BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Official Locations Confirmed and Renderings Released for Tarawa Kiribati and Port Vila Vanuatu Temples

Hello again, everyone! Less than an hour ago, the Newsroom shared an announcement from the First Presidency. The site locations have been confirmed and the renderings released for the Tarawa Kiribati and Port Vila Vanuatu Temples. which were both announced in October of last year. Although the Tarawa temple was the first of the two to be announced, the information about the Vanuatu Temple was provided first, probably because it is first alphabetically. Let's get to some details.

In Port Vila, the single-story temple, which will be roughly 10,00 square feet in area, is set to be a single-story edifice that will be built on a 1.62 acre site at the location where the Blacksands meetinghouse currently sits. Another building on the site will house an arrival and distribution center, in addition to patron housing. Meanwhile, the Tarawa Temple will be a single-story edifice roughly the same size as its' counterpart in Port Vila. A separate building 450 meters from the temple will be paired with a new meetinghouse and patron housing facility that will be part of the project. The temple portion of that project will rise on a 0.80 acre site at Ambo in Southern Tarawa.

This afternoon's announcement means that 3 of the 6 total temples announced last October have now had sites announced, with renderings released for two of those. And it also means we are nearly certain to have these two additional Pacific Area Temples have a groundbreaking later this year. With today's announcement, there are now a total of 3 temples with a groundbreaking scheduled (2 of which will happen within the next month), and 9 more for which a groundbreaking is anticipated at some point within the next 12 months (if not sooner).

But I am also moniotring developments for the 9 remaining temples in the United States which were announced since the beginning of last month, in addition to a minimum of 4 temples outside the United States for which, based on information I have found in various places, could soon see action taken. Any of those 13, and by extension, any the remaining 23 announced temples (particularly any of the 11 other temples outside the United States which were announced during last month's General Conference and might be on the smaller side) could also see anything more official announced in the near future.

Throughout the last several months, between the accounts from President Nelson, his apostolic colleagues, and many other general Church leaders who are involved in the planning of temples, and on information that has been released through such outlets as "This Week in Mormons", if the Church is able to use uew and innovative methods such as prefabricated modular temples or other processes that could accelerate temple construction going forward, the Church could be entering a new unprecedented, accelerated, and rapidly-expansive period of temple construction.

References in the past on this blog from myself and others have noted the idea of a ten-fold increase in the number of temples, or that "adding a zero" to the current number would put us closer to envisioning what President Nelson's plans for temple construction might be.  A recently-published article from LDS Living highlighted insights from Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, who serves on the Temple and Family History Executive Council, and from Elder Kevin R. Duncan,. who serves as the Temple Department Executive Director. 

Those statements indicated that the modular design of the Helena Montana Temple would allow it to be built and dedicated within 12-15 months of whenever construction begins. That is a much quicker turnaround than the typical 2-4 year window we've seen for temples of a similar or slightly larger size in the past. I look forward to getting a clearer picture of what such advances might do for temple construction going forward. In the meantime, I continue to monitor all other Church news and temple developments, and will be sure to bring word of those to you all 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: First Presidency Announces Temple Reopenings for the Next Two Weeks

Hello again, everyone! The First Presidency has announced more temple reopenings that will be effective next  wek. Those updates have been shared by the  Newsroom and the Church News and outlined by the temple reopening status tracker. Let's get to those details.

First, the Manhattan New Yotk Temple is moving from phase 1 to phase 2, which will allow that temple to offer all living ordinances in priority order. 

Meanwhile, the Mexico City Mexico Temple will unpause and be pushed back to phase 1 (offering living husband-to-wife sealings where both are previously endowed). In addition, the Taipei Taiwant Temple, which had reached phase 3 recently, will pause due to local restrictions, while the Toronto Ontario Temple will resume phase 2-B after dropping back to phase 2 in recent weeks.  And although the Hamilton New Zeland Temple remains closed for renovation, it is being given a phase 3 designation so that patrons within its' district can schedule proxy or living ordinances for any of the temples open in nearby Austrailia.

In addition, I made reference last week to the changes that would be coming for 9 temples in Finland and North America. Those details have not changed, and remain in effect. Above and beyond that, the Columbus Ohio and Washington D.C. Temples are both being given phase 2-B designation, and those within those districts who want to schedule  baptisms for the dead can do so at the nearest temples with the same status.

As of next Monday (May 24), the Church's  temple reopenings will break down as follows: 8 remain closed for renoation, with a few of those granted phase 2-B or 3 status; 1 (Kyiv Ukraine) has not reopened in any phase; 4 remain paused (3 had reached phase 3; 1 had reached phase 2); 4 temples remianing in phase 1; 41 in phase 2; 83 in phase 2-B; and 27 which have reached phase 3. I am grateful that the Church continues a cautiously-coordinated reopening plan for temples around the world. I continue to monitor all major Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to bring you all word of those 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreaking Held for Deseret Peak Utah Temple Today

Hello again, everyone! As previously mentioned in the comment threads of another post on this blog, the groundbreaking for the Deseret Peak Utah Temple occurred as scheduled this morning. Elder Brook P. Hales, a General Authority Seventy who has served/is serving as the Secretary to the First Presidency, presided. Other leaders in attendance were Elder Berne S. Broadbent, an area seventy who resides in nearby South Jordan, and Brother Richard Droubray, who previously served as a stake president and who chaired the groundbreaking committee for the temple. Per the release, video of the groundbreaking ceremony will be made available later today. 

And although it was not explicitly stated, I anticipate that the plan remains to utilize an accelrated construction process for that project. Stay tuned for more on that as i learn about 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.

UPDATE: How My Projected Table of Contents for the May 2021 Liahona Compared with the Actual Version; Possible Changes in the Magazine Advisers' Specific Assignments

Hello again, everyone! My wife and I received our copy of the May 2021 Liahona magazine last week, at which time I took the opportunity to compare how my mockup of the table of contents for the magazine compared with the actual physical copy, since the PDF version thereof remains unavailable due to a likely glitch in the Church's computer servers used to post that information. I had hoped that the PDF version would be up by now, but so far, that has not occurred.

So I decided just now to go ahead and share the report. First, I wanted to comment on a couple of interesting elements to the magazine. With the May 2021 Liahona being the first full General Conference edition, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. So as I was thumbing through it, I noticed something interesting. Where information about the editor and advisers of the magazine are listed, there were only a few nams specified this time, with Elder Randy D. Funk listed as the editor of the magazine, and 4 other leaders (Sharon Eubank, Walter F. Gonzalez, Jan E. Newman, and Michael T. Ringwood).

That was intriguing to me because the January-April and June editions had a longer list of advisers noted. In addition to the 4 names I mentioned above, Elders Marcos A. Aidukaitis, Jeremy R. Jaggi, Adrian Ochoa, Sisters Michelle D. Craig and Becky Craven (the respective First and Second Counselors in the Young Women General Presidency), Sister Cristina B. Franco (the since-released Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency), and Brother Bradley R. (Brad) Wilcox, Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency.

As I was pondering the difference in the lists of advisers in the May vs. June editions of the Liahona, I remembered that each conference edition of each magazine goes to print later than regular editions, due to the increased amount of content that needs to be accounted for. With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me if the June magazine went to print faster than the May edition, which might explain why the list of advisers mentioned in the May Liahona is different from June.

If that theory proves correct, then in the coming months, we may have more information, but for now, I am wondering if those who have been or will be listed as advisers going forward will be specifically assigned to individual magazines. If I am correct on this theory, then my assumption is that the editor and Elders Ringwood and Gonzalez (who respectively serve as the Executive Director and Assistant Executive Director of the Priesthood and Family Department) will be the only ones listed as serving in a role for all three magazines going forward. 

I further assume that Brother Newman, as the representative from the Sunday School General Presidency, will also be listed as an adviser specifically to the Liahona (but possibly to one or both of the other two magazines), with Sisters Craig and Craven and Brother Wilcox being specifically assigned as advisers to the For the Strength of Youth magazine, and the member of the Primary General Presidency specifically listed as an adviser to The Friend. 

Until further evidence suggests otherwise, the Church may have opted to assign specific advisers to specific magazines, rather than having all of the advisers be assigned to all of the magazines. Aside from that, this edition brought a few other surprises. Given the increased amount of photographs or other images used, more of the talks in General Conference are taking up slightly more spac than usual.

Let me explain what I mean on that further. For talks given by any of our apostles, those have ranged anywhere from 3-4 pages in general. A few more of the apostolic talks shared in the Liahona span 5 pages, including the photographs or images. Meanwhile, with most talks by non-apostolic speakers typically taking 2-3 pages, more of those took 3-4 pages this time around. The conference edition was also a standard 144 pages in length.

Additionally, something else I wasn't anticipating was that the News of the Church section in the back part of the magazine was subdivided into 3 new sections: New Callings (providing brief half-page biographies for newly-called leaders, including the two new incoming members of the Presidency of the Seventy), the News of the Church section covering other developments, and a two-page conclusion sharing some suggestions for those teaching from the General Conference talks.

Aside from these notes, the table of contents document to which I linked above is pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully whatever is causing the problems with the Church website server might soon be resolved, which will hopefully allow the PDF versions of the magazines to be published as usual. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: 8 Temples in North America and Europe to Offer Proxy Work; 5 Latin American Temples to Unpause Operations

Hello again, everyone! As I noted yesterday, temple reopening announcements will now be made on Tuesday, although they will continue to go into effect on Monday as specified in their announcements, unless otherwise noted. The Newsroom and the Church News have announced changes affecting a total of 13 temples this week in Latin America, North America and Europe, with those changes confimed by the status tracker

First, the Helsinki Finland Temple will offer all proxy ordinances, effective Monday May 24. Meanwhile, the temples in Idaho Falls and Rexburg Idaho, Anchorage Alaska, Chicago Illinois, Montreal Quebec, and Regina Saskatchewan will move to phase 2-B, offering all living ordinances in addition to proxy baptisms. Meanwhile, the temples in Columbus Ohio and Washington D.C. are being given phase 2-B status as well, which will allow patrons in those districts to schedule proxy baptisms at the nearest open temples.

And 5 more temples in Latin America (Concepcion and Santiago Chile, Porto Alegre Brazil, Quetzeltenango Guatemala, and Trujillo Peru) were confirmed to have resumed all phase 2 operations following their recent respective pauses. 

As previously announced last week, the Kansas City Missouri and London and Preston England As of May 17, the Church's temple reopenings will stand as follows: 8 closed for major renovations; 1 (Kyiv Ukraine) which has still not opened in any phase since all temples were closed last year; 4 temples "paused" in their reopenings (1 in phase 1,  1 in phase 2, and 2 in phase 3); 4 in phase 1; 49 in phase 2; 75 in phase 2-B; and 27 in phase 3. Further information on these updates can be found in the links I shared at the beginning of this post.

I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will bring you all word of those 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Exact Groundbreaking Dates Unofficially Confirmed for 3 Temples in the United States

Hello again, everyone! As some of you might recall, a comment on this blog on Saturday that was posted by Eric S. noted the report that the groundbreaking for the Deseret Peak Utah Temple was scheduled to occur this Saturday (May 15). Today, the construction status page for the Church Temples site unofficially confirmed that information. But more than that, the page in question also noted exact dates for next month's groundbreakings for the Talahassee Florida Temple (Saturdy June 5) and the Syracuse Utah Temple (Saturday June 12).

Although the Church won't be officially confirming the dates of each of these groundbreakings until the exact days on which they each occur, generally, if the Church Temples site notes a date in advance of that confirmation, that information has traditionally proven correct. So I have no doubts that each of these temples will have their groundbreakings on those exact dates. I continue to also believe that the probability that other temples could have groundbreakings in June, July, or August remains relatively high.

Particularly, any of the remaining 6 or 7 temples for which sites have been confirmed or renderings have been released could have groundbreakings set, which also applies to any temples that could have sites confirmed, renderings released and even groundbreakings set in one go. Again, in my opinion, we have barely scratched the surface of the major temple announcements which will come down the pike throughout the rest of the year. I will do my best to track all of that aand bring you word on the latest developments as I am able to put that analysis together.

I likewise continue to follow all major Church news updates and will be sure to pass along my take on those as they are reported also. 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: Elder Clark G. Gilbert To Serve as New Commissioner of Church Education

 Hello again, everyone! As some of you might be aware, when the Church announced changes in the Presidency of the Seventy that would be effective August 1, the first new member of that Presidency who was announced was Elder Paul V. Johnson, who currently serves as Commissioner of Church Education. Although it has been customary for a member of the Presidency of the Seventy to serve on the Church Board of Education (with Elder Robert/ C. Gay currently filling that assignment, and Elder Johnson likely to succeed him in doing so in August), generally, a call to the Presidency of the Seventy makes necessary a release from assignments like the Comissioner of Church Education.

So I had privately theorized that Elder Clark G. Gilbert, a new General Authority Seventy currently serving as president of BYU--Pathway Worldwide, might succeed Elder Johnson as the Comissioner of Church Education. A new biographical article on Elder Gilbert through the Church News confirms that theory: Elder Clark G. Gilbert will begin serving as the new Comissioner of Church Education, effective August 1. I imagine this in turn will necessitate a change in the presidency of BYU-Pathway Worldwide, but the Commissioner of Church Education usually plays a role in recommending a change in the presidency of any Church schools, so no doubt Elder Gilbert is qualified to know who his best successor may be.

I am grateful to have learned of this news and to be able to pass it along to you all. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will pass word of those along to you all 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: August Groundbreaking Set for the Sallvador Brazil Temple

Hello again, everyone! A short while ago, the First Presidency announced that a groundbreaking ceremony will be held at some point in August for the Salvador Brazil Temple. Elder Adilson de Paula Parrella, President of the Brazil Area, will preside at the event. An artist's rendering hax been released for the temple, but no square footages and been provided. This temple was another oringally announced in October 2018 by President Nelson.

There are a total of 7 dedicated temples in Brazil, with the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple completed and awaiting ran announcement of revised opening dates.Additionally, the Salvador Brazil temple will join the temples in Belem and Brasilia as being under construction. The Church has also announced temples in Belo Horiznote and East Sao Paulo.

The scheduling for this temple's groundbreaking did catch me by surprise a little. The Church hass previously announcecd that the Deseret Peak Utah Temple will break ground sometime this month, with the Syracuse Utah and Tallahassee Florida Temples following in June. Last year, one temple groundbreaking was held in July. Setting thee groundbreaking for the Salvador Brazil Temple for August suggests that the Church may try to keep July open for aany others that could have a groundbreaking.

I will note that I allso anticiapte announcements relatively soon for the Pago Pago American Samoa and Neiafu Tonga Temples, and that I'm similarly watching for an update on the Lindon Utah and Bahia Blanca Argentina Temples, among others. There is a chance, however remote, that no groundbreakings will be held between those for the Syracuse and Tallahassee temples and the Salvador temple, but I see that scenario as vnlikely, based on information I currently hava available. Either way, I am grateful to have heard of this announcement today, and fo the chance to pass word thereof on it to you all here.

I continue to monitor all other Church News updates and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: 4 Temples in Brazil Unpausing; 30 More Worldwide To Offer Proxy Ordinances

Hello again, everyone! As reported by the Church News and the Newsroom, and confirmed in the weekly temple status tracker, 4 temples in Brazil will unpause next week, at which time 30 others around the world will offer proxy ordinances. Let's break down the details: First, with local COVID-19 conditions sufficiently cleared for the time being, the Campinas, Fortaleza, Recife, and Sao Paulo Brazil temples will unpause and will resume phase 2 operations. Meanwhile, also due to local conditions, the Toronto Ontario Temple will take a step back, from phase 2-B operations to phase 2.

As previously announced last week, the Kansas City Missouri and London and Preston England Temples remain on track to shift to phase 3, offering all living ordinances and limited proxy work (including baptisms for the dead).  Meanwhile, the following 30 temples will move to phase 2-B next week (listed below by area, then alphabetically):

Caribbean: Port-au-Prince Haiti

Central America: Panama City Panama; Tegucigalpa Honduras

México: Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tampico, and Veracruz

North America Central: Nauvoo Illinois

North America Northeast: Indianapolis Indiana

North America Southeast: Atlanta Georgia, Birmingham Alabama, Columbia South Carolina, Louisville Kentucky, Raleigh North Carolina

North America Southwest: All 4 Texas Temples (Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, and San Antonio); Oklahoma City Oklahoma

North America West: All 7 temples in California (Fresno, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego)

Philippines: Cebu City

As of May 10, the Church's temple reopenings will stand as follows: 8 closed for major renovations; 1 (Kyiv Ukraine) which has still not opened in any phase since all temples were closed last year; 7 temples "paused" in their reopenings (1 in phase 1, 4 in phase 2, and 2 in phase 3); 4 in phase 1; 46 in phase 2; 75 in phase 2-B; and 27 in phase 3. Further information on these updates can be found in the links I shared at the beginning of this post.

I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will bring you all word of those 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.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Data

Hello again, everyone! As most of you are almost certainly aware, I have provided updates on the latest apostolic data (specifically relating to tbeir lifespan or tenure length milestones) roughly every seven weeks. Having last done so on March 14 (through utilizing two consolidated documents), it is time to publish the third such update for this year. As with that last update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, information on the tenure length records for each of the 28 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The first document also shows information on three sets of apostolic groups: the longest-serving First Presidencies (which will not be updated with the First Presidency as presently constituted until 2024), in addition to the longest2-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). 

Since my last update, it is worth noting thas of at the current Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as constituted beginning on March 31, 2018 (when Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares were sustained), have officially moved up on the list of longest continuously-serving Quorums of the Twelve Apostles from the 14th to the now-13th spot on that list. They will move up twice more on that list by the end of July of this year. I will be detailing the specifcs of those moves in my next update (which is set to be published here on Sunday June 20).

In a similar manner, the current members of the First Presidency, together with the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with that group of 15 apostles as it has been constituted as of the last day in March of 2018, have not only served long enough to make the list of longest, continuously-serving apostolic groups, but they have already moved up from the 14th to the 12th position on that list, and are set to move up twice more by the end of July, and more than that, the current group of 15 apostles will actually move up on the exact same dates that just the current Quorum of the Twelve will move up. Again, more information on that is coming with my next update (on Sunday June 20).

Meanwhile, the second part  of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the apostolic groups overall, in addition to the average ages of each group and apostolic nonagenarians (with 2 of the current 15 apostles being on that list, and the timing noted for when each of the other 13 apostles will join that list).

Hopefully this shared data will be of interest to you all, and again, I offer an open invitation to anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. I will, of course, conFitinue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of all 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.