Unit Gains and Losses Signal Somewhat Significant LDS Congregational Growth

Hello. While I do not speak much of unit growth here on my blog (since Matthew Martinich does a wonderful job of that, and I would never want to take that from him; he's better at the analysis of such trends and I respect him for that), the unit growth thus far this year is quite profound. There has been a net increase of 34 stakes this year. while the number of districts have decreased by a net amount of 14, and the total number of wards and branches have seen a net increase of 30 so far this year. Matt is working on analysis of all of that, and has added this post describing the significance of the Church having reached 3,300 stakes. More analysis will follow from him, which can be found on the main page of his blog here. As the year is more than halfway over, it may be hard to tell how the rest of the year will affect the total number of units in the Church, but, for my part, I will continue to offer updates as more information comes to my attention. Thanks to you all for your interest and support.

Minor Update Reported on Rome Italy Temple

Today, I learned an interesting tidbit about the Rome Italy Temple. The construction trailers that housed on-site missionaries that are fielding questions about the temple have been donated to community organizations. The on-site missionaries have been relocated to the on-site patron housing, which is far enough along to allow that to happen. This development confirms my feelings that the Rome Italy Temple is almost certain to be the first new temple dedicated next year. What is not so clear is whether that dedication will happen prior to, between, or after the rededication of the Jordan River Utah and Frankfurt Germany Temples. I am studying all of that, in addition to all other temple-related milestones, and hope to have an update to my timeline for temple-related events before the end of this week. For now, this new information is an update from what I had previously said about the Rome Italy Temple. While I wish it hadn't taken almost 10 years after its announcement (8 years after its groundbreaking) to finish, but I have always said that temples outside the US have typically taken between 5-15 years from announcement to completion, so it is fitting that this temple was finished within this time. Just wanted to note those things, for what the information may be worth to you all. Thanks for the privilege of your time. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Hope you all are well. I will be back with another post before too much longer. Until then, may the Lord bless you all.

Open House begins for Provo MTC Expansion

Hello, all! As some of you might be aware, the Provo MTC was recently expanded. Today marked the start of the open house being held prior to the dedication of those buildings that have been added or renovated (including expansions). The Church News put out this article about media tours, while this article was published in the Mormon Newsroom on the Church's website. The open house will run until the latter part of August, when free tours will be offered to those participating in BYU's annual Campus Education Week. And, as may have been noted previously, this open house marks the completion of just the first part of the process of expanding and renovating buildings within the MTC. But missionaries at the MTC are quoted as saying that the Spirit is quite strong already just with the changes that have been made up to this point. That does it for this report. Thanks for the privilege of your time. Comments are always welcome and appreciated.