Miscellaneous Church News

Hello again, everyone! In the last little while, the Church News website has published a few new articles which I wanted to pass along. First of all, even though they had published a new General Authorities chart following last October's general conference, with the deaths of Elder Hales and President Monson and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency, it makes sense that the Church News has published an updated version of that chart, including empty spaces for the existing vacancies. You can find a PDF version of that chart here.

The Church News also ran a couple of articles focusing on addresses given at the Church's annual seminar for MTC presidents and visitor's center directors. This one summarized an address from Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer, who is one of a few Assistant Executive Directors of the Church's Missionary Department, and also the chair of the Missionary Medical Health Services Division. Additionally, the Church News published this article of the remarks then-Elder now-President Oaks gave during that same seminar, which was done just a few days before he was called to the First Presidency.

Additionally, aside from addresses in that seminar, the Church News ran  article about the return of missionaries to Madagascar, where a plague outbreak in that nation led to those missionaries being evacuated and temporarily reassigned in October last year.  It was great to hear about that.

It is awesome to see how the Church is progressing in small and simple ways that, when seen in retrospect, are more significant than we realized at the time. It has always interested me to see the work of the Lord unfold, and I am grateful these things mean so much to so many of you as well.

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.

Further Updates Provided on Temple Renovations

Hello again, everyone! I am happy to be able to focus a blog post on new updates for temples undergoing renovations that came to my attention earlier today. The nature of these updates is such that I will need to once again revisit my estimated time-frames for the affected temples and, by extension, the new temples of the Church in various parts of the world. My work on that estimate revision process has kept me from reporting these updates before now. So let's dive right in and discuss the new information.

First of all, I wanted to note that, as of earlier today, the Raleigh North Carolina Temple was moved ahead of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple, and that the Paraguayan temple has an updated completion estimate of mid-2019.

More specifically, the status of the Raleigh renovation process has been updated to note that the steeple has been removed and that the removal of marble cladding is underway. And in terms of new progress which has been reported for the Asuncion renovation process, it has been noted that building permits have been secured, which means the full-scale renovation efforts will likely begin early next week.

It is good to see what has occurred in terms of these developments. As noted earlier in this post, I am in the process of revising my estimates for future temple-related events, and I will do my best to ensure that I complete that process and pass the updates along to you as I get them figured out. Stay tuned for that, which will likely be posted within the next 6-18 hours.

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.

First Presidency Announces Renovation Closure for the Hamilton New Zealand Temple

Hello again, everyone! The new First Presidency has hit the ground running. Three days after their introductory press conference, the presiding quorum of the Church has announced another temple renovation closure. This time, it is the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, which was originally dedicated in April 1958 by President David O. McKay as only the 11th operating temple of the Church. The renovation process will include seismic and systemic upgrades, including updating the electrical and mechanical systems of the temple and bringing them up to code. In view of it being another older temple of the Church, the completion of that process is only anticipated in 2021, when an open house and cultural celebration will be held prior to this temple's rededication. It was good to hear about that, and I hope this is of interest to most of you. 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.