Updated Estimates for Future Temple Events: Part One—Overview and Scheduled/Anticipated Events in 2019

Hello again, everyone! Given the temple progress that has occurred within the last two months, and how much has changed regarding the anticipated timing for future temple events within the next several years, I thought I'd provide the next set of updated edistamtes for known future temple events. As usual, this will be done in three parts. This first one will discvuss those events scheduled to occur this year. The second part will deal with events scheduled/anticipated to occur in 2020 & 2021, and the final part will share those events anticipated between 2022 and 2024. This year's scheduled events follow below.

In order to not disturb the flow of that information, I will end here as I always do: That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

Saturday August 24-Monday September 2: President Nelson’s Latin American Ministry Tour (confirmed)

Note: During the third week in May, comments on my blog shared releases from a few country Newsroom websites of the Church noting President Nelson would visit those locations in late August and early September. Then on May 29, the Church released official details of the trip and its’ itinerary. Accompanied by his wife, Wendy W. Nelson, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Mary G. Cook, President Nelson will visit 5 nations in 9 days. With stops in Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Brazil, it appears more likely than not that part of that tour will involve scouting for future temple locations.

Sunday September 1: Dedication of the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple (165^th operating temple; confirmed)

Note: On November 14, 2018, the First Presidency announced the open house and dedication information for this temple (with the latter originally set for mid-May). Then, on January 18, 2019, the dedication was pushed back to this date in view of delays in the construction process. Because President Nelson will be wrapping up his aforementioned Latin American Ministry Tour this same weekend, and given the precedent set with the prior two temple dedications (in Kinshasa DR Congo and Fortaleza Brazil), it seems likely any of the three apostles fluent in French (President Eyring or Elders Andersen or Renlund) may oversee this dedication. Given that Elder Andersen is the only one of those three who has not presided over a temple event this year, he may be asked to dedicate this temple.

Friday September 6: President Nelson’s 95^th Birthday Celebration

Note: On March 14, 2019, the Church announced this milestone celebration for President Nelson, which will occur 3 days before his actual 95^th birthday. In view of the fact that President Nelson has announced 27 temples since his prophetic administration began, it seems appropriate to mention this milestone birthday among other events on this timeline.

Sunday September 15: Dedication of the Lisbon Portugal Temple (166^th operating temple; confirmed)

Note: On March 4, 2019, the First Presidency announced the open house and dedication information for this temple. Given the recent past precedent I noted previously, any of the 15 current apostles, particularly those who have not personally presided over a temple event this year and/or who have any kind of connection to Lisbon may be asked to oversee this dedication. Who exactly that might be is anyone’s guess, but it will not be Elder Ulisses Soares, who presided over the Portugal Porto Mission a few decades ago, since he will be speaking at a Worldwide Devotional/Face-to-Face Event for Young Adults on this same date.

Saturday & Sunday October 5 & 6: 189^th Semiannual General Conference:

Note: Given that there have been 27 new temples announced during the first 3 General Conferences of President Nelson’s prophetic administration, I believe he will continue to announce temples every six months in General Conference, with the focus between each General Conference centered on doing all that can be done to clear the backlog of announced temples, at least for the time being.

Sunday October 13: Private rededication for the Raleigh North Carolina Temple (confirmed)

Note: On May 3, 2019, the First Presidency announced that a one-session private rededication for this temple would take place on this date (following a one-week public open house), with President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, presiding.

Sunday October 20: Rededication of the Frankfurt Germany Temple (confirmed)

Note: On March 5, 2019, the First Presidency announced that this temple would be rededicated on this date. I am anticipating that Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, our native German apostle will be asked to rededicate this temple.

Sunday November 3: Private rededication of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple (confirmed)

Note: On May 21, 2019, the First Presidency announced the one-week open house and one-session private rededication for this temple. It is my opinion that any of the senior apostles (up to and including Elder Christofferson) who have not presided at a temple event could preside over this rededication. But what is far less clear right now is which of those 9 most senior apostles is most likely to do so. If I had to venture a guess, I’d conjecture that it would be Elder Christofferson, who served his mission in the neighboring nation of Argentina.

Monday November 4: St. George Utah Temple Renovation Closure (confirmed)

Note: This temple’s renovation was announced on January 25, 2019. Given the fact that seismic and systemic updates are anticipated to occur, I have set a preliminary general completion estimate of late 2022-early 2023.

Sunday November 17: Private rededication of the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple (confirmed)

Note: On May 3, 2019, the First Presidency also announced the one-week public open house for this temple, which will be privately rededicated on this date by Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

December 15: Dedication of the Arequipa Peru Temple (167^th operating temple)

Note: On May 21, 2019, the First Presidency also announced the dedication of this temple.  Given the aforementioned past precedent, any apostle could preside over this temple dedication, with the only question being which of the 15 is most likely to actually do so. Insofar as I am aware, I know of no current apostle who has direct ties to Peru. So at this point, the prospect is too difficult to call.

Sunday December 29: Salt Lake Temple Renovation Closure (confirmed)

Note: On April 19, 2019, President Nelson announced renovation plans for the Salt Lake Temple, identifying this date for its’ closure. I will offer an estimate for its’ completion (which is anticipated in early-to-mid 2024) later in this document.

Final note on 2019: Groundbreakings have been held so far this year for the Urdaneta Philippines, Bangkok Thailand, Pocatello Idaho, Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, San Juan Puerto Rico, Quito Ecuador, Lima Peru Los Olivos, and Belem Brazil Temples. Based on what I have heard, it seems more likely than not that several other temples will have a groundbreaking at some point during that year. In particular, I am watching for information on the Brasilia Brazil, Richmond Virginia, Saratoga Springs Utah, Harare Zimbabwe, Bengaluru India, Auckland New Zealand, Greater Manila Philippines, Layton Utah, Nairobi Kenya, and Puebla Mexico Temples. Even if not all of them have a groundbreaking occur in 2019, many of them will likely have groundbreaking arrangements announced before the end of this year.

Additional Thoughts and Observations on the Temple Construction Program of the Church: Part Three—Temple Announcements Likely to Be Made During the October 2019 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! With August 17 having officially dawned here in Utah, the end of the open house for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple is going to be marked today, as will the start of the open house for the Lisbon Portugal Temple and the groundbreaking for the Belem Brazil Temple. Tours for the Lisbon Portugal Temple will kick off at 9:00 AM Portugal time, which, because Portugal is 7 hours ahead of Utah time, means that tours of the temple start less than two hours from now.


As I noted earlier, I anticipate that the groundbreaking for the Belém Brazil Temple will take place between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM Belém time, which would be anytime between 7:00 AM and 1:00 PM here in Utah. And tours for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple will wrap up at 7:00 PM Haiti time this evening, which will be 5:00 PM Utah time. While I am unsure how those times convert to other time zones, that's how those break down according to Utah time, with which I am most familiar. I will provide whatever coverage I can of each of these 3 developments as they are reported.

In the meantime, I wanted to note that President Nelson has seemed to have a method to his temple announcements up to this point. Based on the information I provided in the previous post, I can confirm that President Nelson has (not yet) announced any temples in each of the following areas: Africa Southeast, Middle East/Africa North, North America Central, North America Southeast; North America Southwest, and South America Northwest.

As I have also mentioned, I fully anticipate that President Nelson may announce 14-16 temples at minimum. Based on further personal analysis of the methods and patterns of the prior 3 sets of temple announcements, although I would be elated if any of the prospective locations from my last published list had a temple announced, I believe that the breakdown of those 14-16 likely locations may be along the following general lines:

2-3 temples in Africa (1 each in Africa Southeast, Africa West, and (possibly) Middle East/Africa North. If no temples are announced for the Middle East/Africa North Area, there could be 2 announced in either of the other 2 current areas, or just one for each.
1-2 in Asia (Asia and/or Asia North)
1-2 in Brazil
1 each in Central America and the Caribbean
1-2 in Europe (or 1 each in Europe and Europe East)
2-3 in North America (including 1 in Utah) or US territories
1 each in the Pacific and the Philippines
1-2 in South America Northwest and South America South

I should also mention that, due to the factors mentioned in the references accompanying my latest list, I cannot narrow down my selections per area to just these general parameters and numbers. But I can additionally note the following: If President Nelson repeats (and builds on) what he did last October, at least a few of the nations on the April 2019 edition of the list of locations with the strongest Church presence that do nott currently have a temple in any phase will have a temple announced in October of this year.

It is my opinion that, among the top contenders from that current list, we are most likely to see temples announced in Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mozambique, and Madagascar, which currently rank first, second, fifth, sixth, and seventh. Even if only 3 of those are announced, (with Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Madagascar being the most likely 3 in my mind), that in turn will alter the next edition of that top ten list in a remarkable way.

From my July list of the most likely prospects, I would also like to share those locations which I believe are the top contenders: Antananarivo Madagascar, Freetown Sierra Leone, either Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Jakarta Indonesia, or Singapore, Belo Horizonte or Florianopolis Brazil, Coban Guatemala, Edinburgh Scotland or Berlin Germany, Torreon Mexico, Port Moresby Papua New Guinea, Santa Cruz Boliva, Bahia Blanca Argentina, Missoula Montana, Bentonville Arkansas, Queen Creek Arizona, Victoria British Columbia, and Herriman or Heber City Utah.

That said, I want to make it absolutely and abundantly clear that I will be absolutely overjoyed by any temples which are announced, whether or not they are on my list, and whether or not more or less than the 14-16 I have suggested here wind up actually being announced in October. This concludes the mini-series of posts I wanted to do on the temple construction program of the Church, so that does it for now.

Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

Additional Thoughts and Observations on the Temple Construction Program of the Church: Part Two—Nelsonian Temple Announcements and Groundbreakings Thus Far

Hello again, everyone! I am back with the second post in this mini-series. This post will address President Nelson's triple focus on announcing new temples, clearing the queue of temples announced during the presidency of his prophetic predecessor, President Thomas S. Monson, and on getting quick approval for a few of the temples he (President Nelson) has announced within the last 19 months since he has become Church President.

First of all, I would be remiss if I failed to note that President Nelson has already set a record of sorts in that respect: he has announced a total of 27 temples in his first 3 General Conferences of the Church, which works out to an average of 9 temples each conference, an average that will go up if I am correct about the number of temples he may announce in October. For a prophet to announce almost 30 new temples before he has been President of the Church for 18 months is unheard of, as far as I know.

And, if he continues the trend of increasing the number of temples he announces each April and October in the same increments he has done so far, I could easily see him having announced a minimum total of 60 new temples before he has served for a total of 3 years (which will occcur in January 2021). With that said, let's take a look at what he has announced every six months in General Conferences thus far, which will be interspersed with thoughts on what he has done thus far to clear the queue.

In April 2018, he announced 7 temples in the following geographical areas (with more specific locations listed as well):

Asia—Bengaluru India
Central America—Managua Nicaragua
Europe East—Russia (exact location TBD)
North America Northeast—Richmond Virginia
Philippines—Cagayan de Oro Philippines
South America South—Salta Argentina
Utah—Layton Utah

As he would go on to explain when he visited Bengaluru India, “Our plans were to announce six new temples at conference time. The Lord told me on the eve of conference: 'Announce a temple in India.'"  He then re-emphasized: "That was the Lord's doing." Some additional observations about this first set of announcements: Prior to April 2018, Nicaragua and Russia had ranked as first and fourth respectively on the April 2017 list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence that did not have a temple in any phase. And although none of them have yet had a groundbreaking ceremony, I anticipate that, at minimum, the Bengaluru India, Richmond Virginia, and Layton Utah Temples could all have a groundbreaking within the next year, if not sooner than that.

With those important notes about the significance behind temples announced in April 2018, we can move on to those temple announced in October 2018. The breakdown for those by area is as follows:

Africa West—Lagos Nigeria
Asia—Phnom Penh Cambodia
Asia North—Yigo Guam
Brazil—Salvador Brazil
Caribbean—San Juan Puerto Rico
Europe—Praia Cape Verde
Mexico—Puebla Mexico
North America West—Yuba City California
Pacific—Auckland New Zealand
Philippines—Davao Philippines
North America West—Yuba City California
South America South—Mendoza Argentina
Utah—Washington County Utah

Some important notes on these temples: Per the April 2018 list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence that did not have a temple in any phase, Puerto Rico, Cambodia, and Cape Verde ranked as second, seventh, and eighth on that list. And also significant about this set of announced temples (as I will detail more fully later on in this post), 3 of them (Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, and San Juan Puerto Rico) had a groundbreaking occur within less than a year of the time in which they were announced.

Roughly one month after General Conference, the Abidjan Côte d'Ivoire Temple became both the only temple to have a groundbreaking in 2018, and the second of the 3 temples announced in April 2015 by President Monson to have a groundbreaking. Less than two weeks later, the First Presidency announced the scheduled groundbreaking for the Urdaneta Philippines Temple (that temple had originally been announced in October 2010 by President Monson). And just 8 days later, groundbreaking arrangements were also announced for the Bangkok Thailand Temple, making it the final temple originally announced in April 2015 to have a groundbreaking set.

The two temples would go on to have their groundbreakings 10 days apart, with the Urdaneta Philippines Temple having a groundbreaking on January 16 of this year, and the groundbreaking for the Bangkok Thailand Temple following 10 days later on January 26.  The day after the Urdaneta Philippines Temple groundbreaking, the Church announced the groundbreaking for the San Juan Puerto Rico Temple. Then, on February 1, the Church announced the groundbreakings for the Pocatello Idaho and Yigo Guam Temples. Exactly one week later, the Church also announced the groundbreaking for the Praia Cabo Verde Temple. Then, on March 7, groundbreakings were announced for both the Quito Ecuador and Lima Peru Los Olivos Temples.

Of all these groundbreakings, only that for Pocatello Idaho Temple would take place before the April 2019 General Conference, and that temple had its' groundbreaking on March 16. When the April 2019 General Conference rolled around, many (myself included) were anticipating, due to all that had been said about President Nelson's plans to expand the number of temples tenfold, that he would both outline the details and timing of how such a massive increase would be achieved, explain the timing within which those plans would come to fruition, and announce a significant number of new temples to kick that process off.

As a result of only 8 temples being announced in April of 2019, there were many who were disappointed thereby. I also felt that way initially before realizing that the tenfold increase was an ultimate goal rather than an immediate destination towards which the Church was heading. And if, as his apostolic colleagues have repeatedly suggested, President Nelson is going to be leading the Church for the next decade or two, that will be plenty of time to achieve such an overall increase, so it will likely "be done in wisdom and order", since the Lord does not require a man to "run faster or labor harder than he has the strength" to do so.

That aside, the temples announced in April 2019 were for the following geographical areas (and more specific locations):
Asia North—Okinawa Japan
Central America—San Pedro Sula Honduras
Europe—Budapest Hungary
North America Northwest (Merged with the North America West Area on August 1)—Moses Lake Washington
Pacific—Pago Pago American Samoa; Neiafu Tonga
South America South—Antofagasta Chile
Utah—Tooele Valley Utah

Based on the October 2018 list of the top ten nations with the strongest Church presence that do not have a temple in any phase, only American Samoa was on the list, and it ranked fourth thereon. The other significant thing about the announcement of a temple for American Samoa is that such a temple had been originally announced in mid-October 1977. In April 1980, 7 new temples were announced, two of which wound up being built in Papeete Tahiti and Nuku'alofa Tonga. As a result of the announcement of these two temples, the intended American Samoa Temple was relocated to Apia Samoa.

The announcement of a temple to be built in American Samoa (which was made for the second time last April) also marked the second temple a previously-suspended temple announcement was subsequently renewed (the other is the Hartford Connecticut Temple). With that noted, following the April 2019 General Conference, the groundbreakings for the Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, and San Juan Puerto Rico Temples all took place on Saturday May 4. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Quito Ecuador Temple followed exactly one week later (on May 11), and four weeks after that (on June 8), the groundbreaking for the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple was also held.

Roughly 1.5 weeks later, on Monday June 17, we learned about a letter sent out to the Brazilian Saints, which set the groundbreaking for the Belém Brazil Temple, scheduled for exactly two months later (on August 17). It was not until two weeks ago today that an official confirmation of those arrangements, along with an artist's rendering, were provided. And that groundbreaking will have occurred by this time tomorrow. So what does that mean for temple announcements that may occur during the October 2019 General Conference? More on that will be provided in my next post.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.