Important Information from the Church As October Concludes

Hello again, everyone! As October draws inexorably closer to its' conclusion, there are a few informational items related to the Church about which I wanted to note here. First, as I may or may not have previously noted, the Utah Area Presidency has announced that the 9th Annual Hispanic Cultural Event Luz de Las Naciones (Light of the Nations) will be held on November 2, 2019 in the Conference Center at 8:00 PM. The celebration has been given a subtitle of “Un Hogar para Todos”, which translates to English as "A Home for All".

The celebration will be an evening of music and dance featured from various regions through Latin America. Although I anticipate several General Authorities (specifically the members of the Utah Area Presidency: Elders Craig C. Christensen, Randy D. Funk, and Walter F. Gonzalez, and likely either or both Elders Carolos A. Godoy and Jose A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy, who hail from Spanish-speaking regions of the world) will be in attendance, I would not be shocked if at least one member of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve were to preside at that event.

That presiding apostle could be any who are fluent in the Latin American languages of Spanish or Portuguese, which, at minimum, includes Church President Russell M. Nelson and Elders Jeffrey R. Holland (who spent two years from 2002-2004 as the President of the Chile Area), Neil L, Andersen, and Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the latter of whom is the first Latin American apostle of the Church).  You may note one Spanish-speaking apostle who will not be in attendance at that event. That is Elder D. Todd Christofferson, who will, of course, be in Paraguay that same weekend presiding over the rededication of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple. Any of the other brethren named could be the presiding apostle at this event. Time will tell. 

The Church also released broadcast information, sent out by the Priesthood and Family Department (of which Elder Michael T. Ringwood, one of President Nelson's nine sons-in-law, is the Executive Director), for the Face-to-Face Event for Children and Youth that will be carried worldwide at 4:00 PM MST on Sunday November 17, 2019. The previously-announced broadcast will feature Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (who, among other assignments, serves as a member of the Priesthood and Family Executive Council) alongside the general presidents of the Primary, Young Women, and Young Men (Sisters Joy D. Jones and Bonnie H. Cordon and Brother Stephen W. Owen).

And, as we know, the purpose and intent of the broadcast will be to allow the leaders to explain in more complete detail what the new Children and Youth initiative will involve. I provided earlier analysis on the September 29 broadcast at which President Nelson, Acting President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and those same general presidents spoke. For those wanting more details on either the broadcast schedule or the Luz de Las Naciones broadcast, with a Church user account, you can find them in the official communications library.

In the interim, I also wanted to note that, according to information provided by the Online Store for the Church's official website, beginning today, the store and all of its' ordering systems will be undergoing routine maintenance for roughly the next week, and, as a result of that, material ordered during that time from the online store may be delayed in shipping to orderees. I imagine this also means that the typical distribution and delivery schedule for the November 2019 Church magazines may be delayed longer than usual in their arrival. That said, the website maintenance of the store should not impact the timing within which the PDF version of those magazines is avaialbe.

As a result, I'd recommend to any of you that do not receive your November magazines within the first 1.5-2 weeks of November to use your location to find the appropriate customer service number to contact someone about that issue. Typically, that period of time is shorter (within a week after the end of the previous month) but given the maintenance that will almost surely impact the printing and distrbution of the November 2019 magazines (since General Conference issues are usually delayed). it seems wise to allow for extra time in this particular case.

With that noted, all that remains is to reiterate my continued commitment to bringing you all all the latest in Church news and temple updates here on this blog as I become aware of them. 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.

Blog Fixes Attempted

Hello again, everyone! As I have mentioned several different times in the recent past, when time and circumstances have allowed me to do so, I have continued to make an effort to research how best to improve the appearance, layout, and feel of this blog. Based on some of the things I have recently read online about how to do that, I have attempted a few different adjustments and fixes. Among them has been consolidating the amount of space on a screen is taken up by my blog. With the newest adjustments, none of you will have to scroll left or right on your screens to see the entire layout, which is now more compact.

In addition, I have updated the mission statement for this blog as found underneath the title thereof. I believe the tweaks better reflect my intentions, desires, focus, and purposes for which I determined the more specific focus should encompass shortly after starting the blog. Because my main goal has always been to create the best possible atmosphere in which any of you can feel free to express your thoughts to others and to myself about the content posted here or any other topic of interest in the Church, I have felt these latest adjustments are appropriate. But as always, if any of you find that anything in the layout, appearance, and overall accessibility for this blog is lacking in any respect, I hope in such cases each individual would let me know about that.

I have always felt that if what I present here and the way in which I present it is not working for everyone who visits, either occassionally, for the first time, or with regularity, then I am failing in my efforts to bring such news to you all in the very best, most effective, and inspiring manner, which I want to be very careful about. After all, I cannot continue to do what I do here on this blog without the continued interest and support of all my readers, especially those who take any time to comment in any respect. So I need your continued help and support to enable me to effectively do what I mean to do here. My hope is that as we continue to work together here in exchanging ideas on the many "great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God" which He "has revelead, that he does now reveal, and [all that] he will yet reveal" that these continued adjustments may serve my readers well in those ongoing exchanges.

For my part, I continue to monitor all major Church news developments and temple updates, and will do my level best 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.

REVISITED: Updated Sections of My Temple Construction Progress Report

Hello again, everyone! For my 1,800th post on this blog, published just one week ago today, I provided a look at 2 updated sections of my temple construction progress report. Since that time, new information has come to light which has led me to revisit those updates. So my purpose in posting again now is to share the revisions I have made to those sections. Again, for temples which may be considered as being in a "Groundbreaking anticipated" status, the timing of any such events is subject to either confirmation, denial or correction as that comes through official announcements from the First Presidency.
And as I have also repeatedly indicated in relation to this and all other predictions I have provided and will note in relation to any I will provide in the future, I will be just as happy when any of my predictions prove anywhere near correct as I will when the Lord surprises me by what He inspires the Brethren to announce in this respect. I am working solely on logic, reason, and imperfectly-conduct research, while the Brethren always have been and always will be inspired by the Lord in the decisions and announcements they make in this and any other respect.

For any one of you that do not yet have that testimony for any reason, I'd again encourage you to act upon Moroni's promise, and to remember the Lord's key guidance from the Doctrine and Covenants. As for myself, what Alma the Younger said here sums up my feelings on that subject pretty well. That being said, the two relevant revisited sections of my temple construction progress report 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.

Groundbreaking anticipated: 183. Harare Zimbabwe Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement; President Nelson visited potential site on April 17, 2018; groundbreaking anticipated in late 2019. Note: Aside from the information noted above, in mid-November of last year, Elder Andersen visited with Zimbabwe’s Vice President, and indicated to him that the Church was hoping to begin construction on the Harare temple in late 2019. Therefore, barring anything unexpected, it seems more likely than not that a groundbreaking could occur at around this time. 184. Nairobi Kenya Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement; construction contract awarded; groundbreaking could occur in late 2019-early 2020.. Note: Although a construction contract for this temple was awarded 1-3 months ago, since only 2.5 months remain in 2019, and since no additional information (including an official site announcement and rendering) has been released yet, it has seemed wise to update my estimate to this point. 185. Bengaluru India Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement; groundbreaking could occur in late 2019-early 2020. Note: On May 19, 2019, Bishop Dean M. Davies, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, visited members of the Bengaluru India stake and told them that the Church hoped to release the information about the site location and design for this temple before the end of 2019. Given that there are just 2.5 months remaining in 2019, and that nothing related to this temple has been announced, I felt it wise to readjust my estimate for this temple to around this time. 186. Brasilia Brazil Temple: Planning and approval phase; property fence installed around temple site; groundbreaking could occur in early 2020. Note: On September 1, 2019, I was advised that the concept plans for this temple were floating around social media. If those plans are verified as official, a groundbreaking could easily occur within this period of time, if not sooner. 187. Greater Manila Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official name announcement; groundbreaking could occur in early 2020. Note: Based on what is and is not known presently about this temple, it seems probable that a groundbreaking for it could be fit in during this window, if all goes well. 188. Richmond Virginia Temple: Planning and approval phase; official renderings released on August 28, 2019; groundbreaking anticipated in spring 2020. Note: Two days after the renderings for this temple were released, an article printed in one of the Henrico County newspapers indicated that Church officials were planning to break ground for this temple during spring 2020. Accordingly, I have updated this estimate to this point. 189. Layton Utah Temple: Planning and approval phase; official exterior rendering released on October 8, 2019; groundbreaking could occur in mid-2020. Note: Given the fact that this temple will be built in Utah, where temples usually see an earlier groundbreaking than many of their international counterparts, among other adjustments, it seemed wise to move my general estimate for this temple’s groundbreaking to this point, though I could see it occurring earlier or later depending on how quickly the necessary arrangements can be made, or whether those arrangements are delayed. 190. Feather River California Temple: Planning and approval phase; official rendering released and site location announced on September 26, 2019; groundbreaking could occur in mid-2020. Note: Since temples in the United States typically see an earlier start to their construction than their international counterparts (although not as quickly as their counterparts in Utah), it has seemed wise to move this temple and update the associated general estimate for its’ groundbreaking to this point. Depending on what happens over the next few months, I could see a need to readjust this temple’s position among the others and its’ estimate, which I will be sure to do. 191. Tooele Valley Utah Temple: Planning and approval phase; site location officially confirmed on September 25, 2019; groundbreaking could occur in mid-2020. Note: Because this temple is reportedly being fast-tracked, if the plans for it also receive rapid approval, a groundbreaking could easily follow within this time, if not sooner than that. 192. Auckland New Zealand Temple: Planning and approval phase; site location confirmed on May 21, 2019; groundbreaking could occur in mid-to-late 2020. 193. San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple: Planning and approval phase; site acquired (location not yet officially confirmed); groundbreaking could occur in mid-to-late 2020. Announced Temples (for which more information is needed before I provide a groundbreaking estimate): 194. Managua Nicaragua Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site acquired; awaiting official confirmation. 195. Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site acquired; awaiting official confirmation. 196. Moses Lake Washington Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site acquired; awaiting official confirmation. 197. Bentonville Arkansas Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site acquired; awaiting official confirmation. 198. Port Moresby Papua New Guinea Temple:: Planning and approval phase; potential site acquired; awaiting official confirmation. 199. Salta Argentina Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site identified. 200. Mendoza Argentina Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site identified. 201. Salvador Brazil Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site identified. 202. Antofagasta Chile Temple: Planning and approval phase; potential site identified. 203. Washington County Utah Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official city (and site) announcement. 204. Lagos Nigeria Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 205. Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 206. Davao Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 207. Pago Pago American Samoa Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 208. Okinawa City Okinawa (Japan) Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 209. Neiafu Tonga Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 210. Budapest Hungary Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 211. Freetown Sierra Leone Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 212. Orem Utah Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 213. Bacolod Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 214. McAllen Texas Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 215. Coban Guatemala Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 216. Taylorsville Utah Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement. 217. Russia Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official city (and site) announcement.