UPDATED: Current Apostolic Statistics

Hello again, everyone! Recently on this blog, it has become traditional for me to publish updated apostolic statistics relating to both the age and tenures of our current apostles roughly every 7 weeks. Since I last did so on Sunday May 24, it is now time to do so again today. Those updates, as has also been customary, the information will be featured in two parts: the first and the second. The information speaks for itself. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to pass word of those developments along to you all as I become aware of any such reports.

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: Official Name Released for the Washington County Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! A surprising development that constitutes breaking temple news has been reported today by the Church Temples site, and has been corroborated by the Church's official list of announced temples. What has been known as the Washington County Utah Temple will now officially be known as the Red Cliffs Utah Temple, honoring the red rock cliffs found in abundance in that region. As one who has viewed those several times myself, this is a very fitting and proper name for this temple.

I am grateful that my theory that the Washington County name would not stick has proven correct. And I am grateful for the First Presidency's sensitivity to local culture in honoring southern Utah in general and the St. George region thereof in particular with a second temple that has an inspired new name. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Churchwide Youth Music Festival to be Held Virtually for the First Time Ever

Hello again, everyone! For the first time in a while, the Church has shared a breaking news development not related to temple events. Through the Church News, the first ever Worldwide Youth Music Festival will be held virtually. The festival is set to be held on Wednesday July 29. An invitation to participate virtually is being extended to youth worldwide, including friends of other faiths. The festival will follow the theme "Hear the Voice of the Lord", in conjunction with President Nelson's invitation to "Hear Him!" Featuring musical performances and testimonies from youth around the world, the event will also include brief remarks from a few Church leaders.

The event, being prerecorded, will be 40 minutes in length, and air at 6:00 PM MDT, through Youtube's "Strive to Be" page, Facebook's Church of Jesus Christ page, and through the Church's official Broadcasts page.The article inviting youth to participate in this event shares quotes from the Young Women General President, Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, and the newly-called Young Men General President, Brother Steven J. Lund. I am grateful to have been able to find out about this development, and to have been able to pass it along here to you all.

I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple updates, and will continue to pass along anything in that respect as I become aware of it. 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.

Review of Temple Construction Progress During the Second Quarter of 2020

Hello again, everyone! As the final minutes of June 2020 move towards their inexorable conclusion here in Utah, I am pleased to provide a look back at temple construction progress which has occurred during this second quarter of this year (spanning from April 1 until today). Within that time, 8 new temples have been announced. Open house and rededication arrangements have been scheduled and then postponed for the Washington D.C. Temple. And several more temples have had site locations confirmed, exterior renderings released, or groundbreakings scheduled.

Based on the developments that have occurred this quarter alone, the Church may also be queueing up as many as 8 temples for a groundbreaking within the next quarter (through the end of September), aside from the 3 already scheduled to occur in July, August, and September. It will be interesting to see all of that unfold, and to the best of my ability, I will continue to document those events as they happen. With those preliminary comments in mind, I'd like to remind you all where the Church stood in terms of temple developments as 2020 began, and where things stood by the end of the first quarter of 2020, just 3 days prior to the April 2020 General Conference.

Having posted those two links, we now look at where things stand as of tonight, which marks both the end of the second quarter of this year, and also the end of the first half of 2020. With the sheer number of breaking news developments relating to temples that have been shared by the Church during the first half of this year, it will be interesting to see what announcements come down the pike in the days, weeks, and months ahead. I will be particularly excited to see what happens in terms of temple developments during the upcoming third quarter of this year, and more importantly, between now and the October 2020 General Conference.

As I mentioned previously, I have no idea whether the Church might schedule any other temple groundbreakings to occur between now and the first weekend of September, when ground will be broken for the Orem Utah Temple. Assuming that the Feather River California, Salta Argentina, and Orem Utah Temples are the only ones that have a groundbreaking between now and September 5, then the Church will still have 11 to break ground for between that day and the end of the year.  

There are only 13 Saturdays between September 12 and the end of the year, if we exclude General Conference Saturday and the final two Saturdays of the year for Christmas and New Year's, and there might be a reason to exclude the 1 or 2 other Saturdays in November before and after Thanksgiving Day. So unless the Church holds more than one groundbreaking on any week between mid-July and the end of the year, there will have to be at least one groundbreaking per week.

As I also mentioned, it seems likely that, within the next couple of weeks, the groundbreaking arrangements could be announced at minimum for the Tooele Valley, Washington County Utah, and Taylorsville Utah Temples, and I can see groundbreaking announcements in the near future for Moses Lake Washington, Bentonville Arkansas, and McAllen Texas. I'm also hopeful that there could be private groundbreakings for several international temples as well, especially in places where COVID-19 has not had such a profound impact, and where construction can safely begin.

If all goes well, it wouldn't shock me to see the total number of announced temples go down to 30 or so from its' current 39, between now and the weekend of the October 2020 General Conference. But time will tell whether or not that is possible. I'm also hopeful for much more temple news coming down the pike. With all of that being said, that concludes my thoughts about temple construction progress which has occurred during this second quarter of 2020.  I would also mention here, just briefly, that my next apostolic milestone update is set to be published here on Sunday July 12, so stay tuned for that. 

In the interim, I am pleased to note at this time that, one week ago today (on Monday June 23), President Nelson observed his latest prophetic tenure milestone. As of that date, the length of time for which President Nelson had served as Church President became equivalent to the tenure length of Joseph Fielding Smith. President Nelson thus became the 14th longest-serving Church President.  He won't abserve his next tenure milestone until mid-February of next year.  In between now and then, his next prophetic age milestone will be observed in August, and I will be providing more details on that in the aforementioned apostolic update coming up on July 12. 

President Nelson's First Counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks, who also serves as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, recently observed a tenure-length milestone. Just two days ago (on Sunday June 28), the tenure length of President Oaks as Quorum President matched that of Harold B. Lee. As a result, President Oaks is now the 17th longest-serving Quorum President in Church history. He will observe his next two milestones as such on two consecutive days next month, and I will be sure to provide further details on those in the aforementioned July 12 update.

I am in the midst of necessary updates to my October 2020 General Conference predictions as well. And I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will pass word of all such developments 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.

Some Thoughts About Church Growth (or the Lack Thereof) in Certain Areas

Hello again, everyone! Although I anticipate that breaking news will be provided at some point tomorrow morning on the reopening of more temples under phase 1 (which allows husband and wife live sealings with limited in-person attendance), and although it seems more likely than not that the Church could share a couple other breaking developments relating to temples, I had something else I wanted to mention on this blog at this time. 

Before I get into that topic today, I also wanted to note that I'm specifically anticipating the announcement of at least 2 temple groundbreakings, and maybe also the new announcement of 1 or more temple sites and/or the release of one or more additional temple renderings. and that additional developments may be reported on one or two other fronts as well, what I wanted to focus a new post on today couldn't wait at all.  

Over the last few months since the April 2020 General Conference was held, as a result of the Church subsequently releasing quite a bit more in the way of nation-by-nation statistics that were updated as of year-end 2019, Matthew Martinich, who maintains the Church Growth blog, has been in the process of overhauling the content he provides in his "Reaching the Nations" profiles through cumorah.com. 
Through his blog, he has shared links to many of those updated profiles. And with that focus (and the ensuing comments in the associated threads thereof) in mind, I wanted to post some thoughts from me here about Church growth (or the lack thereof) in certain areas. Some of the most recent posts shared by Matt with the updated profiles focus on nations within Europe, Asia, and South America. In many of those recent threads, problems related to Church growth across those continents were detailed.

Those issues have principally been noted in the Europe, Europe East, Asia, Asia North, and South America South Area (with the possible exception of the nation of Argentina). In the early 2000s, the Church sent out 3 apostles (including then-Elder Oaks to the Philippines and Elder Holland to Chile from 2002-2004, and Elder Perry to Central Europe from 2004-2005). The apostles sent to those areas specifically focused on Church growth issues in those regions and provided a more personal touch towards fixing and/or reversing those issues.

Between 2002 and now, the Church has called 10 new apostles (Elders Uchtdorf, Bednar, Cook, Christofferson, Andersen, Rasband, Stevenson, Renlund, Gong, and Soares). Of those 10, five have connections to Europe (with Elder Uchtdorf being a native German, and Elders Bednar, Cook and Andersen having served in European missions, while Elder Soares has been a mission president in Portugal), two have connections to Asia (with Elders Stevenson and Gong both having served missions in Asian ntions, and both having served in Asia Area presidencies, while Elder Stevenson has also served as president of a mission in Asia), and 3 or 4 have served missions, in area presidencies, or as mission presidents in South American nations (namely Elders Christofferson, Andersen, Soares, and perhaps also Elder Rasband).

So I have a couple of theories here. First, many of the latest comments on the Church Growth blog have suggested something that I believe will absolutely be true, that COVID-19 conditions may ultimately lead the Church to see greater success in nations currently experiencing struggles with growth-related issues. I definitely hope that will be the case, and could see it happening. At the same time, however, a part of me wonders whether President Nelson, whose right-hand man President Oaks had the experience of previously presiding over an international area of the Church, may choose at some point in the near future to send one or more apostles out to any of these struggling areas and to take oversight thereof for a period of one to two years.

It may not happen, especially since the apostles have been utilized more frequently of late in performing duties typically done by the president of the Church or his counselors. But on the other hand, having such apostles in such areas would enable them to personally oversee some of those assignments while serving for a time as presidents of those areas.. And the apostles have been commanded in scripture to "send" the word and their representatives abroad rather than filling long-term assignments abroad themselves. There's a lot to consider about this scenario that may or may not occur again in the near future, just as it had been utilized in the early 2000s.

I will be interested to see if the current conditions impacting the growth of the Church on the Asian, European, and South American continents resolve themselves following the elimination of COVID-19 as a factor, and whether or not the Church needs to take action on any of these issues at that time. I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all 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.