Several Church News Items Reported

Hello again, everyone! Several Church news items have been reported within the last 72 hours or so. Given the nature of their importance and significance, I wanted to share them with you all here now. So let's get right into it all. First, and most importantly, the URL for the Church's official Newsroom and all its' subpages (including articles on the main page and at least some of the international newsroom sites) has officially been moved to the new URL that Church leaders previously referenced. I cannot say that all country Newsroom sites have experienced the same exact changes, but if any of those contry sites retain the present URL, they are on track to get those changes made in the days and weeks ahead.

Next, I wanted to mention that many of the foreign language Newsrooms have offered an increasing number of reports on the ministry of Church leaders in several of those locations. It particularly appears that many of our apostles have been outside the United States in recent days and weeks, and I'd encourage any who are interested in such reports to check them out on the individual Newsrooms. For those of us who have trouble reading material that was not originally in our native languages, in most web browsers, the option to translate such pages into the languages we use will be presented upon navigating to those pages.

Having said that, I wanted to focus my first set of shared articles from the main English Newsroom. The highlights include that the entire First Presidency, in company with Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who is our apostle with Asian ancestry, welcomed a delegation from Vietnam's Committee for Religious Affairs, and they discussed, among other things, how the Church and the Committee can streamline efforts to enable the gospel to spread through Vietnam. With the Church having obtained official recognition from that nation roughly 3 years or so ago, it is good to see those cooperative efforts continuing and expanding.

And Elder Quentin L. Cook, also of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was recently in Jerusalem, where he spoke to a gathering of Latter-day Saints and Jewish leaders, where he encouraged interfaith listening and learning, Elder D. Todd Christofferson was in West Africa recently, during which government leaders praised the Church's focus on family and humanitarian work, while it has also been reported that Church members in New Zealand and elsewhere in the world have been  involved in projects to help in the aftermath of the mosque shooting in Christchurch New Zealand.

Meanwhile, on the official website for Church News and Events page, the details of the November Face-to-Face event for children and youth ages 3-17, their teachers, their leaders, and their parents, which will feature Elder Gong and the entire Primary, Young Men, and Young Women General Presidencies. We now turn in conclusion to a few Church News articles that have been published recently, which include articles highlighting how 3 Latter-day Saint female athletes are living and sharing their faith while at universities that are not predominantly made up of Latter-day Saints.

Also, Sister Reyna I. Aubrto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, spoke at this week's BYU-Idaho devotional, while Sisters Lisa L. Harkness, First Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, and Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President, spoke to the Church News about their recent ministry tour through several nations within the Africa Southeast Area.  The Church News also shared recollections from Hugh B. Brown, who served in WWII, and would subsequently serve as an apostle and, for a time, as a member of the First Presidency, as the world celebrated the 75th anniversary of D-day.

Additionally, the proprietors of an art-glass studio based in Lehi, Utah, have spoken to the Church News about how contributing to temple construction has had a positive influence in their lives and on the success of their business. I was pleased to be able to bring these updates to you all here today. I will continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will keep doing my level best to bring word of those to you all as I receive it.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Full-Scale Construction Efforts Underway on Quito Ecuador Temple

Hello again, everyone! I have some breaking temple news to report. New information of which I was made aware today indicates that full-scale construction efforts are now underway on the Quito Ecuador Temple. The latest update I have on that temple is that construction equipment is on site, that the outline of the temple has been marked, and that excavation is now underway for the footings and foundation of that temple.

It is wonderful to hear of these developments, especially since the groundbreaking for that temple occurred less than a month ago. With construction having commenced, some sources from which I gather the bulk of the temple information which I share here have indicated that construction on the Quito Ecuador Temple is now anticipated to wrap up sometime during 2021, which puts its' completion after that of the Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, and San Juan Puerto Rico Temples, but prior to that of the Pocatello Idaho and Urdaneta Philippines Temples.

And based on my own analysis, I am confident enough to offer a more specific completion estimate of mid-to-late 2021 for that temple. Given that within the last couple of weeks, we have seen this temple and the Bangkok Thailand Temple finally get out of their "full-scale construction pending" status, it is my hope that we will soon see full scale work get underway for the Yigo, Praia, and San Juan Temples, although how quickly that may occur could be anyone's guess.

With that said, I did want to note that the groundbreaking ceremony for the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple will be held two days from now. And additionally, an update has also crossed my radar relating to the renovation process for the Washington D.C. Temple, where work has progressed on both the temple's interior and exterior. Aside from these updates, I wanted to also note that I am still hoping that another announced temple or two may have its' groundbreaking arrangements announced within the next week or two.

And I also wanted to mention as well that President Russell M. Nelson, his wife, Wendy W. Nelson, and Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Harriet R. Uchtdorf, are preparing to visit Orlando Florida, where they will speak at an evening devotional this weekend. The Church News has published an article on how a Disney show director has been given the opportunity to prepare the Amway Center for that devotional this weekend.

I have other Church news stories to report, but will defer that for the moment. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Possible New Name for Yuba City California Temple

Hello again, everyone! One or two of the sources to which I turn for temple information have noted a potential name change for the Yuba City California Temple. If the sources are right, that temple will now be known as the Feather River California Temple. What verification I presently have about this can be found here (via the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site) and here (on the subpage for announced temples from the official Church website). I don't yet have an official source noting that this change will stick, but will be on the lookout for one and will pass that along as I find it.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

Fortaleza Brazil Temple Dedicated As the 164th In Operation Worldwide

Hello again, everyone! This will just be a quick post to pass along what verification I have relating to the dedication of the Fortaleza Brazil Temple earlier today by Elder Ulisses Soares, our native Brazilian apostle. First, the Brazilian Newsroom on the Church's official website shared an article describing how Elder Soares, accompanied by the Brazil Area Presidency (Elders Marcos A. Aidukaitis, W. Mark Basset, and Adilson de Paula Parrella) met with several Brazilian journalists to discuss the history of the Church in Brazil, and to describe the purpose and significance of temples and the role that worship therein plays for members of the Church around the world.

That meeting with journalists was 1 of the 4 total meetings presided over by Elder Soares, excluding the temple dedication. The other 3 were with missionaries, pioneering members of the Church in Brazil, and with the Brazilian Saints (particularly the youth) for a devotional last night. Elder Soares took time to reminisce about his family's conversion to the Church, how his parents and many of his siblings were sealed in the temple while he was on his full-time mission, and how he was given permission to join other missionaries and their families (including his own) at the temple so the missionaries could receive their own endowments and also be sealed to their family members.

In presiding over the dedicatory services for the temple, Elder Soares became the first non-American apostle to dedicate a temple in his home country. The dedicatory sessions were also significant because they marked the first time all three sessions of the dedication for a new temple were conducted entirely in a language other than English (with sessions being conducted from beginning to end in their entirety in Portuguese). Elder Soares choked with emotion as he spoke of the honor he felt in having been assigned by President Nelson to personally preside at this event.

This was only the third temple dedication in which the dedicatory prayer was offered in a language other than English. The first was the September 2016 rededication for the Freiberg Germany Temple by then-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, and the second was in April when Elder Dale G. Renlund gave the dedicatory prayer for the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple in French.  And all who participated with Elder Soares were fluent in Portuguese.

Fellow Brazilians Elder Carlos A. Godoy, who serves in the Presidency of the Seventy, was there with his wife,, as were Elders Aidiukaitis and de Paula Parrella. The only non-native Brazilian leaders in attendance were Elders W. Mark Bassett, who learned Portuguese as a result of his full-time missionary service in Guatemala, and Elder Larry Y. Wilson, who serves as the Exectuive Director of the Temple Department, having served a full-time mission in Brazil.

And the temple dedication was significant to Elder Soares for another reason: he had had a major first-hand role in finding the site on which the temple was ultimately built. The traditional cornerstone ceremony was conducted by Elder Soares at the beginning of the first session, and in addition to other Church leaders who joined him in placing mortar were several children in the congregation, in addition to some of the pioneering members of the Church in Brazil. I am grateful to have been able to find this report and bring it to you here.

I am hoping that within the next 12 hours or less, subsequent reports on this weekend's dedicatory events will be shared on both the main Newsroom and the Brazilian edition of that same page. Once I have those reports, I will be sure to pass them along here. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines.

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.

Tribute to President Henry B. Eyring on His 86th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! I am back now to pay tribute to President Henry B. Eyring, who is celebrating his 86th birthday today. There is a lot to discuss about his life, so let's get right into it. Henry Bennion Eyring was born on May 31, 1933, in Princeton New Jersey, to well-known physicist Henry Eyring and Mildred Bennion. As I previously noted, his father's sister, Camilla Eyring, married Spencer W. Kimball, while his father's first cousin was Marion G. Romney. Young "Hal", as he was known, was a very good student.

At one point, his father was explaining a scientific concept to him when he noted that Hal seemed to not be interested in it. He asked his son what he thought about when he had nothing else to consider, and told him that he should pursue that subject. This led young Hal to an eventual career as an educator and academic administrator. His family would later relocate from New Jersey to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Although he did not serve a full-time mission, he was an active member of the U. S. Air Force, and was stationed in New Mexico, where he served as a liaison between military officers and scientists, where he was responsible for analyzing data from tests done on nuclear weapons. Prior to his military service, he had earned a degree in physics from the University of Utah. He also studied at Harvard, where he eventually earned both a masters' and doctoral degrees in Business Administration.

While he was highly sought after by business owners who admired his analytical work, he chose to continue to pursue his education. In the meantime, it was not until 1960 (when Hal was 26 or 27 and serving in a district presidency) that he met Kathleen Johnson at a YSA meeting in New Hampshire. She was born in Palo Alto California, and had studied at Stanford before coming to Harvard. She also spent some time studying at the Universities of Vienna and Paris.

Because Hal was serving as a counselor in the district presidency, his district president (Wilbur Cox) adjusted his assignments to accommodate his desire to date Kathleen. They dated over that summer, and continued their courtship long-distance, with Kathleen making several cross-country trips prior to their engagement in the early months of 1961.They continued their courtship for the next year or so, until they were married in the Logan Utah Temple on July 27, 1962, by which time Hal was 29 years old.


Their marriage was solemnized by his uncle, then-Elder Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  Their family would eventually include six children (four sons and two daughters). Two of their sons are Henry J. Eyring (who current serves as president of BYU-Idaho and as an area seventy) and Matthew J. Eyring (who is a Chief Strategy Innovation Officer with Vivint, a company specializing in home automation, and he also served previously as an area seventy.).

Hal eventually became a professor at Stanford University. He continued his career as an associate professor at the Stanford School of Business for 9 years (between 1972 and 1981), and went on to be a Sloan Visiting Faculty Fellow at MIT, during which time he also took courses in human behavior. Sometime between late 1970 and early 1971, his wife asked him if he shouldn't be studying with Neal A. Maxwell, who was serving at that time as Commissioner of Church Education.

After considering her question and following a lot of reflection, Hal accepted an offer to become president of Ricks College. Although other job offers came his way during his 6 year tenure at the college, he continued to serve until his release in 1977.. His previous Church callings included being a bishop, serving as a member of the Sunday School General Board, and as a regional representative.

In 1980, Hal was called to serve as the Commissioner of Church Education, succeeding Jeffrey R. Holland. He would continue to serve in that capacity until 1986. When the Church reorganized the Presiding Bishopric in April 1985, Robert D. Hales was called as the new Presiding Bishop, and he recommended that Hal serve as his First Counselor. After serving in that capacity for 7.5 years, he was called in October 1992 to serve as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. When he began his new assignment, he was called for a second time to seerve as the Commissioner of Church Education, an assignment in which he would continue until 2004.

Following the passing of Church president Howard W. Hunter and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency in March 1995, new Church president Gordon B. Hinckley called Elder Eyring to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 12.5 years later, following the death of President James E. Faust, who had served as Second Counselor to President Hinckley, Elder Eyring was invited to join Presidents Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson in the First Presidency.

The way that came about is an interesting story. Elder Eyring had taken the phone call from President Hinckley and had heard his invitation to join the First Presidency, but because he had occasionally taken calls on the Church's phone system that were meant for some of his apostolic colleagues, he asked President Hinckley if he was sure he was talking to the right person. "This is Hal Eyring." he said. President Hinckley quickly responded, "I know who this is."

Thus it was that the first apostle appointed during President Hinckley's administration was called to serve in the First Presidency for an almost four-month period prior to President Hinckley's passing. When the First Presidency was reorganized, new Church president Thomas S. Monson called President Eyring to continue serving in the First Presidency, this time as his First Counselor. While in that capacity, President Eyring has dedicated 8 temples (San Salvador El Salvador, Gilbert Arizona, Payson Utah, Indianapolis Indiana, Philadelphia Pennsylvania (for which he had also presided at the groundbreaking), Hartford Connecticut, Paris France, and Cedar City Utah).

The dedication of the Gilbert Arizona Temple was an interesting anomaly. Although President Monson presided at all three sessions, he requested that President Eyring read the prayer during the first session, so that was one recent example of how the dedication duties were shared by two apostles. President Eyring also rededicated seven temples (Ogden Utah, Buenos Aires Argentina Mexico City Mexico, Montreal Quebec, Suva Fiji, Idaho Falls Idaho, and Jordan River Utah Temple). The Ogden Utah Temple rededication is another interesting case. President Eyring conducted all three sessions and presided at the final two sessions, in which he also offered the dedicatory prayer, with President Monson having presided at and offering the dedicatory prayer in the first session.

As we also know, around two years ago (on May 23, 2017), the Church announced that President Monson would be stepping back from an active role in the day-to-day administration of the Church. When that occurred, Presidents Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf assumed oversight of all decisions except for those requiring the prophet's approval. Following President Monson's passing last year on January 2, the First Presidency was reorganized on January 14, at which time President Eyring was called to continue his service in the First Presidency, and is serving as Second Counselor a second time, working with Church President Russell M. Nelson and his First Counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks. For the last several years, President Eyring's wife has been in ill health, and he has done a wonderful job of balancing his responsibilities in the First Presidency with his role being his wife's caregiver.


Because President Eyring has a familial connection to both Presidents Spencer W. Kimball and Marion G. Romney, who were involved in the 1981 dedication of the Jordan River Utah Temple, President Nelson asked President Eyring to preside over its' recent rededication on May 20 of this year. As noted in an earlier post, President Eyring drew heavily on the original dedicatory prayer in composing the rededicatory prayer for that temple. He went on this year to preside over the one-session private rededication for the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple, since he has ancestral connections to that temple.

Although he is now 86 years old, by all accounts, he continues to be in good health. His lifelong legacy of education and service is an inspiration to all. I had the opportunity to attend a stake conference around 12 years or so ago, over which then-Elder Eyring presided. His message to us at that time focused on unity. It is a message he has since shared repeatedly in several General Conference addresses, a focus that has since been adopted by the current First Presidency, with multiple efforts underway to unify the Church on a global scale and to streamline and standardize policies and procedures.

That message of unity was particularly poignant during the October 2017 General Conference, when he was the presiding authority, his messages highlighted the important concept that the Lord is at the helm of His work, and that, regardless of the health of His chosen prophet, He continues to move the work forward. To date, President Eyring has given a total of 98 addresses in General Conference, all but 5 of which have been given since his call to the apostleship in April 1995. You can find and review any of those inspirational addresses here.

I am grateful for the life, ministry, and service of this amazing man, whom I sustain with all my heart, and for the opportunity I have had in this small way to pay tribute to him on this, his 86th birthday. That does if for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.