Sunday, April 5, 2020

Eight New Temples Announced

This afternoon, President Russell M. Nelson announced eight temples in the following locations:
  • Bahia Blanca, Argentina
  • Tallahassee, Florida 
  • Lubumbashi, DR Congo
  • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Benin City, Nigeria
  • Syracuse, Utah
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • Shanghai, China
With these new announcements, there will now be 225 temples worldwide.

44 comments:

David Tilton said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Eric S. said...

Wow! I'm speechless. The door is blown wide open now. The work is moving forward at an accelerated pace.

MainTour said...

Shanghai China??? Did anyone predict that one coming? I don't know of a single meeting house in Mainland China at this time!

Eric S. said...

The Dubai Temple already has a site selected and will be constructed with a meetinghouse.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-announces-temple-united-arab-emirates

John Pack Lambert said...

I think I only predicted 3 of these in my insanely long list. I know I had Benin City, Lumbumbashi and Pittsburgh on it. I may have also included Bahia Blanca.

I had predicted Jacksonville so Tallahasee surprised me some.

Syracuse shocks me since it is close to Layton. I am not sure anyone predicted a third temple for Davis County. Some predicted Ogden temple district would see a new temple. Cache County is even more overdue for a temple.

I had not predicted a temple in the UAE. It still surprises me but with President Nelson mentioning an invitation from the government there not so much.

Shanghai shows temples can be announced with no stakes. I am not sure anyone predicted that one.

All areas now have at least one temple in some state of operation or planning.

Tallahasee is the first North America South East Area Temple announced by President Nelson. I believe he has still not announced any for the South America North Area but there are two in progress there.

I am surprised no temple was announced for Bolivia. I expect to see one announced for Bolivia in the fall.

L. Chris Jones said...

Wow, I did not expect mainland China yet. I'm not surprised for most of the others, although I thought some like Dubai would be a few more years. With Latin I did not expect one in Syracuse though I expected at least one in other areas of Utah.

Whizzbang said...

Something interesting in July 1949 Elder Matthew Cowley dedicated China for Missionary work, Elder David O. McKay dedicated it in 1921 for the Preaching of the Gospel. Elder Cowley prophesied there would be a Temple in China someday and I guess that day has arrived

L. Chris Jones said...

I meant Layton, not latin

coachodeeps said...

;)

Deivisas said...

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/church-announces-temple-united-arab-emirates

Paul said...

Will the temple in China be an existing building or will a new building be erected?

Michael Worley said...

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/China

More information about the Shanghai meeting place (temple) here.

Michael W. Towns, Sr. said...

Regarding Tallahassee and not Jacksonville, if you look at the map, Tallahassee will be a more centralized location for the many members living in south Georgia, north and west Florida, and south Alabama. I grew up in Tallahassee and I've always believed that it was a location that made perfect sense for a temple. I'm certain that Jacksonville will get one, too, at some point, but Tallahassee will be a truly huge blessing for many faithful members across three states.

L. Chris Jones said...

China has a great church history. Other than immidiate family members, most of the members there joined the church outside the country and returned home. The church only publishes the branches for expatriate members and they have to meet separately from the local membership. If I understood correctly, the new temple will be a multi purpose building.

Gracie said...

@Unknown in the comments after the post "New Temple Prediction Map - September 2016 Edition" Shanghai was predicted "within 5 years" by Anonymous. There was also a discussion in that thread about how likely people thought it was, that a temple could be announced in either Beijing or Shanghai.

https://ldschurchgrowth.blogspot.com/2016/09/new-temple-prediction-map-september.html

James Anderson said...

There is one other thing about temples that came up during Elder Cook's talk, he said that there had been revelations about the temple, meaning in relation to operating temples, 'that have been received but not yet implemented', and if they have to do with ordinances, that will be known when we go one day, or as happened last year, when someone blabs about them to the media in an almost or totally inappropriate way.

When is that Worlds Fair in Dubai going to be concluded, those things last for months, and it may be that it will also be in a new city that is set to be nearly the size of Sandy in population

Anonymous said...

Expo in Dubai is set to end in May of next year. So this will be some time to get renderings done and put up a solid plan for construction.

Danny said...

James Anderson -- in listening to the talk, it sounded like it was in context of the things that were implemented in early 2019.

Eduardo said...

I attended a small branch last December about 45 minutes or so outside of Tallahassee, one of the speakers mentioned working at a Tallahassee Walmart, I think.
Great to see a third temple for Florida, a very populated state.
The Chinese government is going to have to allow some freedoms, because complete tyranny is untenable in the 21st century.
Great to see growth in Nigeria and Congo. They will be hit hard by corona virus, but blessed with so many youth.
Great stuff, love President Nelson.
The Lord lives.

L. Chris Jones said...

I wonder how COVID19 is impacting the Dubai expo and temple construction.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

I was thinking about surprise temple announcements, and how many have happened in recent memory (either unlikely or come out of the blue).

Perhaps you all can add to this list?

Shanghai, China
Dubai UAE
Syracuse, Utah
Yuba City/Feather River
Okinawa
Winnipeg
Massive Renovation of Salt Lake
Bangalore, India
Budapest
Russia
Rome
Provo City Center
Complete Change to Ogden's Design
100 Temples by the year 2000 (including the announcement of the smaller Hinckleyan Temples)
Nauvoo 2
Vernal
Freiburg

Seems like these happen every few cycles (but dark horses seem more likely under President Nelson).

Luke said...

"The UAE officially proposes October 1, 2021 start for World Expo 2020 Dubai
Final decision on a change of dates can only be made by a two-thirds majority vote of BIE member states.

Following discussions with the BIE, participating countries and key stakeholders, the UAE has proposed that the event starts on October 1, 2021 and runs through to March 31, 2022."

-Taken from Arab Business Journal in article published earlier today

Luke said...

So the Dubai Temple's construction may be delayed a couple years should this proposal be accepted.

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/healthcare/444331-uae-officially-proposes-one-year-postponement-of-world-expo-2020-dubai

Eric S. said...

@Johnathan

I would Moses Lake and Star Valley. I remember when President Monson announced Star Valley there was an audible gasp in the conference center and President Monson then made one his trademark quips about hoping to dedicate the temple himself so that he could do some "good fishing" up there. :)

Perhaps we could add Washington County (St. George #2) as well. I'm sure a second temple there was one some had thrown around as a possibility (much like Vegas is now), but came as a surprise for how soon it was announced(at least it was a big surprise to me).

John Pack Lambert said...

When the Boston Stake was organized in 1962 it had 1714 members. There were 4 general authorities at the conference organizing it. They were Henry D. Moyle, Harold B. Lee, Gordon B. Hinckley and Franklin D. Richards.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

It's funny, I had just added Syracuse to my list of "Temples I Would like to see Someday" in Davis County on my "Temple Predictions by Utah Counties" analysis.

Guess I need to bump that one up to the announced list. :)


https://www.dropbox.com/s/jeooo5ivcbt688j/Temple%20Predictions%20by%20Utah%20County%20-%20Apr%202020.docx?dl=0

John Pack Lambert said...

I took Elder Cook's comments to refer to them having been received as if fall 2018 when Come Follow Me was announced but implemented later.

I assumed he meant the new endowment and maybe the end of the year wait between civil and temple marriage. Also maybe the change in ceremonial clothing.

What I found interesting is the endowment is now in 88 languages. I believe that is up from a year ago. Also Elder Bednar's prediction that number would double in the next few years. There are huge numbers of languages in Africa. I believe South Africa alone has 11 official languages.

John Pack Lambert said...

I wonder if the Church has an exhibit at Expo Dubai as at the New York World's Fair of 1963.

John Pack Lambert said...

Guam and Cape Verde also strike me as unexpected. The same with Moses Lake.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Eric S.

Definitely Star Valley and Moses Lake.

Washington County was surprising, and I think the clarification that it would be in St. George also was unexpected. More expected was it being in Hurricane, Washington, or another part of the county.

Weren't 2nd ones for Lima and Manila unexpected as well?

John Pack Lambert said...

So the temple would post date that. I hope we have a Church exhibit there.

John Pack Lambert said...

Lima not really. The Lima temple is 10,000 square feet in a city with 40 plus stakes.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@John Pack Lambert

I had considered Guam and Cape Verde for the list, as well, but wanted a 2nd opinion first, which you have now given. :)

Should we include Puerto Rico with those ones, as well?

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@John Pack Lambert

Right. Good clarification on Lima.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

Thinking about it some more, Manhattan should be included on that list.

Eric S. said...

@Johnathan

Yes, the clarification of the site for St. George was surprising to me as well as I too thought it would be built in Washington City.

Whizzbang said...

I would add Kiev Ukraine to the list of surprise temples. One that is a surprise but not a surprise is Regina getting a temple before Calgary, Regina at the time had one enormous stake but Calgary had several in the city, with one being built in Edmonton at the time, it seemed numerically weird for Regina to get one but not Calgary.

twinnumerouno said...

Johnathan,

Maybe I'm just not good at guessing but I have a long list of temples that were surprises to me: (some of this is going back a ways)

Campinas Brazil
Colonia Juarez & Monticello (2 of the 1st 3 of Pres. HInckley's small temples)
Halifax (I still hadn't really grasped that a temple could be built with 2 stakes)
Kyiv
Regina
Villahermosa, Oaxaca and Tuxtla Gutierrez all getting one, they looked so close on a map
Copenhagen
Nauvoo
Winter Quarters
The Hague
Lubbock- just because I had never heard of it
ditto Snowflake
Draper and Oquirrh Mtn- not that dividing the Jordan River district was a surprise, but
that I would have anticipated it being done differently
Kansas City- someone had claimed that there would never be a temple built in western
Missouri before the one in Independence is completed, and I had not questioned it
Philadelphia- I thought it was too close to DC to really be able to support a temple,
though it seems obvious now- also the location inside the city was a surprise esp.
when I got to go to the open house and see how crowded the area around it is
Brigham City I did not see coming before another in the Ogden area (and I agree about
Ogden's makeover too)
Sapporo also seems obvious now but I did not see it as the 3rd for Japan
Hartford and Indianapolis were both surprises to me
7 of the 9 announced in 2011 surprised me- this includes Fort Collins, Meridian, Winnipeg,
Paris, Durban, perhaps Provo City Center and Star Valley.
Bangkok, Port-au-Prince and Belem surprised me a little
Lima 2nd and Manila 2nd, mainly because I still wasn't considering 2nd temples in a city

I have also been surprised by the timing of Pres. Nelson's announcements, including India; Russia; Salta and Mendoza coming before Bahia Blanca; Davao 6 months after Cagayan de Oro; and Phnom Penh before Bangkok's ground was broken.

Yigo
Yuba City/Feather River
Praia
Antofagasta- I tend to be slow to adjust my thinking, and I thought there weren't enough
members for a temple there
ditto Budapest
Moses Lake
Okinawa
Coban
McAllen as the next for Texas

In yesterday's announcement, Benin City and Bahia Blanca were the only ones I really anticipated (and perhaps Lubumbashi, but I did not expect it yet).

A couple other temples that were also surprising to me in the timing of their announcement:
Quetzaltenango right after Tegucigalpa
Gilbert before Phoenix

Valenzuela y Escobar said...

Hello

The temple announcements are what I look forward to the most from each conference.

Hopefully the day will come when temples are closer to those who want to attend and work on their own genealogy.

In the case of my country Chile, despite the great inactivity and all the discontinued stakes, they are baptized faithful and dedicated to the gospel, that should be enough so that not only in Chile, temples are announced and built closer.
In Chile, being such a long country, the distances are long and having smaller temples could encourage greater participation, regardless of the fact that there are not as many assets per geographic area.

It is to be hoped that one day there will be a temple in Viña del Mar, Punta arenas, Valdivia, Arica, La Serena, Rancagua, etc.

As well as in other countries of the world where they are required, without distinction

Unknown said...

@Historia Familiar Valenzuela Escobar do you know if the current two temples in Santiago and Concepción are busy/crowded? If they are underutilized that may play a role as to why more places in Chile might not have temples.

But surely Antofagasta was an exception, they seemed to put a temple there because of the long distance to the next nearest temple.

Johnathan Reese Whiting said...

@Whizzbang & twinnumerouno

Those are all good examples of surprises. Thanks for giving me the reasons too.

Eduardo said...

Language diversity in the continent of Africa is massive. My dad in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone in the 1960s noted that he knew people that spoke 14 languages or dialects.
In Nigeria, where Ibo (maybe the people are Igbo, I forget) is a huge language group of mostly Christians, three linguists triangulating a town are needed to understand the dialect effectively, because the variance is so great.
Perhaps some languages and dialects are dying off, but most Africans speak or communicate in one of the following world languages: Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili, which has much of the first three.
Awesome to see the overall growth and temple production in sub-Saharan Africa.
Even the Sahel has some hope in Mali, Senegal.
Note about Corona virus: could malaria-stricken areas be less ravaged by COVID-19 because of some previous immunities? We can only hope.

James G. Stokes said...

Wikipedia has provided a bit more information on the Dubai 2020 expo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_2020#Impact_of_the_2019-20_coronavirus_pandemic

The final dates may be posted there not long after they are determined.

It is fascinating to me that Dubai directly invited the Church to build a temple there, and that the Saints in Bahia Blanca petitioned Church headquarters for a temple of their own as well. I also understand that there appears to be some confusion on the part of some government representatives in Shanghai, because they have repeatedly denied that the Church is building a temple there, but at the same time, the information shared about that temple by President Nelson indicated that part of an existing building would be used for temple worship, so naturally, the Chinese government wouldn't have knowledge of a new building being planned by the Church on the mainland for that purpose. I could offer additional commentary on the Chinese government here, particularly their assertions about COVID-19 in their nation, but I will restrain myself from doing so. Thanks.

Valenzuela y Escobar said...

Hello
Responding to @unknown about how used are the temples of Santiago and Concepción in Chile, I must say that:

The temple of Santiago has always had little assistance from the baptized from Santiago and its surroundings, the largest attendance was from the north and south of Chile, on one occasion about 2 years ago I went with a friend to the temple gardens, and there were about 100 baptized from Antofagasta who came to the temple for several days, the trip is very long by bus, but they were there serving in the temple.
In Concepción, I know that the brothers are going, the temple is not long ago, having it so close should encourage their attendance and faith.

When I mentioned that more temples would be good for Chile, it is because it is a very long and distant country, the few baptized active and faithful, they must spend a lot of money to go to the temple and they are very humble people, so it would be good if they had temples closer , for their faith and devotion.
I live walking from the temple of Santiago 45 minutes, by car it must be 10 minutes, but I am excommunicated.
Before being excommunicated, he tried to go as often as possible, at that time on Friday the sessions on Friday were all night.

I work on my family history, because I know how important it is.


A hug from Chile

Omar Elías