Apostolic Ministry Updates

Hello again, everyone! This is the second of the two posts I mentioned previously, and will cover some updates on the ministry of our apostles. Those updates have been reported on Mormon Newsroom. So let's get right into those.

As some of you may be aware, although Elder Dale G. Renlund was born in the United States, his parents emigrated here. His mother is Swedish and his father comes from Finland. He grew up speaking Swedish, and he later served his full-time mission in Sweden. The reason I mention all of this is that Elder Renlund return to his mother's homeland on April 28 & 29, accompanied by his wife, Ruth. They had a meeting with Church leaders, missionaries, and members that was simulcast over the web to other congregations in the area. You can find more details on that visit here.

In the meantime, Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke yesterday in London to the All-Party Parliamentary Group at one of their meetings. Mormon Newsroom shares this story highlighting the remarks he made during that time.

As always, I continue to monitor all Church and temple developments and will pass those along to you all as I receive word 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.

Construction Updates Provided for Two Temples Currently Undergoing Renovation

Hello again, everyone! This will be one of two posts I will be publishing within the next half hour or so. I wanted to note in this post that, while no updates of which I am aware have been reported on new temples under construction, there have been developments and updates reported on the status of two of the temples currently undergoing renovation.

We start first with the Raleigh North Carolina Temple. The last time I posted an update on that temple appears to have been exactly one month ago today, at which time I noted that plywood panels were being attached to the temple's exterior. The latest information I have is that sheathing has been completed on the temple's exterior walls, and that new architectural elements are currently being framed.

The other temple for which I have an update is the one in Tokyo Japan. It was just over one month ago (on March 28) that I passed along news that the renovation process had formally begun. The commencement of that process had seen the annex building razed and surface parking removed. While that part of the status of this temple is still noted by many sources available to me, it has additionally been noted that interior renovations are now underway.

It was great to learn of these updates, and I am grateful to have been able to pass them along to you all here. I continue to monitor all such developments and will pass them along as I become aware of them in the future.

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.

BREAKING NEWS: Social Media Sites Will No Longer Be Accessible In Church Meetinghouses Starting This Month

Hello again, everyone! Breaking news from the Church today. In an effort to encourage members to place appropriate focus on Sabbath Day observance and to encourage greater attention to what is said in Church meetings, the Church has announced that, beginning in this month, many social media sites will be blocked on the Church's internet networks.

In my humble opinion, this is a move that is long overdue. I was brought up on the notion that, even as technology evolved, it was not right to use social media at Church, as that would distract both myself and those around me from the appropriate focus that should be placed on learning of the Savior, worshiping Him, and renewing the covenants made at baptism.

This is yet another example of how the Church continues to simplify things, in the hopes of allowing all members to focus on what is most important about the gospel. And I welcome and embrace this news with all my heart.

At the same time, however, it grieves me to realize that the Church would not have needed to take this step if more of the Church members had had common sense enough to put aside their participation on such social media sites.

If we really stop and think about it, the Lord requires relatively little of us. 3 hours a day for most of the 52 or 53 Sundays that are in a year is not a lot of time for which the Lord and the leaders of His Church are asking us to focus on Him and the principles of the gospel. That some people have failed to allow themselves to focus on that for such a short period of time during any given week makes me wonder if social media use and addiction thereunto may be more detrimental to the efforts the people of this Church should be making in their worship of the Savior than any other aspect.

At some point in the last few years, I made the determination that I was spending far too much time on social media. So I determined to gradually decrease the time I spent there. At this time, I am only really on social media once or twice every month or two, and I have not felt as though that is any great loss.

If anything, reducing that time, in my personal opinion, has allowed me to focus on more important things, not the least of which has been the ongoing Church and temple developments that I have read about and passed along to you all.

That is not to say that social media is not an important way to keep in touch with people. But in the "age of information", any one of us, myself included, may be in danger of over-utilizing any one of the many technological advances of this modern age.

So on that level, this is a development that, in my mind, truly is long overdue, and I welcome the opportunity we all, especially those who have been focused more on social media than on the spirit of worship that should attend what has traditionally been called "the most important three hours of the week".

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.

Update Noted for the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple; Church Provides Additional Details Regarding Planned Celebration of Priesthood Revelation

Hello again, everyone! I became aware earlier today of an update on the construction process that is currently ongoing for the Kinshasa DR Comgo Temple. Additionally, the Church has provided more information on the celebration planned for June 1 of this year, which will, as previously mentioned, mark the 40-year anniversary of the revelation which extended the priesthood to all worthy males, regardless of race or skin color. So let's get into all of that.

First, the temple update. I received word a short while ago that building efforts continue for the temple's perimeter wall, while the final roof shingles are being laid, staircases are being poured from the chapel to the temple, and that interior work is continuing to progress. This is wonderful news. In looking back into the history, the last time this temple's status was updated was exactly one week ago today.

So what can we infer from that? It may be a while before I can make a determination, but there is a possibility that I may have to rethink my estimates for future temple events yet again. If this temple continues to progress as anticipated, it may indeed be the second new one dedicated next year, rather than the Fortaleza Brazil Temple, as I have suggested. It will be interesting to see what happens in that regard.

That said, we shift our focus to the details that have been provided for the priesthood celebration event. Mormon Newsroom's official release on that subject indicates that it will be an evening of music and spoken word (which will come in the form of a message from the First Presidency; what is not so clear is if all three members will be speaking, or if just one of the three will represent the others).

As I mentioned, it is fitting and proper that the anniversary of this remarkable revelation should be celebrated. In covering our recent General Conference, I commented on the fact that it took the right group of apostles at the right time to bring about the changes we saw in the structure of Melchizedek Priesthood quorums and the retirement of home and visiting teaching in favor of ministering. And if you think about it, that applies as much if not more to the fact that our two new apostles are the first Asian American and Latin American brethren to be called, and also to the fact that temples in India and Russia will now likely be a reality so much sooner than many, myself included, believe.

In a similar manner, the records we have available for perusal talk about how the prospect of extending the priesthood to all worthy males was under consideration for years before the June 1978  announcement, and I am convinced that it took the group of apostles that we had at that time being ready to humbly ascertain and accept the will of the Lord on the subject.

All of these changes fall under the principles of common consent. The revelation on the priesthood would never have been announced, nor would any of the events that occurred during the April 2018 General Conference been possible if the current group of apostles had not been willing to study such things and determine the Lord's will.

If all of these occurrences are not sufficient evidence to the world that modern revelation has been received, is being received, and will continue to be sought and received, I have no idea what might be needed to further convince anyone on that point.

As always, I continue to monitor all developments and updates related to Church news in general, and temple developments in particular, and I will continue to do so to the best of my ability going forward. Stay tuned for more as I become aware 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.

Church Releases Official Statement Regarding Volunteers in Turkey

Hello again, everyone! Earlier today, Mormon Newsroom posted this official statement regarding volunteers in Turkey (where, due to governmental regulations, they cannot be called missionaries). This statement also goes into specifics in terms of how one of the 19 mission consolidations the Church announced will go into effect. There will most likely be a more thorough analysis on this news in the coming days on the LDS Church Growth Blog.

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.