Temple Site Possibilities: South America South Area, Part One--Area Overview

Hello again, everyone! As noted in my last post, since my wife and I are stuck at home with illness today, and since I am past the point where my body, mind, and spirit will allow me to get additional rest and relaxation, I have opted to continue putting together and publishing my thoughts on potential future temples.

While my focus now turns to the South America South Area, which will involve an area overview in this post, and subsequent posts providing an overview of temples within it, the history of those temples, the number of stakes and districts currently served by the district of each of those temples, district, and, to conclude the area coverage, the final post will share the list I have compiled of other potential locations within this area that I have felt could get a temple soon.

So let's start with the area overview. The South America South Area boundaries take in the nations of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. I don't know how many of you noticed or would remember this, but for a long time, the nation of Chile, which has a high concentration of Latter-day Saints, was its own area of the Church.

In 2002, Elder Holland was asked by the First Presidency to preside over that area for two years, at the same time Elder Oaks was assigned to do so in the Philippines. And at the conclusion of those two years, the First Presidency called Elder Perry to preside for one year over the Church in the Europe Central Area. So 2002-2005 marked a rare time in the Church where these apostles were sent to fill assignments that had traditionally been handled by General Authority Seventies.

While I cannot say with any certainty that these assignments may have been necessary due to large-scale issues these areas were facing at the time, what I do know thanks to dear family friends who served in the area office of the Philippines under Elder Oaks during his time there, and which appears to be true of Chile and Europe as well, during and as a result after the fact of this ministry by the three, Church growth appeared to stabilize at take off.

Anyways, my reason for mentioning these unusual apostolic assignments was to note that while Chile  was its own area for several years, in 2011, the First Presidency announced that the Chile and South America South Areas would be consolidated into one area, and would be known as the South America South Area.

I apologize for being long-winded, but I figure that these details do, to a certain degree, set the background for my coverage of this area. The next post in this series will be published hopefully later today to cover the history of the six temples within this area, and also perhaps go into the specifics of the number of stakes and districts in each nation that are served by these six. And again, hopefully, I will be able to wrap up my coverage of this area before the end of this Christmas Day, which would ideally allow me to have my coverage of the three areas in Utah published on this blog within the remaining six days of 2017.

So for now, that does it for this post. Any and all 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 everything you do.

A Brief Preliminary Word Regarding My Coverage of the Final Four Areas of the Church

Hello again, everyone! Hope your Christmas day has been enjoyable. Since my wife and I are stuck at home dealing with illness, and because my system is past the point where it will allow me to rest and relax (aside from regular sleep at night), I have decided it would be best to move on with my coverage of the final four areas of the Church (South America South, and Utah North, Utah Salt Lake City, and Utah South) I will post again in a few minutes to begin my coverage of the South America South Area, but I wanted to note a couple of important things first, which apply to these final four but are also true about those areas which I have already covered.

First, I wanted to reiterate what I have previously stated: I hope it is clearly understood that when I have opted to move on to my coverage of the next area of the Church, that is not intended in any way to signal the end of the discussion about the areas which I have already covered. I would hope that all of you know that you are more than welcome at any time to post additional feedback of any kind on any post I have done up to this point, or any or all others that I will do going forward. I appreciate any and all such comments at any time they are added.

Second, as some of you may have noticed, in my introductory posts for each of the Church's areas which I have covered up to this point, I have mentioned a specific number of posts which I have anticipated to do in focusing on each area. It is almost inevitably the case that the original number of posts I thought I would do winds up being corrected or altered as the amount of content I am covering necessitates. So for each of the final four areas I will be covering (which I hope to wrap up before the end of this year) I will not be giving any estimates about the number of posts which I will do for each of those four. The amount of content I need to post will be the determining factor in that regard.

With those two things said, I will be back later today to start discussing the first of those areas, covering the southern part of South America. And, as I indicated earlier, my hope is to have those final four covered before midnight MST when 2017 concludes and 2018 officially is rung in.

Therefore, that does it for this post. Any and all 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 7 and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Temple Site Possibilities: South America Northwest Area, Part Seven--Exploring the Likelihood of a Second Venezuelan Temple and Area Wrap-Up

Hello again, everyone, and Merry Christmas to you all. In the early morning hours on a day when we exchange gifts with family (and, for some of you, friends) as we remember that without Christ, there would be no Christmas, I am pleased to be able to bring you my final post covering South America. In this post (as mentioned in the previous one), we will examine the likelihood of a potential second temple in the near future for Venezuela, and then I will have a few additional remarks to wrap up my coverage of the South America Northwest Area. Let's get right into all of that.

With what I noted about the number of Church units in Venezuela, including the fact that the one temple in that nation (which was built in Caracas) serves Venezuela's 34 stakes and 6 districts, many have said that there is a strong reason to believe that a second temple in that nation may be needed to help serve those congregations. As I have considered that possibility, a few thoughts have come to mind.

The first of those thoughts is that, in August 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley was visiting the Saints in Maracaibo, and during that visit, he publicly proposed a temple for that city. With over 18 years having come and gone since that time, and keeping in mind that many of the temples that have been announced during President Monson's presidency are those that were publicly proposed at one point or another by his predecessor. So I do fully believe that a temple in Maracaibo may just be a matter of time.

In addition to the size of the Caracas Temple district and to President Hinckley's public proposal of a temple for Maracaibo, the Saints in Maracaibo currently travel 439.1 miles to get to the temple in Caracas, which is more than double the mileage distance of 200 within which President Monson has set a goal to have between every Church member and the nearest temple.

So there are three very solid reasons to believe that Maracaibo could (and probably will) be the next Venezuelan city to get its own temple. Saints in the surrounding regions would likewise be spared from travelling an inordinate distance to get to the Caracas temple.

That said, I did want to observe that, unlike most potential sites which I have considered for my list of potential temples, the idea of a second temple for the Venezuelan Saints does have one very real roadblock: some of the politicians and law enforcement officers in Venezuela seem to be somewhat, if not entirely, corrupt.

Some of you may have heard the news that a citizen of Utah by the name of Josh Holt who went to Venezuela to get married was taken into custody on ridiculous charges (unlawful possession of dangerous firearms) that cannot be true, and he has remained in the Venezuelan prison system where he has been severely mistreated and where he will likely not have a chance at a fair trial if and when he is granted one.

The senior Utah senator Orrin Hatch has promised the Holt family that he will do everything he can to get their son released and able to go home, but the chances of that occurring don't look very good at this point. If governmental and law enforcement officials in Venezuela are that corrupt at this point, until the political climate clears and more reasonable leaders are appointed to those positions, the Church may not have much of a chance to get a second temple built to serve the Venezuelan Saints. With the Lord, nothing is impossible or out of the question, but at the moment, it's very hard to know how likely it might be that a temple could be announced in Maracaibo anytime soon.

But those are just my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments below. I would be particularly interested to know your answers to the following questions: Could Venezuela get a temple in the near future? If so, would Maracaibo be the most likely place for it because of President Hinckley's proposal for one in that city? If the government and law enforcement officers are as corrupt as they certainly seem to be, could that potentially delay a second temple in Venezuela until more reasonable leadership is in power? I look forward to your thoughts.

So, having covered the current temples in various phases and the potential future temples I could see being announced in the near future, this post concludes my coverage of the South America Northwest Area. If I missed or have potentially overlooked anything in these last seven posts I have done, please let me know.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post(s) in this series, which should be put up later this week and focus on current and potential future temples in the South America South Areas, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do. And from the very depths of my soul, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.