BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: 4 Temples in Brazil Unpausing; 30 More Worldwide To Offer Proxy Ordinances

Hello again, everyone! As reported by the Church News and the Newsroom, and confirmed in the weekly temple status tracker, 4 temples in Brazil will unpause next week, at which time 30 others around the world will offer proxy ordinances. Let's break down the details: First, with local COVID-19 conditions sufficiently cleared for the time being, the Campinas, Fortaleza, Recife, and Sao Paulo Brazil temples will unpause and will resume phase 2 operations. Meanwhile, also due to local conditions, the Toronto Ontario Temple will take a step back, from phase 2-B operations to phase 2.

As previously announced last week, the Kansas City Missouri and London and Preston England Temples remain on track to shift to phase 3, offering all living ordinances and limited proxy work (including baptisms for the dead).  Meanwhile, the following 30 temples will move to phase 2-B next week (listed below by area, then alphabetically):

Caribbean: Port-au-Prince Haiti

Central America: Panama City Panama; Tegucigalpa Honduras

México: Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tampico, and Veracruz

North America Central: Nauvoo Illinois

North America Northeast: Indianapolis Indiana

North America Southeast: Atlanta Georgia, Birmingham Alabama, Columbia South Carolina, Louisville Kentucky, Raleigh North Carolina

North America Southwest: All 4 Texas Temples (Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, and San Antonio); Oklahoma City Oklahoma

North America West: All 7 temples in California (Fresno, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego)

Philippines: Cebu City

As of May 10, the Church's temple reopenings will stand as follows: 8 closed for major renovations; 1 (Kyiv Ukraine) which has still not opened in any phase since all temples were closed last year; 7 temples "paused" in their reopenings (1 in phase 1, 4 in phase 2, and 2 in phase 3); 4 in phase 1; 46 in phase 2; 75 in phase 2-B; and 27 in phase 3. Further information on these updates can be found in the links I shared at the beginning of this post.

I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will bring you all word of those as I become aware thereof. 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.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Data

Hello again, everyone! As most of you are almost certainly aware, I have provided updates on the latest apostolic data (specifically relating to tbeir lifespan or tenure length milestones) roughly every seven weeks. Having last done so on March 14 (through utilizing two consolidated documents), it is time to publish the third such update for this year. As with that last update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, information on the tenure length records for each of the 28 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The first document also shows information on three sets of apostolic groups: the longest-serving First Presidencies (which will not be updated with the First Presidency as presently constituted until 2024), in addition to the longest2-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). 

Since my last update, it is worth noting thas of at the current Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as constituted beginning on March 31, 2018 (when Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares were sustained), have officially moved up on the list of longest continuously-serving Quorums of the Twelve Apostles from the 14th to the now-13th spot on that list. They will move up twice more on that list by the end of July of this year. I will be detailing the specifcs of those moves in my next update (which is set to be published here on Sunday June 20).

In a similar manner, the current members of the First Presidency, together with the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with that group of 15 apostles as it has been constituted as of the last day in March of 2018, have not only served long enough to make the list of longest, continuously-serving apostolic groups, but they have already moved up from the 14th to the 12th position on that list, and are set to move up twice more by the end of July, and more than that, the current group of 15 apostles will actually move up on the exact same dates that just the current Quorum of the Twelve will move up. Again, more information on that is coming with my next update (on Sunday June 20).

Meanwhile, the second part  of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the apostolic groups overall, in addition to the average ages of each group and apostolic nonagenarians (with 2 of the current 15 apostles being on that list, and the timing noted for when each of the other 13 apostles will join that list).

Hopefully this shared data will be of interest to you all, and again, I offer an open invitation to anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. I will, of course, conFitinue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of all such reports.

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: President Nelson Announces a New Temple for Ephraim Utah; Renovation on the Manti Utah Temple Will Begin in October

Hello again, everyone! In a stunning and unusually-timed announcement, President Russell M. Nelson announced this morning that the multi-year renovation on the Manti Utah Temple will begin on or around October 1 of this year, that greater care would be taken with the multi-year project to preserve the pioneer's efforts and craftsmanship, and that renovation plans for the temple would be evaluated and adjusted on an ongoing basis as the Lord inspires the Brethren further in that process

But today's video from President Nelson also included something I had not expected. It has been somewhat traditional under the leadership of Presidents Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson for the bulk of new temples to be announced in General Conference, with a few announced outside of those gatherings. A few examples of that are the Payson Utah Temple, announced in January 2010, and the confirmation of the intention to build the Paris France Temple was acknowledged in the summer of 2011, with plans officially confirmed for that temple in General Conference several months later.

The trend of temples announced by President Nelson seemed to focus for the most part on announcing temples every six months in General Conference, with a focus between each conference on clearing the existing queue. But this morning, President Nelson announced that, in consideration of the multi-year closure planned for the Manti Utah Temple, the Brethren have felt impressed to build a new temple in Ephraim to serve those currently in the Manti Utah Temple district during its' closure, especially given the student body population of Latter-day Saint young adults attending nearby Snow College. So it appears the new temple announced for Ephraim will, in similarity to the Deseret Peak Utah Temple, be built on a similar accelerated schedule.

This is developing news I did not see coming, but I welcome it. I continue to monitor all such updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware thereof.

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.