BREAKING NEWS: Church Postpones April 2020 General Conference Leadership Meetings; Issues Guidelines for General Conference

Hello again, everyone! I posted a few different times in the last few days that I didn't know how or if General Conference would be impacted by the coronavirus. The Newsroom recently published guidelines and recommendations for the upcoming April 2020 General Conference. First and most notably, the leadership sessions for General Conference that have typically been held prior to each April's General Conference will now be postponed until the week before the October 2020 General Conference. Further, General Authority Seventies and Area Seventies serving outside the United States are being formally excused from attending General Conference, which means that I will have to take that into account with my revised predictions for this General Conference. And for Church members outside the United States, the First Presidency is encouraging them to not travel to Utah for General Conference weekend. The statement specifically notes: "This postponement applies only to pre-conference leadership meetings. Present plans call for the general sessions of the April 2020 conference to be held as previously announced."

The First Presidency ends the announcement with this statement: "We are grateful that all members who do not travel to Salt Lake City will be able to view the proceedings of April general conference through technology. With great compassion, we pray for all whose lives have been affected by this illness." So this would seem to settle the question of General Conference: those who are here in the United n and who have not been impacted by the virus will attend General Conference, while any General Authorities, Area Seventies, or other Church leaders and members who are serving outside the United States will be excused from doing so.

So that's the latest official information on General Conference, which of course preempts any information, analysis, or reasoning I may have previously offered. The work truly is moving forward at an accelerated pace, and I am grateful to see that process continuing to unfold.That does it for now. 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: Open House and Dediation Dates Announced for the Washington D.C. Temple

Hello again, everyone! Just after 8:00 AM Utah time this morning, as anticipated, the open house and rededication dates were announced for the Washington D.C. Temple. I was blessed to have been able to read about these details not long after they were reported, but I was not able to post my analysis on this announcement until now. Right out of the gate, I will say that some elements of the announcement were unexpectted to me. First of all, by all reports, the open house was going to be on the more lengthy side, lasting at least a month or two, with the rededication anticipated over a few days or perhaps even as long as a week. So I had anticipated that being the case. What I didn't anticipate is that the open house would be held from September 24-October 31 (with the exception of September 27, October 3-4 (General Conference weekend), and October 11, 18, and 25, spanning roughly 4 weeks in total (when the days on which tours will not be available are not included in that count). Next, I wanted to note that it does make sense to me that, following the conclusion of the open house tours, the Church would need sufficient time to do a final clethaning process on that larger temple before its' rededication. So the fact that there will be more than a month between the end of the open house and its' rededication is not too surprising. But another surprise to me was the fact that the rededication itself would only involve 3 sessions on a single day, Sunday December 13. I had been sure that the rededication would span at least 3 days, and that at least 8 sessions would be held. The release also noted that a media tour day would be available on September 15, with VIP tours taking place September 16-23. Additional details will, according to the release, be shared closer to the time of this temple's open house and rededication.

I am assuming that those details will involve information about a youth devotional, among other developments. I don't know who might be sent to rededicate that temple, but I imagine that it could be President Nelson, or perhaps Elder D. Todd Christofferson, who has ties to DC, having been the law clerk to John J. Sirica, the judge who presided over the Watergate trials that eventually led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon. I will also be interested to see how the timing of this temple's open house and dedication might impact the timing of the dedication of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, and also the possible windows within which the Tokyo Japan and Mesa Arizona Temples might be rededicated. It appears that the window for the former is still anticipated to be late 2020, while the window for the latter two has shifted to late 2020-early 2021. I will have to reevaluate my estimates for known temple estimates yet again.

In the meantime, given yesterday's announcement of the rendering for the Brasilia Brazil Temple, I am hopeful more official information may be coming down the pike soon for the Nairobi Kenya and Harare Zimbabwe Temples. And given what I know currently, I believe more information may also be forthcoming on the San Pedro Sula Honduras, Coban Guatemala, Managua Nicaragua, and Orem Utah Temples, among others. On an ongoing basis, I am also monitoring all major Church news and other temple developments, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things. As time and circumstances allow, I am also working as quickly as I can on the revisions to my April 2020 General Conference predictions, and I hope to have something published in relation to those predictions by no later than Monday.

That does it for now. 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: Brasilia Brazil Temple Rendering Released

Hello again, everyone! Courtesy of a comment from Eric S., a long-time reader of this blog who also comments fairly regularly, I am pleased to note that the Church has released the rendering for the Brasilia Brazil Temple. The official announcement sharing this information notes that project leaders will begin working with government officials in that city in the coming months to obtain the necessary approvals. But I am confident enough in the information from the release in question to venture an estimate that the groundbreaking for this temple will take place during the mid-to-latter part of this year, and based on a cursory analysis of the rendering, I'd venture a guess that construction on this temple might take anywhere from 2.5-3.5 years to complete, which would enable it to be dedicated in 2023 or 2024. This leaves just two of the temples originally announced by President Monson which have not yet had any official information announced, and I have no doubt that will change in the future. I am cautiously optimistic that, aside from today's announcement, and the anticipated announcement tomorrow of the open house and rededication information for the Washington D.C. Temple, that there could be at least 3 other major temple-related announcements made between now and the weekend of the April 2020 General Conference.

And in reference to that conference, a couple other notes: First, discussion has recently occurred on the threads of posts on the Church Growth Blog about whether the coronavirus outbreak that is currently devastating the world will impact either or both the April 2020 General Conference plans and the Summer 2020 Olympic games that will be held in Tokyo Japan. Unless I am very much mistaken about the information that was provided on both subjects through the KSL newscasts this evening, both events are, as of right now, anticipated to be held as scheduled. Time could change either or both, but that's where things stand in that regard at this moment, based on information reported by KSL earlier today. I continue to work as I can on my adjustments to my April 2020 General Conference predictions, in addition to monitoring all Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things.

And since it was due to the aforementioned comment on a previous post that I found out the information about the Brasilia Brazil Temple rendering, if any of you know of anything I may have missed, please do let me and the rest of my readers know via your comments on posts such as this one. That does it for now. Any and all comment 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 NEWS: Church Handbook Released; New Church Wi-fi Netowrk Specifics Announced

Hello again, everyone! As I mentioned in a comment earlier today, the Newsroom released new information about the one-volume new handbook for Church members, which included an official letter from the First Presidency that provided details about the changes, along with a list of FAQs. The Church News provided additional context and further resources. I took some time earlier today to review much of the new handbook, and it is well worthy of your time and attention. If that were the only development for which I was posting now to reiterate its' significance, that would be reason enough for a new post here, but in the hours since the new handbook was released, another Church nrws article announced that the Church will also be implementing a new wifi network. The previous network name "LDSAccess", will be retired in response to President Nelson's reemphasis on the correct name of the Church. Meetinghouse networks can now be accessed under the name "Liahona", which comes from the Book of Mormon tool given to Lehi's family that gave them direction from the Lord as they gave heed to it.

This change is appropriate in my mind because worship in Church meetinghouses should rightly be focused on the way in which such instruction guides us in our daily walks of life during the week. Although the "LDSAccess" network will be available for usage in meetinghouses through April 15 of this year, Church leaders and members are being encouraged to immediately begin using the "Liahona" wifi network instead. I am grateful that, whenever there has been any doubt about whether or not a change should be made to Churchwide names or resources, there has always been a preference towards making such changes. Eliminating the wifi network with "LDS" in the name appears to be a commonsense move. And I am grateful to see the many ways media outlets and other organizations have made themselves compliant with President Nelson's efforts to ensure the correct name of the Church is more commonly utilized.

I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all here as I become aware of such things. That does it for now. 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.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Statistics

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to take the chance now to provide the latest apostolic statistics. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to do so is to provide shareable links to those updates, so that anyone with those links can read them in their current forms. And that will also eliminate the need to publish two posts for this update. The updated data comprises two parts, the first and the second. The information largely speaks for itself. One other unrelated thought: given the time difference between Utah and Durban South Africa, it is now 7:25 PM Durban time on this February 16, 2020, so the last of the 3 dedicatory sessions for the temple in that city has almost certainly wrapped up, or will do so very soon. I will, of course, pass along subsequent reports on that event, along with any additional Church news or temple developments, as I become aware of such things. That does it for now. 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.