BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple; Groundbreaking Set for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, the First Presidency announced the opening arrangements for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple and groundbreaking arrangements for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple. Let's get right into the details: Media tours will be held for the Red Cliffs Temple on Monday, January 29, 2024, with VIP tours held for the next two days. The public open house will occur from Tuesday, January 30-Saturday, March 2, 2024 (marking the first time that both VIP tours and public tours will be held at the same time).

The Red Cliffs Utah Temple will then be dedicated in two sessions (at 10:00 AM and 1:30 PM) on Sunday, March 24, with President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, presiding over those sessions. I had assumed Elder Holland would preside at this dedication, but it could be he will be the apostolic companion to President Eyring, if he is able to be well enough to do so by that time. Since I had projected that the Red Cliffs dedication would only occur in May, this suggests an accelerated timeframe for temple dedications than what I had projected.

That being said, opening arrangements are easier to set for Utah temples than for many of their counterparts, so that's not surprising. Hopefully, by the end of this month, we see at least two more temple dedications set. In the meantime, if that wasn't reason enough for this post, as I stated, the Church has also set a groundbreaking for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple. That will occur on Saturday, November 23, 2023, with Asia Area President Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai presiding. 

I also was surprised by the announced timing for the groundbreaking of Taiwan's second temple. I had projected that the groundbreaking would be in mid-2024 at the earliest. But I am grateful that the Lord once again proved to me today that His timing trumps any mortal reasoning or projections I might offer.  So I am going back to the drawing board on those projections. I will have updated thoughts published here in some form as soon as I can make that happen.

I am grateful for today's landmark announcements. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates 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. 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 NEWS: Sister Kathleen J. Eyring Passes Away

An initial version of this report was published at 2:00 PM, with additions and edits made around an hour later. My thanks once again to you all.

Hello again, everyone! The Newsroom and the Church News have reported that Sister Kathleen J. Eyring, wife of President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, passed away earlier today in Bountiful surrounded by family. As some of you might be aware, Sister Eyring has struggled with significant health challenges, but has stood by her husband in all of his high-profile Church assignments since his call to the Presiding Bishopric in 1985. Apparently, at some point in 2007, then-Elder Eyring had surgery for cancer.

With how much Sister Eyring has struggled in recent years, I'm sure this is a period of time where President Eyring's feelings may be part grieving the loss and part rejoicing that she no longer has to suffer and has returned home to her loved ones. The articles to which I linked above did an excellent job of summarizing her life. I will not attempt to add to that here. But I will note that, if recent practice is any indication, the funeral services for Sister Eyring may be held on Thursday or Friday of this week.

It is also worth noting that President Eyring is now the third current apostolic widower. The other two are his immediate apostolic seniors, President M. Russell Ballard and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I will also state that I am grateful that President Eyring's son Henry J. Eyring was released as both an area seventy and as president of BYU-Idaho, with Henry J. intending to relocate to Utah (unless he has already done so). That means each of his 3 children will be close by.

President Eyring always spoke warmly, but carefully, about his wife, who is, as he has said "a very private person". My prayers are with him and his family at this time. I continue to monitor all other Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates, 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. 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.

Initial Predictions for the April 2024 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! Having recently published my documents relating to the October 2023 General Conference, and bearing in mind that I still anticipate several major temple construction updates throughout the last quarter of this year, I wanted to now provide a look ahead and share my initial predictions for the April 2024 General Conference. 

We start with the speaker lineup. The last time that President Nelson spoke in the Saturday Morning Session was in October 2022, when he was the concluding speaker. Given his efforts to reduce and simplify, and give more general leaders the opportunity to speak, I think we may see him do what he did last conference again: only speak in the concluding session and have a full-length address.

I am also operating under the assumption that his two counselors and all 12 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will give one talk apiece, although I anticipate that President Oaks will present the Sustaining of Church Officers. Since the Presiding Bishopric only speaks once a year now, and since April has typically seen only 2 female General Officers speaking, I think we will see 11 GA Seventies speak.

Other than these notes, the lineup should speak for itself. Next up is potential changes I'm anticipating in general Church leadership. I still feel strongly that a third counselor in the First Presidency may be warranted at some point, in which case a new apostle would also be called. That in turn would necessitate other changes in general Church leadership. Also, last April, aside from new GA Seventies, the Church also called for a vote of appreciation for the GA Seventies who were granted emeritus status on August 1. This time around, that would include 8 GA Seventies, including 2 remembers of the Presidency of the Seventy. So those changes will likely be noted in advance.

If a new apostle needs to be called, that will lead to other potential changes in general Church leadership. But whether or not that happens, I am also anticipating a new Sunday School General Presidency, the release of at least a few area seventies, a longer list of those who will be released on August 1, and several new area seventies called. That document also contains my estimates for the figures in the statistical report for 2023. I have made estimates based on what I've been able to ascertain and what I was otherwise able to calculate using a rather complex algorithm that would be difficult to explain.

And the final element of my predictions for the April 2024 General Conference is the list of locations in which a temple could be announced. We have seen a total of 35 temples announced each year since 2021. In 2021, 20 temples were announced in April, one more in May, and the remaining 14 in October. In 2022, 17 were announced in April, with 18 more announced in October. And this year, 15 were announced in April, with the remaining 20 in October. 

I would just note here that I project 15-20 new temples to be announced in April 2024. It's also worth noting that this initial April 2024 list includes only those locations that were on my list for October of this year that did not have a temple announced. I will be on the lookout for other prospects and will be sure to add them to my list for subsequent drafts. If any of you are aware of any locations I have failed to consider or omitted, please let me know.

As always, any questions or comments on these predictions are both welcomed and encouraged. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples updates and will be sure to pass those along to you all here as I become aware of them. 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 NEWS: First Presidency Provides Directive for Christmas Eve; Next Leg of Multiyear Global Tour Announced for Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square

Hello again, everyone! With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, the First Presidency has issued a directive for that Sunday. In a letter released on Monday, the First Presidency has indicated that all meetings except for Sacrament Meeting are canceled for Christmas Eve. In consultation with bishops and branch presidents, stake and district presidents have the option to adjust meeting times to best meet the needs of the members over whom they have stewardship.

I am grateful for the First Presidency's directive on this matter. I look forward to the Christmas season and all that it will bring with it. If that were the only breaking news, it would be reason enough for this new post. But while I was preparing this post to be published, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square announced the next leg of its' multiyear global ministry tour, which will take the Choir to the Philippines for the first time in its' 95-year history.

That tour will span from February 20-29, 2024. Local Filipino artists will join the Choir in the 9-day tour, which may include multiple venues. The Choir's concerts, which will also incorporate local music, will be available to livestream online. The Choir will continue to go to one location per year every year for at least the next 4, and venue information about the Choir's performances will be released later.

So there you have it: two major developments in one post. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates and will bring word of those to you all here 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: Site Location and Preliminary Information Confirmed for the Budapest Hungary Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, on the heels of the late September visit of Hungary's first female president to Church headquarters, the First Presidency has released the site location and preliminary information for the Budapest Hungary Temple, which had, before today, been the last temple announced in April 2019 that had not had any official information confirmed. Let's break down the details:

An arrival center and patron housing will join the planned single-story 18,000-square-foot temple, all of which will be built on a 5.92-acre site at Kocsis Sandor ut and Borsikafu utca, Harsanylejto, Budapest, Hungary. Though not explicitly stated, I take it as a given that project managers will begin working with government officials through the approvals process.

As a result of today's update, all temples announced between October 2018 and October 2020 have had official information confirmed. Between today's announcement (which also confirmed the Modesto California Temple groundbreaking) and the 20 new temples announced by President Nelson in General Conference over a week ago, of the 98 announced temples, 55 lack official information.

That may change in the near term (or so I hope). I was also surprised that there were not any temple openings announced, but hopefully such announcements will either come later this week or as the major announcement next week. I continue to monitor all such updates and will be sure to pass those along 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.