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.
