Church Announces Changes to General Conference

Hello, everyone! Big news from the Church today. There are major changes coming to General Conference starting in April. The priesthood and women's sessions will now be held annually, with a priesthood session every April, and a women's session in October, both to be held at 6:00 pm MT on general conference Saturday. It is anticipated that this will help streamline these meetings, and that will eliminate the need to have any sessions the week before General Conference weekend every six months. It will be amazing to see how all of that comes together. I will also have to figure out how this might change my semiannual predictions. It will be interesting to see this process unfold. For more details, click here. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.

Temple Progress Reported

Hello, everyone! I am posting today with an update on temple construction progress that has been reported by a few sources available to me. So, let's get right into what these changes are and how that might affect the sequence of temple-related events for the next year or so.

First, when posting a few days ago, I had noted that the lack of progress on the Rome Italy Temple would likely result in the Barranquilla Colombia Temple, which has progressed more consistently, being dedicated first. That opinion has now been verified. I for one hope that Rome will be dedicated before the end of 2018, but could see the Church pushing that dedication back to early 2019.

Until more is known, I think we will see the Concepcion Chile Temple dedicated in mid-August, with the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple following in mid-September, the rededication of the Frankfurt Germany Temple in mid-to-late October (following General Conference), the dedication of the Barranquilla Temple in mid-November, and the Rome dedication in December to round out the year.

Additionally today, progress was noted on the Lisbon Portugal Temple, where the upper walls of the temple are now being poured. And finally, the private rededication that will take place for the Houston Texas Temple may happen closer to the middle of next year than the early part. As with every temple-related development, I am keeping an eye out for news to the best of my ability, and will be sure to post any updates as I become aware of them.

That does it for this update. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Until my next post, I wish each of you all the best and pray the Lord's blessings upon you in all that you do.

BREAKING NEWS: Houston Texas Temple Officially Closes for Renovation; Private Rededication to be held next year

Hello, everyone! After a day in which not much new Church news has been released, I happened upon this update indicating that the repairs on the Houston Texas Temple now require some minor renovation work, which, when completed at some point early next year, will be followed by a private rededication, There will not be a need for an open house, cultural celebration, or public rededication because the work is restorative. Just wanted to pass that information along. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.

Three Important Items from Mormon Newsroom

Hello again, everyone! Mormon Newsroom has published a few significant news stories in the last several days that are worth a mention. In this article, a California congregation describes their experience of sharing their Church building for a year with a local Jewish congregation, which culminated in a Shabbat Service in which people from both faiths were in attendance. I appreciate very much how the Church is cultivating relationships with friends of other faiths in various ways.

In the meantime, Elder David A. Bednar, who is the member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assigned to oversee the Africa West Area, traveled to Ghana to dedicate the brand new Missionary Training Center. You can read more about that here.

And finally, from the Newsroom Blog, we have this story detailing how Sister Carol F. McConkie of the Young Women General Presidency and Sister Sharon Eubank, who is both the director of LDS Charities and the First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, met with the First Lady of Peru regarding her desire to thank the Church for the Mormon Helping Hands that helped with local projects. They also presented the First lady with a framed copy of The Living Christ in Spanish.

That does it for this Church news update. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each of you all the best.

Significant Development Reported on Construction of the Durban South Africa Temple

Hello, everyone! Earlier today, I heard of significant developments for the Durban South Africa Temple, and this is the first chance I have had to post about it. For anyone following along, the previously detailed status of that temple has now been replaced with the note that roof trusses are being set for that temple.

That said, there are still some questions to settle in terms of the potential sequence of temple-related events, and I am working on that side of things as speedily as I can. I hope to post a concrete result of that study ASAP. Until that time, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each of you all the best.