on information I received late Sunday evening. I have been experiencing a resurgence of gastrointestinal issues. Over this last week, my docotr has run a couple of blood panels, along with one other test, to determine what to do about this issue. Towards the end of this last week, he had made an initial change to my medication treatment plan. and hoped that would be sufficient to deal with the problem, but he apparently went over the results of that latest panel of blood tests, and they are reportedly trending in the wrong direction. As a result of his consultation with the on-call gastro doctor for this weekend about these results, we were advised around 3 hours ago that they will need to do an endoscopy at some point tomrrow to examine the issues more thorougly. Due to my extensive medical history, going in for such a procedure is nerve-wracking enough under a normal situation, but I will, of course, be needing to undergo this procedure tomrrow during a period of time where concern in Utah over COVID-19 is rampantly abudant. As a result, this particular procedure needing to be done right now is even more of a concern. I realize that by the time most of you read this later today, this issue may be resolved. But if any of you are able to send prayers heavenward in behalf of my wife and myself as we deal with this issue within the next 8-12 hours, I'd greatly appreciate it. I will hopefully be able to report back on the results of anything that has been figured out within the next 12-15 hours. I will also, of course, be back to report any interesting Church news or temple updates later today when I can. In the meantime, thanks for indulging me in this personal update and resulting request.

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.

BREAKING NEWS: Transcripts of All April 2020 General Conference Talks Are Now Available; Updated Documents Related to the April 2020 General Conference and the Latest Temple Updates

Hello again, everyone! I have late breaking news to share here again tonight. Although the April 2020 General Conference concluded around 63 hours ago, the Church must have worked lightning fast, and the transcripts for all talks given during the five General Sessions last weekend are now officially availableAside from the quick turnaround effort on the part of the Church to make those available online so quickly in this case, one other thing surprised me.  I have previously commented on the fact that the Church sometimes experiences a delay in making the video archives of some General Conference talks available following the General Conference session in which they were given. There were similar lags in that respect this go-round. It wasn't until almost an hour after the Sunday Morning Session this weekend that the video archives of all addresses given on Saturday were made available. 
  
  

Similarly, it was a couple of hours after the General Conference concluded that the video archives for the Sunday Morning Session were made available. It wasn't until sometime yesterday that all but the final address given by President Nelson were made available. And as things now stand, with the transcripts available for all of the General Conference talks, the video of President Nelson's closing remarks in the last session of conference still appears to be missing from the Church's official General Conference site. But I was able to pull a rough estimate on the length of that address from the video archive of that final session via Youtube.So this post is primarily being published to share that news, but also to share the document on which I tracked the length of each apostolic address. I also have updates on the  total number of talks given by each of our apostles, both prior to and since their calls to the apostleship, have spoken during General Conference. And I also wanted to present as well the updated sections of my temple construction progress report (which I have completely restructured as a result of what is known and unknown. Additionally, I have finished my work for now on the possible table of contents layout for the May 2020 Ensign, which will be subject to change as more information comes to light. And, since I anticipate that the changes in area leadership for 2020 will be announced by the Church anytime between this upcoming Thursday (April 9) and the final Friday of this month (April 24), I have additionally assembled a list of the most likely changes that may be made in conjunction with that announcement.

Finally, I wanted to provide an updated link to my April 2020 General Conference predictions, which indicate what I got right and wrong through the usage of brackets, parentheses, and the relevant notes. I will have a total score and accuracy percentage for those predictions later this week. I know that this post packs a lot of new content, and I thank you for your interest in everything I am providing here. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Exterior Renderings Released for Three Temples In the Western United States

Hello again, everyone! An hour or two ago, my phone lit up with a massive amount of notifications, and some of those and other priorities demanded my immediate attention, But I wanted to share my analysis on some breaking temple news to which long-time reader Eric S. referred in the comments of the previous post. That comment was made at around the same time I received notice from the Church News app that this news has been reported. The Church today released three renderings for temples here in the western United States, namely: Moses Lake Washington, Tooele Valley Utah, and Washingtton County Utah Temples. In the coming months, project leaders will file public documents with city councils/planning and zoning commissions for the approrpriate approvals. The site locations for Moses Lake Washington, Tooele Valley Utah, and Washington County Utah temples were previously confirmed, so this is the next logical step. The addresses thereof and the sizes as detailed in those prior announcements have not changed very much. In fact, Moses Lake and Tooele Valley's detaied aniticipated sizes have not changed at all, period. The former will still be a single-story temple of approximately 20,000 feet. Although the newest release doesn't mention the adjoining meetinghouses for Moses Lake or Tooele Valley, barring anything unexpected, it appears the general plans for both of those will not change too much from the original announcements. As for the Washington County Utah Temple, we do not as yet have a more official name for it. (If that eventually happens, it will make sense, because according to what Elder Steven E. Snow said to Saints in Washington County within the last couple of years, a third temple to serve the Saints there will almost certainly be needed in the not-too-distant future, so the more general name for the second templehat county is not likely to stick.)  That said, the release in which the site for what will be the second  temple of the Church in the city of St. George was announced noted that the size of that temple was anticipated to be roughly 88,000 feet. Today's release adjusts that number slightly to 90,000 square feet, so either number, or anywhere in between the two, may be the temple's actual size.

A few other thoughts struck me about these newest announcements. First of all, President Nelson did not let the moss grrow under his feet too much following this weekend's General Conference. And with Elder Bednar's statement made on Sunday that a total of 18 new temples would have a groundbreaking during this year, these 3 can safely be added to the queue. Above and beyond that, since the temple in Tooele Valley Utah is going to be built at an accelerated pace, that temple probably will move to the top of the "Groundbreaking Anticipated" section of my temple construction progress report. With Moses Lake Washington's planned size, that may not be far behind other US temples I currently have listed in that section. And with Washington County's larger size likely resulting in approval taking slightly longer, that temple may be slightly lower in that section. I will be reworking that and get it published here by way of a new post or comment on this post hopefully later today or ASAP tomorrow at latest.

In the meantime, 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.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Statistics

Hello again, everyone! With the last session of General Conference having wrapped up less than an hour ago, I wanted to take the chance now to provide the latest apostolic statistics. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to do so is to provide shareable links to those updates, so that anyone with those links can read them in their current forms. And that will also eliminate the need to publish two posts for this update. The updated data comprises two parts, the first and the second. The information largely speaks for itself. I will, of course, pass along any additional Church news or temple developments, as I become aware of such things. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: President Nelson Announces 8 New Temples As the April 2020 General Conference Concludes

Hello again, everyone! The final session of the April 2020 General Conference has just concluded, and in its' closing moments, our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, announced that 8 new temples will be built in the following locations: Bahia Blanca, Argentina; Tallahassee Florida; Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Benin City, Nigeria; Syracuse, Utah; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Shanghai, People's Republic of China. The Newsroom release is likely going to be updated over the next little while, but in the interim, further context has been provided by President Nelson, as relayed by the Church News. While acknowledging that it may seem strange to talk about announcing new temples while all operating temples are currently closed, the languge in the final 3 paragraphs of the Salt Lake Temple dedicatory prayer provides insight and perspective about the time in which we are currently living. With that background in mind, I have a few other thoughts to share on the monumental significance of this latest slate of announced temples. It was specifically also mentioned by President Nelson that the Saints in the Dubai area had specifically requested a temple. Based on information I had previously received, the Saints in Bahia Blanca Argentina have also been lobbying the Church for a temple of their own. A few other comments on these announced temples. I had anticipated that the next Florida temple would go to Jacksonville, but recognize that one is needed in Tallahassee, so I'm not surprised by that announcement. It is also tremendous to consider that, less than a full year following the dedication of the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple, a second one is being announced for that nation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, which currently falls in the boundaries of the Africa Southeast Area, will become part of the new Africa Central Area in August of 2020. I am grateful that the Lord verified my choices of Bahia Blanca, Lubumbashi, Pittsburgh, Benin City, and Dubai. Another Utah temple is not a surprise. I was absolutely blown away, however, by the announcement of a temple for the People's Republic of China.

The nature of the Church''s current relationship with and arrangements for members of the Church in China remains unchanged, as confirmed by President Nelson, but it is nice that the Chinese government is willing to work with the Church in this particular case, and I have no doubts whatsoever that having a temple in Shanghai will greatly assist the Church and its' members in that relationship with the Chinese government, especially during this period of time when the Hong Kong China temple remains closed for its' renovation. It sounds to me as though the Church plans to move quickly on the Shanghai China Temple, and it will be interesting to see what specifically happens there. But the nature of what President Nelson said when he announced these 8 newest temples does lead me to wonder whether any of those that were announced today are going to move quickly enough through the approval process to be among the 16 that will have a groundbreaking this year, as mentioned by Elder Bednar. It will be interesting to see what happens with all of these temples, in addition to all others currently announced or under construction.

Understandably, due to the nature of the required updates, it may take the Church a little while into this evening to expand the official Newsroom release on these temples, and also, the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site appears to be down for the moment while the data, information, and pages for this and other temples are updated. Two other observations, if I may offer them: First, in April and October of last year, and in April of this year, 8 temples were announced each time. This suggests to me that 8 temples may continued to be announced per General Conference for the foreesable future. And secondly, with 8 temples added to the current queue, there are 43 announced temples. When we subtract the 4 for which a groundbreaking has already been scheduled, and the 12 others which will have a groundbreaking by the end of this year, depending on the timing for those 12, the queue of announced temples may continue to hover around 30, which is more or less what we have been told about President Nelson's plans. For my part, I continue to monitor all such developments, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things.

I should also note here that I will be publishing another post within the next hour to share the latest apostolic statistics, as the standard 7 weeks have passed since my last update. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: 18 Temples Will Have a Groundbreaking This Year; President Nelson Introduces a New Proclamation in Honor of the Restoration's Bicentennial Anniversary

Hello again, everyone! In late February of this year, congregational mission leadership had been invited to participate in the Temple and Family History Leadership Training, The training focused on the correlation between missionary efforts and temple worship. Fast forward to the Sunday Morning Session which has just wrapped up. With a temple/missionary theme, I felt even more certain that this Sunday Morning Session would bring the announcement of new temples. But the Lord had something else in mind. Elder David A. Bednar, who, as noted previously, chairs the Temple and Family History Executive Council, did announce that the Church is planning on breaking ground for 18 new temples this year. That means that, in addition to the 4 already scheduled (in Richmond Virgninia, Alabang Philippines, Layton Utah, and Auckland New Zealand), 14 other temples will also see groundbreakings this year. While it may be too early to tell which temples might have that happen, I have a fair idea. The Church is also likely to break ground for the following temples: Orem, Taylorsville, and Tooele Valley Utah, Brasilia Brazil, Feather River California, San Pedro Sula Honduras, Coban Guatemala, Managua Nicaragua, Nairobi Kenya, Harare Zimbabwe, Moses Lake Washington, Washington County Utah, McAllen Texas, and either Phnom Pehn Cambodia or Bengaluru India. So we have many more temple-related announcements to which we can look forward, including the likely announcement of a at least a few new temples at the conclusion of this General Conference by President Nelson.

After a session during which missionary work and temple worship was a dual focus, the Solemn Assembly portion of General Conference was prefaced by President Nelson through the release of a new official proclamation in honor of this bicentennial milestone of the Restoration. The prophet noted that that Proclamation would be made available online directly after the session in which it was introduced. While the proclamation is currently available in 14 languages and will soon be available through the Gospel Libery app is many other languages, I wanted to share a link to the English text thereof, as it was read by President Nelson.

It is a wonderfully inspirational document, and I hope we will all take time to review it repeatedly over the next little while. In the meantime, barring anything very unexpected, I am anticipating that any number of new temples will be announced by President Nelson during his remarks that will conclude this bicentennial General Conference, and I will bring word of and analysis about that announcement ASAP after it it made. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: President Nelson Announces New Symbol For the Church; New Initiative

Hello again, everyone! During this Saturday Evening Session, President Nelson announced a new symbol for the Church and extended an invitation for all Church members to participate in another worldwide fast on Good Friday, April 10.  The Newsroom also provided some additional historical context  on times when the youth of the Church have participated in General Conference. I am grateful to have been able to bring word of these developments to you. It has indeed been a most unprecedented conference, and there will be more to come tomorrow for sure. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Solemn Assembly to Be Held During Sunday Morning Session

Hello again, everyone! Less than a few minutes into this April 2020 General Conference, Church President Russell M. Nelson made the first of many major announcements for this conference. He announced that a Solemn Assembly of the Church would be held during the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference tomorrow. While other elements of that Solemn Assembly are unknown as of yet, what we do know is that, at the conclusion of the session, President Nelson will lead the Church in the traditional Hosanna Shout, which has traditionally been offered at temple dedications, at the dedication of the Conference Center in 2000, and at the rededication of the Tabernacle on Temple Square. That in turn will be followed by the Tabernacle Choir (whose members are indeed providing prerecorded or archived music for each session), joined by the congregation, will sing "The Spirit of God." I'd just note here that I dos not know if the traditional Sustaining of Church Officers will be part of that session, or might occur in any of the other 3 general sessions. But we'll soon find out.

I am grateful for this opportunity to have shared this development with you. I continue to monitor the events of this General Conference weekend and will bring you all the latest reports as that information becomes available. 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.