Monday, December 2, 2019

November 2019 Newsletter

Click here to access the November 2019 newsletter for www.cumorah.com.

15 comments:

Eduardo said...

Kenema seems to be the farthest placed stake from the capital in Sierra Leone.
It would be neat to know the farthest flung stake from each nation's capital.

John Pack Lambert said...

Mozambique is a country where the Church has huge potential to grow. To be fear, no where in the current Africa south-east area has the Church more than scratched the surface. Even South Africa where the Church has been for 150 plus years, at least since when the first missionaries came, and 116 years or so of constant presence, the Church has huge levels of unbleached areas.

Downtownchrisbrown said...

I would guess that the Stakes in Hawaii are the farthest from a capital in the world

L. Chris Jones said...

What about Guam?

Eduardo said...

Chris Brown: Unless you count the stakes in the American territories like American Samoa or Guam. Pretty far from Washington D.C. 15,000 miles?
How about Canada? Ottawa to northwest BC?
Also, distances of temples to their farthest flung stakes, districts, wards, branches, and even members (like an isolated person in that branch) is an interesting concept.
I attended the Sydney, Nova Scotia Branch a few years ago. One member drove something like 3 hours every Saturday night to sleep by the chapel every Sunday. Would that person have the longest to go to arrive in Halifax? For that province, the farthest, but certainly members in Newfoundland, Iceland, Nunavut, or Greenland must be their farthest distanced membership.

Downtownchrisbrown said...

My sister lived in Happy Valley Goose Bay, and it was more than 24 hours to get to church because of the timing of ferries. Tack on a few hours and they would be at the temple

twinnumerouno said...

Eduardo,

The Halifax temple also serves the Saint John New Brunswick stake, which includes all of New Brunswick, units in northern Maine, and the units in Prince Edward Island (at the time I was in the stake, PEI had 3 branches). So even excluding Newfoundland (members there would have to take a ferry or fly), there would be several units with a longer drive to the Halifax temple than 3 hours.

John Pack Lambert said...

Vladivostok would be a strong contender if it had a stake.

On another note, does anyone know when Abuja became the capital of Nigeria. I was thinking that would make it interesting to learn how far it was from Aba to the capital when it first became a stake.

I also realized this illustrates something else. Although Nigeria, along with Canada and Germany, lacks a temple in its capital, it does have a temple located in the city of its oldest stake, and that was the first temple. The same is true of Canada.

This made me began to wonder what other places have a temple in the city of their oldest stake.

On further thought, one of the few places where I am sure the oldest stake and the temple are not in the same location is Italy. There were stakes in north-Italy about 20 years before Rome got one.

On another note my parents have not moved since I was one. It now takes them less time to get to the temple than it did to get to the church building when I was a child. True, there was a church building adjacent to the temple, but our ward was assigned to one further away. The difference in travel time is about 7 minutes, 15 as opposed to 22 under good conditions.

miro said...

The stakes in French Polynesia and New Caledonia are very far away from Paris France.

James G. Stokes said...

JPL, technically, any major Russian city could be chosen for the temple. With the recent example of the temple in Yigo Guam, it is being built in neither the capital city (Hagåtña) nor the city in which the one stake in Guam is based (Barrigada). So with that example in mind, a major Russian city that just has a ward (the same way Yigo Guam has a ward but will be home to the temple) rather than a stake could be chosen. That said, the overwhelming consensus appears to be that the top three contenders are Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Saratov, each of which has a stake.

That said, I have mentioned in passing how I came to the conclusion that Moscow would likely be the location chosen for the temple. Let me now provide more details and context that supports that. One of my contacts on temple-related matters is a contractor whose company the Church has apparently permanently kept on board to handle several temple contracts. Among other temples, this individual was involved in the Rio de Janeiro Brazil project.

As a result of that, and the other projects his company has handled or may yet handle, he has been in meetings with top Church leaders when temple matters were discussed. And although he and I have tried to make it clear in the information we share back-and-forth that nothing is official until the Brethren make it so, he indicated to me that Moscow would likely be the best spot for the temple, which I assume means that that has been discussed in such settings where he was present. I have verified his credentials, and have no reason whatsoever to doubt anything he has told me in that or any other respect.

Of course, any way it's considered, barring a significantly-miraculous set of circumstances, it may be a while yet before we hear any official specifics on that temple. And unless and until an official announcement is made, any information any of us have is subject to change. But I hope that by providing further details, my reasoning for advancing Moscow as the likely choice makes more sense. Having noted that, my research shows that the city of Abuja was built in the 1980s, and formally replaced Lagos as the capital city of Nigeria on December 12, 1991. With the temple in Aba being announced on April 2, 2000, and formally dedicated by President Hinckley on August 7, 2005, the temple's announcement came a decade after Abuja was designated the capital city, and it was dedicated nearly 14 years after that change was made. Hope all of this information is helpful to you, JPL, and to all others who might read it.

John Pack Lambert said...

So when the Abs stake was created Lagos was the capital.

James G. Stokes said...

That's correct. My research shows that the Aba Nigeria Stake was created on May 15, 1988:

https://www.thechurchnews.com/archives/1988-05-21/new-first-for-western-africa-stake-is-formed-in-aba-nigeria-153376

And given that the first Nigerian stake (and the first stake in the Africa West Area) was the Aba Nigeria Stake, I am not shocked that Aba was the chosen location for the first Nigerian temple.

Omar Valenzuela Escobar said...

Encuentro tan interesante este y otros blog, donde sé hablan de cómo progresa y los desafíos que presenta la iglesia en cada país, donde intenta establecerse y echar raíces.

Ver tantos templos anunciados y ya algunos pasando a la etapa de construcción, da esperanzas, que cada vez los templos podrían estar más cerca de los bautizados.

Ojalá llegué el día que todos (as) pueden ver la importancia que asistir al templo, obedecer y servir con dedicación para que SION siga creciendo.
Un abrazo desde Chile

James G. Stokes said...

Estoy totalmente de acuerdo, Omar. Creo que vendrán muchos más templos. Hay al menos 100 ubicaciones en todo el mundo en las que puedo pensar que los miembros experimentan dificultades excesivas, grandes distancias, viajes rigurosos o caros, etc. Cuán bendecidos somos de tener al presidente Nelson, un verdadero templo Profeta constructor. Pero como él ha dicho, es más fácil construir un templo para la gente que construir un pueblo listo para el templo. A medida que la gente se prepare, vendrán los templos. De eso no tengo dudas.

Y nuevamente, disculpe mi pobre español. Solo hablo con fluidez el Traductor de Google. Gracias.

Valenzuela y Escobar said...

James

Espero estés bien de salud al igual tu esposa.

Como bien señalas los templos traen Alegría y mayor deseo de obedecer y cumplir a los mienbros bautizados.

Creo que les motiva mucho el que sea más cerca de su casa, ayuda a recordar los convenios del templo el asistir seguido.

Cuando llegué a la Iglesia en julio 1990 en Santiago de Chile, no existían tantos templos anunciados y construidos como ha sido en estas últimas décadas.

Un abrazo y gracias por responder