Hello again, everyone! The October 2022 General Conference concluded a short time ago, and I am pleased to report that, in the final minutes of his concluding remarks, Russell M. Nelson, the Prophet and President of the Church, announced 18 new temples to be built in the following locations:
Busan Korea; Naga and Santiago Philippines; Eket Nigeria; Chiclayo Peru; Buenos Aires City Center Argentina; Londrina and Riberao Preto Brazil; Huehuetenango Guatemala; Jacksonville Florida; Grand Rapids Michigan; Prosper Texas; Lone Mountain Nevada; and Tacoma Washington.
Additionally, President Nelson noted that, in view of the growing Church, large metropolitan areas of the world will need multiple temples to serve the members and save them from unnecessary hardship for temple worship. Since the above total was only 14, four new temples were also announced to serve the greater Mexico City area: Cuernavaca, Pachuca, Toluca, and Tula Mexico.
Of those 18, I had the exact location correct for 8 (Santiago Philippines, Chiclayo Peru, Buenos Aires #2 (no surprise it will be built in the center of the city), Ribeirao Preto Brazil, Huehuetenango Guatemala, Jacksonville Florida, Grand Rapids Michigan, Tacoma Washington) and the right general location but the wrong specific one for the temples in Nigeria, Texas, and Nevada. For Brazil and the Philippines, I had one of the two locations correct and the other incorrect.
Since I also had no way to predict multiple temples in major metropolitan areas, it goes without saying that I didn't see the 4 Mexico City area temples coming all at once. The Lord has once again proven, as He always does, that His ways ad thoughts are higher than my ways and thoughts (I know that will come as a great shock to so many of you). The total number of temples has now risen to 300 in any phase, and hopefully, the temple-related announcements will continue to finish out the year and for the foreseeable future.
For my part, I am monitoring all such developments and will bring word of those to you all here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, that does it for now. Thank you for the privilege of your time. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines.
I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 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.
It is always awesome to hear about new temples. Of these Prosper Texas and multiple Mexico City temples were off my radar. I had Brazil on my list as a whole with no specific cities. And another for Guatemala was not on my list. Although Ekit Nigeria and Chiclayo Peru were on my long-term list, I thought other cities in those countries would be next. The Lord is in charge. I hope the construction and planning process for these and the other announced temples goes smoothly and much quicker. We have some like Managua Nicaragua that seem to have made no progress, but I'm sure a lot of work is done behind the scenes.
ReplyDeleteHey, Chris! Thanks for your thoughts. I apologize for my late acknowledgment of them. It's been a crazy evening. With 74 announced temples now in the queue, hopefully some of the methods President Nelson mentioned that will speed up construction will help get the queue cleared sooner rather than later. I think we're going to see more regular temple construction updates, including major developments, for the foreseeable future. I'm going to be intrigued to see how it will all work out.
DeleteI'm not sure what may be delaying the Cagayan de Oro Philippines and Managua Nicaragua Temples, but hope for some news on those soon. I think we can probably count on the Russia and China temples taking a while. I think we'll also see the Church utiliziing the modular temple designs in more places, especially as more companies get comfortable producing those in greater volumes. Hopefully the Church can stay ahead of the curve. The Temple Department has its' work cut out for it. Thanks, Chris!
Very exciting to hear about these new temples! I always look forward to seeing what they look like and where specifically they are built. Hopefully we see an uptick in announcements for rendering and groundbreakings as we have a lot in the queue now.
ReplyDeleteEric, it's been observed in recent threads here that Monday may be the new standard day for breaking temple news. Based on recent status updates for the Columbus Ohio, Saratoga Springs Utah, and Bangkok Thailand Temples, it appears likely that the reopening and opening arrangements for those temples may be the subject of the next announcement. But I could see the Church setting more groundbreakings in the next week or two. And I'm hopeful that we may see more announcements like the recent one for the Heber Valley Utah Temple, where the site location, rendering, and groundbreaking could be announced all at once. I'll be interested to see what happens in the remainder of this year. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here, Eric. I always appreciate hearing from you.
DeleteAs this week after General Conference begins, I apologize for my lateness in providing some additional updates. Between our move and settling in to our new home, I have been slightly more wiped out than usual. The last Church News update I provided yesterday is found in the following comment:
ReplyDeletehttps://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2022/10/in-tribute-to-elder-ulisses-soares-on.html#c8672132536166559256
Aside from the individual talk summaries, which are well worthy of your time, the following new updates were provided courtesy of the Church News yesterday and today:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/2/23384140/book-of-mormon-videos-season-4-debuts-with-saviors-ministry-in-the-americas
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/2/23383439/what-did-president-nelson-teach-general-conference-october-2022-covenants
https://www.thechurchnews.com/general-conference/2022/10/1/23381974/president-nelson-reaffirms-church-position-on-abuse-general-conference-october-2022
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2022/10/3/23384369/which-counties-in-idaho-have-the-most-stakes-madison-bonneville-ada
https://www.thechurchnews.com/general-conference/2022/10/3/23385321/general-conference-october-2022-download-a-pdf-of-talk-summaries
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24078335/October2022GeneralConferenceSummariesEnglish.pdf
https://www.thechurchnews.com/general-conference/2022/9/27/23375377/general-conference-october-2022-talk-summaries-session-highlights-announcements
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/3/23382140/october-2022-general-conference-jesus-christ-is-the-answer-proclaim-leaders
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/3/23385348/florida-hurricane-ian-cleanup-fort-meyers-helping-hands
And since both President Nelson and one of the Church News articles above referenced the latest Book of Mormon videos season, here is a Newsroom report from yesterday on that same development:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/october-2022-general-conference-book-of-mormon-videos
My thanks once again to you all.
And here is one new report from the Church News:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/3/23385639/october-2022-general-conference-church-leaders-testimonies-spiritual-survival
My thanks once again to you all.
On this Tuesday, the Church News has published the following updates:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022/10/4/23385597/temples-by-the-numbers-look-118-announced-by-president-nelson-october-2022-general-conference
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022/10/4/23384214/october-2022-general-conference-mexico-city-church-members-react-president-nelson-4-new-temples
My thanks once again to you all.
And here is a new report from the Newsroom:
Deletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saint-volunteers-begin-long-process-of-hurricane-ian-cleanup-in-florida
My thanks once again to you all.
This week's Church News podcast featured Church News editor Sister Sarah Jane Weaver providing a look back at key highlights from the General Conference weekend:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2022/10/4/23387524/october-2022-general-conference-recap-overcoming-the-world-covenants-with-god
And one other Church News update speaks for itself:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/4/23385633/october-family-history-month-31-ways-to-celebrate-familysearch
My thanks once again to you all.
I am also pleased to be able to report that the transcripts for addresses given during last weekend's General Conference are now available in English, with availability in other languages to follow in the coming weeks:
Deletehttps://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10?lang=eng
My thanks once again to you all.
On this Wednesday, the Church News has provided one new update thus far:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/5/23385904/mesa-arizona-interfaith-yard-sale-ukranian-refugees-just-serve-samaritans-purse
Additionally, after the General Conference talk transcripts were available when I posted my last comment from yesterday, at some point, they were taken down, likely to work out a few issues before they were permanently available. They have not yet been rereleased, but according to the usual schedule, hopefully that will occur later today.
And I have an interesting update to share about temples now under construction or undergoing renovation: It appears that the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site has once again shifted some new temples in the completion queue, which also corresponds to temples now undergoing renovation. I have updated my document tracking the general estimates, and will now need to update my more specific estimates yet again as a result. You can look over the updated general estimates in the following document:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L7HBLNZZTnlI4Dk8fpr3HZCf-wqkjUBcCCYqdxP7HRk/edit?usp=sharing
The temples affected by these adjustments are the Helena Montana and Harare Zimbabwe Temples, both of which may now be completed sooner than I had previously believed and asserted, and the Davao Philippines Temple, for which the completion estimate and order have been pushed back. More to come as I can figure that out. For now, my thanks once again to you all.
I checked again just now, and the transcripts from the General Conference talks are available once more:
Deletehttps://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2022/10?lang=eng
My thanks once again to you all.
Earlier this afternoon, the Church News published the following two reports:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/general-conference/2022/10/5/23389405/october-2022-general-conference-full-texts-of-talks-now-available-online
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/5/23378828/new-jersey-interfaith-interaction-uniting-religions-and-individuals-muslims-and-latter-day-saints
And on the heels of Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse's address this weekend highlighting our responsibility to be good global stewards for the Earth, it appears that the Presiding Bishopric has been tasked with ensuring that measures taken in relation to Church-owned properties and projects are consistent with that stewardship. As a result, Bishop L. Todd Budge, the Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric also addressed that stewardship and the Church's efforts in relation thereunto:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/bishop-budge-care-for-earth-utah-valley-university-united-nations
My thanks once again to you all.
Hello.
DeleteExciting to hear about the Tacoma, Washington temple announcement. My thoughts are it will be built in the Puyallup area due to land availability and members in the area. Another interesting thought about this announcement. The Seattle Temple should be coming up for renovation. Once the Tacoma Temple is built, then renovation work can begin on the Seattle Temple.
Brent Hunter, thanks for taking time to comment. I apologize for my belated acknowledgement thereof. I am grateful for your feedback about the land in Puyallup. That very well could be the spot for the temple. I seem to have a vague recollection about hearing that the Church has land in Tacoma proper for a prospective temple, but I might be mistaken on that. I fully believe that the Church could someday have temples in both locations in due course. Thanks again to taking time to share that information.
DeleteOn this Thursday, the following updates have been shared by the Church News:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/6/23389013/byu-book-of-mormon-silicon-disc-etching-engineering-students-microscriptures
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2022/10/6/23390922/registration-for-rootstech-2023-now-open-virtual-in-person-family-history-gathering
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/6/23390272/presiding-bishopric-lds-bishop-budge-how-caring-for-the-earth-is-a-sacred-duty
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/6/23390333/video-elder-holland-sister-holland-byu-young-women-said-she-needed-to-live-by-the-spirit
https://www.thechurchnews.com/general-conference/2022/10/3/23385321/general-conference-october-2022-download-a-pdf-of-talk-summaries
And the Newsroom has shared the following additional reports:
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/registration-now-open-for-rootstech-2023
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/bishop-budge-care-for-earth-utah-valley-university-united-nations
My thanks once again to you all.
And status updates have been noted today for the Abidjan ivory Coast, Casper Wyoming, and Ephraim Utah Temples:
Deletehttps://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/abidjan-ivory-coast-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/casper-wyoming-temple/
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/ephraim-utah-temple/
My thanks once again to you all.
As another workweek draws to a close here in Utah, the Church News has published the following additional reports:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/6/23391044/sister-yee-poverty-panel-discussion-sustainable-development-goals-conference-uvu
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/6/23391044/sister-yee-poverty-panel-discussion-sustainable-development-goals-conference-uvu
https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2022/10/7/23390140/prime-minister-of-tonga-meets-with-apostles-church-education-leaders
Above and beyond that, in an unexpected announcement which I did not see coming, the Church News published biographies for 3 couples who have already begun their service as temple leaders:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2022/10/7/23391112/new-temple-presidents-and-matrons-in-vancouver-canada-arequipa-peru-veracruz-mexico
So why did I not anticipate this particular announcement? Each of the new leaders identified today have succeeded couples who have only served as temple leaders since last year (2021). Ordinarily, the call to be temple leaders lasts a minimum of 3 years as a general standard. I suppose it's possible that for each couple being replaced, their spouse has passed away, necessitating a change, but I can't say that for certain.
This means the number of new temple leaders who have begun serving this year now rises to 75, 6 of whom are the first leaders for their respective temples. So that means that 69 of the Church's 173 currently-operating temples have had new leaders announced. Usually, roughly 1/3 of all temple leaders have been replaced per year. This year's numbers indicate that roughly 40% ofall currently-serving temple leaders were replaced this year alone. Here is an updated copy of my list tracking this year's changes:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J-KR6Hdv4ElYa8ZxBn6OqGWSEMcZxi3GaLcCoYTrJec/edit?usp=sharing
My thanks once again to you all.
As longtime followers of this blog are likely aware, Friday has been the standard day for the Church News to publish the latest installment of "This Week on Social". The featured social media posts have usually been collected and published each week in the late afternoon or early evening. So much to my surprise, this week's edition has already been published:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/7/23383835/october-2022-general-conference-this-week-on-social-church-leaders-talks-messages
Oddly enough, in covering the General Conference posts, rather than doing them session-by-session, it looks like they were done by hierarchical position. With that in mind, we have 3 posts from prophet and Church President Russell M. Nelson, and one apiece from his respective First and Second Counselors, Presidents Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring.
Also featured were one post from each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: Acting President M. Russell Ballard and Elders Jeffrey R. Holland, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, David A. Bednar, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Andersen, Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, Dale G. Renlund, Gerrit W. Gong, and Ulisses Soares.
Also featured were posts from Sisters J. Anette Dennis and Kristen M. Yee, who serve respectively as the First and Second Counselors in the Relief Society General Presidency; Young Women General President Sister Bonnie H. Cordon (who, although she didn't speak this conference, did take to social media to comment on Elder Uchtdorf's announcement about the new For the Strength of Youth guide) and her First Counselor, Sister Michelle D. Craig; and Sister Tracy Y. Browning, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency.
Additionally, for the first time ever, posts from the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the Book of Mormon
social media account were also shared. And the following general leaders further shared content about the upcoming new season of the Book of Mormon videos: Church President Russell M. Nelson (from whom two posts were shared) and Sister Michelle D. Craig, First Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency.
I am grateful to have been able to share this information here with you all today. Thanks again, everyone!
And new information is available on the times for the groundbreaking ceremonies of the Heber Valley Utah Temple tomorrow and the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple in 3 weeks:
Deletehttps://mywebcast.churchofjesuschrist.org/templegroundbreaking
Interested individuals will need to log in to the website with your Church accounts. My thanks once again to you all.
The Church News has published 3 new reports:
Deletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2022/10/7/23391736/kalani-sitake-tony-finau-meet-tongan-prime-minister-at-byu-event
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/7/23393520/book-of-mormon-videos-jesus-christ-gives-the-power-to-baptize-in-newest-episode-season-4
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/7/23393439/sharon-eubank-united-nations-conference-uvu-sustainable-development-goals-parternship
My thanks once again to you all.