This evening, President Russell M. Nelson announced eight new temples in the following locations:
- Freetown, Sierra Leone
- Orem, Utah
- Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
- Bentonville, Arkansas
- Bacolod, Philippines
- McAllen, Texas
- Cobán, Guatemala
- Taylorsville, Utah
With today's announcement, there are now 217 temples announced or dedicated temples worldwide.
Thrilled for Sierra Leone and Bentonville! And I have a special interest in my new hometown temple in Orem!
ReplyDeleteMight the church use one of the properties that has two meetinghouses on the same block for the Orem temple? Or are they too close to Provo?
The properties I know best are somewhat or the wast side of Orem, but it is not like anywhere in Orem or even Vinyard is far from the temple.
DeleteThis is a temple built to relieve crowding at other temples. The other question is are double chapel lots big enough, which I have no clue.
Or maybe the bulldozz the empty Macey's section of the mall & surrounding parking lot for Orem's temple! Make good use of unused space. 😜 but not sure if it's pretty enough...
ReplyDeleteOr they could buy out the existing mall and level the whole thing for a truly massive project. That would make full scale beautification easier.
DeleteI will likely also be in the Orem Temple district where I currently live. I'm curious to see in what part of the city they put it.
ReplyDeleteAlso great to see these other places getting temples. Many of them have been on our radar for a while and are finally coming to fruition (Bentonville, McAllen, Port Moresby, Freetown).
Interesting that Pres Nelson announced it in the women's session. I don't know if that has happened before.
ReplyDeleteMy wife was pleased, and feels it was a very positive move to help some of the women that may feel marginalized.
I think President Hinkley once announced new temples during a Priesthood session. Someone correct me if that is not the case.
DeleteThe whole concept of the no full time employees locally staffed small sized temple was announced at priesthood meeting. Plus 3 specific first temples, plus 2 other temples.
DeleteI believe President H8nckley also announced the abandoning of plans for the Hartford Temple and a shift to building temples in White Plains and Boston at Feneral Priesthood Meeting.
DeleteTo be fair in assessing the grounbrwakingness of President Nelson's announcing at the General Women's meeting this is only the 2nd that occurred during the weekend of general conference.
The change to the new schedule was announced during President Monson's administration.
JPL, when you say "this is only the second that occurred during the weekend of General Conference", do you mean this is only the second time the Women's Session was held the same weekend as the other sessions? If not, then it sounds like you are trying to say that this is only the second time temples were announced during General Conference weekend, which may not be what you meant. Thanks.
DeleteMaybe he'll announce more tomorrow... Just pepper the announcements throughout sessions?? You never know with Pres. Nelson! 😃 I loved having them announced in women's session as we were discussing eternal families and the priesthood treasures for women in the temple. Befitting! Loved how he shakes things up!
ReplyDeleteThe biggest shake up was President Nelson speaking during the 2nd session on Saturday. I number it because here in Detroit as well as Ohio, Pitrsbugh and the east coast the first session starts at noon on Saturday so everything is afternoon.
DeleteI do not think I have ever heard a talk by a member of the 1st presidency in the 2nd session.
Also I am so used to President Nelson announcing things I was a little disappointed that his talk on humanitarian service didnt include any announcements per se. I was hoping he would announce some new initiative there, I was trying to figure out what, but In guess for now it will continue as is.
Wow! Exciting temple announcements! So happy for Sierra Leone and Papua New Guinea who have had long travels to their nearest temples and who have been no doubt praying for this day for a long time. :)
ReplyDeleteFinally, Arkansas' temple is coming! I suspect the lot behind the stake center will be the location?
Orem is definitely a pleasant surprise along with Taylorsville. I wonder where the two will go. I'll have to start looking at some maps, but perhaps Taylorsville could go somewhere on the west side where there is the most available land.
It has only been a few years since the first stake, the 3000th in the Church, was formed in I think late 2013. Still the true film "Freetown" recounts events of I believe 1990. It takes as long to travel from Freerown to the temple in Accra as from New York City to Salt Lake City, not including delays from multiple border crossings.
DeleteOne thing though about President Nelson's talk. The first stake was formed in West Africa in 1988. If his first travel to that part of the continent was in 1986 he would not have been speaking with a stake President overseeing bishops but a district president overseeing branch presidents. The man may well have been David W. Eka who would be called by Elder Maxwell as a stake President in 2 years, and would later be an area seventy, but he was not a stake President yet.
For Taylorsville, that's anyone's guess right now. But there is the story where a meetinghouse burned there around 10-15 years ago and it happened just below 54th South. There was also Church-owned property to one side, and the burned-out meetinghouse was never rebuilt but they put the new one nearby.
ReplyDeleteInteresting info, James. :) If I were to guess, it will probably be somewhere on the northern or northwestern part of the city to make it a more central Taylorsville-Kearns-West Valley-Magna Temple. Will be exciting to see.
DeleteTaylorsville will surely serve West Valley, my previous city of residence for nearly 8 years! How exciting! And a surprise, though Matt had WVC on his lists/map.
ReplyDeleteWe had a sister missionary here last year from Papua New Guinea and her and her family walked to Church, every sunday, for 2 hours, there and back. I can't even fathom walking to church in total for 4 hours, every sunday. I am glad they are getting a Temple!
ReplyDeleteI had the blessed privilege to meet up with a dear beloved family from my mission in Guatemala who came for conference this weekend. I was able to get 4 tickets and take them to the first session today for their first time! What a great experience to watch them take it all in! They went to the Tabernacle for the second session (I had to be at home). And then the wife and daughter were able to get tickets for the women's conference. They were there in the conference center for the announcement of Coban, Guatemala! How awesome! After the first session, the husband saw someone from Guatemala that he knew and introduced him to me. He is going to be the new Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temples President come November 1.
ReplyDeleteGonzalo E. García-Salas
ReplyDeleteLooking at the city boundaries for Taylorsville on Google Maps, the largest plots of potentially available land that I could find is on the northeast side of the corner of Bangerter Highway and 6200 S. I don't know what the history is behind the pieces of land there or who owns what, but there is a small area of homes and a chapel right at that corner in the area. It actually looks like some more development is starting to occur just east of those homes. With UDOT in the process of converting Bangerter Highway into a full fledged freeway with interchanges (construction on that specific intersection into an interchange will actually begin next year, in fact), that area would make an ideal location for those traveling down from West Valley. The close proximity might include some West Jordan stakes as well. If not in that area, I'm not quite sure where else unless the Church decides to raze an old chapel.
ReplyDeleteThe other areas of Taylorsville, if the city goes past 6400 West, is near the new U-85 freeway, partially built although you have a skeleton structure of lanes and interchanges, and there is a fair amount of land right near that on both sides, along with Texas-style feeders, so there are a number of spots this might end up at.
ReplyDeleteWhat about near this church house at 6030 W Prairie View Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84118?
ReplyDeleteGoogle maps gave me that address. Should be South, not west. This is just east of Bangerter Highway.
DeleteFor Orem, what about 800 E Center St? Or 800 E 710 S (as mentioned before where there are 2 chapels together)?
ReplyDeleteI just wonder if east Orem puts you too close to Provo. On the other hand the other part of me hopes to see Vineyard and Lehi as well as Springville and Nephi among the 2000 temples we have by 2030. That part of me is probably too on the crazy side.
DeleteI wonder if a temple announced for Papua New Guinea means that we will soon see districts there upgraded to stakes.
President Hinckley introduced temples in the priesthood session at least a few times. In fact, that was where he introduced the "smaller temple" concept.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I think you're referring to the Oct. 1997 conference I mentioned under another post. Briefly, as I stated there, a spreadsheet I made of temple information from Rick's temple page shows that only 16 of the 79 temples announced during Pres. Hinckley's presidency (March 1995-Jan. 2008) were announced in conference, in 6 of the 26 conferences he presided over.
ReplyDeleteAs far as which session the announcements were made, I just looked up those 6 conferences. The first two, Oct. 1995 and Oct. 1997, were in priesthood as you mentioned. The next two, Apr. 1999 and Apr. 2000 were in closing remarks on Sunday afternoon, and the last two, Oct. 2004 and Oct. 2005 were in opening remarks on Saturday morning.
Oct. 1997 was the conference where Pres. Hinckley introduced his revelation about building small temples and announced location for the first three, and yes, it was in the priesthood session.
ReplyDeleteFor clarity, I started composing my previous comment as a response to an earlier comment by "John" and did not see the posts by John Pack Lambert until I posted it.
I am always not certain small is the operative word of the temples President Hinckley announced. Lima Peru is smaller by some measures than Detroit Michigan, although since Lima has an auxiliary building with clothing rental the size of the temple per se in not fully accurate.
DeleteThe key to the smaller temples was setting them up on a volunteer basis, not having laundries and cafeterias, and such. I believe Elder Teh spent some of his time prior to his call as a general authority as the recorder for the Manilla Temple as his full time calling and Octaviano Tenorio had the same position in the Mexico City Temple prior to his call as a general authority.
The small temples the 1st counselor in the temple presidency is the recorder. As I understand it in some temples there are paid employees in the office, as well as the laundry and cafeteria. Detroit Templs has no paid employees based there although some of the paid staff at physical facilities sometimes are sent to do work in the temple.
Orem's two-chapel lot on 8th South/8th East is not quite large enough, barely under what may be needed, the two buildings together make up about 45k square feet, both mid to large chapels, identical plans and footprint. They are used by YSA units.
ReplyDelete8th East and Center there is an orchard and some of that, as it is larger, would fit.
Above the cemetery near the radio transmitter nest but not too close, approximately is another possibility, not sure what they may have up there.
Anything close to Geneva Road (U-114) is out as that for the most part is industrial. Water issues and liquifaction make areas west of that not desirable
Someone mentioned 62nd South/Bangerter, within view of that on a rise is some kind of a storage tank for one of the cities by 32nd West, that is clearly visible from Bangerter. They may not quite want that close by.
I recently looked at the Orem orchard on Google satelite view. Depending on the level of zooming, it looks like it is getting developed. Maybe part of it will be a temple.
ReplyDeleteYou're correct, JPL, that was in Oct. 1995, and he also announced the temple in Caracas Venezuela in that priesthood meeting.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Taylorsville can be fast tracked to avoid too much overcrowding from SL temple closing. Neither it nor Tooele Valley will be done in time to avoid all the crunch of closing, but at least JR, Draper, OM and Bountiful will not have r years of being crowded to b6rsting.
ReplyDeleteSaying a member of the First Presidency has never spoken in the 2nd session (apart from one of the counselors leading the sustaining of church leaders) might be a bit too strong- but I just went back to 2010 and couldn't find such a talk in that session.
ReplyDeleteThe Tooele Valley Utah Temple is reportedly being fast-tracked. From what i hear, the Church is hoping to get approval for the temple plans by mid-2020, which, if successful, could see a groundbreaking occur before the end of that year. And with construction anticipated to take roughly 2 years on that temple (also due to being fast-tracked), we could see that temple being in operation for roughly 1.5-2 years before the Salt Lake Temple is rededicated.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, in addition to the already-scheduled groundbreakings for the Saratoga Springs Utah and Puebla Mexico Temples, if what I am hearing is correct, action is also anticipated on the Nairobi Kenya, Brasilia Brazil, Harare Zimbabwe, Bengaluru India, and Greater Manila Philippines Temples. I'm not sure at this point whether or not each of these temples would actually have a groundbreaking occur the end of this year, but I could see the Church releasing more details and setting groundbreakings for any of them prior to the end of the year, with their groundbreakings following in the early months of next year.
I wouldn't be shocked at all if President Nelson announces more details for other temples as well before the end of the year. In the meantime, the question of whether President Nelson could announce more temples during the upcoming final session of this General Conference weekend is uncertain. As President of the Church, he is, of course, free to do anything the Lord inspires him to do. If any mention is made of temples, however, it could be him laying out more specifics about his plans to expand the number of temples, or announcing over-the-pulpit additional temples which will either be scheduled for renovation in the near future, or that will have a groundbreaking, dedication, or rededication before next April's General Conference.
It is also possible that a new announcement unrelated to temples could come out of left field during the final session. But if that happens, it would likely not be missionary-related, since all members of the Missionary Executive Council who were expected to speak during this General Conference have already done so. But I suspect something that is either welfare- or temple-related may be in the works, since we have not yet heard from anyone in the Presiding Bishopric.
In any case, we will know one way or another within the next 2.5 hours what will have occurred during that final session. I wouldn't be shocked by more announcements, or by a status-quo final session. I look forward to seeing what will occur there.
Meanwhile, for any of you who may be interested, I have provided quite a bit of analysis on the highlights of General Conference throughout this weekend on my own blog. With my ongoing thanks to Matt for his graciously allowing me to continue to provide such updates, I would like to again share the web address for my blog:
http://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com
My thanks to Matt for his continued helpful analysis here. I look forward to seeing which other nations are on the next edition of his top 10 list of those with the strongest Church presence without a temple, since last night's announcements knocked the first and second nations off the list from last April. My thanks also again to all of you for everything your insights clarifies for me in relation to the Church growth topics published on this blog.
In answer to an earlier question as well, it has not been traditional for either a Church president or his counselors to give a regular address in the Saturday Afternoon Session. In fact, President Nelson's announcement this conference during that session marked the first time since April 2007 that a member of the First Presidency spoke during that session. During that April 2007 General Conference, the reason was the rededication of the Tabernacle at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. But for a Church President who has bucked tradition, normal trends, and expectations, it should not be surprising that the status quo keeps getting shaken up. It appears that President Nelson has thrown out the previously-used traditions and patterns when it comes to the speaking order in General Conference. And the wonderful thing about that is that it keeps us all on our toes and more prone to actually pay attention to General Conference, since we never know what might be happening and when. At least, that's MHO, for what it may be worth.
ReplyDeleteAll of the first presidency typically speak during the Saturday night session, so makes sense they don’t get too involved during the Saturday afternoon session other than the sustainings.
ReplyDeleteNew temple interview questions!
ReplyDeleteWhat actually changed in the temple interview questions.
ReplyDeleteI suggested they would change them! or tweak them
ReplyDeleteHere's some bigger changes
5. Do you live the law of chastity?
now it's
The Lord has said that all things are to be “done in cleanliness” before Him (Doctrine and Covenants 42:41). Do you strive for moral cleanliness in your thoughts and behavior? Do you obey God’s law of chastity?
14. Have there been any sins or misdeeds in your life that should have been resolved with priesthood authorities but have not been?
now it's
Are there serious sins in your life that need to be resolved with priesthood authorities as part of your repentance?
Church news says 11 questions have been modified.
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/october-2019-general-conference-temple-recommend
I read that as there are 11 questions, even though a few like law of chastity are multiple questions. I think the cleanliness in mind is a change.
DeleteI want to correct something I posted earlier. I missed two temples Pres. Hinckley announced in conference (JPL caught my error on another post.) So what I should have said is that 18 of the 79 temples he announced as prophet were announced in conference.
ReplyDeleteSo besides the addition of moral cleanliness in thoughts and behavior the wording changed from live to obey.
ReplyDeleteThe final question connects resolving the questions to repentance more clearly.