BREAKING NEWS: General Conference Talk Transcripts Are Now Available

Hello again, everyone! This is a very quick breaking news update. In recent years, the Church has made video/audio versions of each General Conference talk available shortly after each session concludes, and has had the transcripts for the talks available for online viewing on Wednesday or Thursday. This post is being published to advise my readers that the transcripts from last weekend's General Conference are already available. I will be analyzing some data from that, and will be sure to post updated content based on my usual traditions (including a look at the lengths of each talk given by any of our apostles and also an update on the individual and total number of talks given by our apostles).

I will have that analysis ready to post ASAP. In the meantime, I am still working on the process of scoring the accuracy of my General Conference predictions and will also post that once I have it completed. There are also a few other projects I have coming down the pipeline which I will be detailing more fully when I have the opportunity to assess their readiness towards completion. 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: President Nelson Announces 20 New Temples as the April 2021 General Conference Concludes

Hello again, everyone! I am still attempting to put together my thoughts on the General Conference weekend that just concluded, but I do have some breaking news to report as well. During President Nelson's concluding remarks, the prophet 20 new temples that will be built in the following locations: 

In Europe: Oslo Norway; Burssels Belgium; and Vienna Austria. In Africa: Kumasi Ghana; Beira Mozambique; and Cape Town South Africa. In Asia: Singapore, Singapore.In South America: Belo Horizonte Brazil; Cali Colombia; Queretaro and Torreon Mexico. And in the Central and Western United States: Helena Montana; Casper Wyoming; Grand Junction Colorado; Farmington New Mexico; Burley Idaho; Eugene Oregon; Elko Nevada; Yorba Linda Califronia; and Smithfield Utah.

Of those new temples, I correcttly predicted the following temple: Oslo Norway, Brussels Belgium, Vienna Austria,, Kumasi Ghana, Cape Town South Africa, Singapore City Singapore, Belo Horizonte Brazil, Cali Colombia, Queretaro and Torreon Mexico,  Eugene Oregon, Elko Nevada

I had the following general regions correct, but not the specific locations: Beira Mozambique (I opted for Maputo), Helena Montana (I opted for Missoula), Casper Wyoming (my choice was Evanston), Grand Junction Colorado (I had Colorado Springs),  Farmington New Mexico (I had Las Cruces), Burley Idaho (I had Preston), Yurba Linda California (Bakersfield was on my list), and Smithfield. 

Apparently, I need to do even more to listen to the opinions of others. That being siad, I'm satisfied and surprised that we go a full 20, which is the new highest number of temples announced by President Nelson at one time. I very much appreciate President Nelson's prophetic dedication to bring the temples to the people. The total number of temples in any phase has now reached 251. I am grateful to have been able to learn of (and pass along) this information to you all. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and reported developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all here as I become aware thereof. 

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.

April 2021 General Conference Predictions Final Edition

Hello again, everyone! Now that the countdown to the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2021 General Conference is down to just over 10 hours, I have finalized my predictions for this upcoming General Conference. The document to which I linked in the previous sentence replaces the three separate documents to which I previously linked. I'd like to thank all who participated in the dialogue about these predictions in every stage thereof.

With the upcoming General Conferenc anticipated to have a key focus on Easter, it will be interesting to see what happns therein. To the best of my ability, I will keep tabs on all such news and will pass my analysis of those developments along as I am able to do so. That will include up-to-the-minute coverage of any developments that constitute breaking news. I have a feeling this will be yet another unforgettable conference for a variety of reasons that we cannot presently discern right now.

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: General Conference Leadership Sessions Held with Limited In-Person Attendance; New Area Seventies Sustained in Leadership Session for the First Time

Hello again, everyone! As first reported by the Newsroom and corroborated by the Church News, the Church was able to use a mix of in-person attendance at the Church Office Building Auditorium and remote participation through technology in order to hold General Conference Leadership Sessions for the first time since April 2019. Key counsel was provided to general Church leaders by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The counsel is highlighted and summarized in the articles to which I linked above, and that information is well worthy of your time and attention.

But I'm focusing this post on a new standard protocol the Church will use, effective immediately, going forward, pertaining to the sustaining of Church officers. During the leadership meeting, Elder D. Todd Christofferson read a list of 77 new area seventies who have been called to serve. Following that, President Russell M. Nelson stood up and called for a sustaining vote of those named. The vote was unanimous in the affirmative. So this is a major change in the way that area seventy sustainings will take place. The Church announcement today notes that, once the list of names have been presented and unanimously sustained in the General Conference Leadership Session, during the regular Sustaining of Church Officers that is held in conjunction with General Conference weekend, Church members will be asked to sustain the new leaders as a previously-presented group.

This change is being made not only to save time in the Saturday Afternoon Session, but also to be more consistent with scripture. The Church will be releasing information about new area seventies earlier so that, as they are sustained in General Conference as a group, Church members will have some familiarity with their names, even if they don't know the individuals behind the names.

The Church has also made the new list available according to the Quorums under which each area seventy falls, which will simplify the organization of lists for those of us keeping track of that information. So with these 77 new area seventies sustained, it appears that those who are released will be the only ones mentioned by name during the usual Saturday afternoon sustaining vote.

So already in the first General Conference Leadership Session in two years, the Church has hit the ground running and announced a major change. I am not quite sure why it was Elder Christofferson who read the list and President Nelson who called for the sustaining vote, but we may find out more about that this weekend. In the meantime, this action probably takes some pressure off of Presidents Oaks and Eyring, who will no longer have to worry about potentially mispronouncing the names on the list every six months.

I am grateful to have been able to learn about this development and to pass word of it along to you all. If the General Conference Leadership Sessions yield any other major news, I will be sure to pass that information along to you all here. In the meantime, there may or may not be other major news between now and General Conference weekend, which I will pass along to you all here as I become aware of such reports.

The commenting period for my General Conference predictions will conclude at 10:00 PM tonight, so I welcome any additional feedback on those before that window closes. I have a feeling we are just seeing the beginning of signficant developments which will be reported in the coming weekend. Stay tuned for more information and analysis as I can make that happen.

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 First Quarter of 2021

Hello again, everyone! As the final minutes of March draw to a close, I am pleased to take a look back at the progress that has been made on temple construction efforts throghout the world during this first quarter of 2021. The information is fairly straightforward and largely speaks for itself. That said, the first report shows how the temple construction efforts looked as 2021 began, while the second demonstrates where things stand in that respect as this first quarter concludes. I have no doubt that we are just seeing the beginning of the wonderful developments that will occur in temple construction throughtout this year.

I fully anticipate that this weekend's General Conference will bring with it the announcement of several new temples. As I've previously noted, my gut feeling is that a double-digit number of temples may be announced, but that will be up to the Lord, through President Nelson, to either confirm, correct, or deny. I will be sure to bring you all my analysis on any such announcement here ASAP after it it made, in addition to covering any other breaking developments that may occur during General Conference. I likewise continue to monitor temple construction updates and general Church news, and remain committed to bringing the latest updates on those developments to you all here as I become aware thereof.

Parenthetically, I should also note that today marks 3 yhears exactly since Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares were sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as the first Asian-Ameerican and Latin-American apostles, fulfilling President Nelson's promise that there would one day be "more flavors in the mix" among the top leadership Quorums of the Church. I support and sustain each of our current apostles and on this anniversary of the calls of Elders Gong and Soares testify again of the inspiration behind their calls to that role as special witnesses of Christ.

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: 7 Temples Will Move to Phase 3; 42 Other to Transition to Phase 2-B

Hello again, everyone! On this Monday of the week before General Conference, breaking temple news relating to temple reopenings has been reported yet again. As confirmed by the Newsroom and subsequently reported by the Church News within the last hour, two weeks from today (Monday April 12), 7 more temples will transition to phase 3, which will allow ordinances for the living in the same priority order as phase 2, in addition to allowing work for the dead in small groups by appointment only.

Those 7 include the only currently-operating temple in the Africa Central Area (the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple); the two currently-operating temples in the Africa South Area (Durban and Johannesburg South Africa); the two currently-operating temples in the Africa West Area (Aba Nigeria and Accra Ghana); 1 more temple in the Asia North Area (Fukuoka Japan Temple), and 1 temple in the Caribbean (Santo Domingo Dominican Republic).

Also on April 12, 17 other temples are anticipated to transition to phase 2-B, which allows the performance of all living ordinances in priority order, and also reopens the temple baptistries for baptisms for the dead. The temples anticipated to make that change on that date include 8 in Utah (Bountiful, Brigham City, Draper, Jordan River, Logan, Monticello (that one's not technically part of the Utah area, but counts as a Utah temple), Ogden, and Oquirrh Mountain) ; 3 in Arizona (Snowflake, The Gila Valley, and Tucson) 2 in Idaho (Boise and Meridian); 2 in England (London and Preston); 1 in Nevada (Reno), and 1 in Wyoming (Star Valley).

2 weeks after that, on Monday April 26, the Church will be reopening 22 more temples in phase 2-B. Those planned for that date include 7 more in Utah (Cedar City, Manti, Mount Timpanogos, Payson,. Provo City Center, Provo, and Vernal),  11 elsewhere in the United States (Albuquerque New Mexico, Baton Rouge Louisiana, Bismarck North Dakota, Columbia River and Spokane Washington, Gilbert Arizona, Las Vegas Nevada, Memphis and Nashville Tennessee, St. Louis Missouri, and Winter Quarters Nebraska) and 1 more in Canada (Toronto Ontario).

Additionally, in an unusual (but understandable) move, the Church has also announced that 3 temples which are still undergoing renovation will open their baptistries. That will apply to the Salt Lake Temple, effective April  12, and the Mesa Arizona and St. George Utah Temples, effetive on April 26. I am assuming that, because the work has focused elsewhere thus far in the renovation of these temples, that the baptistries can thus be used without the need for rededication of those spaces.

By April 12, the Church's temple reopenings will see 26 in phase 3, 30 in phase 2-B, 86 in phase 2, 7 in phase 1, 10 "paused" in their reopening, with 9 that had reached phase 2, and 1 more that had reached phase 1; 1 which has not yet reopened (the Kyiv Ukraine Temple); and 8 closed for major renovations (although 3 of those will reopen their baptistries by appointment). All of these changes impacting every temple mentioned are now noted in the temple reopening status tracker.

I am grateful to have ben able to find out about these updates and to bring word of those to you all here. I continue to monitor all Church news, temple updates, and General Conference developments in this week leading up to that, and will bring you word of those reports 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.

UPDATED: April 2021 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! Just before 1:00 AM this morning, I published some analysis on the announced Easter devotional which will take place on Sunday April 4 during the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference. I mentioned in the course of that post that I would likely need to revise my General Conference predictions. I am posting now to confirm that I have those updates nearly completed. I have made changes to the projected speaking line-up,

Since the entire First Presidency spoke in reverse seniority order to conclude the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2018 General Conference, I determined that would likely also be true for that session this go-round. The Sunday Morning Session in April 2018 also marked the only General Conference Session in which President Nelson personally opted to conduct, so I accounted for that to likely be repeated. 

Then all that remained was to figure out which other leaders might also speak during that session. Based on my calculations, it seems likely that 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will also speak (since the aforementioned webpage that announced the upcoming devotional mentioned "apostles" as a plural rather than singular term), which left room for two other general Church leaders.

Additionally, if the entire First Presidency does speak in reverse seniority order to conlcude both the Preisthood and Sunday Morning Sessions, then Presidents Oaks and Eyring wouldn't be speaking in their customary other places (which, in a standard April General Conference, would see President Eyring be the final speaker in the Saturday Morning Session, and President Oaks speaking first in the Sunday Afternoon Session), so I needed to make alterations in those sessions as well.

Other than that, the changes should speak for themselves. I may not add footnotes to that section this go-round, unless there are any questions any of you have that would need to be addressed through notes or references. Next, given the recent announcements of new temple and mission presidents, I've also updated my document showing the likely changes in general Church leadership and have tweaked some of the information in the figures I'm projecting for the statistical report.

In relation to the changes in general Church leadership, with the Church having announced that the new mission leaders will begin serving in July and that most of the new temple leaders will begin serving in August or September, I'm anticipating that all current area seventies called to serve as mission or temple presidents will be released this time around, rather than waiting to do that until October, months after their new assignments will become effective. So those have been updated, and I'm anticipating that the newest temple leader biographies will be published either later today, tomorrow, or Saturday.

Also, there has been a need to revisit my list of locations in which a temple could be announced in April, which has invovled reprioritizing some locations and adding those which, due to recent developments, seem to have a better chance of being announced now than they did 6.5 weeks or so ago, when I first published those on my blog on February 1. As I mentioned previously, based on all that has been done to clear the queue since the October 2020 General Conference, and on all the groundbreakings that seem likely to be coming down the pike later this spring and summer, I think there is a high likelihood that a double-digit number of new temples could be announced in a couple of weeks here.

So, those are the updates I have made to these predictions. The open commenting period on them will remain in effect for the next 2 weeks, and that will wrap up on Thursday April 1, at 10:00 PM MDT, which will then give me roughly 36 hours to finalize those predictions before General Conference begins on Saturday April 3 at 10:00 AM MDT. I welcome any and all feedback any of you may have on these revisions.

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: April 2021 General Conference Sunday Morning Session Will Constitute a "Special Worship Service" for Easter Sunday

Hello again, everyone! In the comment threads on content I posted on Sunday, I had mentioned how, in reference to a First Presidency letter about the upcoming April 2021 General Conference, a mention had been made of special programming in conjunction with General Conference. When I subsequently received a request asking me to verify where the information to which I referred could be found, I wasn't able to produce such evidence, and in fact felt impressed to admit that I could have been mistaken, that I might have misundestood what had been said, and that the information itself might thus be in error.

Fast forward to just now. I was in the process of performing a final check on the various Church websites for the day, and in the course of doing so, the homepage of the Church's official website led to information about the upcoming Easter General Conference. It was specifically noted that the Sunday Morning Session would consist of a worship service that will include talks from apostles and other Church leaders specifically focused on Easter and on the Savior.

And although that is specifically going to be true for the Sunday Morning Session, other Easter-themed addresses may be given in both the Sunday Afternoon Session and also any of the three Saturday Sessions. I will do some research on my end to confirm or correct this, but I have a feeling we may only see 1 or 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak, in addition to all 3 members of the First Presidency giving their second addresses in reverse seniority order at the end of the session. That would leave just enough room for 1 or 2 other Church leaders.

Of course, that kind of scenario also means making other adjustments, including accommodating other speakers in the usual slots that would otherwise be taken by First Presidency cousnelors. Under the current rotation for standard April General Conferences, President Eyring would be the final speaker in the Saturday Morning Session, and President Oaks would be the first speaker in the Sunday Afternoon Session. This official confirmation of the Sunday Morning Session details might change that.

I will endeavor to figure that out and post any alterations to my predictions as I am able to make them. I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will bring you all the latest on those developments as I receive word 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreakings Announced for Syracuse and Deseret Peak Utah Temples

Hello again, everyone! Breaking news was reported by the Church roughly 3 or so hours ago. Although that technically no longer classifies that as breaking news, I just found out about it a few minutes ago, so I'm styling the information as such anyways. The first two temple groundbreakings to be announced this year have been scheduled to occur here in Utah. Before I provide some analysis on the details, let me clarify something.

I emphasized in the previous paragraph that these are the first two temple groundbreakings.to be announced. I don't necessarily think that means they will also be the first two temple groundbreakingsto be held this year, though they will be among the first. I say that because, as we have seen the Church do last year, smaller temples with a general groundbreaking window for certain months were able to have their groundbreakings last year in general and specific windows that sometimes occurred prior to the windows for those that had been previously announced but occurred after those that were announced later.

And I've mentioned in the past that I am anticipating that at least 3 temples in the Pacific (Pago Pago American Samoa, Neiafu Tonga, and Port Moresby Papua New Guinea) could soon have groundbreakings announced, especially since the former two are in the government approval phase. It is entirely possible that one, two, or three of the Pacific Island Temples I just mentioned could have their groundbreakings prior to the two announced today. That being said, let's break down the details.

I had mentioned that the Syracuse Utah Temple, which had a rendering released a short while ago, was almost certain to have a groundbreaking announced in the near term, because the site had been made ready for that prospect as of a report from yesterday. So the Syracuse Temple is the first one mentioned in today's announcement. The groundbreaking for that temple is set to occur in June of this year (note the general rather than specific window, as has been typical for all temple groundbreakings held during COVID-19).

Elder Kevin R. Duncan, a General Authority Seventy who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Church's Temple Department, who grew up in the proverbial stone's throw away from Syracuse in Ogden Utah, will preside at that groundbreaking, likely in view of his personal connections to the surrounding area. Based on the temple's anticipated size, I'd put a completion window of late 2023-early 2024 for it.

Meanwhile although the Syracuse Temple is mentioned first in today's release, the groundbreaking window for the other temple will actually be first chronologically. I mentioned in the past that the relocationof the newly-renamed Deseret Peak Utah Temple (and the fact that no residential development is included in the new location) would likely speed up the approvals process for that project, and so it is.

The groundbreaking for the Deseret Peak Utah Temple is anticipated to occur sometime in May, roughly a month prior to that of the Syracuse Utah Temple. The renderings for that temple, which were released in April of last year, remain unchanged. As a result of that temple’s established size and design, and since it is anticipated to be built on an accelerated schedule (which has not changed, insofar as I am aware), I anticipate the completion of that temple will occur sometime in mid-to-late 2023 or so.

Elder Brook P. Hales, another General Authority Seventy, who at last public mention was still serving as the Secretary to the First Presidency, will preside at the groundbreaking for that temple, At an initial glance, it appears that Elder Hales, who also grew up in Ogden, has some equally-strong personal and/or familial connections to the Tooele Valley area, so his assignment to preside at the groundbreaking for this temple is in recognition of that fact.

I am grateful to see the Church distributing opportunities to preside over groundbreakings for Utah temples to those with a personal connection, in addition to the area presidency members and apostles to whom that has applied in the past.

I look forward to seeing what will occur in terms of other temple groundbreakings later this year. In the meantime, I also continue to monitor all other Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I receive 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: New Reopning Phase Announced for Several Temples

Hello again, everyone! Breaking temple news has been reported at this hour. As the First Presidency continues to evaluate temple reopenings worldwide, there has been a renewed desire to allow as much proxy work as possible to continue. As a result, a new phase of reopening has been announced this morning. Some temples already in phases 1 or 2 will transition to phase 2-B. This new phase allows temple baptistries to reopen for small groups where it is safe to do so, while also allowing the performance of all living ordinances in the priority order spelled out previously.

The new phase will go into effect as soon as 2 weeks from now, and will apply to the following temples: 7 in North America (Calgary Alberta, Edmonton Alberta, Kansas City Missouri, Medford Oregon, Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, and Twin Falls Idaho); 3 in Europe (Bern Switzerland, Copenhagen Denmark, Frankfurt Germany); 3 in South America (Asunción Paraguay, Córdoba Argentina, and Guayaquil Ecuador); and 1 in the Philippines (Manila),

Additionally, 3 temples which had been in phase 2 of reopening, will now be "paused" in the reopening status due to local COVID-19 conditions and regulations. The three are all in South America, with 2 in Brazil (Campinas and São Paulo) and 1 more in Chile (Santiago). But additionally, on the good news side of things, due to the easing of local restrictions, the Curitiba Brazil Temple will now resume phase 2 of reopening.

As of March 22, when all changes except the 2-B reopenings, will go into effect, the Church will have 19 temples in phase 3, allowing all living ordinances and proxy ordinances in priority order by appointment. 122 others will be operating under phase 2, with a total of 10 remaining in phase 1. 8 other temples will be paused in their reopening status, and the Kyiv Ukraine Temple remains the only operating temple of the Church that has not yet reopened in any phase. The Church also has the 8 temples currently closed for renovation (with 2 that have been completed) and 1 other renovation currently planned.

The Church's area-by-area status tracker has also been updated to reflect these changes. I am grateful to have been able to learn about these updates and pass them along to you all here. I continue to monitor all other temple updates and Church news reports of any kind and will also bring you the latest on those 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.