Hello again, everyone! Within the last couple of months, the First Presidency initiallydiscontinuedthe Priesthood and Women's Sessions (which had respectively been held in April and October on the Saturday Evenings of General Conference weekend). That was done in early June. Roughly 6 weeks later (towards the end of last month), that session wasreinstated, though a change to its' format was announced. Prior to both announcements, I had repeatedly mentioned that each General Conference held under President Nelson has been uniquely different in various ways.
That was certainly true of last April'sGeneral Conference.4 General Officers of the Church spoke. For the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 3 spoke in the first and last sessions, 4 others in the Saturday Afternoon Session, and the remaining 2 speak during the Priesthood and Sunday Morning Sessions (1 each). The 3 Saturday Sessions featured 3 General Authority Seventies, 2 of whom pre-recorded their remarks while serving outside the United States.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Sessions included 6 GA Seventies in the Morning Session (3 of whom pre-recorded their remarks). Included among those 6 were also one current member of the Presidency of the Seventy (Elder Jose A. Teixeira) and 1 other GA Seventy who began serving in the Presidency of the Seventy at the beginning of this month (Elder S. Mark Palmer). And the Sunday Afternoon Session featured 2 more GA Seventies, 1 of whom pre-recorded their remarks. With a total of 11 GA Seventies speaking, that marked the highest number of GA Seventies speaking in a single General Conference within the last couple of decades.
It's also worth noting that no representatives from the Presiding Bishopric spoke. Having now laid out what occurred in the last General Conference, I wanted to note I have gotten to the point of reworking my predictions for the October 2021 General Conference that I can now share what I've got so far with you all here. A couple of preliminary notes: Since the Saturday Evening Session has been reinstated and opened to all Church members and friends of other faiths, I've surmised that the entire First Presidency will speak in reverse-seniority order to close out that session, and that 1 member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and 2 other General Authorities or General Officers might also speak then.
With the process of sustaining the general Church leadership during each General Conference having been shortened, I then determined that the Church would most likely have 4 members of the Quorum of the Twelve speak on Saturday Afternoon, which would allow 2 other general leaders to speak as well. And since the average number of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Saturday Morning Session has been just about 3 every time, I think that will also continue.
So, with 3 Quorum members predicted to speak on Saturday Morning, with 4 more that afternoon, and 1 in the evening, that's a total of 8. For Sunday's sessions, my research shows that having 2 apostles speak in each of those sessions, with President Nelson closing out both, and with his counselors alternating as the first speakers ion Saturday Afternoon, that would open the prospect that more non-apostolic speakers would be able to address each General Conference, particularly the last two sessions.
I apologize for that lengthy introduction, but I wanted to set the background for my predictions. I suppose there is more than a slight chance that the speaker lineup in all General Conferences might be more in line with what happened inApril 2019andApril 2020. The biggest question mark will be how and to what extent the new Saturday Evening format might affect the rest of the conference. All that remains now for this post is for me to share the specific predictions I have assembled. First up is theprojected speaker lineup(with notes providing additional context, when needed), the anticipated changes ingeneral Church leadership, and my revised list of locations in which I have felt a new templecould be announced.
Regarding the last item on the list, I have some additional information to share. Followers of theChurch Growth Blogknow that the blog author, Matthew Martinich, offers his list of the top ten locations in which a temple could be announced just before each General Conference. While I'm not comfortable narrowing my list to the top ten candidates, what I have done is created a breakdown of the most likely places in which a temple could be announced this time around based on the geographical area of the Church under which each location falls.
Unless I have miscounted what's on my list, I have a total of 24 candidates that seem most likely to have a temple announced. Here is a copy of that list:
October 2021 Top Temple Candidate Locations (projected):
Africa Central—Kampala Uganda
Africa South—Antananarivo Madagascar
Africa West—Monrovia Liberia<
Asia—Jakarta Indonesia
Asia North—Ulaanbaatar Mongólia
Brazil—Florianópolis João Pessoa/Ribeirão Preto Brazil
Caribbean—Kingston Jamaica<
Europe—Edinburgh Scotland
Mexico—Durango Mexico
North America Central—Green Bay Wisconsin & Wichita Kansas
North America Northeast—East Brunswick New Jersey
North America Southeast—Jackson Mississippi
North America Southwest—Queen Creek Arizona
North America West—Fairbanks Alaska & Bakersfield California
Philippines—Tacloban & Angeles Philippines
South America Northwest—Iquitos Peru & La Paz Bolivia<
South America South—Osorno Chile
Utah—Herriman & Lehi Utah
So those are my updated predictions for the October 2021 General Conference. An open commenting period remains in effect on these predictions until 10:00 PM on Thursday September 30, which will allow me roughly 36 hours to carry out any needed updates. I look forward to any feedback any of you have on these predictions. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I become aware thereof.
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.
Hello again, everyone! Although I had hoped to reserve the comments section of this post for any feedback on my General Conference predictions, I have several Church news updates to pass along, and I wanted to ensure they were easily accessible to all my readers.
ReplyDeleteThe following Church News updates speak for themselves:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-19/byu-education-week-cultivate-joy-carrie-wrigley-222689
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-08-19/byu-education-week-children-and-youth-program-tool-wilcox-craven-222787
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-08-19/nfl-brady-poppinga-missionary-spanish-football-television-uruguay-222739
I have one other Church News report, which has also been covered by the Newsroom:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-19/reverend-brown-liahona-overcoming-prejudice-racism-naacp-222816
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/overcoming-prejudice-amos-brown
If there are any temple updates that have been reported today, I will share those later this evening. For now, my thanks once again to you all.
Here is one more Church News updteI missed earlier:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/history-revisited/2021-08-19/as-covid-19-cases-surge-former-assistant-church-historian-shares-lessons-of-the-past-222728
My thanks once again to you all.
Hello again, everyone! The Church News has continued to provide updated coverage on BYU-Provo's Campus Education Week. There may have been a few articles covering that which I've missed, so I wanted to share the web address for the Church News' specific section on that coverage:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/category/education
I would also like to mention something else. As I've previously noted, while I was not too surprised by the announcement of opening arrangements for the Pocatello Idaho Temple (since Idaho has done well to keep COVID-19 conditions under control), the announcement of reopening arrangements for the Mesa Arizona Temple and revised reopening arrangements for the Washington D.C. Temple were very surprising. My understanding was that COVID-19 conditions in both locations were still fairly significant and severe.
But since we have seen those announcements released, that opens the prospect that reopening arrangements could be announced in the near future for both the Tokyo Japan and Hamilton New Zealand Temple. The announcement of those details for the Hamilton temple appears likely to occur first, since New Zealand has had COVID-19 sufficiently under control for a while now. An announcement on the Tokyo temple's reopening arrangements might still be delayed until at least the first full week of September, due to the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics occurring between Tuesday August 25 and Sunday September 5.
Aside from the temples for which renovations have been completed and the Pocatello Idaho Temple, the Church also has 2 temples for which opening arrangements were announced and then delayed (Rio de Janeiro Brazil and Winnipeg Manitoba). Brazil is still experiencing severe COVID-19 conditions, which are not expected to abate at all until April or May of next year at the earliest. For the Rio de Janeiro Temple, it's possible the Church could arrange a longer period for the open house while enabling small groups to schedule tours, with appropriate precautions in place for the protection of all concerned. But it seems more likely that the Church will instead hold off on rescheduling those arrangements until COVID-19 conditions in Rio are sufficiently eased. I imagine that whenever that temple can be dedicated, the Church will send the native Brazilian apostle, Elder Ulisses Soares, back to his homeland to dedicate that temple.
DeleteMeanwhile, regarding the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, the biggest obstacle to rescheduling the open house and dedication are that Canada's borders have been closed to the United States. Apparently, Canada plans to reopen its borders to US citizens and residents within the next month or two. However, the latest reports indicate that the US is restricting non-essential travel to Canada at least through the middle of next month, so it could be the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year before the Church even considers opening the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple to the public.
That being said, the Church has also called the first president and matron for the Yigo Guam temple, and the couple has reportedly arrived in Guam and may be doing what they can to ensure that once the open house has been held and a dedication has occurred, that the temple presidency and those set apart as ordinance workers are ready to go from day 1. And apparently, with Guam being an unincorporated territory of the United States, any travel between the United States and Guam will follow the same protocol as travel from any of the 50 states in the nation to any of the other states or US territories. I'm hoping that means that opening arrangements for the Yigo Guam Temple could be announced soon. Right now, it's just after 5:00 AM in Yigo. So 5:00 PM here in Utah is 9:00 AM the following day in Yigo. I anticipate that any announcement of opening arrangements for the Yigo Guam Temple will occur at around 9:00 AM on any given day in Yigo. It will be interesting to see what happens for that temple.
The temple in Quito Ecuador is also nearing completion, but as of today, the Church has not yet called the first president and metron for that temple. And due to any travel restrictions between the United States and South America, it may be a while yet before we hear about opening arrangements for the temple in Quito.
DeleteSo there are a lot of moving parts to work through when it comes to the Church opening or reopening a temple prior to the dedication or rededication of those temples. It will be interesting to see what happens there.
I'll likewise be very interested to see what happens with the scheduling of additional temple groundbreakings and/or the release of official information about temples worldwide. I'm particularly anticipating announcements in the near future about the locations and preliminary details for the Eugene Oregon and Ephraim Utah Temples, but hope we might also see announcements about other temples elsewhere in the world. To the best of my ability, I will track those on my end and do my best to bring you word on all such developments. In the meantime, thanks again, all.
Hello again, everyone! In addition to further coverage on the BYU Campus Education Week, the Church News also published the latest installment in the continuing "This Week on Social" series, highlighting social media content from general Church leaders:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-20/social-media-leaders-uchtdorf-bednar-ohana-222941
The latest edition featured posts from Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf, David A. Bednar, and Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in addition to the following General Officers of the Church: Sisters Michelle D. Craig and Rebecca L. (Becky) Craven, the respective First and Second Counselors in the Young Women General Presidency; and Primary General President Sister Camille N. Johnson and her First Counselor, Sister Susan H. Porter. My thanks once again to you all.
I have a few temple updates to provide. First of all, the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple groundbreaking scheduled to take place tomorrow will apparently be broadcast at 7:00 AM Pittsburgh time, which is 5:00 AM here in Utah. Above and beyond that, status updates have been provided for the following temples: Pocatello Idaho, Saratoga Springs Utah, Richmond Virginia, Helena Montana, Taylorsville Utah, Urdaneta Philippines, and Salt Lake:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/pocatello-idaho-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/saratoga-springs-utah-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/richmond-virginia-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/helena-montana-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/taylorsville-utah-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/urdaneta-philippines-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/salt-lake-temple/
My thanks once again to you all.
The Newsroom has confirmed that the groundbreaking for the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple took place this morning as scheduled, with Elder Randall K. Bennett, the GA Seventy currently serving as president of the North America Southeast Area:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/groundbreaking-held-for-pittsburgh-pennsylvania-temple
The newest US temple is anticipated to be 29,785 square feet. The Church Temples site has placed the Pittsburgh Temple below the Harare Zimbabwe Temple but above the Antofagasta Chile Temple in the construction queue. But since this temple is being built in the United States, I anticipate that the Pittsburgh Temple will move up in the queue once construction begins.
Once it is able to move up, I'm thinking that it will be placed in the queue between the Syracuse Utah and Davao Philippines Temples, with a general completion estimate of mid-2024. But time will tell if that is correct.
Meanwhile, the Church News has provided the following additional reports, which speak for themsevles:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-21/haiti-earthquake-2010-scott-taylor-222996
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-21/music-and-the-spoken-word-a-treasure-to-be-discovered-222848
My thanks once again to you all.
The Church News has also provided a report about the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple's groundbreaking:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2021-08-21/pittsburgh-pennsylvania-temple-groundbreaking-223008
The Church News also shared information on the humanitarian aid sent to Paraguay, as the citizens of that nation struggle with severe COVID-19 conditions:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2021-08-21/paraguay-humanitarian-aid-covid-19-donations-223015
My thanks once again to you all.
On this Sabbath Day, the Church News has shared the latest edition of "In Case You Missed It", which highlights the top 9 developments reported during the previous week:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-08-22/week-in-review-elder-uchtdorf-young-men-women-presidencies-at-byu-education-week-pittsburgh-temple-groundbreaking-haiti-earthquake-paralympians-222964
Additionally, this year marks the 20th anniversary since the two-year Ricks College transitioned to the 4-year degree program that eventually expanded to include BYU-Pathway Worldwide, with the latter program able to be transitioned into a separate educational institution of the Church within the last year.
The Church News sat down for interviews with President Henry B. Eyring, who was serving in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and as Commissioner of Church Education at the time of the transition, his son, Hnery J. Eyring, who now serves as BYU-Idaho President; Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who presided over Ricks College when it transitioned to BYU-Idaho; Brother Robert M. "Bob" Wilkes, who served for a few months as the interim president of BYU-Idaho following Elder Bednar's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Elder Kim B. Clark, who took over from President Wilkes and later served as a General Authority Seventy and Commissioner of Church Education; and Elder Clark G. Gilbert, who succeeded Elder Clark as BYU-Idaho President, and was in turn succeeded by Henry J. Eyring when he (Elder Gilbert) was called to be the first official president of BYU-Pathway Worldwide, a program which began under the BYU-Idaho umbrella and is still supported in certain ways by the organization, but has branched out to be another arm of Church-owned institutions for secondary education. As we also know, Elder Gilbert was himself succeeded as BYU-PW president this year by Brother Brian K. Ashton, since Elder Gilbert was called in April as a General Authority Seventy. Elder Gilbert has been serving as Commissioner of Church Education since August 1 of this year. All who are interested in doing so can read that article at the following web address:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/history-revisited/2021-08-22/byu-idaho-20th-anniversary-president-hinckley-elder-bednar-221868
It appears that there may be some temple updates to pass along as well. If there are, I will make sure to share those later today. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.
Updates have been provided today on the construction status for both the McAllen Texas and Orem Utah Temples:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/mcallen-texas-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/orem-utah-temple/
My thanks once again to you all.
The Church News also continues to provide coverage on the BYU-Provo Campus Education Week, and today, a summary was shared of a presentation given by Rebecca Borden, who is the manager of LGBTQ and Life Help resources for the Church. Sister Borden shared her thoughts on 6 perspectives Church members should keep in mind when interacting with fellow Church members who struggle with same-gender attraction:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2021-08-22/byu-education-week-lgbtq-latter-day-saints-222966
My thanks once again to you all.
As we begin another week, the Church News and the Newsroom have shared some reports highlighting remarks given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland to BYU faculty and staff as they prepare to begin another semester:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-08-23/byu-new-office-of-belonging-president-worthen-223110
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-08-23/elder-holland-byu-university-conference-love-lgbtq-223095
https://news.byu.edu/announcements/byu-forms-new-office-of-belonging
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/elder-jeffrey-r-holland-2021-byu-university-conference
My thanks once again to you all.
Updates have been provided today on the San Juan Puerto Rico and Bentonville Arkansas Temples:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/san-juan-puerto-rico-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/bentonville-arkansas-temple/
My thanks once again to you all.
Hello there!! how are you and wife of health and courage? What a joy to see that despite adversity they are always up to date on the blog.
ReplyDeleteSlowly, the temples are working, too bad, that the family history centers are still closed for some improvements to the salt lake.
I was looking at your temple forecasts, I know that there are different factors that influence, I hope the day will come when the temples are closer to those who want to attend.
At least in Chile, I hope a temple will be announced soon for Viña del Mar, Osorno, Punta Arenas.
In Colombia that I did mission hopefully it will be announced in Medellín, and in the southern Bogota mission, dreaming does not cost anything, howeve
r, if in Canada a temple was built with a single stake, everything is possible.
A hug from Santiago de Chile
Hello, Omar. Thanks, as always, for taking time to comment. My wife and I are both all right. As you may have seen from a recent post on this blog, I had my first major surgery in 17 years towards the end of July. The recovery is slow-going, but things are headed in the right direction.
DeleteUnfortunately, just before I had to undergo surgery, my wife fractured parts of her foot. Because I was hospitalized for a few days, she wasn't able to keep her foot up and rest. But now that I'm home from the hospital and recovering, hopefully her fractures will continue to heal. Thanks for your well-wishes in our behalf.
The prospect of new temples being announced is something to which I've always looked forward in General Conference. I was surprised when President Nelson announced 20 new temples last April, and that 9 of those 20 were for cities in the United States.
We have also seen several significant temple construction developments. The Church is very close to the point of having more temples in the construction queue than those that are announced and awaiting official information.
I have been impressed by the fact that President Nelson has done his best to clear the existing queue while also announcing more temples. And it's been interesting to see the Church use pre-fabricated modular components for the temple being constructed in Helena Montana.
It appears to me as though the Helena temple was a "test case" in terms of seeing how using modular components might speed up the construction process. It seems probable that, if it works well, the Church will use that technique to build temples not just in the United States, but also elsewhere in the world.
The Church has also recently used precast concrete panels for temples in the United States. If either modular components or precast concrete panels are methods that will work on temples outside the United States, then construction on all temples could easily be accelerated further. It will be wonderful to see what happens with the temple construction program in the next several years.
I also wanted to thank you for mentioning Vina del Mar, Osorno, and Punta Arenas Chile as potential new temple locations. I have both Osorno and Vina del Mar on my list for the October 2021 General Conference, but I do think the Church might have temples announced for construction in all three cities within the next 5 years or so. It will be interesting to see how soon temples are announced in each Chilean city you mentioned. If nothing else, I'm anticipating that the latest temple construction updates will enable President Nelson to announce another double-digit number of new locations in which temples will soon be built.
With what we have seen in terms of temple announcements from President Nelson, it seems safe to assume that most of the temples he has announced will not remain in the queue for more than 3-4 years before action is taken to move them into the construction queue. There will likely be a few exceptions to that.
The Russia temple (announced in April 2018) and the Shanghai PRC and Dubai UAE Temples (with the latter two announced in April 2020) may be among those temples which might not have construction begin in the immediate future. But I know that the Lord has moved mountains to enable certain temples to be built, so I'm sure He will do so again.
I truly believe we are headed into unprecedented territory in terms of temple construction developments, and I can't wait to see what's next. Having said that, I wanted to let you know, Omar, that I will be publishing my reply to you again in a few minutes, after using Google Translate to post a copy of my reply in Spanish for you. Hopefully, my doing so will be beneficial for you. Thanks again, Omar.
Hola, Omar. Gracias, como siempre, por tomarse el tiempo para comentar. Mi esposa y yo estamos bien. Como puede haber visto en una publicación reciente en este blog, tuve mi primera cirugía mayor en 17 años hacia fines de julio. La recuperación es lenta, pero las cosas van en la dirección correcta.
DeleteDesafortunadamente, justo antes de que me sometieran a una cirugía, mi esposa se fracturó partes del pie. Debido a que estuve hospitalizada durante unos días, no pudo mantener el pie en alto y descansar. Pero ahora que estoy en casa del hospital y me estoy recuperando, espero que sus fracturas continúen sanando. Gracias por sus buenos deseos en nuestro nombre.
La perspectiva de que se anuncien nuevos templos es algo que siempre he esperado con ansias en cada Conferencia General. Me sorprendió cuando el presidente Nelson anunció 20 nuevos templos en abril pasado, y que 9 de esos 20 eran para ciudades de los Estados Unidos.
También hemos visto varios desarrollos importantes en la construcción de templos. La Iglesia está muy cerca del punto de tener más templos en la cola de construcción que los que están anunciados y esperando información oficial.
Me ha impresionado el hecho de que el presidente Nelson haya hecho todo lo posible para despejar la fila existente y al mismo tiempo anunciar más templos. Y ha sido interesante ver que la Iglesia usa componentes modulares prefabricados para el templo que se está construyendo en Helena Montana.
Me parece que el templo de Helena era un "caso de prueba" en términos de ver cómo el uso de componentes modulares podría acelerar el proceso de construcción. Parece probable que, si funciona bien, la Iglesia utilizará esa técnica para construir templos no solo en los Estados Unidos, sino también en otras partes del mundo.
La Iglesia también ha utilizado recientemente paneles de hormigón prefabricado para templos en los Estados Unidos. Si los componentes modulares o los paneles de hormigón prefabricado son métodos que funcionarán en los templos fuera de los Estados Unidos, entonces la construcción de todos los templos podría acelerarse más fácilmente. Será maravilloso ver lo que sucede con el programa de construcción de templos en los próximos años.
También quería agradecerles por mencionar a Viña del Mar, Osorno y Punta Arenas Chile como posibles nuevas ubicaciones de templos. Tengo a Osorno y Viña del Mar en mi lista para la Conferencia General de octubre de 2021, pero creo que la Iglesia podría haber anunciado la construcción de templos en las tres ciudades en los próximos 5 años. Será interesante ver qué tan pronto se anuncian los templos en cada ciudad chilena que mencionaste. Por lo menos, anticipo que las últimas actualizaciones de la construcción de templos permitirán al presidente Nelson anunciar otro número de dos dígitos de nuevas ubicaciones en las que pronto se construirán templos.
Con lo que hemos visto en términos de anuncios de templos del presidente Nelson, parece seguro asumir que la mayoría de los templos que ha anunciado no permanecerán en la cola durante más de 3 a 4 años antes de que se tomen medidas para trasladarlos a la construcción. cola. Probablemente habrá algunas excepciones a eso.
El templo de Rusia (anunciado en abril de 2018) y los templos de Shanghai, República Popular China y Dubai, Emiratos Árabes Unidos (y los dos últimos anunciados en abril de 2020) pueden estar entre esos templos cuya construcción podría no comenzar en el futuro inmediato. Pero sé que el Señor ha movido montañas para permitir la construcción de ciertos templos, así que estoy seguro de que lo volverá a hacer.
Realmente creo que nos dirigimos a un territorio sin precedentes en términos de desarrollos de construcción de templos, y no puedo esperar a ver qué sigue. Habiendo dicho eso, quería informarte, Omar, que volveré a publicar mi respuesta en unos minutos, después de usar Google Translate para publicar una copia de mi respuesta en español para ti. Con suerte, que lo haga sea beneficioso para usted. Gracias de nuevo, Omar.
I think the Dubai UAE temple will be about a year off. It it rumored it will be built on part of the site of the World Expo, which will run from October through March. Which is a year delayed due to the pandemic. I anticipate it will take a few more months following the expo for the site to be ready to build on. In the prophets announcement he said we are building there at their invitation. So I don't think we will have any legal/zoning hoops to jump through as we have hade in other locations around the world (Even in Utah).
ReplyDeleteHey, Chris. Thanks for stopping by to comment on this. Information online indicates that the Expo 2020, set to be held in Dubai, will wrap up on the last day of March of next year. Additionally, the Church Temples site, on the page for the Duba Temple, notes that "in late 2022, District 2020 is expected to begin the handoff to future occupants." so by October, November, or December of next year, the handover process could begin.
DeleteSpeaking personally, I hope you are correct and that the Church would be able to begin construction on the first temple in the Middle East sooner rather than later. I'd be overjoyed if that happened. But I'm reminded of a few recent examples where the anticipated time-frames for action on temples around the world didn't pan out as hoped. Within the last decade or two alone, there have been such delays on the construction of the Rome Italy, Fortaleza Brazil, and Udrdaneta Philippines Temples.
Above and beyond that, the Church is often optimistic about the timing of temple construction (which is not at all a bad thing). Between 2016 and 2018, the president of the Africa Southeast Area, Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, frequetly expressed his hope that the Church could begin construction on the Harare Zimbabwe and Nairobi Kenya Temples.
In fact, when President Nelson visited Kenya in 2018, a Church public affairs specialist was quoted as saying that the Church hoped to be able to dedicate the Nairobi Kenya Temple by sometime this year.
As we know, it wasn't until December of last year that the groundbreaking was able to occur for the Harare Zimbabwe Temple, and the Church will only be breaking ground for the Nairobi Kenya Temple on September 11 of this year.
And when it comes to the Middle East in general, there are definitely some conditions, restrictions, and even some governmental red tape through which the Church will need to navigate in order to get the temple built. On the upside, we know that the Dubai government invited the Church to build a temple there. On the downside, right now, with all that's going on in the Middle East, there is a lot that could impact the timing of the construction for the Dubai temple.
I sincerely hope you are correct here, and that perhaps the Lord is laying the groundwork now for a smooth construction process that will begin as anticipated next year. If that happens, I will be absolutely overjoyed. It will be interesting to see what happens in that regard. Thanks for weighing in on this, Chris. Always a pleasure to hear from you.
As far as renovations and rededications are concerned, The Los Angeles California The Provo Utah, Seattle Washington, Manila Philippines, and Taipei Taiwan Temples are the five oldest without any kind of "extensive" renovation that required a rededication. However some of these may have had minor updates and repairs over the years probably during the regularly scheduled yearly 2-6 week closures. Its possible that the work may have been done by recommend holders and therefore did not require a new open house or rededication. I anticipate that these five and several others are up for renovations soon. (some of them for their second or third such such as Logan, Utah).
ReplyDeleteChris, thanks for weighing in here as well I can't say this for sure, but it could be that any temples which had an extended closure period (5 weeks or more) in 2019, 2020, 2021 might be able to push a full renovation closure for the time being. But particularly, I believe that a renovation closure is more likely specifically for the Provo Utah Temple once the dedications of the Saratoga Springs and Orem Utah Temples are held. I'm always intrigued to see how the Church determines when to renovate each temple. I'm not sure ws'll see any other temple renovations announced prior to the end of this year, but I think the first half of next year might yield some announcements in that regard. It will be interesting to see what happens there. Thanks again, Chris. Always a pleasure to hear from you.
DeleteI generally try to restrict my temple predictions to those that I think are likely to actually be announced in the next conference. However, I found your idea of listing the most likely next temple in each church area (regardless of whether that announcement is likely to be this conference or some future conference) fun. I agree with a number of your area temple predictions. Those where I predict differently than you are as follows.
ReplyDeleteAfrica Central: Kananga, DRC (or maybe Mbuji-Mayi instead of Kananga)
Asia: I don't anticipate any temple announcements for the Asia area for the next 5 years at least.
Brazil: Similar to yours, but I would narrow it down to the *single* most likely temple being Ribeirao Preto.
Caribbean: Santiago De Los Caballeros, DR
Europe: I agree with Scotland, but predict Glasgow rather than Edinburgh
Mexico: Culiacan
North America Central: Rexburg, ID #2
North America Northeast: Charleston, WV (though I think that one is pretty unlikely, but still more likely than anywhere else in the NE area)
North America Southeast: Tampa, FL
North America Southwest: Summerlin, NV
North America West: Tacoma, WA
Philippines: Naga
South America Northwest: Similar to yours, but if I were to narrow it down to the *single* most likely location I would say Iquitos, Peru
Utah: Spanish Fork, UT
For some reason I thought Taiwan was in the Asia North Area. Given that it is in the Asia area, I modify my area temple prediction for that area to be Taichung City, Taiwan.
DeleteTo whom may I offer my thanks for these comments? I will provide some specific feedback on your shared list in the same order that you provided it. Before I get into those specific details, let me mention one other thing: Matthew Martinich has regularly supplied a list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence without a temple. I'm sharing the link to the document on which I've made some notes about those top ten nations:
Deletehttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1gmP9FfAo1jlnsNAKDou_fHMNDR2SImB7qgEgmG-XN8Y/edit?usp=sharing
That list has direct bearing on some of the locations I listed. Madagascar is separated from the rest of the African continent by a body of water, so any temple to which they are assigned will cause potential travel issues that would merit a temple. Mongolia, which ranks fourth on that list, was transferred from the Asia to the Asia North Area a year or two ago, so that's why Mongolia is a separate prediction.
That being said, regarding your specific feedback, Elder Andersen visited the DR Congo in 2016, at which point he publicly proposed a new temple in Mbuji-Mayi. So when a third temple is announced in that nation, that will be the most likely location.
I think we are likely to see at least one Asian temple, since ground was broken for the India temple in December of last year, with the groundbreaking for the Cambodia temple set for next Saturday. So since that clears the queue of announced temples in Asia (except for the Singapore temple, announced last April), I could see both Indonesia and Mongolia having temples announced in the near term.
As far as Brazil is concerned, while I did not see the east Sao Paulo Temple coming, I correctly predicted Brasilia, Salvador, and Belo Horizonte prior to their being announced. I am convinced that all three Brazilian cities I mentioned will have temples announced soon, so the questions are whether any new temples will be announced for Brazil in October and whether one or two temples are announced.
When I first shared my thoughts about temple prospects, I had prioritized Dublin Ireland over anywhere in Scotland. Subsequent feedback led me to conclude that Scotland was more likely, and that the location for that temple would be Edinburgh above Glasgow. 3 or 4 of the 5 temples announced in Europe most recently have been for the capital cities. So I don't think we can count Edinbugh out for that reason.
In the United States, the number of temples announced in the western portion thereof far exceed the number of temples announced in the eastern portion. That being said, aside from the distance rationale for eastern states, the last time any new temples were announced in those states was in April of last year, and since he has tried to alternate new announcements among Church areas, that's why I included so many candidates for eastern states. Since he specifically concentrated on western states last April, that may also factor into eastern states' prospects for new temples.
For the rest of your predictions, I am convinced that most of them will happen at some point. But based on the rotation through Church areas that has been done, there are definitely specific regions that seem most likely to have temples announced.
With all of that said, thanks for taking time to share your feedback. I appreciate hearing from you. If you have any follow-up comments for me about the candidates on your list, I'd welcome the opportunity to dialogue about those further. Thanks again.
Elder Andersen publicly proposed a temple for the Kasai region in 2016 (the region includes the city of Mbuji-Mayi), so the announcement of a temple there seems likely sooner rather than later.
Exciting to see someone else with Rexburg 2 on their list.
DeleteEP, thanks for stopping by to comment. It's been interesting for me to observe the latest comments on any lists that have been put out there. I've mentioned that I have a general list of temples I am using for each General Conference, and I offered specifics on the most likely locations for this General Conference for the first time on this blog.
DeleteI know that, for a long time now, I have kept my eyes open for potential temples to be announced in Preston Idaho and Evanston Wyoming, and I was also looking at the prospect of a temple in Ely Nevada. But it appears I had not considered that Preston is relatively close to Smithfield, so it would be relatively easy for the Saints in that part of Idaho to get to the Smithfield temple. So I think I will be switching out my prediction of Preston for Rexburg #2, since multiple people have mentioned that prospect in multiple settings.
And in general, I will also need to reconsider whether any of the temples that have been announced might or might not impact the announcement of other temples within the same area. I do feel confident that most of the candidates on everyone's lists of temple prospects could easily someday be announced, but changes in circumstances and available information also needs to be considered.
So, my thanks to you, EP, and to whomever made the anonymous comments earlier in this thread, for providing context here about the feasibility of Rexburg @2. I appreciate hearing from you, EP.
IN ORDER Top 10 for October 2021
DeleteArizona Mesa E or Glendale or Queen Creek
Mexico MC S or Culiacan
Utah Lehi or Spanish Fork or Bluffdale/H/RorFarm
Texas Fort Worth
Peru Chiclayo or Iquitos or Lima S
Japan Osaka
Liberia Monrovia
Venezuela Maracaibo or Barcelona
Brazil Ribeirao Preto, Teresina, Vila Velha,JoaoP
DRCongo Kananga or Mbuji-Mayi
—2nd 10
Argentina Neuquen or Rosario
New Zealand Wellington
Uganda Kampala
Nigeria Abuja or Port Harcourt
Uruguay Rivera
Chile Osorno or Santiago S
Spain Barcelona or Granada
Italy Milan
Philippines San Pablo C
Bolivia La Paz
—3rd 10
Idaho Rexburg
El Salvador Santa Ana
California San Jose or Palmdale
N Carolina Charlotte
Washington Tacoma
Nevada Summerlin
UK Birmingham
Côte d’Ivoire Yopougon Abidjan
Tonga Nuku’alofa C
Colorado Colorado Springs
Hello, Steven Cuff. I saw your list originally on the threads of the Church Growth Blog. Thanks for posting it here as well. I agree with many of your choices. Anything on your list that is not on mine will be due to our differing criteria for such lists. In particular, aside from current temples, the distances some Saints have to travel, the rigor/hardships/expense/sacrifice relating thereunto, the number of stakes in any current temple district, and how those districts might look after most of those announced or under construction are dedicated.
DeleteBut since my process of forming a temple list also is specific to each General Conference, I also try to consider as well the major announcements that have been made on any announced temples to provide a guide for the next logical places that could have temples announced.
And in that regard, 6 days ago, the Church released exterior renderings for 4 US temples which had previously had sites announced. That was followed up this morning by the Church announcing the information about the locations, sizes, and renderings for 4 temples in Latin American nations. That puts 8 more temples of the Church closer to a groundbreaking before the end of this year.
Since my precoess of updating my temple list will be ongoing until the night before General Conference, I think I might see what I can do about using those parameters to see if locations on your list line up with the criteria for mine. And if they do, I'll be more than happy to add those to my list for next General Conference.
In the meantime, the Church now has 40 temples announced, and of those 40, 23 do not have any official information released. With 2 other announced temples (Casper Wyoming and Pago Pago American Samoa) having groundbreakings scheduled, my research shows that at minimum, 16 temples could potentially have their groundbreakings set to occur between the October 2021 and April 2022 General Conferences based on what is currently known and announced. If each of those 16 temples do have a groundbreaking by then, the total number of temples at that time (not taking into account how many could be announced in General Conference next week), that would leave 24 temples in the queue of those announced. Based on that projected number, and knowing that some who have mentioned the propeht's plans say that he likes to keep the queue at around 35 announced temples (I haven't personally heard that rumor, which is based on a potential third- or fourth-hand report), we see that it's very reasonable to suppose that another double-digit number of temples might be able to be announced next weekend. I don't know that it will be as many as 20, and I don't think it will be as few as 12. But 16 is the average of those two numbers, so I'd feel safe projecting that a minimum of 16 temples could be announced. Just some other things to keep in mind. In the meantime, Steven Cuff, thanks again for weighing in here. There has been a lot to consider in terms of future temples, and you've given me even more to consider with your comment above. I always appreciate hearing from you.
Steven Cuff, after spending a good chunk of my day today updating my files and some Wikipedia pages (which was necessary thanks to the announcement of the 4 Latin American Temples' locqations and renderings), I began looking more fully into your list. Based on your excellent breakdown, I have opted to add a temple for Eastern Mesa Arizona, and the southern portion of Lima Peru, none of which I had considered but all of which made sense based on your mention of it.
DeleteI will resume talking about changes I've made to my list based on the lists you provided very shortly here, but I first wanted to comment briefly on your two locations listed for Venezuela's second temple: Not sure what led you to include the city of Barcelona Venezuela, but when it comes to Venezuela's second temple, something you might not have considered is the factor of an apostolic proposal for such an edifice. The Church Temples site keeps a great list of publicly-proposed temples that have been mentioned by name by any previous or current prophet or apostle, as long as those mentions can be proven through reputable reports. And throughout the near-decade of President Monson's leadership, he took action to announce several temples that had been publicly proposed by any prophet or apostle. President Nelson has done the same. In 2012, as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,he publicly made a promise to the Saints in Managua Nicaragua that if they continued to be faithful and build up the kingdom, a temple would in due course be announced there:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/managua-nicaragua-temple/
He himself fulfilled that apostolic comment by announcing a temple in Managua in his first General Conference as Church President. Bearing that in mind, you can find the current list of publicly-proposed temples on the following page of the Church Temples site:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/library/proposed/
You'll notice that the one Venezuelan city on that list is Maracaibo. I'm reasonably certain that will be the city chosen for Venezuela's second temple. If you look elsewhere on that page, in addition to Maracaibo Venezuela, reference is made to Jakarta Indonesia, the Kasai region in the DR Congo (Mbuji-Mayi is in that region, though I'm not sure Kananga is. The other two cities listed on that page are New Delhi India and Vilnius Lithuania.
On those last two locations, just before last conference, I felt impressed to add New Delhi India to the list. That's why you'll see it on my last now. Right now, the biggest barrier to a temple being announced as proposed for Vilnius Lithuania is the fact that there are only districts in that nation, no stakes. But my theory is that the Church could potentially announce a temple in Lithuania in the hopes that through the approvals and construction process, it would garner local curiosity and perhaps drive missionary efforts there.
More thoughts to come on the remainder of your list shortly here. For now, my thanks once again to you, Steven Cuff.
Resuming my comment on your list, any choice of yours that I don't address directly indicates I agree with (and have or will add) those locations to my list. So in that regard, I understand the choice of Wellington New Zealand, and I have it on my radar for some point in the future, but if I correctly recall feedback given by my Church member contact in New Zealand, there was some indication that, in addition to Wellington, another highly-likely location is Christchurch New Zealand. I can't say for sure which would be prioritized first, but I have prioritized Christchurch on my predictions.
DeleteI had not studied the likely prospects of a temple for Rivera Uruguay, but I assume your rationale was finding a half-way point between Paraguay and Uruguay. My predictions currently list Ciudad del Este Paraguay, as a second temple in that nation seems more likely than a second temple in Uruguay, at least for now.
I have similarly prioritized Barcelona as the most likely candidate for Spain's second temple, but if you have solid reasoning about adding a temple in Grenada. And with the Rome Italy Temple being dedicated less than a year before all Church temples were closed, my theory is that the Church might hold off on a second temple in Italy until normal operations resume, and the Church can gauge the merits of a second Italian temple. I wouldn't mind being proven incorrect on that.
Additionally, I have not studied the prospect of a San Pablo temple in the Philippines, but would be curious about your reasoning on that. On my end, my research has indicated that the three most likely cities in which the next Philippines temples might be built in Tacloban, Angeles, or Olongapo. Depending on your reasoning for San Pablo, I might give that candidate a closer look. I hadn't considered another El Salvadoran temple, but a quick search on my end confirmed that as a strong possiblity.
So I have added that candidate location to my list. Before the Feather River California Temple was announced, I'd had Bakersfield California on my list. With temples now announced for the Yuba City and Yorba Linda areas, I still feel like Bakersfield might be the next one announced. I also had Tacoma Washington on my list at some point, but have since removed it. Since I couldn't recall my reasonoing on that, I have readded that prospect for the time being.
Summerlin is a possiblity, but given my personal research, I'm prioritizing Henderson or Ely Nevada. With the temple in Elko soon to have construction begin, I haven't stuided how the announcement of the Elko temple might impact the timing on an Ely temple, so Summerlin could be possible. I can see why you have listed a second temple in Abidjan. That would follow the similar parameters of second temples in major capital cities. That being said, I have a feeling there will be at least one temple announced between now and whenever the Church does wind up announcing Abidjan #2. Instead, my research indicates that the Ivory Coast's second temple is more likely to be announced in Yamoussoukro.
That being said, I will gladly welcome all new temples wherever they might be announced. Thanks for the suggestions you shared that I've added to my list. It's always a pleasure to hear from you, Steven.