Report on Church Events That Took Place Today

Hello. I wanted to report on the three Church events that happened today. The groundbreakings were held as scheduled in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and Arequipa Peru. Interestingly enough, though we only had an announced time for one of these temples, both took place @ 10:00 am local time. (That means that the Brazil groundbreaking took place @ 6:00 AM MST, and the Peru groundbreaking was at 8:00 AM MST.) As expected, those announced as presiding did so (Elder Claudio R. M. Costa in Brazil and Elder Carlos A. Godoy in Peru). Here's the odd thing. From what I have read about those groundbreakings, it seems that these two were the first in quite a while where a representative from the Temple Department was not in attendance. In a way, I can appreciate that. It means that these area leaders are being trusted to get things started without having that official representation from Church headquarters. Click here to read the Church's official news release about the groundbreakings, including who was in attendance.

That said, I have found out that construction is expected to begin in earnest for both temples sometime next week, a status update I honestly did not see coming, as I had been advised that the construction in Rio could be delayed initially. It is therefore not unreasonable to believe that both temples might be completed sometime around mid-to-late 2019. I will do a second post shortly with my updated temple construction progress report.

In the meantime, I wanted to report on the other major Church news event that happened today. A Face-to-Face event was held for the youth this morning. It was the first ever Face-to-Face event to feature a member of the First Presidency. President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, was joined by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who is senior to him in terms of the apostleship, but junior to him currently because of President Eyring serving in the top governing body of the Church. There has not as yet been a report of that event on any Church news outlet I usually check. However, my favorite local news station, KSL, which is entirely or partially owned and operated by the Church, always reports on Church news and events such as this. They sent religion specialist Sam Penrod (who has worked and may still be working with my former bishop and good friend Steve Landeen, a KSL photographer) to report on the event. Though that report is not yet available on the website, I will keep an eye out for it, as well as for coverage on the event form the Church websites I usually follow, and post links to those as I can this weekend.

Thanks for your readership and support. Any comments are welcome and appreciated.

Update several hours later: I have found the KSL news story of which I spoke. Click here to read that. Additionally, this link contains a news article on the event from the Church News, this one is from the Church News and Events section of LDS.org, and this one is from Mormon Newsroom. Hope this is helpful to you. Thanks.

3 Major Church Events To Be Held Tomorrow

Hello. Just wanted to do a quick reminder post that there will be 3 major Church events held tomorrow. President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are currently in New York preparing for the Face-to-Face Event for the youth of the Church that will be held at around 10:00 AM MST. During the event, youth of the Church around the world will be able to submit questions and have them answered in real time. This is the first such event to be held in English this year, and the focus of the questions will be set around the event of the First Vision and on James 1:5-6, which is not only the passage of scripture that led to the First Vision, but also the designated theme for Mutual this year. I love the idea that the Lord will give wisdom to those who ask for it. I have sought for and received such wisdom when I lacked it several times.

That said, as part of this post, I wanted to mention the preparation for the process of asking for and receiving wisdom. Some have the erroneous idea that answers will come just for the asking. But it is only after we have followed the scriptural injunction to "study it out in [our] minds" and then ask that the answers come. As many apostles have observed on numerous  occasions, if the Lord just handed us the answers without us doing the work to be informed on an issue, it would lead to us becoming weak, relying on the Lord for guidance when He trusts us to use our own wisdom and judgment, and to our failure to govern our own lives sufficiently. And generally, at least for me, I have found that my best inquiries of the Lord have come when I have already settled on a course of action, rather than expecting Him to do the choosing for me. The Lord's answers do not come in response to multiple choice questions. Once we have decided what to ask and how to ask it, our ability to clearly get the answer He is willing to give us comes into play. This is precisely why I had little or no patience for the journalist that recently griped against the Church Public Affairs Department for not being more transparent: if he had done his research, the questions would not have been necessary.

That aside, the other two events are the groundbreakings for the Arequipa Peru and Rio de Janeiro Brazil temples. I have on good authority that while construction is set to begin almost immediately on the Peru temple, the one in Brazil will be joining the one in Winnipeg in the category of temples that have had a groundbreaking, but will not progress further until some other undisclosed and unknown issues are properly dealt with. That said, it is entirely possible that both of these temples will be finished around the end of 2019, as one is bigger and more complex in size and design than the other. (I will have to double-check to find out which is which).

So it will be an exciting day for the Church. Within a period of roughly four hours, all of these events will have taken place. What a privilege it is to live in this wonderful era when so many exciting developments are taking place at around the same time.

Thanks for reading this. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Stay tuned for a full report on these events coming at some point tomorrow.

Temple Construction Progress Update

This is the second and last post I will do today. I wanted to share the latest updates in terms of temple construction progress. There are also some significant Church news developments upon which I will focus in future posts as time allows over the next few days. Thanks to you all for your interest and support. Any comments on these updates are most welcome and appreciated. Here's the latest:

Temple Construction Progress Update (current as of 3/1/17)

Current Temple Status: 155 operating; 4 scheduled for dedication; 8 under construction; 2 groundbreakings scheduled; 1 scheduled for rededication; 2 undergoing renovation; 2 renovations scheduled; 8 announced. NOTE: In addition to the two groundbreakings already scheduled this year, the chances are very good that we will see several others also have a groundbreaking in 2017.

Dedication scheduled:

156. Paris France Temple: Open house tickets now available (that event is scheduled to last from Saturday April 22-Saturday May 13 (excluding the Sundays of April 23 and 30 and May 7)); dedication scheduled for Sunday May 21, 2017.

157. Tucson Arizona Temple: Drought-tolerant landscaping progressing; installing sprinkler systems for grassy areas; installing interior art glass and millwork; dedication scheduled for Sunday August 13, 2017.

158. Meridian Idaho Temple: Interior painting and millwork underway; dedication scheduled for Sunday November 19, 2017.

159. Cedar City Utah Temple: Installing glass; hanging drywall on interior; dedication scheduled for Sunday December 10, 2017.

Under Construction:

160. Rome Italy Temple: Interior work progressing; completion anticipated sometime between early-to -mid 2018.

161. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple: Applying waterproofing membrane to exterior walls; setting rebar; roughing in plumbing; completion anticipated sometime between early-to-mid 2018.

162.  Barranquilla Colombia Temple: Concrete walls poured for steeple; attaching waterproofing membrane to exterior walls; completion anticipated sometime during mid-2018.

163. Concepcion Chile Temple: Exterior cladding going up on north wall; framing the interior walls; completion anticipated sometime during mid-to-late 2018.

164. Durban South Africa Temple: Preparing for temple floor slab; backfilling missionary housing facility foundation; aloe plants added at entrance; completion anticipated sometime during mid-to-late 2018.

165. Fortaleza Brazil Temple: Parapet poured; some scaffolding coming down; preparing to pour tower base; completion anticipated sometime during early 2019.

166.  Lisbon Portugal Temple: Excavation completed for temple foundation; structural framing going up for meetinghouse; completion anticipated sometime during early 2019.

Construction pending:

167. Winnipeg Manitoba Temple: Groundbreaking held Saturday December 3, 2016; awaiting commencement of full-scale operations; construction might commence in April or May; if so, completion anticipated sometime during early 2019.

Groundbreaking Scheduled:

168. Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple: Preparing for groundbreaking; environmental license issued in November 2016; groundbreaking scheduled for Saturday March 4, 2017; barring any delays, completion anticipated sometime during late 2019.

169. Arequipa Peru Temple: Preparing for groundbreaking; erecting construction barrier; clearing and leveling site; groundbreaking scheduled for Saturday March 4, 2017; completion anticipated sometime during late 2019.

Rededication Scheduled:

8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple: Closed for renovation; open house tickets available beginning Monday April 3, 2017; rededication scheduled for Sunday June 4, 2017.

Undergoing Renovation:

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

41. Frankfurt Germany Temple: Closed for renovation; some exterior stone removed; foundation exposed; old meetinghouse razed; rededication anticipated sometime between early-and mid-2018.

Renovation Scheduled:

13. Oakland California Temple: Scheduled to close for renovation in February 2018; rededication anticipated sometime during mid-to-late 2019.

16. Washington D. C. Temple: Scheduled to close for renovation in March 2018; rededication anticipated sometime during early-to-mid 2020.

Announced:

170. Harare Zimbabwe Temple: Approval and construction preparation phase; site announcement and groundbreaking anticipated sometime during 2017 (more likely sooner than later).

171. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple: Planning and design phase; awaiting official site announcement. NOTE: According to member reports, a potential site has been identified but has yet to be confirmed.

172. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement. NOTE: Some reports have indicated that a Church office building may be redesigned and renovated as a multi-purpose building that will not only continue to house Church offices but also a meetinghouse in addition to a temple.

173. Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement. NOTE: Even though this was the last of the four temples that was announced most recently, and in spite of the fact that an official site has not yet been announced, the announced name for this second temple in Lima seems to indicate that it will be constructed somewhere in the Los Olivos District. For that reason, it seems appropriate to put this temple ahead of the others.

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. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Stalled in planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. NOTE: Even though this temple is technically ahead of the temples listed above in terms of its status, because it is unclear why progress has been stalled or how long those delays might last, we could see any or all of the temples above have their constructions commence before anything gets resolved with this one.

NOTE: Given how much progress we have seen with temples recently, it is not hard to believe that we will see many more temples announced in the near future. There have been reports of several cities that have already had a site purchased already: Managua Nicaragua, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, Bentonville Arkansas, and Missoula Montana. As the apostles travel, they sometimes have felt impressed to propose a temple for the areas they visit. Such temples have been proposed in New Delhi India (in June 1992 by Elder Neal A. Maxwell); Vilnius Lithuania (in May 1993 by Elder M. Russell Ballard); Nairobi Kenya (in February 1998 by President Gordon B. Hinckley); Maracaibo Venezuela (in August 1999 by President Hinckley); Singapore (in January 2000 by President Hinckley); for the Southwest Salt Lake Valley (in October 2005 by President Hinckley; NOTE: While some contend that this temple announcement has already happened, verifiable sources widely available prove otherwise); Managua Nicaragua (in January 2012 by then-Elder Russell M. Nelson; the fact that it has not only been publicly proposed but has had a site purchased for it makes it very likely); Missoula Montana (someone in 2014 by Elder David A. Bednar; while the report of this proposal has yet to be verified, the fact that there has been a purchase of a temple site seems to indicate that it is a most imminent possibility); and for the Kasai Region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (in February 2016 by Elder Neil L. Andersen). I have heard many reports of several more temple sites being procured, but the nature of those reports are such that they have yet to be verified.

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 report.