BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Additional Temple Reopenings Announced for August and September

Preliminary note: An initial version of this post was preset to publish on this blog at 10:35 AM MDT this morning, which coincided with the exact time at which the latest temple reopening developments were reported by the Church News and the Newsroom. Due to personal circumstances today, I was unable to complete the process of updating the post with today's announced adjustments until 5:00 PM-6:00 PM MDT. The post still shows the original timestamp.

Hello again, everyone! I am back to share the latest temple reopening updates, which were released by the Church this morning. This post will highlight those updates, as they in are found in the updated official release from the Newsroom, with coverage also provided through the Church News update and the updated temple reopening status tracker. 

Let's get into what these changes are, when they will go into effect, and the updated data about how many temples will be open in each operational phase as of next Monday (August 16). According to today's report,  barring any unexpected readjustments, by the end of August, all but 11 of the Church's temples worldwide are anticipated to be able to offer some proxy ordinances (through phases 2-B and 3).Of the 157 temples which have seen phased reopenings, 6 of the 8 temples closed for renovation have had phase designations given to their temple districts, which allows patrons in those districts to schedule phase 2-B or 3 ordinances at the nearest temples offering those phases.

The only two temples closed for renovation which have not yet been given a desiganted reopening phase are Hong Kong China and Tokyo Japan. The remaining 9 temples not yet open in a phase which would allow proxy ordinances are the Barranquilla and Bogota Colombia, Arequipa Peru, Kyiv Ukraine, Montevideo Uruguay, and Seoul Korea Temples (which are each in phase 2); the Porto Alegre Brazil Temple (which is in phase 2 until one week from today); the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple (which had reached phase 2 before being currently paused in its' reopening); and the San Jose Costa Rica Temple (currently in phase 1). 

Today's update also notes that the Kyiv Ukraine Temple moved to phase 2 operations effective yesterday. Additionally, the Sao Paulo Brazil Temple transitioned to phase 2-B as of Saturday August 7, with the Campinas, Curitiba, and Recife Brazil Temples doing the same, effective today. The Porto Alegre Brazil Temple might also transition to that phase, as soon as next Tuesday (August 17). The Cordoba Argentina and Port-au-Prince Haiti Temples unpaused their operations, with the former resuming phase 2-B, and the latter resuming phase 3. Additionally, the Spokane Washington Temple will move to phase 3 as early as next Monday (August 16), with the Medford Oregon Temple following at a yet-to-be-determined date in August as well.

In view of today's reported updates, as of next week, 8 temples remain closed for renovation (6 of which have had their districts designated into a reopening phase), with 7 more "paused" in their reopenings. Of those 7, 5 had been in phase 3 when they were paused, with 1 each in phases 2-B and 2. Of the remaining temples in various phases of reopening, the Church has just 1 in phase 1, 7 in phase 2, 20 in phase 2-B, and the reamining 125 in phase 3. 

I am grateful for the measured approach and week-to-week adaptability the First Presidency has shown in their efforts towards reopening temples as quickly and as safely as possible. I remain committed to bringing you all the latest in Church news and temple developments (relative to temple reopenings, temple construction, and temple milestones).

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 omments 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.

Elder Neil L. Andersen Celebrates His 70th Birthday Today

Hello again, everyone! Elder Neil L. Andersen is marking his 70th birthday today. As a result of reaching this milestone, Elder Andersen becomes the tenth current apostle to be 70 years of age or older. Let's get right into the latest birthday tribute I'm posting in his honor. Neil Linden Andersen was born on this day in 1951 to Lyle and Kathryn Andersen in Logan Utah. His family relocated to Pocatello when he was five to run a dairy farm. He served a full-time mission in France, then obtained a bachelor's degree in economics, eventually earning his MBA from Harvard, also in economics.

During his time at BYU, he met and married his wife, Kathy Sue Anderson, and together they raised four children. He spent his professional career working various jobs. At the pinnacle of his career, he was Vice President of the Morton Plant Health System. He has served in the Church as a stake president’s counselor, stake president and mission president (assigned to the France Bordeaux Mission) from 1989-1992. Less than a year after his return, he was called to be a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Interestingly, his call as a General Authority occurred in the same conference as that of his future apostolic seatmate, Elder D. Todd Christofferson.

Through the next couple of decades as a Seventy, he served in a wide variety of Church assignments, including as executive director of the church's Audiovisual Department, assistant executive director of the Priesthood Department, and in the presidencies of the following areas: Europe West ,Utah North, Utah South, North America Southwest, North America Northeast, and the Brazil South Area (during which time he also served as the area president).

In 2005, Elder Andersen was called to the Presidency of the Seventy, where he was assigned to preside over the Idaho Area (from 2005-2007). By the time his stewardship switched to the North America Southwest Area (2007-2009), he had gone from being the second-least senior member of that Presidency to being the third-most-senior member. In 2008, with Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (in April) and the release of Senior President Elder Earl C. Tingey (in August, in preparation for his being granted emeritus status in the October General Conference), Elder Andersen then became the Senior President of the Seventy, a role in which he would only serve for around 8 months.

With the December 2008 death of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Elder Andersen was subsequently called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the April 2009 General Conference. An interesting bit of trivia is the fact that Elders Christofferson, Andersen, and Rasband were all seatmates in the Presidency of the Seventy as of August 2007, and they would all go on to be apostolic seatmates, with their apostolic calls occurring in April 2008, April 2009, and October 2015 respectively.

Since Elder Andersen's original call as a General Authority Seventy in April 1993, he has given a total of 28 addresses in General Conference (3 of which he gave as a General Authority Seventy, with 2 others given while he was a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 25 since his call to the QuorIum of the Twelve Apostles).

Elder Andersen continues to be the seventh in both senirotiy and chronological birth order among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and ranks tenth among the 15 total apostles in both seniority and birth chronology. I gladly sustain him and each of his 14 apostolic colleagues as prophets, seers, and revelators, and am grateful to have been able to publish this tribute in honor of his birthday today. 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 June 20, it is time to publish the newest such data. As with that last update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, along with updated 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 longest-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).  

The latest version of that document also shows when the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as currently comprised will move up on the list of the longest-serving Quorums of the Twelve Apostles, in addition to specifics on when the current members of that Quorum, along with the current First Presidency, will reach the next milestones on that list.

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.