Yet Another Temple Construction Progress Report

When I had the chan e to do so yesterday (the 15th), I checked out the LDS Church Temples website. Once again, just within the last 24 hours or so, the progress that has been reported has been most wonderful and marvelous to read about. I share my latest version of my assembled report. Let me know your thoughts. And yes, I do know that this is one day old now that it is past midnight. Because I have a doctor's appointment in Salt Lake City in about 12 hours, I will likely not have a chance to check on temple progress again until our return home. Any and all feedback is welcome and appreciated. Thanks.

Temple Construction Progress Report (current as of 12/15/16)

Current Temple Status: 155 operating; 1 scheduled for dedication; 11 under construction; 1 scheduled for rededication; 2 undergoing renovation; 10 announced; (NOTE: Up to 3 additional temples may soon have a groundbreaking announced).

Dedication scheduled:

156. Paris France Temple: Interior work underway; open house and dedication dates announced; scheduled to be dedicated on Sunday May 21, 2017.

Under Construction:

157. Meridian Idaho Temple: Exterior lighting tests underway; welcome center reopens in stake center; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

158. Cedar City Utah Temple: Fencing progressing; entrance plaza created; garden and natural landscaping areas defined; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

159. Tucson Arizona Temple: Pouring walkways; erecting fencing; installing art glass windows; completion anticipated sometime in late 2017.

160. Rome Italy Temple: Interior work progressing; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

161. Concepcion Chile Temple: Attaching building wrap to exterior walls; adding landscaping structures; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

162. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple: Building the exterior walls; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

163. Durban South Africa Temple: Pouring temple foundation; setting rebar for missionary housing walls; palm trees planted along entrance road; completion anticipated sometime in 2018.

164. Barranquilla Colombia Temple: Exterior walls rising; completion anticipated sometime between 2018 and 2019.

165. Winnipeg Manitoba Temple: Groundbreaking held Saturday December 3, 2016; completion anticipated sometime between 2018 and 2019.

166. Fortaleza Brazil Temple: Concrete forms going up for second floor exterior walls; completion anticipated sometime in 2019.

167. Lisbon Portugal Temple: Laying meetinghouse footings and foundation; excavating for maintenance building; temple site cleared; completion anticipated sometime in 2019.

Scheduled for rededication:

8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple: Closed for renovation; finish work underway; rededication scheduled for Sunday June 4, 2017.

Undergoing Renovation:

20. Jordan River Utah Temple: Closed for renovation; rededication anticipated sometime between late 2017 and early 2018.

41. Frankfurt Germany Temple: Closed for renovation; some exterior stone removed; foundation exposed; old meetinghouse razed; rededication anticipated sometime in 2018.

Announced:

168. Harare Zimbabwe Temple: Approval and construction preparation phase; official site announcement anticipated in early 2017, with the groundbreaking anticipated to take place shortly following the site announcement.

169.  Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple: Governmental approval phase; preliminary environmental license issued in November 2016; groundbreaking pending.

170. Arequipa Peru Temple: General contractor selected; groundbreaking pending.

171. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

172. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

173. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

174. Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

175. Quito Ecuador Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

176. Belem Brazil Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

177. Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

Key:

Bolded numbers and text denote temples whose numbers already exists (for renovations), or is certain due to a scheduled dedication, as well as information that is certain, such as dedication or groundbreaking dates.

Italicized numbers and text denote temples whose numbers may change based on the order in which future dedications and groundbreakings are scheduled.

Underlined numbers and text denote temples whose numbers may change based on progress towards planning, approval, and groundbreaking.

Red text denotes changes from the last posted temple progress update.

We have been the recipients of a miracle

I know I posted a comment about this on my last post, but I wanted to make it an official blog post topic for today. We have been the recipients of a miracle, the likes of which we never would have been able to believe had it not happened to us personally.

Today (the 16th) is my 30th birthday. Since my wife's nephew and I share a birthday, Amy's family has habitually visited me for my birthday the night before my special day. And so, yesterday night (the 15th), they did visit us.

We appreciated their visit. We have not been around them a lot lately because health has prevented it. But their visit brought us much needed comfort.

As if that weren't enough, I was beyond grateful for the many prayers and expressions of love and support we have received. We have been the recipients of a Christmas miracle for which I at least am most unworthy. The details aren't important. But suffice it to say that, thanks to things happening the way they did, we will be more than okay throughout the rest of this month, until I get my next check from the government. Our Christmas miracle, such as it was, was a direct answer to our prayers, and we will be forever grateful for the reminder that the Lord does hear and answers prayers. And sometimes, those answers come in the least expected way.

Maybe it's not much by the standards of others, but it means the world to us. And the really amazing thing about the whole situation is that the Lord has always seemed to know whenever we do need the help. I have been bailed out of situations created by my own stupidity and poor choices more than I can count. We wish we didn't, need such miracles, but we are grateful that the Lord knows our needs and meets them in miraculous and unexpected ways.

I am eternally and everlastingly grateful for this additional witness and confirmation to us that the Lord is very much aware of our situation, and, in His mercy, He always sends what we need when we need it. I am humbled and overwhelmed. I feel we can truly say, as have so many others in the past, that God is in His heaven, and all is right with the world.

Thanks to all who have so willingly offered help and prayers in our behalf. We appreciate it more than we can ever express. We hope that, at some point, the Lord will bless us to the point where we can pay it forward and do for others what has been so willingly done for us. Thanks again.

Prayers would be appreciated

Hey guys! I know of a few of you, my readers, who have expressed sympathy and promised to send prayers our way as a result of the health problems my wife and I are both having. But I wanted to put out a request for prayers in our behalf for an additional reason.

Due to some very imprudent and downright stupid financial decisions I have recently made, we are in deep trouble. Most of the problem has been the result of our December Tithing and Fast Offerings somehow being processed twice through the online system. That was a bad enough problem. But we also were dropped from what dental coverage we had, and I got us set up with a new dental plan. Ordinarily, that would not be a problem. But being the naive and rather stupid person I have always been when it comes to impulsive financial decisions, I somehow neglected to consider our lack of resources and arranged for automatic payments from my bank account this month. Because I forgot to delay the start of our coverage until next month when we would have the resources to cover it, and because I had neglected to tell my wife that an automatic payment would be processed from our account, when the payment came through today, it resulted in our maxing out anything we had left of our already meager resources.

I am disgusted with myself for my stupidity, imprudence, and idiocy. The result of my folly is that we have absolutely nothing left for the holidays. So instead of spoiling my wife as I hoped to do, I have to wait to do that until next month.

It seems we are always impoverished beyond belief round about Christmastime each year. I think it was my first year blogging that, in response to my post about our financial destitution, someone anonymously sent us enough money to get us through the holidays to my next paycheck in January. I would love nothing more than to find that another Christmas miracle of that sort bails us out. But I have a notoriously bad habit of not doing nearly enough to keep us in good financial condition, make imprudent financial decisions, and then expect someone to bail us out of a situation that is solely and completely my fault and doing. I can't do that anymore.

Thankfully, we may be okay. I signed us up for food assistance with the state a long time ago, and my monthly allowance for that comes tomorrow. And in the meantime, if we do need anything, we do have access to funds from a PayPal credit line my wife was able to get for us solely on the basis of her good credit history. This will help us get what we need for the holidays. As for my own credit history, it's been tanked by the fact that I applied for and was given a line of credit with my bank, but have struggled to get it paid off. In fact, because we haven't been able to pay it off and have had to withdraw any such payment right back out again within days of putting it in, my bank doesn't have enough faith in my ability to pay it back and won't grant an extension of those resources.

My unemployed status and the fact that I get less than $800 dollars per month from the government does not lend itself to paying off our continually increasing amount of debt, including the Paypal. We just get anything partially paid off only to find ourselves increasing our use of these resources. And now, with the holidays approaching, we will once again have to tighten our belts.

I am just brutally honest enough to admit that most, if not all, of our problems stem from my financial imprudence and from the fact that I didn't work nearly as hard as I should have to retain the first and only job I've ever had, and that I have been too ill lately to look for another job, let alone actually working one. I feel in so many ways as though I am constantly running up a brick wall. And it doesn't help the hopelessness of my situation to realize and acknowledge that my wife is suffering the most from what amounts to my lack of a sufficiently committed work ethic, and my continual selfishness in believing and asserting that I am too sick to work another job, assuming I could even find one with any degree of sufficient swiftness. This is especially true in light of the fact that my wife almost risked her own life just to keep us going by working the only job she could get for the first two years of our marriage.

For all I have made her suffer through for the entirety of our marriage, and especially for the enormity of my most recent blunders, I think that I despise myself. And it absolutely kills me to realize that, not for the first time, my wife won't get a proper Christmas until January at the earliest, thanks to my stupidity and lack of foresight.

Because of all of this, in addition to the health issues we both are suffering which I outlined in that previous post done in the very early hours of this morning, prayers are desperately needed and would be so very much more appreciated than I can ever express or show. Thanks for your readership, interest, support, and prayers.