Case Study: How soon could the Church have 200 operating temples?

Hello again, everyone! As I may have mentioned previously, I started the prior post with the intention of exploring how soon the Church might see 200 operating temples. I had before offered my opinion that that could occur by or before the 200th anniversary of the Church, which is what prompted my deviation from that subject in the post previous to this one. So, let's examine what the Church would have to do to make that possible, and how temple progress will be looking over the next 2-3 years.

As many of you are no doubt aware, there are 182 temples in various stages. This means that the Church would just have to announce 18 more, in addition to completing the other 25 currently in various stages. That's a total of 43 temples that would need to be dedicated in between now and April 6, 2030. With that in mind, the Church, as of today, has 12.41 years to complete those 43. That works out to just around 3.5 that would need to be completed in each one of those years. So, what needs to happen to make that possible? Let's look at that.

As you  all know, the Church will have 2 more temples dedicated by the end of this year, bringing the number of those in operation to 159. By the end of 2018, the Church will have either 162 or 163 in operation, meaning 3 or 4 new temples will be added next year. 2019, as already noted, is anticipated to be a big year for temple-related events, without even considering how many announced temples might have a groundbreaking next year. If the data I have gathered proves correct, the number of operating temples by the end of will have risen to either 169 or 170. With that in mind, by the time the Church has 10 years left to dedicate the 200, there will be around 30 temples left to complete. So as long as 3 or 4 are dedicated each year, that could easily be done.

That said, as already noted, if many other temples have a groundbreaking next year and in 2019, the number of those that could subsequently be dedicated in 2020 and beyond, along with those new temples that may be announced within the next two years, could be anyone's guess. That said, it seems obvious to me that, whether or not an official goal is made to do so, the Church will have at least 200 temples in operation by April 6, 2030. In fact, for the span of the 17 years between January 2001 (the end of the temple-building boom that occurred between 1997 and 2000) and the end of this year, the Church will have seen an increase in operating temples from 102 to 159, which is 57 new temples. In those 17 years, that will have averaged out to 3.35 temples per year. And with the 41 that would need to be dedicated between January 1, 2018 and April 6, 2030 (a span of 12.26 years), that further works out to 3.34 per year.

Thanks for bearing with me as I have shared this information with you. Whatever might happen in terms of future temple-related developments, you can be sure to find all the latest news and developments here. That does it for this post. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.

How the Church has marked milestone anniversaries

Hello, everyone! I had begun this post intending to talk about temple progress, but it became more about the milestone anniversaries of the Church, so I will post my updated thoughts about temple progress shortly. In the meantime, for those not aware of this, the Church has held a big celebration every 50 years when the different milestone anniversaries of the Church came about. I wanted to discuss each of these milestones briefly

The 50th anniversary of the Church was marked on April 6, 1880. At that time, President John Taylor, as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (he would officially be ordained and set apart as 3rd Church President following the General Conference that would be held six months later) directed the events of the conference, which spanned three days, from Tuesday April 6 to Thursday April 8 (at that time, conferences were focused on ensuring that the April one always included the Church's anniversary, rather than on being held on the weekends). Exercises honoring the commemoration of the Church's 50th anniversary were held at the Assembly Hall the Sunday and Monday prior to the three-day conference. All of those proceedings were carried in the April 1880 print edition of Conference.

By the time of the 100th anniversary of the Church (on April 6, 1930), the tradition of having days rather than months or even years between the death of one Church President and the appointment of another had been observed three times, and President Heber J. Grant was serving as 7th President of the Church. As was still the tradition of that day, General Conference that year spanned 4 days, from Sunday-Wednesday April 6-9. At the top of his address opening the conference, President Grant read a proclamation authored by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in honor of the anniversary. While none of that General Conference originated from Palmyra (since the technology to allow that to happen would not come along until much later), just over five years after that centennial conference, in June 1935 a monument was dedicated at the Hill Cumorah, which was not far from Palmyra.

50 years later, when the Church observed its sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary, President Spencer W. Kimball had been the 12th President of the Church for just over a year. Because technology had sufficiently advanced to allow it, the General Conference originated from Salt Lake, but featured Church leaders speaking from Palmyra. The conference, held on Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th, featured an opening address from President Kimball. His second counselor, President Romney, was the only First Presidency member to address the Priesthood Session of that conference, as President Kimball had flown with Elder Gordon B. Hinckley to Palmyra for the anniversary commemoration.

At the top of the Sunday Morning Session, from the Peter Whitmer Farm House in New York, President Kimball gave a brief introduction to a commemorative proclamation that was, at his request, read by Elder Hinckley. While Elder Hinckley read that proclamation from the Farm House, the others in attendance, including three direct descendants of the Smith family, hurried over to the new stake center in the city, and from that location, President Kimball gave remarks and offered a dedicatory prayer of that stake center, the farmhouse where the Church started, and the nearby home that the Whitmers had moved to later on. President Kimball's remarks allowed Elder Hinckley time to join them in the chapel, from which he spoke at the conclusion of President Kimball's remarks. The session then shifted back to Salt Lake, where the remaining speakers of that session gave their addresses. During the concluding session of the conference, Elder Hugh W. Pinnock and President Spencer W. Kimball gave their remarks from New York.

The Church's bicentennial General Conference will, if the tradition of recent years is kept, will be held on Saturday and Sunday April 6 and 7. I have previously shared my thoughts that either Elder Holland or Elder Bednar could be the president of the Church at the time of that anniversary. And based on how much technology has evolved, some or all of General Conference could originate from New York. It will be interesting to see.

Thank you for wading through this information. I love considering what might occur for the Church's bicentennial. If the recent passage of time is any indication, that time will soon be upon us. It has been wonderful to do the research on all of this and to pass it along, and I hope it proves useful to some few of you, if not all who read this.

That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Post Honoring President Dieter F. Uchtdorf on his 77th birthday

As promised, I am posting now in honor of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who is celebrating his 77th birthday today. Aside from being only the 11th apostle born outside the US and the first with ties to both German and the Czech Republic, President Uchtdorf is the 6th of those 11 to serve in the First Presidency. At the time of his call to the First Presidency in February 2008, there were only two apostles more junior than he (Elder Bednar, also called to the apostleship in October 2004, and Elder Cook, who was called 3 years after that, but 3 months before President Monson became Church President. Since that time, President Uchtdorf has gone up in the ranks of the apostleship to become the 7th most senior apostle in the Church, which makes him the least senior of the first half of our 14 apostles. So, what is important to note about the life of this wonderful man? Let's talk about all of that.

Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf was born on November 6, 1940 in Czechoslovakia to Karl Albert and Hildegard Else Opelt Uchtdorf. He was raised in Germany, where his family joined the Church in 1947. He studied engineering, business administration, and international management. Joining the German Air Force in 1959, he trained to be a fighter pilot. In 1965, he joined Lufthansa German Airlines as a pilot, working as an airline captain from 1970-1996. He held many responsible executive positions with German Airlines. He married Harriet Reich on December 14, 1962, and they have two children and several grandchildren. He served as a stake president before his call as a General Authority. He was sustained a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 2, 1994. On April 6, 1996, he was sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy. He became a member of the Presidency of the Seventy on August 15, 2002 and was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 2, 2004 and ordained an apostle on October 7, 2004. On February 3, 2008, he was set apart as 2^nd Counselor in the First Presidency to President Thomas S. Monson.

President Uchtdorf, who has become so well loved by many members of the Church, has had the experience of being a refugee twice, and of seeing how their conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ blessed him and his family. He also also spoken before of first being impressed by the woman he would eventually marry, when he saw them come to Church after being found by the missionaries. President Uchtdorf has spoken frequently about ways in which Church members should consider themselves called to action. I enjoy hearing what he has to say in his General Conference addresses every six months. Throughout his almost 24 years as a general authority, almost 14 years as a special witness of the Savior, and nearly a decade of service in the First Presidency, he has given 67 talks, only 2 of which were given prior to his apostolic call. To review any of these remarkable and noteworthy addresses, click here. Also worthy of note (in my opinion) is the fact that, in addition to being the 7th in seniority in the apostleship, he is also, coincidentally enough, the 7th oldest of our apostles. Though he may never read this, I wanted this post to stand as a tribute to this remarkable, unassuming man that has had such a profound effect on me personally.

That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.