Hello again, everyone! I have breaking news to share from the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference that has just concluded. During his remarks that served as the capstone to this conference, President Nelson announced 6 new temples, which will be built in the following locations: Tarawa Kiribati; Port Villa Vanuatu; Lindon Utah; Greater Guatemala City Guatemala; East Sao Paulo Brazil; and Santa Cruz Bolivia. Along with covering this announcement, I wanted to share some preliminary information based on what is known about each of these new temples. First, the Church News also covered this announcement. Secondly, when Church Growth expert Matthew Martinich last updated his list of the top ten natons with the strongest Church presence without a temple last April, Kiribati and Vanuatu were on that list in the first and eighth positions.
Additionally, some have offered the opinion in the past that the forecasted sinking of both Kiribati and Vanuatu within the next hundred years or so might deter the Church from building a temple in either or both places. I am grateful that the Lord moved upon His prophet to announce temples for both island nations, and I look forward to seeing how the construction of both temples may lead to a change in those mortal opinions.
Lindon may or may not have been on my list, given that two temples are operating in Provo, with one more currently under construction in Orem, but it's clearly needed in this part of Utah County. Bolivia's second temple being announced for Santa Cruz was expected, as were additional temples in Guatemala and Brazil, but I didn't anticipate the announcement of general rather than specific locations for those. Overall, without conducting a more thorough analysis of the locations announced vs. what I predicted, I probably came close to my 60-80% accuracy rate for that part of my predictions.
I am grateful to have been able to learn of this development and pass word of it along to you all. I am confident the remainder of this year will see several other breaking Church news updates and temple developments, and I will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of such news in the future.
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.
Both Kirabati and Vanauatu have been in my prayers and top wish list for temples. I also had one or two in Bolivia on my list. I thought that a 2nd temple would be needed near Sao Paulo in the next few years due two the large number of stakes in the current temple district. Guatamala city-2 was a pleasant surprise, I would have thought it would wait until Conan is completed
ReplyDeleteLindon Utah also surprised me. With two temples under construction nearby in Saratoga Springs and Orem, I would not have expected that for a while. Temples anywhere is always great news. I have heard the global warming argument against Kirabati in the past. But did not believe that the possibility of a future (the next century or two)flooding/sinking would prevent a temple for them now(the next couple of decades)
Sorry autocorrect wrote Conan when I put in Coban.
ReplyDeleteChris, thanks for stopping by to share your feedback. I recall a few different times in the recent past where some temples have been announced for places where the timing and/or merits of the locations may have been in question. When it comes to these newest temples in the Pacific Islands of the Church, my seminary teacher's saying is foremost in my mind. The Lord is also obviously rewarding the faithfulness of Church membeers in these areas. I'll be interested to see how the list of the top ten nations change as a result of this. As far as the safety factor for the two newest Pacific temples, once the sites are dedicated, I'm reasonably certain that the Lord will temper the elments, including and especially the sinking land in those areas, to prevent that from occurring. I was also surprised by the general rather than specific locations for temples in Sao Paulo Brazil and Guatemala City, but that follows similar announcements such as the Lima Peru Los Olivos and Alabang Philippines Temples, so more information will be forthcoming as decisions are made.
ReplyDeleteI wish I knew what to make of the general scheduling for temple groundbreakings, or that I understood why it appears that 21 temples are on track for a groundbreaking this year, but President Nelson made reference to 20. I don't know if any delays are expected with any that are scheduled, or if he just misspoke. It will be interesting to figure that out. In the meantime, thanks, Chris, for taking time to comment.
Sao Paulo 2 was needed, the first temple is on the west side, and a stake president interviewed on Latter-day Saints Channel (at that time Mormon Channel) said it took better than 90 minutes in good traffic to get there if you didn't take the freeway. He lived in the Penha area on the east side.
ReplyDeleteNorth Orem near the radio transmitter farm and the cemetery was an early thought, but Lindon could solidify my idea of a five-mile average betwen temples in the urbanized metro, while we don't know where they may site it the area is smaller so that may allow us to make a better estimation of distances between Orem and Mount Timp.
Another thing about Utah County that is not known generally is that more than five years ago it was said by some at FamilySearch that Utah County was doing over 50 percent of the indexing, and while that may be less now due to making that a feature of the actual website rather than a repurposed call center software package with easier-to-use interfaces and other new functionality, that has helped fuel things to the point there are now going to be 7 operating temples likely before Salt Lake is rededicated just in this county.
Jim Anderson, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the new temples. I had four potential locations on my list for Brazil. Insofar as I have been able to ascertain, it appears that 3 of the 4 candidates I listed would fall within the region specified. But it will be interesting to see where the second Sao Paulo Brazil and Guatemala City Guatemala Temples will specifically located. And it appears that the precedent of announcing a second temple for a large region will continue to be the status quo as future needs arise. Thanks, ss always, for taking time to comment, Jim Anderson! Always a pleasure to hear from you.
DeleteJames, I was wondering the same thing at the time. Then I saw an article on Deseret News, which lists 12 temples scheduled for groundbreaking; a careful look shows that Mendoza was left off the list:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/10/2/21498807/latter-day-saints-mormon-temples-lds-india-zimbabwe-philippines-general-conference-russell-nelson
Interesting. I'm not sure why that temple would have been ommitted from both the Deseret News article and in the mention about temple groundbreakings by President Nelson yesterday, but I assume we may find out more about that soon, unless both omissions were just oversights. Thanks again for taking time to comment.
DeleteHello again, everyone! The Church News gathered early reaction from Church members in the locations in which temples were announced:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-10-04/october-general-conference-temple-announcement-sunday-afternoon-president-nelson-194723
My thanks once again to you all.
Although this is no longer breaking news, the Church announced today that three more temples will see a phase change. One temple (Tampico Mexico) will be entering phase 1, which allows living husband-and-wife sealings for those who have previously been endowed, and 2 others (Monticello Utah and Sapporo Japan) will shift from phase 1 to phase 2, which allows for the performance of all living ordinances in the following priority order: unendowed individuals preparing for a temple sealing, missionaries who have commenced their service without having previously been endowed, then those preparing to enter the mission field. The Newsroom and Church News provided different statistical breakdowns on the process of the phased reopening of temples that has been occurring since May:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/first-presidency-limited-reopening-temples
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-10-05/lds-temples-open-worldwide-phased-reopening-183918
And the Newsroom has also noted updates on the reopenings of Distribution Centers around the world:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/multimedia/file/church-distribution-retail-stores.pdf
The Church News has also published an article to highlight summaries from the talks given this last weekend in General Conference:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-10-05/general-conference-october-2020-download-pdf-talk-summaries-195059
And here is the PDF summary itself:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-10-05/general-conference-october-2020-download-pdf-talk-summaries-195059
My thanks once again to you all.
We in Guatemala are grateful for another temple announced. I still believe that the temple will be located in the Mixco / Villa Nueva part of Greater Guatemala City. We are also delighted with the upcoming groundbreaking for the temple in Cobán. Patzicia.
DeletePatzicia, thanks for taking time to share your thoughts. If Mixco/Villanueva does wind up being the location for that temple, that would make a lot of sense. I was gratified to hear about the groundbreaking for the Coban temple as well. It will be interesting to see what happens with temple construction overall through the remaining weeks of this year. Thanks again for taking time to comment.
DeleteThe rumor mill was cranking away in Lindon last night, some seem to think that it will be SE of the park and south of the Junior High in Lindon right on 200 South.
DeletePresently it is vacant, the field is about two blocks east to west and one block north to south, with an old seminary building from the days the junior high had 9th grade attending, on the west end of it, made sense it was there due to the scchool across a neighborhood road north of that.
Jim Anderson, thanks for taking time to comment here. For the last 3 Utah temples announced before the one in Lindon (Orem, Taylorsville, and Syracuse), it appears the locations were confirmed within 2-4 months of the conference in which they were announced. That suggests that the Church might confirm the location for the Lindon temple (and perhaps some preliminary information on it) anytime between December of this year and February or March of next year, if that trend continues. It will be interesting to see what happens there. Thanks for taking time to comment.
Delete