BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Anchorage Alaska Temple Location to Be Moved and Reconstructed; Current Temple Site Will Have Meetinghouse

Hello again, everyone! As I mentioned previously, the Church has established a home page on the Newsroom website to keep track of major temple news for 2023. That page was updated a short time ago with the latest development: the Anchorage Alaska Temple will be reconstructed. Let's dive right into the details:

First, the Church announced that the existing Anchorage Alaska Temple will remain in operation through the reconstruction of that temple. How will that work? The Church will demolish the existing meetinghouse adjacent to the temple, and a new 30,000-square-foot temple will be built on the former meetinghouse site at 3111 Brayton Drive, Anchorage, AK. Construction on the new temple is anticipated to begin early next year, and the Church is hoping to complete the new temple by the summer of 2026.

Once the new temple is dedicated, the existing 11,900-square-foot Anchorage Alaska Temple will be decommissioned and demolished to make way for a mew meetinghouse. I'd have to check, but I think that this is the first time ever that the Church has built a new larger temple while keeping the existing one in operation, then demolishing the existing one to make way for a new meetinghouse. 

I'd assume that the current plot on which the temple now stands is smaller than the plot occupied by the meetinghouse. It's also worth noting that this announcement wasn't anywhere on my radar. I had thought for sure we'd be getting an announcement of one or more temple dedications, groundbreakings, exterior renderings, or additional temple site locations confirmed. Clearly, I was wrong. But this is a most intriguing development, and I am grateful to have been able to find out about it and pass that along to you all. 

I continue to monitor all temple construction developments and Church News reports and will keep sharing those here as time and circumstances allow. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. 

I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Church President Russell M. Nelson Observes His 5th Anniversary as Prophet

Hello again, everyone! As I mentioned in passing yesterday, my recovery from my minor procedure on Thursday has been unpredictable. Despite that, I feel I would be remiss if I did not take a moment on this Saturday to acknowledge the 5th anniversary of the prophetic tenure of Church President Russell M. Nelson. Of our 17 Church Presidents, only 4 have served for less than 5 years.

I don't think that any extensive analysis on my part would be adequate enough to honor this milestone. Thankfully in advance of this milestone, highlighted summaries have been featured by both the Newsroom and the Church News. 

Among the key highlights has been a focus on revelation and prophetic invitations, a summary of what 3 of President Nelson's 8 surviving children shared about him as a husband, father, surgeon, apostle, and prophet (which was detailed more fully in a special edition of the Church News podcast), and 99 announcements, and changes which have occurred in the Church since January 2018.

Prophetic invitations and the blessings that followed have been pivotal as well. And what our prophet has accomplished through inspiration and revelation has been astounding. His 5-year ministry bears striking similarities to the strategy for playing Scrabble. He has taken major steps to unify the worldwide Church by differentiating between what is doctrinal and what has been merely traditional, bucking the expected trends repeatedly.

Under his direction, the Church now has three global magazines, is awaiting the arrival of new hymnbooks and children's songbooks to also be used worldwide, has now seen the appointment of the first Asian-American and Latin-American apostles, has seen restructuring efforts affecting the Elders' and High Priests' Quorums, ward Young Men Presidencies, and stake Sunday School and Young Men Presidencies.

For the first time ever in Church history, all current apostles have individually presided at one temple dedication or rededication. And President Nelson has surpassed 15th Church President Gordon B. Hinckley as the oldest living prophet and the prophet to announce the most temples. The 118 temples announced around the world in the last five years have brought the total number of worldwide temples to an even 300.

Additionally, the Church is well on track to have 200 operating temples within the next 18 months or less, and the Church could almost certainly have 300 temples dedicated by the bicentennial anniversary of the Church (Saturday, April 6, 2030). President Nelson is not only the oldest living prophet but is the older living apostle as well.

The prophet's apostolic colleagues, his wife, and his children all say he is hard to keep up with and continue to report that he acts with the energy and vigor of someone 30-40 years younger than his now-98 years of age.  Some have stated that he might be near the end of his life several times. But just as the prophet has proven the world wrong in the January 2018 assessment that he was unlikely to change the Church, he continues to live and function well daily. 

Of course, as any good former physician would do, he followed the advice of his doctors and was seated to deliver his remarks during the October 2022 General Conference. But his being seated did not in any way diminish the impact of his prophetic counsel. At the beginning of this month, in our ward's Fast and Testimony Meeting, many ward members shared admiration for President Nelson.

I was inspired to stand up and share my admiration for him, along with attesting to the fact that, as promised in the oath and covenant of the priesthood, President Nelson has been "sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewal of [his body[." In just over a year, President Nelson and his counselors will join the list of longest-serving First Presidencies of the Church.

The last five years of inspired leadership from and through President Nelson has taught me so much. A long time ago, I began regularly praying that when any major Church announcement is made, I would know for myself that it has been inspired by the Lord. And the Lord has never disappointed me in that. Many of the adjustments and changes that have been made have always left me with the question, "Why hasn't this been done before?"

I am grateful for the opportunity I have almost daily to witness what is going on in the Church around the world because of our current beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. He is truly the ma for our time. As we heed his prophetic counsel and seek to obtain confirmation from the Lord regarding it, I promise He will continue to testify to all of us that He does indeed direct His work, through His chosen prophet, seer, and revelatory and President of the Church in our day, President Russell M. Nelson.

I am grateful to have had the chance to reflect on the impact the prophet has had on the Church in the last 6 years. I continue to monitor all major Church news updates and will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. 

I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Church Confirms Location and Preliminary Information for the Bercelona Spain Temple

Hello again, everyone! True to form, on this Monday at this 2:00 PM hour in Utah, the First Presidency has made the first major temple announcement of 2023. The location and preliminary details have been provided for the Barcelona Spain Temple, which, as we know, was originally announced in April of last year. Here are the details: 

A 5.4-acre site at the intersection of Avinguda de la Vía Augusta and Avinguda de la Clota, Sant Cugat del Vallès in Barcelona will serve as the location of the two-story 27,500 square foot temple, along with a 13,600 square foot ancillary building, which will include arrival and distribution centers and patron housing. 

This now brings the total number of temples with sites announced to 25, most (if not all) of which will likely have groundbreakings this year. To be perfectly honest, I was hoping we might get an announcement on opening arrangements for either the Bentonville Arkansas or Okinawa Japan Temples, if not for both of them. But I'm not in any way disappointed by this news. 

With 2 temples originally announced in April 2018, 1 each the following October and April, 3 from April 2020, 5 and 8 from April and October of 2021, respectively, and 6 and 14 respectively from April and October of last year (still weird to say that at this point), the Church has not yet announced any information on 40 of the 68 announced temples.

What does that mean for the future? Well, bearing in mind that there are 8 temples in the queue that might have opening arrangements announced in the next 4-6 months or so, and 25 temples with sites announced (with exterior renderings released for 11 of those), we are unlikely to be short on temple announcements. 

I seem to recall that, during the pandemic, since the Church could not hold General Conference leadership meetings as usual in 2020, over the course of two days, two significant announcements were made relating to temple construction instead. 

So I have a theory that, while Monday could be a day for some major updates like site announcements or exterior renderings, maybe Thursday, which has been a standard day for other major Church announcements, or another day of the week could be used to announce other major temple news. 

Since President Nelson said a couple of years ago that things were going to move forward at an accelerated pace, it would make sense that, to keep up with a rapidly-progressing queue, some weeks going forward may include 2 temple-related announcements.For my part, I will continue to monitor all such updates and will do my best to bring you word of those (along with any Church news updates) to the best of my ability.

In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 

Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

2022 Year-End Review of Developments Covered On This Blog

 Hello again, everyone! Although the Newsroom and the Church News have already provided multiple reports to cap off the year, and although more of those have come through today, I would be remiss as we close out the year if I did not look back myself at the major highlights covered on this blog this year. Either this year or last year, someone in the comments of this blog said that the content I provide was comparable to "the Church News on steroids". While I don't know if that's an accurate assessment of my work, there has been a lot going on this year. Let's take a look back at key highlights from 2022.

Temple updates, as noted in my last post, were outstanding and significant. Numerous reports covered the day-to-day ministry of our apostles and General Officers of the Church, including birthday tributes to the apostles and female general officers. Breaking news often came down the pike, not all of which was related to temple construction. I hit the outstanding milestone of 2,200 posts earlier this year. And of course, there were the unique projects and milestones of which I took note.

So many of the major announcements were developments I wasn't necessarily anticipating. But with the Church finding ways to hasten temple construction, and with the ongoing ministry of general leaders, updates were never in short supply. And I continued my personal tradition of praying in advance of every maojr announcement. As those developments were reported, I felt they were exactl;y what the Church needed for this period of time.

In the midst of global disasters, the Church stepped up in big ways to help in any way possible. Numerous Church leaders met with dignitaries and major representatives of governments around the world. The Church expanded its' golobal reach, and missionaries continued to find innovative ways to expand their reach as well. If there is one hting I hope my readers take away from coverage of these developments here in 2022, I hope it is that the Lord is very much at the helm of His work, that prophets and apostles continue to provide inspired direction, and that all is well in the Lord's kingdom here on Earth because of that.

And so, as I close out this look back, I also want to look ahead to the future. As I mentioned in my last post, I will not be shocked if 2023 is another big year for temple developments. The Church is on track to dedicate 20-30 temples in 2023 alone, and around the same number of groundbreakings appear to be anticiapted. I also expect the Church will announce a minimum of 35 temples again this year.

As far as content unique to this blog, I have complied a list of anticipated projects for the upcoming year. And the day-to-day updates from the Church News, the Newsroom, the Church Temples site, and the Church Growth Blog will also be shared here as time and circumsstances allow. 2022 has also been a big year for feedback from all of you, my readers, in the way of corrections, clarifications, or additional observations.

I could not do what I do here to the extent that I do it were it not for the extensive intinerest and support provided by those of you who follow along here, who often share feedback and thoughts, and who continue to encourage me in those ongoing updates. So as we look back at 2022 and ahead to 2023, "thank you" seems woefully inadequate, but it will have to do.

For my part, I continue to monitor all Church news and temple construction updates and will be sure to pawss word of the latest developments to you all here as time and circumstancs allow going forward. In the meantime, that does it for now. 

All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 

Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

2022 Year-End Review of Temple Construction

Hello again, everyone! In these closing minutes of 2022, I would be remiss if I failed to pass along a look back at temple construction progress during this year. First, it's worth referring back to the three-part summary of temple construction developments published by the Church News. 

The first part highlighted temple dedications and rededications, when they occurred, and who presided at each one. A total of 4 temple rededications and 5 new temple dedications took place in 2022, and the Church has already set the first three temple dedications for next year.

The second part summarized key information about the 16 temple groundbreakingss held this year, which outpaced the 12 temples that had groundbreakings last year. The Church has already set the first temple groundbreaking for 2023, and a minimum of 27 others could also have groundbreakings next year.  

The second part also highlighted the fact that there are 37 other temples worldwide that are currently under construction (5 in Utah; 8 elsewhere in the United States, 3 in Central America, 6 in South America, 3 in Africa, 8 in Asia, and the final 3 in Oceania). The article also highlighted the 3 temples currently undergoing renovation and 3 others for which renovations have been scheduled.

The final article, published earlier today, highlighted information about the announced temples. With 35 new temples announced this year, that is a new record. Of all the announced temples, 1 has a  groundbreaking scheduled, and 27 others could also have a groundbreaking in 2023. 

That includes a total of 6 temples that had sites revealed and exterior renderings released prior to this year, and a whopping 17 others that had sites revealed this year alone, with 1 of those having an exterior rendering released at the same time as the site confirmation, and 4 others having exterior renderings released after the site confirmation.

Interestingly enough, two of those closest to a groundbreaking (the Montpelier and Teton River Idaho Temples) have had sites confirmed and cleared for likely groundbreakings, but neither of them have had exterior renderings released. I anticipate those two temples, along with the other 14 temples that have had sites confirmed, might soon have exterior renderings released in 2023 as well.

Regarding the the remaining 41 temples in the planning and design phase, the final 6 in the United States (which were announced in October of last year or April or October of this year) could soon have sites announced..4 others outside the United States could have official details announced soon after the first of the year, and the remaining 31 are announced. And I have another document showing information about the 41 temples for which no official details have been announced yet.

Having shared that information, by way of review, I wanted to look back at where temple construction stood as 2023 began, one day before the April 2022 General Conference at the mid-point of 2022, on the first morning of the October 2022 General Conference, and where things stand as 2022 concludes. I appreciated this chance to review temple construction progress for 2022. I will be back shortly with a final post for the year, looking back at the major developments in the Church in 2022.

In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.