BREAKING NEWS: President Nelson & Elder Holland to Tour Europe, Africa and Asia in April

Hello again, everyone! Not sure when this was posted on the Church's official website, but my local news ran a story about half an hour ago sharing that President Nelson and his wife, accompanied by Elder Holland and his wife, would be touring Europe, Africa, and Asia in April.

According to this news release from the Church website, the tour will go from April 10-23, and will allow these Brethren to visit Church sites in these nations, which will almost certainly involve looking over temples under construction in Africa and also perhaps scouting out potential future locations for future temples in all three continents, in addition to holding gatherings for members and missionaries in these areas.

This is exciting news, primarily because it has been a while since a Church president has been able to travel extensively like this. I have not verified this through personal research, but I seem to recall that President Monson began gradually scaling back his duties in 2014 or so, which included limiting his travel and the number and length of his addresses in General Conference. So it may have been a couple of years prior to that that President Monson traveled to such an extent.

And this is the first time since 2006 or so that I can recall an older Church president doing such extensive traveling. This suggests that, in accordance with what he said in the press conference for him and his counselors on January 16, he is earnest in his desire to be out among the people as long as he can be, and to understand the local issues members throughout the world are dealing with.

I observed this on Facebook, but it is worth mentioning here as well: The fact that President Nelson is intent on serving and being out among the people for as long as he can has been perfectly verified by how fully he and his counselors have gotten right to work to get things done.

And that is no more evident than in the fact that he has done quite a bit since his ordination. He has spoken at the funerals of the longest-serving Area Seventy of the Church (Jon M. Huntsman) and of Elder Von G. Keetch, who unexpectedly passed away from a brief, sudden, and fatal illness. He and his counselors have also announced the rededication for the Houston Texas Temple and the renovation that is scheduled to occur for the temple in Hamilton New Zealand.

I never got around to mentioning this before now, but just a couple of days ago, Mormon Newsroom shared this report about how President Nelson and his wife spoke to a group of young adults in Las Vegas.

So it is plain that President Nelson is very committed to ministering to Church members. And it is interesting that this tour will begin about 1.5 weeks following his first General Conference as Church President. Mormon Newsroom indicated in the release about the tour plans that articles about that tour would be published as the tour progresses. So you can be sure to find coverage there.

Additionally, you can be sure I will be keeping my eyes open for more information on that tour, and on any and all other Church and temple news and updates and I will continue to do my best to pass those updates along to you as I become aware of them.

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.

Additional Temple Updates

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to post today to share some updates on the status of several temples, both new ones that are undergoing the construction process and one temple undergoing renovation as well. So let's get right into all of that.

We start first with the Rome Italy Temple, which had a slight but still significant update on its' status. The latest information I have found shows that landscaping and interior work continues. The new part of that temple's updated status shows that part of that interior work is the installation of more art glass.

Based on that update,  I feel confident that those construction workers on this project were not far off in their assertion that this temple could be finished in enough time to be dedicated in October. But I will keep my eyes open for news in that regard, and will pass along any updates to that prospect as I find out about them.

Moving on now to the Lisbon Portugal Temple, mid-section steeple walls have reportedly been poured, and a netting for the scaffolding of the temple has been attached. This update gives me hope that perhaps this temple could (and likely will) be completed more towards the earlier side than the later side of its' completion estimate (mid-2019 rather than late 2019).

The final update I wanted to pass along relates to the renovation process for the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple that is making steady progress. The newest information I have found shows that construction efforts have turned to the entrance lobby, which is being framed.

As I have repeatedly observed in other posts on this blog, it is great to see the day-to-day updates that are provided for temples everywhere. The subject of that progress is close to my heart, not just because of my time serving as a temple worker, but because the construction of temples is a very important part of Church history. And I will continue to keep my eyes open for all developments in that regard and will post them here as soon as I can after learning of them.

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.

Oakland California Temple Closes for Renovation

Hello again, everyone! For those who are not aware of this fact, I wanted to note that, while all temples worldwide are closed on Sunday, most (if not all) of the temples within the United States are also closed on Monday as well. My purpose in mentioning this is to note that, while the closure for the Oakland California Temple was officially set to begin tomorrow, because that temple traditionally is closed on Sunday and Monday, the closure has essentially gone into effect.

As we also know, when this temple's closure was announced roughly a year ago this month, the stated purpose for the renovation is to upgrade electrical and mechanical systems upgraded and for its' finishes and furnishings to be refreshed. According to that news release, the temple is anticipated to be rededicated before the end of the next year. But because this is the first time this temple is being renovated, and because the first renovations for older temples have had a history of taking longer than anticipated, it has, as I have observed, been my feeling that this temple's rededication may only occur during early-to-mid 2020. I will keep my eyes open for more information on this process as it unfolds and will do my best to pass it along as I learn of it.

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 Word About the First Presidency Message in the March 2018 Ensign

Hello again, everyone! With the fact that an Ensign Supplement accompanied in February 2018 Ensign, I had felt that the March 2018 edition of that magazine might contain articles about the reorganization of the First Presidency. With an HTML version of the magazine now available, I can confirm that did not happen. Those articles may be printed with the April edition of the magazine.

In the meantime, it has been somewhat customary for the new Church president to write the first First Presidency message published following his ordination. That was the case for President Monson (whose first First Presidency message was published in the April 2008 Ensign), President Hinckley (whose first First Presidency message was published in the July 1995 Ensign, as the April 1995 Ensign covered President Hunter's funeral, the May 1995 edition was a report of President Hinckley's first General Conference as Church President, and since the June edition had an article about President Hinckley written by Elder Holland in lieu of a First President message), and President Hunter (the July 1994 Ensign was a tribute to President Benson, the August 1994 edition had a feature article on President Hunter written by then-Elder James E. Faust, and the September 1994 Ensign contained President Hunter's first First Presidency message as Church president).

Looking further back into the history of the first First Presidency message following the ordination of a new Church president, the first First Presidency message published following President Benson's ordination as Church president in November 1985 (which appeared in the December 1985 Ensign, directly following the tribute articles (including addresses given during the funeral) written in honor of President Spencer W. Kimball. Since President Hinckley had previously been asked by President Kimball to write the First Presidency message for that edition of the Ensign, President Hinckley was given permission to follow through on that assignment, and the message was published under his former title of Second Counselor in the First Presidency.

My purpose in mentioning all of this is to set the background for what occurred for the March 2018 First Presidency message. Apparently, with the usual rotation kept during President Monson's presidency, it was then-President  Uchtdorf's turn in that rotation to pen a message for that Ensign. With President Nelson's approval, President Uchtdorf's prepared message has been published with the March 2018 Ensign, and can be found here.

For that reason, I imagine that President Nelson's first First Presidency message will be published in the April 2018 Ensign. It will likewise be interesting to see if the traditional report of the new First Presidency is included in April as well, and how soon an Ensign supplement is published to reintroduce President Nelson to the Church membership.

I hope this information is helpful to at least some of you. 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.

Some Additional Observations About Future Temples

Hello again, everyone! As I promised to do so, I have been working on researching, editing, and revising my list of future temple locations. While getting that together, I discovered some things about how the temple announcement boom that occurred beginning with this announcement from President Hinckley about how the number of operating temples would more than double in a few years compares with what is potentially going to happen based on Elder Wilson's statement last April about the 80 potential temple locations that may subsequently have an official announcement within the 15 years following that statement. What I have put together below goes into detail on my findings about that thought.

Two things have occurred within the last year that will affect temple announcements going forward. First, President Monson, who for the final 3 years of his presidency (2015-2017) gave shorter addresses, habitually announced temples during his Sunday Morning remarks. If he had continued to live through this General Conference, any new temples would have been announced, with his consent, by one of his counselors. In view of President Nelson now being the Church President, it seems clear that he will make new temple announcements himself, and for this General Conference, that seems most likely to occur during the Sunday Morning Session, which, if recent tradition holds, will be President Nelson’s first General Conference address as President of the Church to the entire membership.

Second, Elder Larry Y. Wilson stated in late April 2017 (around a month after President Monson announced 5 new temples in General Conference) that the Church was actively considering 80 potential temple locations for a future announcement within the following 15 years. That statement was made almost a year ago, and no new temples have been announced since that time. This means that, whether or not each one of those 80 goes on to be officially announced within that time, there are slightly more than 14 years remaining in which to do so, which means, if Elder Wilson’s statement is anywhere close to being literally taken, 5 or 6 temples would need to be announced per year, which could result in temples being announced in every General Conference, and with a few others here and there in between those times. 

The task therefore for me was to try and determine, of the many locations that I considered, which should be on my list for the near future and which might occur at some point, but perhaps not as immediately. For that purpose, I posted in-depth analysis of such prospects on my blog and requested feedback. Based on what was said in the course of doing that series of posts, I made changes, revisions, and substitutions. Since the conclusion of those conversations, I have done more research and have made a few additional adjustments.

The list as it now stands represents my best researched thoughts, based on personally-gathered data and (where applicable) insight from those who have commented on those prospects. It should also be mentioned that I will be organizing the list a little differently this time around as well. As I considered how best to do so, it seemed advisable to group this list first by general world area (which corresponds to the regions that make up the Third-Eighth Quorums of the Seventy), then by likelihood within that area. I am also providing endnotes to set the context for any pertinent information about either the regions or specific locations, which I hope will be illustrative.

With all of that noted, while it may be impossible to anticipate every potential location that may get a temple, or how imminently that might occur, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is hastening His work in His time, is very much aware of the needs of the members of His Church, and knows exactly when, in what locations, and how imminently temples are needed anywhere, and He reveals such locations at the right time through His prophet. Exactly 20 years ago this conference,

President Gordon B. Hinckley announced to the Church his smaller temple design, and the goal to more than double the number of temples in a few short years. There were 51 operating temples at the time that announcement was made, and in the 20 years since, that number has more than tripled to 159, a total increase of 108 temples, or roughly 5.4 per year.

And of those 108 (if my research and subsequent calculations are correct), around 76 were both announced and completed within those 20 years. With that in mind, it is not a stretch of logic to believe that Elder Wilson’s statement will likely prove correct and justified, and that around 80 (if not exactly that or more than that) could easily be announced in the next 14 years. That is great to think about.

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.