BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS': First Presidency Releases Official Information about the Ephraim Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! On this Friday, we have some more breaking temple news. The site location has been confirmed and the preliminary details released for the Ephraim Utah Temple. Plans call for a three-story temple of roughly 39,000 square feet. The temple will rise on a 9.16 acre site located at the intersection of 400 East and 200 North. Although no groundbreaking date has been announced, it's good to see the Church taking this next step on Ephraim.

Regarding temple groundbreakings, information I have informally receieved indicates that as many as 17 temples could have groundbreakings occur within the next 6 months I know of at least four (Farmington New Mexico, Willamette Valley Oregon, Elko Nevada, and Grand Junction Colorado) that could have groundbreakings set to occur by the end of this month or early next month.

For my part, I continue to monitor all of this and will be sure to bring you word of 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 NEWS: Spontaneous Fire Erupts at Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Hello again, everyone! At the top of the 10:00 PM KSL newscast, a breaking news update was shared regarding a fire that erupted today at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The KSL news story shared an official Churh statement on the fire was provided by long-time Church spokesperson Brother Eric Hawkins:

"At around 7 this evening, a fire started on the second-floor roof of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The most likely cause of the fire is from combustible construction materials that ignited on their own.We are grateful for the quick response of emergency personnel, who were able to extinguish the fire and are on site conducting their investigation. We are also grateful that no one was injured in this incident and that property damage is minimal and the building will be operational tomorrow." Just wanted to pass that along here. I continue to monitor any and all Church News updates and reported temple developments and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all 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 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