LDS Church Growth Reddit Created; Several New Developments Reported on the LDS Church Growth Blog

Hello again, everyone! In a recent post on the LDS Church Growth Blog, Matthew Martinich announced the creation of an LDS Church Growth reddit to more fully discuss matters relating to Church growth. This will not replace the discussion threads on the blog; rather, it will give us all an opportunity to have more deep discussions on specific Church growth matters than the threads of that blog might otherwise allow.

I have started a subject covering President Nelson's temple-building plans. In the comments of that discussion, it was noted by someone (Matt himself, unless I am mistaken) that he had talked to a stake president who recently spoke to President Oaks. According to what President Oaks shared with that stake president (who relayed it to Matt), part of that plan will indeed involve an acceleration of the process of constructing temples, which will include some way in which the current backlog of 19 announced temples will begin construction fairly quickly.

The extent of those plans is unknown, but it is nice to have that at least confirmed. If that turns out to be the case, then I have no doubts whatsoever that new temples will be announced during General Conference in around a month. That said, I am still evaluating which of the four lists I referenced in this post should be the one I use for the upcoming General Conference.

In the meantime, I also wanted to share that Matt has published a number of to other new posts within the last week, all of which may be of interest to some of you here. You can find those newly-published posts here. I continue to monitor the discussions on the new reddit and new content on the LDS Church Growth Blog and will pass new developments and insights along to you which may be of interest to you all.

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.

Update Provided on Winnipeg Manitoba Temple/Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! A report of an update on the construction of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple reached me earlier today (August 24), so I wanted to pass that update along to you all, in addition to a few Church news updates. Let's get right into all of that.

First, as I mentioned previously, the Church is focusing on building the meetinghouse adjacent to that temple first, since it will need to be used prior to the temple's dedication. The report of which I became aware earlier today indicated that work on the foundation has made steady progress. I continue to monitor all temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it.

In the meantime, turning now to the news updates that have been provided, the Church News has created this page to share additional highlights from BYU-Provo's recent Campus Education Week. I have felt it would be best to let those articles speak for themselves rather than trying to summarize them here.

In other news, the Church's Primary organization (for children ages 3-11) has marked 140 years since its' inception, and this article shares some thoughts from members of the Primary General Presidency (Sisters Joy D. Jones, Lisa S. Harkness and Christina B. Franco) about what has changed and what has remained the same during the years since the organization was first established.

And the Church News also shared two articles dealing with self-reliance and the role the Church's Welfare Program has in facilitating that: this one (highlighting how that program facilitates temporal and spiritual change and this one highlighting a post on the LDS.org blog that was written by Sister Sharon Eubank, who, as you may recall, is both the First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency and the head of LDS Charities. You can find the blog post here.

Google Maps has created an interactive list showing many of the Church's temples on a world map. I say "many" because as I looked at the page for it, I found a few locations missing. But I assume that will be fixed given time. You can find more coverage on this development here. Also a  new book covering insights on controversial topics from Church history has been published. Additionally, in recognition of the fact that many people may find family history work to be boring, the Church News has shared summaries of 7 stories to pique the interest of the general public.

There was an additional Church News story which highlighted specific insights from Elder Neil L. Andersen about what he had learned each day earlier this month as he and his wife traveled with President and Sister Nelson to three Canadian cities. I had hoped to post a link to that story, but it appears to have been removed (at least temporarily) from the Church News website.

I continue to monitor ongoing news reported by the Church's official outlets and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I receive 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.

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.

President Nelson Bears "Special Witness" of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to report today an update to the ongoing series of videos entitled "Special Witnesses of Christ." As most of you are probably aware, in the year 2000, in conjunction with the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles releasing "The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles", a video series was published featuring each apostle speaking on a special subject relating to their personal witnesses of Jesus Christ.

While President Nelson was in Jerusalem as part of his "World Ministry Tour", he recorded an updated version of his personal testimony that the Church will now include in that video series. You can read more about that here (from the Church News website) and here (on the Newsroom subpage of the official Church website).

I am grateful that all our apostles unitedly and frequently share their witness of the Savior. For any who would like to review the series of videos as a whole, you can find those here. It should be noted that Elders Gong and Soares have not yet had videos of their own added to the series, but those may be forthcoming.

In the meantime, on an unrelated personal note, I wanted to reiterate here something I have said previously which bears repeating. When I post new content to this blog, I hope no one will take that as any signal from me that conversations on previous threads should end.

To the contrary, I am always willing to accept feedback on anything I have posted at any time for any reason, as long as the content of the  offered comments remains within the guidelines I have set. I hope all who read what is posted on this blog understands how much I appreciate your readership and feedback, just as I hope my thoughts and analysis of ongoing developments is helpful to you all.

As we continue to exchange thoughts and dialogue about the ongoing developments in the Lord's Church, I hope that all can be edified. That does it for this post. As noted earlier, 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 updated 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.

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.