BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the Yigo Guam Temple

Hello again, everyone! Within the last hour or so, the First Presidency announced the open house and dedication of the Yigo Guam Temple. There is a lot to get into here, so let's jump right in. A temple open house will be held for that edifice from Wednesy May 4-Saturday May 14, excluding Sunday May 8. A youth devotional on Saturday May 21, with the temple dedication being held the following day (Sunday May 15). 

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside over the dedicatory events. Last year, as some of you might recall, the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple was dedicated on Sunday October 31, with the dedication of the Pocatello Idaho Temple following exactly one week later. With today's announcement, the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple will be dedicated on Sunday May 8, one week before the dedication of the Yigo Guam Temple. 

President Nelson continues his established tradition of assigining temple dedications and rededications to his fellow apostles, so I will be interested to see how that trend continues this year. I had projected in my year-end 2021 temple construction progress report that this temple's dedication could potentially be delayed until sometime in August of this year. 

But I had forgottten that the Yigo temple and temple district is smaller, so the paramerters on public gatherings for Yigo would be different from other regions. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see what works out for the timing of the opening events for the Praia Cabo Verde and San Juan Puerto Rico Temples.

And although the Quito Ecuador Temple is completed and could be the next one to have opening arrangements announced, the Church has not yet publicly announced the first president and matron for that temple, so it's possible that until such an announcement is made, the dedication thereof might not be announced. 

There may also be a chance that both the Praia Cabo Verde and San Juan Puerto Rico Temples could be dedicated before the Quito Ecuador Temple. But today's announcement also means that I will need to again readjust the prospective dedication or rededication windows for other temples. I last offered those estimates in the final temple construction progress report for 2021. 

I am hopeful that the next temple announcements could be for groundbreakings, since there are several temples literally "waiting in the wings" for those events.It will be interesting to see what happens with temple construction developments as the year progresses. I continue to monitor all such updates, in addition to any major updates in the Church News and the Newsroom, and will be sure to pass those along to you all here 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: Latest Phased Temple Reopening Adjustments Announced

Hello again, everyone! A short time ago, the Church published the latest updates on phased temple reopenings. Those updates have been detailed in the Newsroom and the Church News, with the temple reopening status tracer showing the latest updates for each temple, sorted by the geographical areas of the Church under which each falls. This post will feature my analysis of the latest updates.

The following adjustments have been noted, and will go into effect next Tuesday (January 19): The Suva Fiji Temple, which has been in phased 3 since February of last year, has been downgraded to phase 1 due to COVID-19 conditions and restrictions (likely as a result of the Omicron variant). Meanwhile, the Cebu City Philippines Temple, which had transitioned to phase 3 in mid-July of last year, has been downgraded to phase 2-B, also likely as a result of COVID-19 restrictions due to Omicron.

As a result of those updates, the current reopening status of all temples shows 9 closed for renovations, all but 1 of which (Medford Oregon) have been granted phase 3 designations (which allows those residing in the 8 districts the option to schedule phase 3 proxy work or living ordinances in priority order at the nearest temples to them which are also open in phase 3); 1 temple paused in its' reopening; 1 in phase 1; 0 in phase 2; 5 in phase 2-B; and the remaining 155 in phase 3.

Our First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have continued to do well in keeping tabs on the status of COVID-19 worldwide and adjusting accordingly as needed. I am grateful for their inspired leadership and joyfully testify that each of these men were meant to be the leaders of this Church in our day. having been foreordained to do so in the premortal realm. For my part, I continue to monitor all Church News and temple updates and will do my best to pass word of those along 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 NEWS: First Presidency Calls 164 New Mission Presidents

Hello again, everyone! As reported by the Newsroom  and the Church News, 164 new mission presidents have been called. I will haive furter analysis on this news posted h. For now, my thanks once again to you all.

Added at 1:45 PM: I have completed my analysis of the new mission leafers. Here are some facts I pulled together about the newly-called mission leaders: Elders Peter M. Johnson and Ricardo P. Giminez will be released as the respective presidents of the England Manchester and California San Diego Missions,  

GA Seventy Elder Ciro Schmiel, currently serving as First Counselor in the Africa South Area Presidency, will serve as President of the Florida Orlando Mission.

In view of Elder Schmiel’s call as a mission president, and since Elder Christoffel Golden will turn 70 this year and will almost certainly be granted emeritus status in October, it seems likely that First Counselor Elder Edward Dube will be the new area president, with two other GA Seventies called as his counselors (perhaps Elder Alfred Kyungu and either Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran or Peter M. Johnson).

Current area seventies: Pablo H. Chavez, Aleksandr A. Drachyov, Pedro X. Larreal, K. Roy Tunnicliffe, and Luis G. Zapata.

Former area seventy: Elder Rulon F. Stacey

Brother Douglas D. Holmes, former First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency

I personally know two of the new mission presidents: David Sturt (whose parents are unofficially adopted grandparents for me and my siblings, and who, along with his siblings and their spouses, are unofficially adopted uncles and aunts to us) and Dave Hansen (who served for just one year as the president of my parents’ stake). My mom informed me today that she was notified of but sworn to secrecy about my Uncle David's call, and per her report, part of his role as president of the Kenya Nairobi Mission will be to supervise the construction of the temple in that city, so hopefully that can soon get underway

I am grateful to have assembled this data and that I have been able to pass that along to you all here. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and will pass word of those along 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.

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 November 14, 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, continue 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.

A Look Back at 2021 and a Look Ahead to 2022

Hello again, everyone! With the recently-published overview of 2021 temple construction progress being  published here a short while ago, as the final minutes of 2021 are nearing their conclusion, I wanted to provide a look back at this last year and look ahead at the incoming year. In addition to numerous breaking news or temple updates, I also focused on several updates about apostolic age and tenure milestones, and also covered several significant updates involving the ministry of our apostles. 

Another major hot topic for this blog was the ongoing adjustments made necessary by COVID-19. In-person Church has returned, and temple worship has been restored with the necessaray precautions intact. 34 new temples were announced, while ground was broken for 12 others. 2 new temples were dedicated, and 1 was rededicated. The First Presidency called 8 new GA Seventies in April, released 6 in October, and adjusted the way area seventies were released and sustained.

I could go on, but the blog history of this last year speaks well for itself.  I did want to note here that this year, I marked the milestones of 2000 blog posts (on January 19) and 2100 blog posts (on October 1). Depnding on what needs to be covered, I am tentatively predicting that I might hit the milestone of 2200 posts by sometime in May or June of next year, which could mean I will reach the milestone of 2300 blog posts before the end of next year.

In rhe interim, I wanted to take a look back at scheduled updates I provided throught this year (2021) and to provide an advanced look ahead at known developments I havr scheduled in for updates within this next year (2022). I continue to monitor all major Church news updates and temple construction developments and will be sure to pass those along 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.