CORRECTION: Status Update on the Tooele Valley Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! I need to publish a correction today to something I had previously reported which turned out to not be accurate. In that earlier post, I had conjectured that Church-owned land in Grantsville,m which was reportedly being annexed elsewhere in the Tooele Valley, might help to deal with residential concerns in Erda relative to any delays to the commencement of construction for the Tooele Valley Utah Temple. Then, two days after that post was published here, I became aware of another article on the matter of the Tooele Valley Utah Temple. 

With that article being published on Friday, the day before the pre-appointed deadline for the signatures on the matter of the referendum, the article clarified that the annexation of the land on which I had reported was not connected in any way to the property on which the Church would like to bu8ild the temple, with an assist in the form of the residential development in Erda. The Deseret News article noted that some citizens who objected to the development but not the temple and had signed the referendum requested the removal of their signatures when they internalized that opposing the development would also delay or change the feasible prospect of a temple on that spot.

For some, the realization (which in my opinion should have been obvious) that the temple is a package deal was enough to retract their opposition to all of it and remove their signatures from the referendum. Time will tell if that will be enough to allow work to proceed on the full package, which in turn will impact the groundbreaking's timing. The article also noted that the Church's original hope and plan was to break ground for the temple in March, but that residential concerns had to be taken into account, and that the development as noted in the Newsroom release from May of this year was the compromised agreement and middle-ground on the matter.

So there is a lot of give-and-take push-and-pull still related to this matter, and the status of the Tooele Valley Utah Temple is still very much up in the air. The new information will be a consideration in my net round of analysis on and changes to the temple documents I have previously shared here. Hopefully, you all will be able to review those updates in the next week or two. Also, before the end of this month, I hope to have my October 2020 General Conference predictions more solidly put together and published on this blog, to allow for roughly a month-long discussion of them if needed before General Conference weekend.

I am also hoping for some additional temple developments to be reported, and some Church news updates, which I will cover as I can. And I have prepared already a scheduled post for publication two weeks from today that will serve as the next 2020 apostolic milestone update, in addition to putting together a preliminary plan for blog projects here that will cover known updates for next year. All that and more will be coming your way as I can make it happen. 

In the menatime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Major Changes Coming to Church Magazines Effective 2021

Hello again, everyoe! Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of most the current Church magazines, which were last renamed in 1971, with the titles thereof being The Ensign, The New Era, and the Friend. Later on, in May 1995, the Liahona as it is currently known was first published as a country-and-area specific magazine with targeted content for the same.

In the years that have passed between 1971 and 1995, and between 1995 and now, those 3 (and later 4) magazi.nes were the normal status quo with long-standing precedent in practice, but not in doctrine. In the interim, we have been the recipients of sieveral significant revelations from our current prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. And the efforts he has undertaken have attempted to unify and streamline Church policies, procedures, and practices in a time when the reach of the Church is and will be ever further.

With those preceding paragraphs as a preamble to this post, I am pleased to share some breaking news that changes are again coming to the magazines of the Church. In this morning's announcement, the First Presidency noted that, effective January 2021, the Ensign magazine as we know it will be retired. The Liahona will now be the global magazine for all adult members of the Church. Similarly, the New Era name will also be changed, and the magazine for youth will now be known as For the Strength of Youth. The name of the magazine for Primary-aged children will continue to use the moniker: "The Friend."

In accordance with these changes, the length and format of each magazine will also change, with the Church expanding additional content that is available in digital formats. The First Presidency also noted that the now-three monthly magazines will be available in 23 languages, also expanding the Church's global reach. Bimonthly (six times per year), magazine content will be available in 24 other languages, with online content bridging the gap for months when no print edition is available. And in 40 other languages, the Church will provide content solely through digital means. 

The letter and associated FAQs sharing this development also notes subscription-specific information. For current subscribers to any magazines, at the end of this year, the time remaining on all current subscriptions will roll over onto the equivalent magazines. The Church also noted that, because the Liahona will now be the standard magazine for the adults of the Church, the previous content once conttained in the Liahona specifically for the children and youth of the Church will now appear in "For the Strength of Youth" and "The Friend" as part of the Church's process of streamlining all of this.

For that reason, subscriptions to any or all of the now-three magazines will need to be acquired. But if changes are coming to the format and layout of these magazines, and if the Church is reducing the number of magazines from 4 to 3 global editions, there may be adjustments made on the prices for these magazines. In either case, the digital versions will remain accessible to all free of charge. Additional information on these changes willl be made available through the Church's social media channels, through the Church website, and in the December 2020 issues of the current magazines.

It has been somewhat of a whirlwind 16 hours or so since I found out about the two Utah temple groundbreakings. In the interim, the Church has released the renderings for two temples in the Pacific Islands, and now this announcement of the changes to Church magazines. President Nelson truly was not kidding when he noted that things would be moving at an accelerated pace. I look forward to seeing whatever else may be ahead, and I will do my level best to keep bringing word of those to you all here as I become aware of all such developments.

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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Exterior Renderings Released and Site Locations Confirmed for Two Temples in the Pacific Islands

Hello again, everyone! I am back again now with another breaking temple development. From the Auckland New Zealand Newsroom comes information about the location, size, and renderings for two temples in the Pacific Islands, namely, the Neiafu Tonga and Pago Pago American Samoa Temples. With both temples announced in April 2019, the Church is wasting no time on getting more temples underway ASAP. That said, let's get into specifics about these temples.

The Neiafu Tonga Temple will be a single-story edifice of approximately 17,000 square feet. It will be built on the site of theChurch-owned Saineha High School in Neiafu. The project will also include a distribution center, missionary housing, and a residence for the temple president. It should be noted that none of the buildings pertaining to the high school will be impacted at all by the construction of these additional buildings at that location. Apparently, the high school configuration had been planned with room to grow.

In the meantime, for the Pago Pago American Samoa Temple, it will be built on the site of the Pago Pago Samoa Central Stake Center on Ottoville Road in Tafuna, American Samoa. The same ancillary facilities I described above relative to Tonga's next temple will also all be included in the plans for American Samoa's first temple (missionary housing, temple president's residence, and a distribution center). The Church is planning for the temple in Pago Pago to be a single-story edifice that will also be roughly 17,000 square feet in area.

The two temples have vaguely similar design styles, both to each other and to other temples that have been previously constructed. I will leave it to others far more qualified than I am to provide more specific analysis on these temples' designs. But given the release of these renderings, and the relatively straightforward site plans, it seems possible that one or both of these temples could have a groundbreaking within the next six months or less, if all goes well. In the meantime, that means that the total number of temples originally announced in April 2019 which have not had any official information confirmed yet down to two.

In the meantime, by way of a teaser, t.here are currently 38 announced temples. 6 of those (Orem Utah, San Pedro Sula Honduras, Brasilia Brazil, Taylorsville Utah, and Salta Argentina) have had groundbreakings officially confirmed. 21 of the remaining 32 temples have not yet had any official information confirmed. I do continue to monitor any and all Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to bring word of those to you all here as I become aware of such things.

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.