Temple Site Possibilities: South America South Area, Part One--Area Overview

Hello again, everyone! As noted in my last post, since my wife and I are stuck at home with illness today, and since I am past the point where my body, mind, and spirit will allow me to get additional rest and relaxation, I have opted to continue putting together and publishing my thoughts on potential future temples.

While my focus now turns to the South America South Area, which will involve an area overview in this post, and subsequent posts providing an overview of temples within it, the history of those temples, the number of stakes and districts currently served by the district of each of those temples, district, and, to conclude the area coverage, the final post will share the list I have compiled of other potential locations within this area that I have felt could get a temple soon.

So let's start with the area overview. The South America South Area boundaries take in the nations of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. I don't know how many of you noticed or would remember this, but for a long time, the nation of Chile, which has a high concentration of Latter-day Saints, was its own area of the Church.

In 2002, Elder Holland was asked by the First Presidency to preside over that area for two years, at the same time Elder Oaks was assigned to do so in the Philippines. And at the conclusion of those two years, the First Presidency called Elder Perry to preside for one year over the Church in the Europe Central Area. So 2002-2005 marked a rare time in the Church where these apostles were sent to fill assignments that had traditionally been handled by General Authority Seventies.

While I cannot say with any certainty that these assignments may have been necessary due to large-scale issues these areas were facing at the time, what I do know thanks to dear family friends who served in the area office of the Philippines under Elder Oaks during his time there, and which appears to be true of Chile and Europe as well, during and as a result after the fact of this ministry by the three, Church growth appeared to stabilize at take off.

Anyways, my reason for mentioning these unusual apostolic assignments was to note that while Chile  was its own area for several years, in 2011, the First Presidency announced that the Chile and South America South Areas would be consolidated into one area, and would be known as the South America South Area.

I apologize for being long-winded, but I figure that these details do, to a certain degree, set the background for my coverage of this area. The next post in this series will be published hopefully later today to cover the history of the six temples within this area, and also perhaps go into the specifics of the number of stakes and districts in each nation that are served by these six. And again, hopefully, I will be able to wrap up my coverage of this area before the end of this Christmas Day, which would ideally allow me to have my coverage of the three areas in Utah published on this blog within the remaining six days of 2017.

So for now, that does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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 Brief Preliminary Word Regarding My Coverage of the Final Four Areas of the Church

Hello again, everyone! Hope your Christmas day has been enjoyable. Since my wife and I are stuck at home dealing with illness, and because my system is past the point where it will allow me to rest and relax (aside from regular sleep at night), I have decided it would be best to move on with my coverage of the final four areas of the Church (South America South, and Utah North, Utah Salt Lake City, and Utah South) I will post again in a few minutes to begin my coverage of the South America South Area, but I wanted to note a couple of important things first, which apply to these final four but are also true about those areas which I have already covered.

First, I wanted to reiterate what I have previously stated: I hope it is clearly understood that when I have opted to move on to my coverage of the next area of the Church, that is not intended in any way to signal the end of the discussion about the areas which I have already covered. I would hope that all of you know that you are more than welcome at any time to post additional feedback of any kind on any post I have done up to this point, or any or all others that I will do going forward. I appreciate any and all such comments at any time they are added.

Second, as some of you may have noticed, in my introductory posts for each of the Church's areas which I have covered up to this point, I have mentioned a specific number of posts which I have anticipated to do in focusing on each area. It is almost inevitably the case that the original number of posts I thought I would do winds up being corrected or altered as the amount of content I am covering necessitates. So for each of the final four areas I will be covering (which I hope to wrap up before the end of this year) I will not be giving any estimates about the number of posts which I will do for each of those four. The amount of content I need to post will be the determining factor in that regard.

With those two things said, I will be back later today to start discussing the first of those areas, covering the southern part of South America. And, as I indicated earlier, my hope is to have those final four covered before midnight MST when 2017 concludes and 2018 officially is rung in.

Therefore, that does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best 7 and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Temple Site Possibilities: South America Northwest Area, Part Seven--Exploring the Likelihood of a Second Venezuelan Temple and Area Wrap-Up

Hello again, everyone, and Merry Christmas to you all. In the early morning hours on a day when we exchange gifts with family (and, for some of you, friends) as we remember that without Christ, there would be no Christmas, I am pleased to be able to bring you my final post covering South America. In this post (as mentioned in the previous one), we will examine the likelihood of a potential second temple in the near future for Venezuela, and then I will have a few additional remarks to wrap up my coverage of the South America Northwest Area. Let's get right into all of that.

With what I noted about the number of Church units in Venezuela, including the fact that the one temple in that nation (which was built in Caracas) serves Venezuela's 34 stakes and 6 districts, many have said that there is a strong reason to believe that a second temple in that nation may be needed to help serve those congregations. As I have considered that possibility, a few thoughts have come to mind.

The first of those thoughts is that, in August 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley was visiting the Saints in Maracaibo, and during that visit, he publicly proposed a temple for that city. With over 18 years having come and gone since that time, and keeping in mind that many of the temples that have been announced during President Monson's presidency are those that were publicly proposed at one point or another by his predecessor. So I do fully believe that a temple in Maracaibo may just be a matter of time.

In addition to the size of the Caracas Temple district and to President Hinckley's public proposal of a temple for Maracaibo, the Saints in Maracaibo currently travel 439.1 miles to get to the temple in Caracas, which is more than double the mileage distance of 200 within which President Monson has set a goal to have between every Church member and the nearest temple.

So there are three very solid reasons to believe that Maracaibo could (and probably will) be the next Venezuelan city to get its own temple. Saints in the surrounding regions would likewise be spared from travelling an inordinate distance to get to the Caracas temple.

That said, I did want to observe that, unlike most potential sites which I have considered for my list of potential temples, the idea of a second temple for the Venezuelan Saints does have one very real roadblock: some of the politicians and law enforcement officers in Venezuela seem to be somewhat, if not entirely, corrupt.

Some of you may have heard the news that a citizen of Utah by the name of Josh Holt who went to Venezuela to get married was taken into custody on ridiculous charges (unlawful possession of dangerous firearms) that cannot be true, and he has remained in the Venezuelan prison system where he has been severely mistreated and where he will likely not have a chance at a fair trial if and when he is granted one.

The senior Utah senator Orrin Hatch has promised the Holt family that he will do everything he can to get their son released and able to go home, but the chances of that occurring don't look very good at this point. If governmental and law enforcement officials in Venezuela are that corrupt at this point, until the political climate clears and more reasonable leaders are appointed to those positions, the Church may not have much of a chance to get a second temple built to serve the Venezuelan Saints. With the Lord, nothing is impossible or out of the question, but at the moment, it's very hard to know how likely it might be that a temple could be announced in Maracaibo anytime soon.

But those are just my thoughts. Let me know yours in the comments below. I would be particularly interested to know your answers to the following questions: Could Venezuela get a temple in the near future? If so, would Maracaibo be the most likely place for it because of President Hinckley's proposal for one in that city? If the government and law enforcement officers are as corrupt as they certainly seem to be, could that potentially delay a second temple in Venezuela until more reasonable leadership is in power? I look forward to your thoughts.

So, having covered the current temples in various phases and the potential future temples I could see being announced in the near future, this post concludes my coverage of the South America Northwest Area. If I missed or have potentially overlooked anything in these last seven posts I have done, please let me know.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post(s) in this series, which should be put up later this week and focus on current and potential future temples in the South America South Areas, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do. And from the very depths of my soul, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Temple Site Possibilities: South America Northwest Area, Part Six--Potential New Temples for Peru

Hello again, everyone! While I had said at one point in an earlier post that six posts for the South America Northwest Area would cover everything, it turns out I will need one more as well. Therefore, this post will be the second-to-last one for this area and will focus on the potential likelihood of two Peruvian cities that could get a temple of their own. After I get this post published, I will conclude my coverage of this area with a seventh post that will focus on Venezuela's likelihood of getting a temple, and that post will also serve as the wrap-up of the content covering this area.

I wanted to first note that the difficult thing in trying to determine if the Church would announce one or more temples for Peru while Arequipa is still under construction and while progress is pending for the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple. But as we saw with Brazil, the Church did not wait until the temples in Fortaleza and Rio de Janeiro were completed, nor did the fact that the Belem temple has not progressed since its April 2016 announcement prevent the Church from announcing a temple for Brasilia. In fact, the odds are more likely than not that the temple in Brasilia, which already had its site confirmed by local leaders and inspected by Church engineers, will have a groundbreaking ceremony and begin its construction process perhaps before anything is done additionally on the Belem temple.

So because there are those four Brazilian temples in varying stages, it seems likely and even perhaps highly probable that the Church could easily announce other Peruvian temples while work continues on the temple in Arequipa and while the construction process is started for the temple that will be built in Lima's Los Olivos district.

And while we don't yet have an idea of how the stakes in Peru might be redistributed following the dedication of the temple now under construction in Arequipa (which is currently anticipated to occur in late 2019 or early 2020), or how they might be further redistributed following the construction and dedication of the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple, it is apparent that the Peruvian Saints are keeping their temples busy.

So which locations in Peru are likely to get a temple of their own in the near future? I have felt that there is a strong argument in favor of Peru's fifth and sixth temples being built in the cities of Cusco and Iquitos. As with other candidates about which I have written in this series, there is also a very good chance that both temples could either be announced at the same time or have some degree of overlap in their processes. Digging into things a little more deeply, let's examine the merits of these potential locations.

First, we look at Cusco's potential for its own temple. With two stakes based in that city, a temple there would serve, at a very minimum, the 12 wards and 2 branches within those two stakes. As mentioned, I am not by any means or stretch of the imagination a geography expert, so I am sure many stakes in the surrounding region could also be served by a temple in Cusco.

A temple in Cusco makes sense as well in terms of the mileage metric. Saints in Cusco currently travel 680.8 miles to do their ordinance work, and since the temple in Los Olivos would be even further from them than that (the distance being 691.6 miles), the Saints in Cusco are far more likely to remain with the Lima district..

When the Arequipa Peru temple is dedicated (which, as already noted, is anticipated to occur during either late 2019 or early 2020). the distance for the Saints in Cusco will be cut by more than half, to 303.8 miles. Even so, that is still over 100 miles more than President Monson's set goal to have every member within 200 miles of their nearest temple.

Before moving on to discuss specific reasons for my feeling that Iquitos could get a temple, I wanted to note that, with Cusco being a distance of 682 miles, it would not be out of the question for one or the other to be announced first, nor would it surprise me to either see them announced at the same time or to have one under construction at the time the other is announced. So I can't rule out that possibility.

Let us now turn our attention to the potential merits of a temple in Iquitos. In addition to having its own mission, the city of Iquitos is home to two stakes of the Church. A temple in that city would, at minimum, serve the Saints in the 14 stakes and 1 branch within that city. While I am, as noted, not great with geography, if and when Iquitos does get its own temple, the Saints in surrounding areas would also be spared the journey of an inordinate distance to get to their assigned temple.

Regarding the distance involved, the Saints in the Iquitos region  currently have a 629 mile journey to get to the Lima temple. As with the city of Cusco, since the Iquitos Saints are over 200 miles further than that from Arequipa (the exact distance being 882 miles), the Saints within the Iquitos region would also likely stay in the district of the Lima temple until they have a closer one either in that city or the surrounding regions.

And whenever the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple is dedicated, there is a possibility that the Saints in Iquitos could fall within that new temple district. But I can't be sure of that at the moment, since it would only cut their journey by a mere 4 miles (as the Los Olivos region is 625 miles from the Saint in Iquitos.

So there are my thoughts about these two potential candidates for Peru's next temples. I have felt that both will get their own temples at some point, but I look forward to hearing from you, my readers, on the following questions: Which temple might be announced first? Could both be announced simultaneously? What are the odds that while one of them is in the construction process, the other one might be announced? I look forward to the feedback.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. I will be back very shortly with my final post, which will contain my analysis of the prospects for a temple in Venezuela, and which will wrap up my coverage of the South America Northwest Area. Until that time, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Temple Site Possibilities--South America Northwest Area, Part Five--Exploration of Candidate Cities for Colombia's Third Temple

Hello again, everyone! I am back yet again to share my thoughts about two potential candidate cities in which Colombia's third temple might be built. With one temple currently operating in Bogota, and one other under construction in Barranquilla (which, as we know, is anticipated to be dedicated during the fourth quarter of next year), the candidates on my list are Medellin and Cali. Each of the two cities have a mission established. Let's now explore the merits of each.

Firstly, the Saints living in the city of Medellin are 261.1 miles from the Bogota temple. Since the temple in Barranquilla would be 439 miles exactly from that city, odds are more likely than not that the Medellin Saints will remain part of the Bogota district after the second temple in that nation is dedicated. So Medellin qualifies based on the mileage factor. Since I am not good with geographical matters, I am not sure how many other units might be served by a potential temple in Medellin, but such a temple would, at minimum, serve the two stakes based in that city, and also those in the surrounding region, which would be a respectably-sized district.

As for the merits of a potential temple in Cali, the Saints in that city currently travel 286.7 miles to attend the Bogota temple. Since the temple in Barranquilla will be further away from Cali (the distance being 700.5 miles), the three stakes in Cali will likely remain in the Bogota district. With three stakes within that city, a Cali temple would serve the 16 wards and 1 district based in Cali, and any other stakes in the surrounding region.

Just by way of comparison, the distance between Cali and Medellin is  269.1 miles, so a temple in either city could likely serve both. But which one might we see first? Whichever one is first, might the Church announce the other while the construction process is underway on the first? How likely might it be that both are announced at the same time, even if their construction timetables differ? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post (which will come shortly to discuss the possible candidates for yet another temple in Peru and also a potential second one for Venezuela), I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.