BREAKING NEWS: Confirmation Provided That the Number of North America Areas Has Decreased From 10 to 6

Hello again, everyone! In this update provided on Mormon Newsroom, additional comments from Elders Christensen and Gerard and Sister Harkness were provided in response to today's press conference. Particularly, Elder Christensen noted that he would be sending out an e-mail to all over whom he, as area president, has stewardship.

I just read that e-mail. In signing it, Elder Christensen lists his title as "President, Utah Area", which is definitively singular. If there is only one Utah Area, that means that, by extension, the 10 North America Areas have indeed been consolidated down to 6, with the names of those areas as identified in the August Ensign.

It is good to have this confirmed, even indirectly. I will now need to update the documents I keep on area seventies to accommodate this change. 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: First President Called for Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple; Coalition Details Problems With Utah Medical Marijuana Initiative

Hello again, everyone! There is breaking news on a couple of fronts today. First, the First Presidency has announced the call of the first president for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple, who is a man that served as a mission president there, and would therefore be known to the Church members and leaders in that area.

This brings the total number of new temple presidents announced this year to 63. And the only temples I have left on my list of those that may get a new president are the Fortaleza Brazil and (possibly) Lisbon Portugal Temples (for which the first presidents would be called), and two for the operating temples in Veracruz Mexico and (possibly) Washington DC, though it may be that the Church will wait to make the call of the latter until the renovation process is finished in 2020.

That said, the bigger news is that the Church has joined a coalition of medical professionals, friends of other faiths, and many other individuals who had previously used medical cannabis at a press conference to share some concerns about the wording of the current initiative that will go before Utah voters this November. As some of you may recall, the Church provided this statement in May regarding the same concerns about the current wording for which the coalition held the press conference today.

I know that there may be many who would benefit from legalized medical cannabis here in Utah, and I would not personally want to hinder that occurring. At the same time, given the concerns raised by both the Church in general and the coalition in particular, it is plain that the initiative in question as currently worded is problematic, and for that reason, I trust those expressed opinions enough that I will be voting "no" on that initiative this November.

But there was a bigger takeaway for me than that out of this press conference. With the coalition having invited Church leadership to participate and share some remarks, the Church asked Elder Jack N. Gerard to represent them there. As I mentioned previously, he serves as the Executive Director of the Church Public Affairs Committee. Accompanying him at this event were Sister Lisa L. Harkness, First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, and Elder Craig C. Christensen, to whom Elder Gerard referred as "president of the Utah area", which is a singular term.

As I mentioned previously, there has been some confusion lately in terms of whether there are 6 or 10 North America Areas with the changes that have been announced recently. Unless Elder Gerard misspoke, then perhaps this means that there are only 6 areas in North America now. I have reached out to the Church about this matter and, as far as I know, I have not heard a response as of yet. But if and when I do, I will pass that information along. In the meantime, the material that has been provided by the Church related to today's press conference held by the coalition can be found here

I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will do my level best to bring word of those to you as I become aware of such things. 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.

Exploring the Question of How Thorough I Should Be With My List of Temple Prospects for October

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post officially here regarding something I have been going back-and-forth on, and about which I could use some feedback. So this post will address all of that. In this July 1 post, I shared my initial list of most likely temple prospects for the October 2018 General Conference.

Following my analysis of the feedback presented in the comments on that post, I offered this list of additional prospective locations that could also have a temple announced in October. After further analysis of the comments on that list, I added most of those locations to the original list, and published the brand new list of combined prospects in this post, which I shared almost two weeks ago.

This leads me to the question I wanted to ask, and why I would like feedback on it. As we know,  more mentions have been recently made lately about how President Nelson's temple-building legacy will outpace and overshadow that which we saw previously during President Hinckley's temple-building revelation that culminated in the rapid increase in the number of operating temples during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

While we don't know the extent of those plans, it may be safe to assume that we are entering another unprecedented era of temple developments. With that in mind, on the one hand, I don't want to go too far overboard in terms of the most imminently likely prospective locations that may have a temple announced in October. But on the other hand, I have been asking myself how many temple locations are too many.

For that reason, in addition to the three resources I have provided above, I wanted to also provide here a list of refined locations I have ready in case I do need to slim down the list to its' bare minimum. Here is that list:

October 2018 General Conference Temple Locations Predictions (slimmed down to the most imminently likely)

Africa & Europe: Freetown Sierra Leone; Antananarivo Madagascar; Praia Cape Verde; Monrovia Liberia; Maputo Mozambique; Budapest Hungary; Kumasi Ghana/Lagos Nigeria

Latin America (includes Brazil, Central America, Mexico, and South America): San Pedro Sula Honduras/Senahu or 2^nd Guatemala City Guatemala; Salvador/Belo Horizonte Brazil; Santa Cruz/La Paz Bolivia; Puebla Mexico; Ciudad del Este Paraguay

Oceania (includes Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Philippines): Port Moresby Papua New Guinea; Auckland New Zealand; Davao Philippines; Pago Pago American Samoa

United States: Missoula Montana; Bentonville Arkansas; Green Bay Wisconsin; Herriman Utah; Des Moines Iowa; Montpelier Vermont; Las Cruces New Mexico; Jacksonville Florida; Jackson Mississippi; Elko/Ely Nevada

Having provided this additional list, I wanted to get some feedback. Which of those four lists seems to be the best version? How extensive should this list be? And regarding whichever of the lists any of you favor, is there anything I need to change in terms of eliminating or adding any prospects? It is now your turn to "sound off" in the comments below. Your feedback is always welcome and appreciated whenever and on whatever subject it is offered.

That does it for this post. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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 News Update: Part Two--Other News Items

Hello again, everyone! I am back as promised, to pass along additional Church news updates. Let's get right into it all. We start with a look at the keynote address given earlier today by Sister Joy D. Jones, Primary General President, at the annual BYU-Provo Education Week. She spoke of how enticement goes "both ways" and also covered some thoughts about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ serves as a "practical guide to happiness".

Next, as most of you are probably aware, today would have been President Monson's 91st birthday if he were still with us. This article was written in honor of his many decades of service in Church leadership. 

Meanwhile, in two other "history revisited" articles, it has been announced that over 7,000 pages of Wilford Woodruff's meticulously-kept journals are now available for public viewership online, while retired Church News editor Gerry Avant continued her retrospective look back at her career with this article highlighting how she accompanied President Spencer W. and Sister Camilla E. Kimball in a visit to historical Church sites in Illinois, which included a bakery and Carthage Jail.

And in this article, which focuses on a Church-owned farm in Montana, the farm in question is referred to as "holy ground". I have previously referenced the fact that a temple was publicly proposed for the city of Missoula by Elder David A. Bednar sometime during 2016, and how I confirmed through my own study and feedback from others that land is being held in reserve for such a prospect. While the Montana farm's location (in Geraldine) is over 200 miles from Missoula, it is not hard to believe that a similar "sacred spot" of land will mark the spot of a temple in Missoula when the time is right.

The Church News also shared 3 responses to the question of what the single members of the Church bring to the Church and how such members can be better utilized, along with another "History Revisited" article article about how, in the early days of the Church, Sidney Rigdon's acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ led to him losing his job as a minister. 

And 4 days ago, the Church continued their series "This Week on Social", which shared comments from several members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on subjects such as learning from the living prophet, resurrection, and revelation, which you can read more about here. There was also this story about an Australian medical student (and member of the Church) whose membership has blessed her in her life, career, and progression, and this one highlighting remarks given by Elder Brent H. Nielson, who serves as the Executive Director of the Church's Missionary Department. Those remarks were given during BYU-Provo commencement exercises earlier this month.

That is all the updated Church News I wanted to post here for now, so that does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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 News Update: Part One--President and Sister Nelson Visit 3 Canadian Cities

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to be able to post again right now to share some interesting and inspiring Church news which has been reported via the official Church website (lds.org), the official newsroom of the Church (which, for now, is still called Mormon Newsroom) and the LDS Church News (which has not yet been renamed yet either). We start with the Church News website, then will move on the other two resources. And if, on rare occasions, the stories are covered via more than one of those resources, I will note that.

We start right off the bat with one of those stories. This article shares some highlights of President Russell M. and Sister Wendy W. Nelson's recent visit to Canada. They were accompanied by Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Kathy, and, for the final two meetings of the trip, by Elder Randall K. Bennett and his wife Shelley. Elder Bennett, as some of you may recall, is now serving as president of the North America Northeast Area.

The article referenced above mentions one of the members in attendance at one of those meetings, who was preparing to undergo heart surgery shortly after President Nelson became the Lord's prophet in January of this year. This member reported feeling uneasy about her upcoming procedure, until her research reminded her that the machine that would keep her alive during the procedure had been originally invented by then-Doctor Nelson during his days as a heart surgeon. This strengthened her faith in both the safety of the procedure she was about to undergo and her testimony that President Nelson is truly God's prophet on the earth today.

President Nelson joked that he could be making several Canadian trips because his wife was born in that nation, but noted that he chose that area because those short trips could be easily planned by his staff while he worked on pressing matters relating to the Church and the upcoming General Conference in October. Interestingly, Elder Bennett also grew up in Canada and recalls listening to Church leaders on the radio as he grew up.

The Nelson's trip also coincided with several youth conferences, so the youth in attendance at those devotionals were able to cap off their participation by attending the devotionals President Nelson held. A common theme of the devotionals was following the prophet, with most offering their personal witness of President Nelson's prophetic call. Elder Andersen's remarks expanded on that subject as he shared further insights into his experience meeting with the other apostles and feeling the confirmation that President Nelson was meant to serve as the Lord's prophet at this time.

Sister Nelson, meanwhile, reiterated how much more frequently President Nelson receives revelation since his new assignment began, and spoke particularly of how she received quiet assurance that his new role was directed by the Lord, with that confirmation coming two days before President Monson's passing, when most of the top Church leadership knew that prospect was imminent. Presdient Nelson focused his remarks on the need Saints in Winnipeg had to be prepared for the temple that is currently under construction in that city.

In the meantime, his remarks in Montreal and Hamilton focused, as previously noted, on the circumstances surrounding the release of the statement he made about the importance of using the Church's correct name. His remarks also focused on the "10 things [he] knows for sure" and, in speaking to children, emphasizing the fact that we are all children of God. He spoke in a couple of locations about the gathering of Israel as well, in addition to touching on the subject of diversity in the Church, and particularly the diversity of the Saints in Canada.

You can find out more about the highlights of teachings shared by President Nelson during this trip in this article (which focuses on his addresses given in Eastern and Central Canada) and this article (which contains a summary of his comments about his statement related to the name of the Church.

I had hoped to cover more Church news than just one story in this post, but will have to split the original content into at least one other post, which I will have published here later today. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.