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Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Custom Search Engine Added

Hello again, everyone! I just wanted to post briefly again today to announce that I have added a new custom search engine for this blog, which I hope will allow any of you who are interested to find more information yourselves on the developments which I continue to cover in various ways here on this blog. Hopefully it will be a good addition to this blog. Please be sure to let me know if you have any feedback for me on this development, or any other I have covered or will yet cover on this blog. 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 stalbished guideline. Thank you for the privilebe of your time. If you would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe for updates. 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: Church Postpones Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple Open House and Dedication

Hello again, everyone! Out of an abundance of caution while COVID-19 still has widespread impact,, the Church today postponed the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple open house and dedication indefinitely, until whenever the crisis passes, or, more particularly, whenever the Brazilian government determines that larger gatherings, as would be present for an open house and dedication, can be safely held. Time will tell what effect COVID-19 might have on the previously-arranged groundbreakings for temples in various locations, or if the opening dates for the Washington DC Temple may also be changed as a result of this crisis. There will be more to come from the Church in the days ahead, of that I am certain. 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.

Thursday, March 12, 2020

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Official Rendering Released and Groundbreaking Announced for the Auckland New Zealand Temple

Hello again, everyone! While I was posting the COVID-19 updates from the Church on the threads of the previous post, breaking temple news was also reported by the Newsroom. The official rendering has been released and the groundbreaking has been set for the Auckland New Zealand Temple. The groundbreaking for New Zealand's next temple will occur on Saturday June 13, 2020. Elder Ian S. Ardern, the president of the Church's Pacific Area (who happens to be a native of New Zealand)the, will preside thereat. This brings the total number of groundbreakings scheduled between General Conference and the end of June to 4 so far.
The AUckland New Zealand Temple now becomes the fourth of those originally announced in October 2018 to have a groundbreaking within the last 18 months or less, and he timing for this event was sooner than I anticipated, since I had offered a general window of mid-to-late 2020 for that. But this news gives me hope that other temple groundbreakings (including perhaps the Orem and Taylorsville Utah Temples and at least 2 of the 3 most-recently-announced temples in Central America) could potentially have their groundbreakings prior to the annual July recess for the General Authorities of the Church. In the meantime, given the exterior rendering that has been released and what President Nelson said when he announced that temple's site less than a year ago (in mid-May 2019), I am anticipating the temple will take around 2-3 years to construct, which would mean its' construction could wrap up during late 2022-early 2023. But that estimate is subject to confirmation or denial by the Church based on the consistency and speed at which construction progresses.

This has been an exciting few days, and there will likely be much more to come. To the best of my ability, I wil attempt to stay on top of it all. 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.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Tweaks Guidelines for the April 2020 General Conference, Missionary Training, and Other Larger Gatherings

Hello again, everyone! Around half an hour ago, I received a breaking news alert on my phone from the Church News, wherein a new article indicated that 3 changes are being implemented effective immediately by the First Presidency in the wake of the ongoing worldwide spread of COVID-19. Those changes were further detailed in 3 official news releases published on the Newsroom website at around the same time. Let's look at those one-by-one. The first change will impact the April 2020 General Conference. With all five sessions thereof originating from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City (which should put rumors to rest about the conference being held in other locations), attendance at the Conference Center will be limited to participants only, including General Authorities and General Officers of the Church, the choirs that will be performing thereat, and the technicians and specialists required to help trasmit and translate the conference. The second announcement relates to missionary work. In order to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19, all missionaries who would otherwise have been trained in the MTCs in Provo Utah and Preston England will instead be trained remotely before flying out from their nations of residence to their fields of labor. This change also applies to missionaries from areas where there are a high number of cases of COVID-19. And the final adjustment will pertain to large gatherings of Church members in the following specific areas of the Church: Asia, Asia North, Europe, Europe East, and the 6 areas in the United States and Canada. In those areas of the Church all stake or large leadership gatherings  that would otherwise have been held are postponed out of an abundance of caution regarding the potential spread of COVID-19. For each of the other  11 (soon to be 12) areas of the Church, members and leaders are being counseled to follow directions received from the area presidencies.  In the meantime, for weekly worship servicesand and other meetings or activities that would have been held, local leaders will be tasked with making decisions on that on a case-by-case basis, as a result of what is determined through the lines of authority. The interesting thing that struck me about all of these announcements (aside from the fact that these three major developments were reported simultaneously) is that each of the letters outlining these changes were published in full via the official Newsroom of the Church. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that 3 letters have been simultaneously sent out and reported via the Newsroom website, rather than merely showing up in members' e-mail inboxes or on the Church's repository website for official communications. Aside from that analysis of these developments, I want to acknwoledge that it is wonderful to see Church leaders making these adjustments due to the changing asse\ssments and recommendations about COVID-19 from health and government officials.

These official announcements also all serve as corrections and clarifications to anything I have previously shared on this subject, since the determinations of the leading quorums of the Church as inspired by the Lord trump my own wisdom and analysis at any time.t These appear to be very common-sense adjustments allowing the utilization of technology to a greater degree to further the work of the Lord in the midst of the ongoing global scope and increasing threat posed by COVID-19.  That said, it is also important to note that, according to recommendations made by several doctors familiar with infectious diseases, there is no call at this time for widespread panic or mass hysteria in response to the virus. As long as proper precautions are being taken on all of the right fronts, and as long as Church members are prepared for how COVID-19 might impact individuals, families, and congregations, and as long as health officials indicate this is the case, there is no need at this time to be unduly concerned or troubled. Any further adjustments will be made based on recommednations from health officials and political and religious leaders at various levels. To quote the immortal words of President Gordon B. Hinckley, the enterally optimistic prophet, "Everything will work out." And above all else, the Lord is mindful of His people all over the world, and knows how best to assist all of us in preparing for and responding to the virus in all such cases.

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.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

REVISTED: April 2020 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! Far later than I had originally planned, I wanted to note that I have finished the updates to my predictions for the April 2020 General Conference. After finishing tho updates, all that remained was to add the relevant refrences. However, that process is going to take more time than I originally thought, so I decided it would be best to post the predictions for now and enable discussion to start on them, and then to update them as I can with the relevant references. As I previously mentioned, upon reanalyzing the likely layout of the speaking order, I realized that this conference might have a higher-than-normal degree of participation from members of the First Presidency.  Where appropriate, I have allowed spaces for any major announcements that could be made.  Given President Nelson's statement that that conference would be different from any previous ones, there was a lot to think about. I am sure it will be different mostly due to the focus of its' content (honoring the bicentennial of the imprtant events of the Restoration), but I also wanted to make allowances for other things that might be announced. Nelsonian-era General Conferences are hard enough to predict as is, but when accounting for his statement regarding how the upcoming conference will be different from anything we have previously seen, it gets even more tricky. I should also perhaps mention that, in connection with the changes in general Church leadership, there are a couple of more specific notes I might have in the future, but I will need to think about the logistics of what I have in mind. Additionally, the statistics might be hard to pin down with any degree of accuracy, and the formulas and methods I use are less than perfect, but I gave it my best shot. And as far as my list of prospective temple locations is concerned, I have several new additions thereunto, and I have chosen in this latest revision to not predict any specific number as far as how many temples might be announced, although I do anticipate a higher-than-usual number to be announced. Other than these notes, and the references I eventually hope to add to contextualize these predictions, the content largely speaks for ittself. An open commenting period is now in effect for the next four weeks (until the night of Wednesday April 1), at which time I will take a few days to finalize those predictions before General Conference weekend. I look forward to your input. 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.