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Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Updates Made to Temple Construction Progress Report

Hello again, everyone! In this post-General Conference season, I have kept somewhat busy updating many of my files with relevant information. Among those files has been my temple construction progress report. Above and beyond sharing those updates, some of the work I have done requires additional context.  Firstly, as previously noted when I last shared the full version of this report, I have post-dated it in order to negate the need to continuously update thaat date. As a result, the information about the amount of time between that date and the bicentennial anniversary of the Church is ahead of what it actually is as of today. If anyone wants the current data in that respect, please let me know. Next, new information on the Puebla Mexico Tmple has clarified that site clearing is complete, but that full-scale construction on the temple is pending, and, as a result, I have moved that temple from the queue of those under construction to those for which full-scale construction is pending, and have followed the example of the sources available to me for temple information in removing a more general completion estimate for that temple for the time being. As previously noted, because the report is post-dated to May 24, I have also put information in that report as if the groundbreaking for the Alabang Philippines Tempale has already taken place, because it is set to occur on May 2, with the date on the report being 22 days after that groundbreaking will have taken place. An update has slso been provided on the Layton Utah Temple, for which a groundbreaking will be held on the Saturday following the date currently noted on that report. The next major revisions involved a complete reworking of the "Groundbreaking Anticipated" section. With the approval process for the Tooele Valley Utah Temple anticipated to be expedited, it seems very liely that temple could be the next to have a groundbreaking set. And with the updated information that has been shared within the last week regarding approvals for the Washington County and Orem Utah Temples, it seems likely either or both of those could be next to have a groundbreaking. Depending on how quickly things happen for the Taylorsville Utah Temple following the demolition this month of the on-site meetinghouse, the groundbreaking for that temple could very well be one of the next ones to have a groundbreaking. if the next phases of approval for the Brasilia Brazil and McAllen Texas Temples go quickly, those two could each have their groundbreakings, and the same applies to the Feather River California and Moses Lake Washington Temples. In the meantime, I also anticipate more official details to be announced for the Phnom Pehn Cambodia and Bengaluru India Temples, in addition to the Harare Zimbabwe, Nairobi Kenya, San Pedro Sula Honduras, Coban Guatemala, and Managua Nicaragua Temples.

Moving on to temples undergoing renovation, I realized that new information on the Mesa Arizona Temple may confirm my previously-offered theory that that temple could (and likely will) be rededicated before the rededication of the Tokyo Japan Temple occurs, so I have adjusted that accordingly. A new update has also been reported on the Salt Lake Temple, so that is included as well. And the final updates to my report involved a thorough review of the extent of the information I had for the temples that have not yet gone beyond an announcement. Information that was more speculative (such as when more than one potential location may be under consideration for any on the list), or that was subject to future confirmation (such as the timing of the Dubai 2020 Expo, which will impact how soon that temple could have a groundbreaking), that led me to reorder some temples, moving them up or down as was appropriate based on that analysis. And of course, any information I offer is subject to change as official announcements are subsequently made.I will be sure to keep my eyes open for all such updates and will pass them on to you all here, along with any additional Church news, as I become aware of such developments. 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, April 16, 2020

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Announces 2020 Area Leadership Assignments

Hello again, everyone! A short while ago, I was notified of a breaking news update through the Church News app. This afternoon/evening, the First Presidency announced the changes in area leadership that will go into effect on August 1. For the first time, the leadership assignments included some demographic data and notes about unique elements related to these changes. Although a more complete analysis will be added  to this post later on tonight as I have a chance to complete that, I wanted to note the news for now. And I also wanted to note that, as expected, Elder L. Whitney Clayton is being released as Senior President of the Seventy and will almost certainly be released from active service and desiganted an emeritus General Authority in October. That results in Elder Patrick Kearon officially becoming the first intternationally-born Senior President of the Seventy. But the big surprise came with the announcement of the new member of that Presidency who will begin serving on August 1. The First Presidency announced that Elder Brent H. Nielson, who was called as a GA Seventy in April 2009, and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Church Missionary Department, will be the new member of that Presidency. So it appears there will be a reshuffling in the leadership of the Missionary Department. More information on that, and my more in-depth and specific analysis on this will be added to this post later today. For now, my thanks to you all. (Added at 8:57 PM) I have been able to complete my analysis of changes in area leadership. I have set up a new shareable document detailing those changes. There was a lot to unpack, above and beyond what the Church News reported on these changes. I also wanted to present again the document showing the most likely changes I had anticipated being announced.  I have not had a chance to run any analysis on the accuracy of the changes I had predicted vs. those that wound up actually being announced, but it appears I did have quite a few of those predictions correct. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring word of all such developments to you here as I become aware of them. 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. data-ad-slot="7053987612">

Monday, April 13, 2020

Prayers Would Be Appreciated

Hello again, everyone! This will be a brief personal update based on information I received late Sunday evening. I have been experiencing a resurgence of gastrointestinal issues. Over this last week, my docotr has run a couple of blood panels, along with one other test, to determine what to do about this issue. Towards the end of this last week, he had made an initial change to my medication treatment plan. and hoped that would be sufficient to deal with the problem, but he apparently went over the results of that latest panel of blood tests, and they are reportedly trending in the wrong direction. As a result of his consultation with the on-call gastro doctor for this weekend about these results, we were advised around 3 hours ago that they will need to do an endoscopy at some point tomrrow to examine the issues more thorougly. Due to my extensive medical history, going in for such a procedure is nerve-wracking enough under a normal situation, but I will, of course, be needing to undergo this procedure tomrrow during a period of time where concern in Utah over COVID-19 is rampantly abudant. As a result, this particular procedure needing to be done right now is even more of a concern. I realize that by the time most of you read this later today, this issue may be resolved. But if any of you are able to send prayers heavenward in behalf of my wife and myself as we deal with this issue within the next 8-12 hours, I'd greatly appreciate it. I will hopefully be able to report back on the results of anything that has been figured out within the next 12-15 hours. I will also, of course, be back to report any interesting Church news or temple updates later today when I can. In the meantime, thanks for indulging me in this personal update and resulting request.

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, April 8, 2020

BREAKING NEWS: Transcripts of All April 2020 General Conference Talks Are Now Available; Updated Documents Related to the April 2020 General Conference and the Latest Temple Updates

Hello again, everyone! I have late breaking news to share here again tonight. Although the April 2020 General Conference concluded around 63 hours ago, the Church must have worked lightning fast, and the transcripts for all talks given during the five General Sessions last weekend are now officially availableAside from the quick turnaround effort on the part of the Church to make those available online so quickly in this case, one other thing surprised me.  I have previously commented on the fact that the Church sometimes experiences a delay in making the video archives of some General Conference talks available following the General Conference session in which they were given. There were similar lags in that respect this go-round. It wasn't until almost an hour after the Sunday Morning Session this weekend that the video archives of all addresses given on Saturday were made available. Similarly, it was a couple of hours after the General Conference concluded that the video archives for the Sunday Morning Session were made available. It wasn't until sometime yesterday that all but the final address given by President Nelson were made available. And as things now stand, with the transcripts available for all of the General Conference talks, the video of President Nelson's closing remarks in the last session of conference still appears to be missing from the Church's official General Conference site. But I was able to pull a rough estimate on the length of that address from the video archive of that final session via Youtube.So this post is primarily being published to share that news, but also to share the document on which I tracked the length of each apostolic address. I also have updates on the total number of talks given by each of our apostles, both prior to and since their calls to the apostleship, have spoken during General Conference. And I also wanted to present as well the updated sections of my temple construction progress report (which I have completely restructured as a result of what is known and unknown. Additionally, I have finished my work for now on the possible table of contents layout for the May 2020 Ensign, which will be subject to change as more information comes to light. And, since I anticipate that the changes in area leadership for 2020 will be announced by the Church anytime between this upcoming Thursday (April 9) and the final Friday of this month (April 24), I have additionally assembled a list of the most likely changes that may be made in conjunction with that announcement.


Finally, I wanted to provide an updated link to my April 2020 General Conference predictions, which indicate what I got right and wrong through the usage of brackets, parentheses, and the relevant notes. I will have a total score and accuracy percentage for those predictions later this week. I know that this post packs a lot of new content, and I thank you for your interest in everything I am providing here. 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.


Tuesday, April 7, 2020

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Exterior Renderings Released for Three Temples In the Western United States

Hello again, everyone! An hour or two ago, my phone lit up with a massive amount of notifications, and some of those and other priorities demanded my immediate attention, But I wanted to share my analysis on some breaking temple news to which long-time reader Eric S. referred in the comments of the previous post. That comment was made at around the same time I received notice from the Church News app that this news has been reported. The Church today released three renderings for temples here in the western United States, namely: Moses Lake Washington, Tooele Valley Utah, and Washingtton County Utah Temples. In the coming months, project leaders will file public documents with city councils/planning and zoning commissions for the approrpriate approvals. The site locations for Moses Lake WashingtonTooele Valley Utah, and Washington County Utah temples were previously confirmed, so this is the next logical step. The addresses thereof and the sizes as detailed in those prior announcements have not changed very much. In fact, Moses Lake and Tooele Valley's detaied aniticipated sizes have not changed at all, period. The former will still be a single-story temple of approximately 20,000 feet. Although the newest release doesn't mention the adjoining meetinghouses for Moses Lake or Tooele Valley, barring anything unexpected, it appears the general plans for both of those will not change too much from the original announcements. As for the Washington County Utah Temple, we do not as yet have a more official name for it. (If that eventually happens, it will make sense, because according to what Elder Steven E. Snow said to Saints in Washington County within the last couple of years, a third temple to serve the Saints there will almost certainly be needed in the not-too-distant future, so the more general name for the second templehat county is not likely to stick.)  That said, the release in which the site for what will be the second  temple of the Church in the city of St. George was announced noted that the size of that temple was anticipated to be roughly 88,000 feet. Today's release adjusts that number slightly to 90,000 square feet, so either number, or anywhere in between the two, may be the temple's actual size.

A few other thoughts struck me about these newest announcements. First of all, President Nelson did not let the moss grrow under his feet too much following this weekend's General Conference. And with Elder Bednar's statement made on Sunday that a total of 18 new temples would have a groundbreaking during this year, these 3 can safely be added to the queue. Above and beyond that, since the temple in Tooele Valley Utah is going to be built at an accelerated pace, that temple probably will move to the top of the "Groundbreaking Anticipated" section of my temple construction progress report. With Moses Lake Washington's planned size, that may not be far behind other US temples I currently have listed in that section. And with Washington County's larger size likely resulting in approval taking slightly longer, that temple may be slightly lower in that section. I will be reworking that and get it published here by way of a new post or comment on this post hopefully later today or ASAP tomorrow at latest.

In the meantime, 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.