BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: First Presidency Announces Online System for Temple Prayer Rolls

Hello again, everyone! Earlier today, the First Presidency shared new information about an online system that has been created for the temple prayer rolls of the Church.  The way it willl work is that, on each temple's individual page, or through the "My Temple" section of the Church's "Tools" app for mobile phones, there will be a link on which to click to submit those names. This will be an expansion on the Church's long-standing practice of allowing individuals to call in to individual temples or to put names manually on the prayer roll while performing temple ordinances.

Although this is a relatively minor change, it is long overdue, in my opinion. This is also another change that I think was specifically meant to be done under President Nelson's dynamic leadership. This is also in line with his ongoing efforts to determine what is needful, what is a doctrinally-based practice, and what needs to be adjusted, expanded, changed or tweaked. As such, this is another example verifyIng that he is truly the prophet inspired for our time.

By saying so, I do not mean to imply that other prophets who have preceded our current one would have been incapable or not inspired to make the changes we continue to see under President Nelson, but rather that there were many things held in reserve for President Nelson to do at this time that are uniquely suited to his capabiilities and skill set. In other words, it's time for all of these changes to occur, and President Nelson has the prophetic insight and inspiration to implement all such adjustments, both major and minor, that we have seen under his leadership within roughly the last 2.5 years since his ordination and setting apart.

This also marks the first breaking temple development that is not related to the Church's phased temple reopenings currently ongoing, or to a temple construction annoucnement, since the July 20 announcement about changes to the temple endowment. It appears that there is much more ahead in terms of changes and improvements to the Church than any of us may have thought possible. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all here as I learn 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.

UPDATED: October 2020 General Conference Predictions

 Hello again, everyone! As some of you might recall, less than two months after the April 2020 General Conference was held, the First Presidency announced that the October 2020 General Conference would be virtual only, and would follow the "same pattern" as the April General Conference. In the interim, as I have also recently mentioned here, in conjunction with the cancellation of all Temple Square activities relating to the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, and the Bells on Temple Square, the releiase noted that the Choir would participate in the October 2020 General Conference via archived performances.

Although confirmation through an official announcement from the First Presidency is pending on the arrangements for the next General Conference, the event page entry for General Conference implies that a Saturday evening session for all Church members and friends of other faiths will be held in place of the traditional Women's Session, and that the sessions will again originate from a small auditorium on Temple Square, and that, aside from the First Presidency, only those speaking or praying during each session will be in attendance thereat.

Based on those assumptions, as circumstances have allowed, I have taken time to overhaul my predictions for the next General Conference. Since I can share the content of those predictions in a single post, I have them split into three distinct documents. The first highlights what I anticipate will be the potential speaking order for the conference; the second highlights the anticipated changes in general Church leadership; and the third takes a look at the list I have assembled of locations in which a temple seems most likely to be announced.

Each of the three predictions documents for next conference come complete with their own sets of notes, which I have striven to keep as brief and concise as possible. I am pleased to reopen a commenting period on these predictions that is effective from now until 10:00 PM on Thursday October 1, at which point I will need to make the final adjustments to each prediction set before General Conference weekend occurs. I look forward to the input I will get on these. While that feedback period is ongoing, I will be sure to also monitor any Church news updates and all major temple developments and will be sure to bring 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.

UPDATED: Temple Documents

Hello again, everyone! As a result of the flood of temple announcements which have come down the pike within the last two weeks, I thoughtitwould be a good idea to update the documents I most recently shared just over two weeks ago. The documents largely speak for themselves, and include the following details: updated sections of my temple construction progress report;  announced temples for which no official information has been confirmed; temples most likely to have groundbreakings occur in 2020 and 2021; the probable timing for temple groundbreakings within the next year or so; some updated analysis on the Church's progress towards having 18 temple groundbreakings occur in 2020; and adjusted estimates for the probable timing of all known temple events.

Some brief contextual information may be helpful. Firstly, as always, the timing for all temple events is determined by the prophet as revealed to him through the Spirit. As such, absent of official announcements, the information in those documents is largely conjecture or predictions, and will be subject to correction, clarification, or amendement as more is known. Secondly, one big unknown at the moment is COVID-19. Depending on how the pandemic impacts each nation iand location in which any temples have been or will be announced, that will obviously impact timing and progress. But the global pademic was the chief factor I used in determining the potential timing for some temple groundbreakings, dedications, or rededications based on what was known at the time, or what I could find out about each location in personal research.

It is possible that the pandemic may preclude the Church's ability to break ground on the 18 temples mentioned by Elder Bednar. It is also possible that with flexibility in arrangements, other temples may climb up the queue in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Trying to determine how, if, and to what extent any temple event (groundbreaking, dedication, or rededication) will potentially be delayed is above my personal proverbial pay grade. That being said, I have a feeling that when the time is right for all such events, the Lord will open a way for them to occur, whether on original schedules or delayed as needed. And we have seen mountains moved in temple construction on a continual basis, so miracles aren't off the table or out of the equation either.

Whatever might  wind up happening with respect to temple developments, you can count on my covering it all here. I continue to monitor all Church news as well, and will bring you all world of the important highlights as time and circumstances allow. 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.

POSSIBLE BREAKING NEWS: Arrangements Confirmed for the October 2020 General Conference?

Hello again, everyone! As some of you might recall, almost one month ago, I detailed new evidence pointing to the possible arrangements being announced for the October 2020 General Conference. Then, this morning, as reported in the threads of my most recent post, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square announced the cancellation of this year's Christmas concert due to ongoing COVID-19 factors and resulting restrictions. As part of that article, the news release specifically noted the following: 

"As it did in April 2020, the Choir will participate in the October 2020 general conference meetings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through use of its prerecorded performances." That sentence included a link to the events page entry for the upcoming General Conference. The page notes that the conference "will focus on the Savior’s messages of love, understanding, acceptance, hope, connection, and inclusion." It also included the following direct quote from the First Presidency:

“We will focus on Him by elevating our use of the name He revealed for His restored Church. We will recognize major events of the ongoing Restoration to celebrate our history and future. We will become even more 'converted unto the Lord' and invite all to come and find enduring joy on His covenant path.” The page further notes that all sessions will be for all Church members and their friends of other faiths, including the two sessions each on Saturday and Sunday October 3 and 4 at 10:00 AM MDT and 2:00 PM MDT, with an evening session on Saturday at 6:00 PM MDT for all members and friends of the Church.

The events page then concludes with the note that the upcoming General Conference will consist of prerecorded music, as confirmed in the release about the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square's 2020 Christmas Concert, and finally notes that, aside from the First Presidency, who will preside at and conduct each session, only those speaking or praying in each session will be in attendance, with those sessions being carried live from a small auditorium on Temple Square.

This is more detail than we have previously been given on this upcoming General Conference, so I think it's safe to assume that, unless we hear anything more official from the First Presidency through a Newsroom release that these will be the plans for General Conference in roughly six weeks from today. Therefore, this latest information supercedes and replaces any previous information I have provided in that respect.

But whether or not anything more official does come down the pike soon, if this is the plan, it's also probably safe to surmise that the General Conference leadership sessions will again be deferred for six months, and that all Church leaders and members outside of Utah will be invited to participate remotely. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to bring word of those to you all here 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.

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.