BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Church Leaders Worldwide Will Be Able to Electronically Sign and Print Temple Recommends through LCR

 Hello again, everyonne! As some of you might be aware, I have been checking periodically to see whether the PDF version of the Novembeer 2021 Liahona has been made available. Although the PDF availability is still pending,I was able to glean from portions of the magazine what has changed for the conference issue of the Liahona. Based on what I found there, although the shortened length of time for talks given by the apostles will mean the text of those talks no longer will cover the standard 3-5 pages in most cases, I was not prepared for some other surprises. 

With the summary of conference talks given by the First Presidency and a few members of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with some of the female officers of the Church, the combined data provided on that summary page, when taken together, shows that some of the talks given by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles actually only spanned 2 pages, as did a fair few other talks by general leaders.

It appears that the Church was able to do that through a slight adjusted sizing of the conference isssue by contrast with the other 10 issues of the Liahona. And that means that in October, the sustainings portion might only take one page, while for April, a colum of one other page will show the auditing department report. If the General Conference Liahona does indeed have 128 pages every time going forward, then doing a slightly taller edition of the Liahona would help facilitate that.

The HTML version of the magazine being available now would be sufficient grounds on its' own to warrant a breaking news report here, but when you add to that the fact that another major development has been reported in that conference edition of the Liahona magazine, The reported update notes that ward and stake leaders now have the option to electroically fill and then e-sign Church members' temple recommends through their administrative capacities available to those individuals in the LCR (Leader and Clerk Resources). 

The fact that this option was not available before now seems to suggest thaT President Nelson may be in a better position that makes him willing to more fully embrace and encourage technology for the worldwide Church than it may have to do with the fact that his predecessors never considered that update, or may not nhave found it feasible. By contrast to his two immediate predecessors, our current prophet, who brings all the precision and problem-solving skills he finessed and all the inspiration he has honed to bear on his role as the only man authorized to receive revelation for the entire Church, is making common-sense adjustments that might have never occurred to his predecessors because they never thought to ask those questions in a way that would enable them to receive the revelation the same way President Nelson has done.

I will continue to monitor what happens and will share more complete information when the PDF of the magazine becomes available. Above and beyond that, however, I am keeping my eyes open for official announcements relating to temples. I remain committed to bringing you those updates as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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: Church Upgrades Manila Philippines Temple to Phase 3,; 95% of Temples Now Open for Proxy Wrk

Hello again, everyone! On the literal heels of th is morning's announcement about the Farmington temple's exterior rendering, and following a one-week hiatus on temple reopening adjustments, the Church announced that the Manila Philippines Temple, which, if my memory serves me correctly, had previously transitioned to phase 3 before those arrangements were paused, will once again open for phase 3 ordinances. 

This means that husband-to-wife sealings, endowments for the living, and all proxy work (including baptims for the dead will be able to be scheduled in that temple. But above and beyond that, the fact that Manila will be returning to phase 3 means that 95% of all currently-operating temples (including 7 of the 9 temples currently closed for renovations) will be open in phase 3. 

The changes reported in the Church News article to which I linked at the beginning of this post are further confirmed by the updated Newsroom release and in the temple reopening status tracker. As a result of this latest update, the reopening of the first temple in the Philippines of the Church remain closed for renovation (although 7 of those temple districts have been granted phase 3 designations); 3 other temples remain paused (with 2 of those 3 being in phase 3, and the other 1 temple in phase 2 at the time those reopenings were paused); with 3 more apiece in phases 1 and 2. 5 additional temples are in phase 2-B (baptistry open for proxy work with living ordiances available in priority order., which means the remaining 146 temples aow in phase 3. 

I have mentioned this a few times in the recent past, but the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assigned to each of the Church's 22 areas worldwide a chance to virtually and regularly taouch bases with and ascertain infrmation from each area presidency, which in turn informs the apostles of any new updates of which they need to be made aware, especially if those updates pertain to the ongoing and in-flux temple reopenings week-to week.

The process of reopening temples has been inspiring to see, and I look forward to seeing what happens in that respect throughout the remainder of this year. In the meantime, with the Church releasing the exterior rendering for the Farmington New Mexico Temple, the approvals process for that has moved to the next phase, so hopefully between the latest updates on all new US temples, the Church could then plan on breaking ground for each of the now-14 temples for which sites have been confirmed and exterior renderings released. 

There is also the possibility that the Church could potentially hold some of those groundbreakings without publicly announcing when they will take place. And if that is the case for more than a few of those 14 temples, it's also possible that other temples for which official information is still pending could also have a groundbreaking without drawing attention to that occurring until after the fact.

Whether or not any or all of those temples have groundbreakings announced before thy occur,, even though the Church has not yet scheduled any temple groundbreakings, unless and until we have proof to the contrary, I still fully believe that this year, the Church will both meet and exceed the total number of temple groundbreakings which took place last year (21).

I am monitoring any such updates, and will bring you all word thereof here as I become aware of such updates on my end. In the meantime, 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: Rendering Released for Farmington New Mexico Temple

Hello aagain, everyone! As some of you might recall, the site location for the Farmington New MexicoTemple on June 23, Although the exterior renderings have since been releaased for Grand Junction Colorado and Burley Idaho, Farmington has not yet had a rendering released up to this point. The wait on that temple's rendering  is now over, in view of this mroning's announcement relative to that announcement. 

Although this temple is roughly the same sizes as the Grand Junction Colorado Temple, the design reminds me very much of a scaled-up version of the renderungs for Elko Nevada, Casper Wyoming, and Helena Montana, which suggests to me that the modular design of smaller temples of a similar size could als use the modular design.

I am grateful to have heard this news and been able to pass that along to you all here. I continue to monitor temple milestonesi and other reported developments, and will be sure to pass that information 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

Initial Predictions for the April 2022 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! Given the fact that no breaking Church news or temple deelopments have been shared thus far this week.I was able to spend a good chunk of time yesterday getting the initial version of my predictions for the April 2022 General Conference. Those predictions include 3 separate segments: the potential speaker lineup, a list of changes in general Church leadership (which also includes my estimates for the numbers that may be featured in the 2021 Statistical Report, and my preliminary list of locations in which a temple seems most likely to be announced.

A bit of context might be helpful. On the speaker lineup, I have used a similar (if not identical) template for each featured speaker. In view of the fact that so many GA Seventies spoke during the October 2021 General Conference, it appears more likely than not that the April 2022 General Conference will follow a similar format, but with Presidents Oaks and Eyring switching speaker slots this time around. 

It seems likely that 3 apostles each will speak Saturday Morning,Saturday Afternoon, and Sunday Morning, with 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the final session, and the one remaining apostle will speak Saturday Evening. 

It also seems likely to me that, with the Church having shortened the amount of time alloted for the Sustaining of Church Officers, and for the duration of all talkgs given by our apostles, that there will be ample room for one member of the Presidency of the Seventy (Kearon), one Presiding Bishopric member (Causse), and 5 General Officers of the Church.

Additionally, in view of the fact that 15 current GA Seventies spoke earlier this month, the adjusted talk lengths for all apostles will leave room for about that same number of GA Seventies. There is only one current GA Seventy (Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran) who was sustained in April 2020 but has not yet spoken in General Conference, All GA Seventies called in April of this year spoke for the first time in General Conference earlier this month.

As a result, in addition to Elder Ojediran, my predictions for other GA Seventy speakers does not take Elder Baxter into consideration, since he is still reportedly on medical leave. But the next name on that list of when each current GA Seventy last spoke to us is Elder Randy D. Funk, who gave his first address as a GA Seventy during the Priesthood Session in October 2013. 

I went down through the list, and with the way the speaker predictions apeear to be set up going forward, I was able to plan out a scenario that would see every GA Seventy listed between Elder Funk and Elder Hugo Montoya (who gave his first address during the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2015 General Conference).

The only notes I have on the changes in general Church leadership are that new GA Seventies are likely to be sustained, with area seventy releases and sustainings conducted in advance, and the release of the Relief Society General Presidency and the calling of new leaders for that organization. The numbers showing up in my projected version of the data likely to be included in the 2021 Statistical Report for the Church are based on both estimates and somewhat elaborate algorithms that are hard to explain.

And with the final document showing the list of locations in which a temple seems most likely to be announced, I eliminated all candidates that had been announced in October. I will be looking to add any locations to the list based on research verifying those choices, or based on any recommendations from you, my readers, who would like to submit feedback for consideration here. With those explanations handled, I am pleased to declare the commenting period for these predictions is now open.

The commenting period will remain in effect until 10:00 PM on Friday April 1, which will then give me a few hours to make any adjustments before General Conference weekend gets underway with the first session on Saturday April 2 at 10:00 AM. I look forward to any feedback any of you might offer on what I've put together. I also continue to monitor all major Church news and temple developments and will bring you all word here of the latest as I can once I become aware of that information.

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.

Post-Conference Document Analysis: Part Two—Additional Relevant Documents

Hello again, everyone! Having just provided the first part of my two-post analysis on General Conference, I am back to share some additional analysis I have put together. First up, we have the length of talks given by each of our apostles. A side-by-side comparison of that document to the lengths of talks given during the April 2021 General Conference, you'll notice that the length of time taken by each apostle was shortened by between 2-4 minutes. 

In view of that fact, and in view of the fact that President Nelson and his counselors each gave 1 less talk each by contrast to what occurred last October, more time was made available for other general leaders to speak.In April, there was a total of 15 talks given by other leaders (the non-apostolic speakers). 

By contrast, 22 General Authorities and General Officers spoke in October, which makes sense in view of the decision to reinstate the Saturday Evening Session so more general leaders could speak Because each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave one talk each, and the prophet and his cousnelors gave one less talk apiece, the consequent adjustments were noted to the running total of talks given by our apostles. 

And in view of the aforementioned talk transcript release by the Church (which included the title of each talk), I was able to also create a mock-up showing what the table of contents for the November 2021 Liahona might look like. I anticiapte the PDF of that magazine will be available within the next week or two, so we'll see how close my predictions come this time around.

I am grateful to have been able to provide this two-part analysis of General Conference, and my documents related thereunto. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and reported temple developments and will bring word of those 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.