Today, the Church announced significant changes to its three monthly magazines it publishes for adults, adolescents, and children that will go into effect in January 2021. The Ensign will be called the Liahona (name used currently for the Ensign outside of the United States), the New Era will be called For the Strength of Youth, and the Friend will remain the Friend. These changes constitute a major advancement in the availability of regular and contemporary Church messages, news, and teachings in additional languages, and at a greater frequency than before for most languages. Also, this marks the first time that the Church will have separate magazines for adolescents and children in other languages. There will be 87 languages with translations of Church magazines beginning January 2021. See below for information on the frequency and availability (print or online) of these magazines in different languages, as contained in the official announcement:
Beginning in January 2021, print and digital magazines will be available each month in the following languages: Cebuano, Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, and Ukrainian.
In the following languages, print and digital magazines will be available bimonthly (six times a year). Additionally, selected magazine content will be available digitally in the months a print magazine is not available: Albanian, Armenian, Bislama, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Fijian, Greek, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kiribati, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Marshallese, Mongolian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swahili, Tahitian, and Vietnamese.
In the following languages, selected magazine content will be available only digitally each month: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Burmese, Chuukese, Efik, Fante, Georgian, Haitian, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hindi (Fiji), Hmong, Igbo, Ilokano, Kinyarwanda, Kosraean, Laotian, Lingala, Malay, Maltese, Nepali, Palauan, Pohnpeian, S. Sotho, Serbian, Shona, Sinhala, Slovak, Tamil, Telugu, Tshiluba, Tswana, Turkish, Twi, Urdu, Xhosa, Yapese, Yoruba, and Zulu.
Many of these languages have never had editions of Church magazines before, although some have had digital copies of select Church magazine content available online. There will be 23 languages with print and digital versions, 24 languages with bimonthly print versions and digital versions of select magazine content on remaining months, and 40 languages with monthly digital versions of select magazine content. Currently, the Church maintains editions of the Liahona in the following 48 languages (number of editions per year provided in parentheses)
- Albania (6)
- Armenian (4)
- Bislama (6)
- Bulgarian (4)
- Cambodian (6)
- Cebuano (12)
- Chinese (Simplified) (6)
- Chinese (12)
- Croatian (2)
- Czech (6)
- Danish (12)
- Dutch (12)
- English (12)
- Estonian (2)
- Fijian (4)
- Finnish (12)
- French (12)
- German (12)
- Greek (1)
- Hungarian (12)
- Icelandic (1)
- Indonesian (6)
- Italian (12)
- Japanese (12)
- Kiribati (6)
- Korean (12)
- Latvian (2)
- Lithuanian (2)
- Malagasy (4)
- Marshallese (6)
- Mongolian (6)
- Norwegian (12)
- Polish (4)
- Portuguese (12)
- Romanian (6)
- Russian (12)
- Samoan (12)
- Slovenian (1)
- Spanish (12)
- Swahili (2)
- Swedish (12)
- Tagalog (12)
- Tahitian (4)
- Thai (12)
- Tongan (12)
- Ukrainian (12)
- Urdu (3)
- Vietnamese (4)
65 comments:
Before 1970, most organizations had their own magazine and few articles were translated. The last organizational magazines were:
The Improvement Era - Youth
Relief Society Magazine - Women, RS
The Instructor - Sunday School.
There were some others that had been gone for some time for priesthood and young women. By the 1960s though, the Improvement Era was mainly like today's Ensign, the name 'The New Era went to what we call The New Era.
So just like the forthcoming hymnbook, which to my understanding is still about 4 years off due to the deluge of 17k submissions and massive numbers of feedback comments, will be unified and worldwide, with selected hymns not included being put online for a specific language or culture.
The hymnbooks have a similar history as the magazines. Until 1948 all the organizations had something, most had the same hymns along with a few others some or none of the others didn't have. 1985 brought simpler to use music, and the new one is going to in addition to being unified, possibly fix some musical issues and some sundry issues that got in there anyway. Musicians noticed them but the average member didn't.
Did anyone else yet see the article about the missionary devotional yeseerday? We were down to 42k missionaries for a short time and now are about 52k.
Today on Classic Maps was added, the new Brazil Recife South Mission. And the old Recife Mission renamed Recife North.
The new BRAZIL RECIFE SOUTH MISSION - 2152290, recently organized. As I mentioned above.
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=-8.968263,-35.116496&z=8&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter,mission&q=2152290&find=mission:2152290
The new Recife South Mission includes the following 7 Stakes & Districts :
522880 Camaragibe Brazil
562211 Caruaru Brazil
523550 Garanhuns Brazil
522775 Jaboatão Brazil Litoral
521744 Jaboatão dos Guararapes Brazil
460966 Palmares Brazil
520829 Recife Brazil Jardim São Paulo
The remaining 7 Stakes & Districts have been retained by the newly renamed Brazil Recife North Mission - 2011158
514764 Olinda Brazil
523232 Paulista Brazil
513792 Recife Brazil
515302 Recife Brazil Boa Viagem
493600 Recife Brazil Casa Amarela
527084 Recife Brazil Caxangá
524425 Recife Brazil Imbiribeira
Thank you.
This is another change, like breaking ties with the Boy Scouts and rebranding Especially for Youth, that does away with the Church being different in the United States (and maybe Canada) than everywhere else in the world. It's a very important step toward becoming a true global faith.
Starting the first Sunday in September, my ward here in Ogden will be reuniting for sacrament meeting every week.
We'd been split in half alphabetically, meeting every other week (doing home-based sacrament on the off weeks). However, only about 20 people were showing up in the chapel, so the idea is that, even though we're recombining, we'll still have enough room for safe social distancing until the quarantine opens up a bit more.
New stake created in Georgia
Hi all, I'm curious to know how many meetinghouses the church has typically constructed per year for the past 10 years or so, how many so far this year, and any info on how 2-hr church impacted needing fewer meetinghouses, etc.
One small correction on my previous comment here, regarding the assigned Stakes/District to the new "Brazil Recife South Mission - 2152290" :
The Recife Brazil Jardim São Paulo Stake - 520829, was retained instead to the newly renamed Brazil Recife North Mission - 2011158, not the new South Mission.
The Recife Brazil Imbiribeira Stake - 524425, was reassigned to the new Brazil Recife South Mission - 2152290, not the renamed North Mission.
Sorry about my reporting error.
First Presidency statement issued around 6 or 7 hours ago on the Tooele Valley Utah Temple and associated development:
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/tooele-valley-utah-temple/news/
Further analysis on this, including comments from residents, can be found at the following web addresses:
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2020/8/18/21372833/church-withdraws-tooele-valley-temple-residential-community-plans-mormon-lds
https://www.ksl.com/article/50007804/latter-day-saint-leaders-withdraw-rezoning-request-for-proposed-tooele-valley-temple-community
My thanks once again to you all.
@Richard
You mean there was a new Georgia stake created just now, other than the Winder Georgia Stake created earlier this year?
This is pretty cool. French speaking branch in Kentucky.
Active Date: 16 Aug 2020
Locations: Kentucky, United States
Materials Languages: French (Primary Materials Language)
Spoken Languages: English
French (75%) (Meeting Language)
Swahili
Primary Currency: United States Dollar (USD)
Property Number:
Classifications: French
Type: Branch
Sacrament Meeting Start Time: 12:00 PM
Block Start Time: 12:00 PM
CONTACT INFORMATION
Back To Top
Primary Location: 1789 Tates Creek Dr
Lexington KY 40502
United States
ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS
Parent Lexington Kentucky Stake (506281)
Participating Units Lexington Kentucky North Stake (432873)
Lexington Kentucky Stake (506281)
They are reorganizing stakes still, here we have a stake president who just went through the mill with his son's bone cancer, he was diaggnosed with it on his mission. They cleared it, but a routine check found that it metastatized into the lungs a month ago, Monday he died, 13 days before a stake conference was called. Will be sustaining a new stake presidency on the 30th and it will all be via technology, only those directly involved will be in attendance at the stake center.
New stake in Georgia last Sunday through electronic means through church' system, not zoom.
@Unknown
Hey,that's awesome! Thanks for sharing about the French-speaking Kentucky Branch. I served in the Lexington Stake twice back 17 years ago on my mission at the same Tates Creek Stake building (I was assigned to the Spanish Branch). I remember running into a handful of French-speaking Africans on the mission, mostly in Louisville (I remember one man in particular was fairly anxious to find any French-speaking units or members of the church).
In fact, in my Louisville area we had many African refugees and immigrants - mostly from the Sudan or Somalia, but also from Morocco and other parts of North Africa.
Glad to see some new growth out there. I'll be interested to see how that branch progresses in the coming years.
I found pictures from the inauguration of the new French-speaking branch on The Lexington Kentucky Stake's Facebook page. Its name is the "Commonwealth" Branch:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/236890957761718?view=permalink&id=302374394546707&anchor_composer=false
New Stake is the Newnan Georgia Stake.
As reported by Richard, the new "Newnan Georgia Stake - 2155966" organized, with 6 wards and 3 branches.
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=33.395812,-84.640704&z=11&m=google.hybrid&layers=temple,temple.construction,temple.renovated,stakecenter&q=Georgia&find=stake:2155966
Newnan Georgia Stake (2155966)
Active Date: 16 Aug 2020
LaGrange Branch (81515)
Lanett Branch (147761)
West Georgia YSA Branch (2100746)
Carrollton Ward (78980)
Flat Creek Ward (2048906)
Newnan Ward (192775)
Peachtree City Ward (47244)
Sharpsburg Ward (243116)
Summer Grove Ward (559490)
A far flung SW Atlanta suburban stake, then. We were supposed to organize a Spanish speaking branch in April, but it hasn't happened yet in Scottsdale, AZ
There seems to have been some progress on new branches despite the pandemic. Henderson, Nevada I believe specifically the Green Mountain Stake now has a Spanish-speaking branch. When I served my mission there in 2000-2002 there were no Spanish-speaking units in any Henderson stake. However Paradise stake had both a Spanish-speaking branch and a Spanish-speaking group as a legacy of recent boundary changes with the Warm Springs Stake. I believe one of the 2 then old Henderson stakes, with their residents often viewing Green Valley as not really Henderson, had a Spanish speaking group. Those 2 stakes are now 4 stakes and what was Green Valley and Warm Springs are now 3 stakes.
Lexington, Kentucky is said by the fuller consideration blog to have a French-language branch. I do not know if this in many Congolese and Ivorians like the French units in DC and Phoenix.
On the new magazine the Liahona will be shorter than the Ensign. I have no way of knowing how much.
Also at least for a time the Church published an English language version of the Liahona, which seems odd. At one point it was specifically aimed at the Philippines.
Many of the non-English language editions began as mission magazines and so their content was often location specific.
This is the biggest move toward a truly unified international Church in The Church of Jesus Christ of Katter-day Saints under President Nelson.
Well it is hard to say if this, the new hymnbook, or the new youth program is the biggest change. All three are huge movements forward for the Church being a unified international body.
It is hard to fully assess the impact of the new hymnbook while it is still in development.
The pre-1970 improvement era may have began as the organ of the YMMIA but it was essentially publishing in the 1950s and 1960s the same general sorts of articles the Ensign would publish in the 1970s and 1980s.
For example some of Hugh Nibley's early work appeared in the Inprovemwnt Era as did in I believe 1969 the first article published by the Church on Joseph Smith's multiple accounts of the first vision.
Of course the YMMIA was not as much the predecessor of the current young men program as some rhetoric suggests.
In the old days there were M-men and Gleaners who if I understand correctly were the YMMIA and YLMIA (or YWMIA) programs for I guess unmarried in the 18-21 age range.
The exact process by which we move from that to the YSA program is complex. At one point I believe there were what were called the Aaronic Priesthood MIA and Melchizedek Priesthood MIA. The second was I believe the predecessor of the YSA program.
The age limits of YSA have shifted over the years. Also it is not until 2010 or so that a move away from having student wards gets underway. It is still not complete but no where do you have student wards and YSA wards directly competing for the same people as you did in 2005.
With the mention of both Swahili and French I wonder if this branch in Kentucky is a direct result of outreach to the largest group of current refugees entering in the US of late, the Congolese.
All the things you mention affect both the US and Canada.
However it is not a rebrand of EFY to FSY. EFY was a CES run program, FSY is a more clearly Church run program, that is directly recruited for. It is not just a new name.
The new unified hymnbook is another such change although its impact is not as clearly to end a clear difference between the US and Canada and everyone else.
The return to area presidencies in North America in 2018 and the 2019 creation of one to one correspondence between presidencies and areas are another unifying move although at first this looks to just restore the pre-2004 or so status quo ante.
The catch is while wards and stakes proliferate to maintain basically the same size, areas have actually gone down in number over the last 20 years.
This leads me to my favorite statement. Areas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are the institution we have most similar to size and function to diocese of the Catholic Church.
A stake is not like a diocese. As some have pointed out here a stake is in some ways like a multi-campus mega Church, although this all inter-religious analogies are inexact.
Diocese and areas very greatly in any measure of size. There are dioceses with more Catholics than the Utah area has members if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are also dioceses with as few Catholics as the Europe East Area has members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Overall areas tend to be bigger, but the Utah Area covers roughly the same area as the Salt Lake Catholic diocese. Those are the only two even close to similar sizes. The Catholic Church is nearly 100 times the size of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Dioceses are also stable in boundaries. This comes in part from much more often following existing political boundaries.
The fact the area system only dates back 36 years also impacts this. There were structures like areas pre-1984 but they lacked presidencies, only having one general authority in charge, and having presiding general authorities in residence was not as consistently the case.
The move to larger areas has often been accompanied by more Church functions devolving to areas from headquarters.
A few thoughts on areas.
Elder Holland for 3 years before he became an apostle lived in Solihull, England as president of the Europe North Area.
Europe had several areas over the years. It seems now to have stabilized to only Europe and Europe East. There were at the peak 4 areas. There were Europe West, East, South, North and Central at various times.
The North Africa/Middle East Area was I believe in Europe South before it was split off.
Asia is the Continrnt that has been stuck at it's current level the longest. 3 areas, if you ignore ME/NA and all have existed since at least the early 1990s.
However boundaries have not been stable. Asia North for a short time took in the Russian Far East. More prominently Micronesia that was with the Philliopines in the early 1990s later went to the Pacific Islands but is now in Asia North. Very recently Mongolia was switched to Asia North.
A split of the Asia Area into Asia East, Asia South and Asia Southeast, maybe the later two initially joined is conceivable.
Another possibility is at some time China and Taiwan will follow Mongolia in switching to Asia North. If that were done the names might switch to Asia East and Asia South.
One issue there is that in Singapore, Wesy Malaysia and Indonesia much of the membership is ethnic Chinese, and Vietman is culturally closer to China than to Thailand.
Africa at present has the most simple history of area growth. At first the whole of Africa except the North African Mediterrean coastal countries were assigned to the British Isles Area. This was in 1984.
Around 1990 the Africa Area was formed. In maybe 1987 it split to the Agmfrica West and Africa Southeast Areas. Originally Congo was in the Africa West Area. It moved first and later Cameroon was moved to the South-East Area as well.
This year the South East area was split into the Africa South Area and the Africa Cental Area.
I could see a Nigeria Area and a Africa East Area being formed in the not too distant future.
Oceania at one point had two areas. It is now all one, although Micronesia is in the Asia North Area and Hawaii which at times has been directly paired with other parts of the pacific in administrative structures is currently part of the North America West Area.
Latin America I believe peaked at 10 areas and is now down to 6.
When areas first formed Central America and Mexico were all one area. By 1990 they split and not much after that Mexico was made 2 areas. Thus when the Mexico North Area was formed it had 0 temples.
Sometime around 2003 it was decided that Mexico should be just one area.
The Caribbean has a different history. It started as part of the North America Southeast Area. I believe for a short time North America Southeast had its headquarters in Atlanta not Salt Lake City. Bare in mind that in the mid 1970s the only missionary work occurring in the Caribbean was in Puerto Rico under the auspices of the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission.
The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Caribbean is much shorter than in mainland Latin America. It virtually all post dates 1978.
I'm not even sure if the Caribbean Area predates the unification of the Mexico and Brazil Areas.
Central America looks to be unaffected by recent changes. However for a time Panama and maybe even for a very little Costa Rica were in the South America North Area.
Brazil was an odd case of two areas. It was two areas but both area presidencies resided in Sao Paulo. The Brazil North Area was another long templeless area.
Chile had an area but it has since been reunified with South America South. The South America North and South America West Areas were reunified to be South America Northwest.
The most convoluted area history exists in the US and Canada. This is not just driven by changes in number of areas. Boundaries have also shifted as various creations of new stakes and missions have caused boundary shifts.
I believe the North America Central Area was formed in the late 1980s. However I lack any sense of the boundaries before that. Utah I believe went from 3 to 2 and then back to 3 areas.
In 1994 there were I think 10 areas in the US and Canada, although it may have been 9. Utah had either 2 or 3. I think then only 2. The Utah South Area was then coterminus with the Utah Provo Mission. The only Mission area pairing of that type.
The Utah North Area had 9 northern Itah counties plus parts of Wyoming, Idaho and small areas of Nevada. Eventually the Utah Salt Lake City Area was split off with 2 missions and Utah North then became coterminous with the Utah Ogden Mission.
I believe when the Colirado Fort Collins mission formed it took some of Wyoming from Salt Lake based missions.
Utah north also saw some of its Idaho and Wyoming areas eventually shifted out. Logan for a time had a mission and then Layton got a mission but around the same time all three Utah areas were combined.
The North America West Area was for a ling time stable as California and Hawaii. In 2000 the Yuma and Blythe Stakes were moved from the San Diego to the Phoenix Mission and thus to the North America South East Area. Susanville Stake in California seems to have always been in the North America Southeast Area. I miss the Church Almanac.
In 2019 the North America West Area absorbed the North America Northwest Area taking in the states of Washington, Oregon and Alska, plus British Columbia in Yukon and the northern Panhandle of Idaho.
I would not be surprised if soon Nevada is moved from the North America South-west to the North America West Area.
The North Ameruca Southwest Area covers Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. It did loose the Mesquite stake in Nevada to the Utah South Area when the St. George mission was formed. However when the Farmington New Mexico Mission formed it got San Juan County Utah. It includes a small part of Colirado.
It also includes the Bentonville Arkansas Mission which means half the Arkansas based stakes. It has 4 stakes in Missouri with a 5th stake in that state likely soon.
With the end of the Jackson Mississippi Mission and the creation a few years later of the Dallas East Mission it now includes Shreveport Louisiana Stake, and it has ling held the St. Charles Louisia area, which is in a Texas stake and the Texas Beaumobt Mission.
If my idea of shifting Nevada to the North America West Area were followed a shift of Little Rock, Memphis and maybe even Baton Rouge and New Orleans to the North America Southwest Area might make sense.
As general conference gets closer I am working on predictions for new temples.
My prediction list will cover my top 8. Then I will throw out others.
The top 8:
Monrovia, Liberia
Singapore
La Paz, Bolivia
Sao Paulo 2
Antanaravo, Madagascar
Iquitos, Peru
Abuja, Nigeria
Northern Luzon, Phillippines
Other possibilities:
Bakersfield, California
Redding, Califirnia
Santa Rosa, California
Jamaica
2nd Venezuelan temple
Cali, Colombia
Otavalo, Ecuador
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Neuquen, Argentina
Punta Arnas, Cile
Valparaiso, Chile
Tacna, Peru
Chiclayo, Peru
Santos, Brazil
Lindrina, Brazil
Cuiaba, Brazil
Antiguas, Guatemala
2nd Guatemala City temple
2nd Mexico City Temple
Acapulco, Mexico
Cancun, Mexico
Xalapa, Mexico
Matamoros, Mexico
Torreon, Mexico
Culiacan, Mexico
Jacksonville, Florida (if both Layton and Syracuse are getting temples, this dream is bot dead)
Macon, Georgia
Charlotte, North Carolina
Kingston, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Buena Vista, Virginia
Princeton, New Jersey
Albany, New York
Harmony (Priesthood Restoration Site), Pennsylvania
Sharon, Vermont
Augusta, Maine
Cleveland, Ohio
Lansing, Michigan
Madison, Wisconsin
Rapid City, South Dakota
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Austin, Texas
Gilmer, Texas
Knoxville, Tennessee
Wichita, Kansas
Farmington, New Mexico
Smithfield, Utah
North Ogden, Utah
Morgan, Utah
Heber City, Utah
Price, Utah
Lehi, Utah
Herriman, Utah
Kanab, Utah
Fort Worth, Texas
Tacoma, Washington
Fairbanks, Alaska
Molokai, Hawaii
Barcelona, Spain
Bordeaux, France
Leeds, Englabd
Glasgow, Scotland
Hamburg, Germany
Oslo, Norway
Jakarta, Indonesia
Christ Church, New Zealand
They created the Orlando Florida West Stake today reorganized from six different stakes. They renamed the Hunter Creeks Florida Stake to the St. Cloud Florida Stake. This stake was suppose to be done back in March before they shut everything down.
@John Pack Lambert
Out of curiosity, I would be interested to know about the French-speaking branch members' provenance as well.
Side note to my previous reminiscence from my mission: I now recall meeting some Nigerians back in Lexington. That is all.
Interesting. If they can do stake creations via broadcast then I wonder why they're just now starting to do so.
@JPL
Macon, Georgia is one I'd like to see. It was my brother's mission.
For those who may be interested, earlier today, I published the latest version of my predictions for the October 2020 General Conference on my blog this afternoon, which can be found at the following web address:
https://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2020/08/updated-october-2020-general-conference.html
An open commenting period on them will remain in effect until Thursday October 1 at 10:00 PM MDT, which will then give me 36 hours to finalize them before General Conference weekend begins. Thanks again, everyone!
Orlando Florida West Stake (2162555)
Active Date: 23 Aug 2020
Bear Bay Branch (Mandarin) (2126044)
Avalon Ward (2108690)
Buena Vista YSA Ward (376094)
Citrus Ridge Ward (364916)
Davenport Ward (2159414)
Lake Crescent Ward (2024128)
Lake Louisa Ward (178209)
Lake Reams Ward (1667580)
Winter Garden Ward (237620)
Confirmed on Classic Maps, Orlando Florida Hunter Creek Stake - 477540, renamed "St Cloud Florida Stake - 477540", as was reported here August 23rd, 2020 by @Noachj.
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=28.047887,-81.22557&z=9&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&find=stake:477540
New "Orlando Florida West Stake - 2162555" organized.
https://classic.churchofjesuschrist.org/maps/#ll=28.368914,-81.501389&z=10&m=google.hybrid&layers=stakecenter&find=stake:2162555
the Orlando West Stake includes 8 wards/ 1 branch :
Avalon, Citrus Ridge, Davenport, Lake Crescent, Lake Louisa, Lake Reams, Winter Garden Wards and Buena Vista YSA Ward, and Bear Bay Branch (Mandarin).
Lake Charles is in the Texas Houston East mission. Also there is no Beaumont Texas mission. Source: myself having been a missionary in Beaumont/Lake Charles area.
My list of temples that hopefully will be announced in October:
Chile: Viña del Mar- Punta Arenas-Valdivia
Bolivia: Santa cruz
Colombia: Calí
Venezuela: Maracaibo
Brazil: 2 0 3 temples at least
AFRICA: 2
OCEANIA:1
ASIA : 1
It is nice to dream and think that more temples could be announced and built in our countries, even more thinking that they are still very distant in many parts of the baptized faithful.
It is undeniable that there are many temples in the world compared to decades ago, however, I feel that there is enough money to build and maintain more temples over time.
The only thing that strikes me is that places with very few baptized or active and have large temples, and other places in the world with very small temples, what is clear is that it does not always have to do with the amount of attendance or fidelity . Moreover, the temples are beautiful in themselves, but the simplicity or opulence in some buildings is very noticeable.
Omar Valenzuela E
Santiago de Chile
Hmm, you are right. I have to admit I think the 3 missions named after Houston and the 4 stakes named after Columbus, Ohio are both examples of over applying a name. On the other hand I sometimes wonder if the Bloomfield Hills Stake should be renamed the Deteoit Michigan North Stake and the West lo and Stake should be renamed the Detroit Michigan West Stake.
Groundbreakings, renderings released for Bentonville, McAllen temples; site identified for Syracuse Utah Temple
https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2020-08-28/bentonville-arkansas-mcallen-texas-syracuse-utah-temples-groundbreakings-renderings-location-191660
Syracuse Utah Temple site will have easy freeway access next to the planned West Davis corridor.
13 groundbreakings so far this year (happened/scheduled). It will be interesting to see if they can squeeze in the last 5 for the projected 18.
I'm guessing Tooele Valley was supposed to be one of them, but now the residential development that had been crucial to the temple plan has been scrapped and the Church has to think of something else. It will be interesting to see how quickly they can do that.
"How BYU-Pathway Worldwide is becoming one of the most valuable education opportunities for returned missionaries"
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-08-30/byu-pathway-worldwide-growth-enrollment-returned-missionaries-valuable-education-191472
Also we will have 5 temples under construction in Utah at the same time which, I believe, is another first.
That stake conference today went off with only the hitches caused by a large power outage in Salt Lake that affected the streaming service used by the Church, and which was collateral to a much larger outage involving Centurylink and Cloudflare, so I am able to rewatch things.
The outage affected events worldwide, a large chess tournament went down because of it, they discovered this after one of the players could not perform his move because things went down after the opponent's move, the judges thought he as forfeiting, which was not the case.
But I got on the original broadcast a half hour after the hour it started, no further hitches. But I got some interesting takeaways:
Provo City Center Temple had to cancel some 600 live sealings, many had one or both also needing the endowment. The area presidency has been working overtime it seems making things happening and working with things including with temple presidencies to see and identify things that can be done to get us to the various stages of reopening the temples here.
They are having those that need the endowment come in singly, so it is going to take a large number of sessions to get those that need that for missions or before sealing get that. I think just a few people are present besides the person receiving the ordinance.
One of the things that came out also was that this was Elder Legrand R. Curtis Jr.s first stake conference since everything went down in March. Usually he does three out of four weeks and is home one week a month. So, that has rarely happened since march for just about everyone.
Hey, Johnathan Whiting! I tried to post a reply to your comment earlier today, but it apparently either didn't get processed or hasn't been approved. I believe there is a high likelihood that several more temples could have groundbreakings before the end of this year to either reach or potentially exceed the goal of 18 temple groundbreakings. In addition to the currently-scheduled 8 groundbreakings that are in the queue already, depending on what the Church is able to do to move ahead with the Tooele Valley Utah Temple without the associated residential development, that would be one to watch for sure. The Moses Lake Wahington Temple can also move ahead in construction, as long as the Church makes the effort to plat the property within a year of construction beginnning. The Phnom Pehn Cambodia Temple may soon see some action, since COVID_19 hasn't impacted Cambodia too severely. Getting construction started on that temple within the final three months of this year would also be similar to the period of roughly a year that passed between the release of the rendering for the Bangkok Thailand Temple and its' subsequent groundbreaking rougholy a year later.
Although COVID-19 has profoundly impacted India, I anticipate the Church could hold a small-scale groundbreaking for that temple within the next few months as well, so that construction can begin sooner rather than later. And based on how the Church announced a groundbreaking for the Brasilia Brazil Temple will take place seven months to the day after the release of its' rendering, for smaller temples of the Church where exterior renderings have also been released (which includes by definition the Coban Guatemala, Okinawa Japan, Mendoza Argentina, Neiafu Tonga, and Pago Pago American Samoa Temples), any one of them could also have a gorundbreaking.
And that's not even accounting for the prospect that a temple for which little or no information has been officially confirmed yet could have a location confirmed before or in conjunction with the release of an artist's rendering and/or the announced timing for the groundbreaking. Currently, 9 temples have had an exterior rendering release, and one other (Syracuse Utah) has had preliminary details confirmed.
But there are also 2 temples, both in African nations, left in the queue that were originally announced by President Monson, with 3 temples each left from their original announcemeents in April and October 2018 and October 2019, with 2 in the queue that were originally announced in April 2019. So the queue continues to be cleared out. Hope these thoughts and observations are helpful.
Some updates in the Atlas are warranted:
Missions Changes (in addition to those created or discontinued last year)
Utah - Orem and Logan
Florida Tallahassee discontinued
Georgia Macon Discontinued
Stake Change
Flagstaff Arizona East and West now operating
No doubt there are others - these are the ones I noticed
Thanks for all you do - I am sure this is all rather time consuming
-My Top 10 Picks for Extremely Far Distance Temples
1. Punta Arenas, Chile
-(2 Stakes, 1 District) (Assigned to Concepción Chile)
-Distance between Concepcion and Punta Arenas is 1823 kilometers (1133 miles). Driving distance from Concepcion to Punta Arenas is 2612 kilometers (1623 miles).
-Distance between Punta Arenas and Bahia Blanca is 1736 kilometers (1078 miles). Driving distance from Punta Arenas to Bahia Blanca is 2124 kilometers (1320 miles).
2. Rapid City, South Dakota
-(2 Stakes) (Assigned to Bismarck, North Dakota)
-The distance between Rapid City and Bismarck is 224 miles. The road distance is 348.3 miles. 4 h 59 min (300.5 mi) via SD-65 N.
-There are 259.36 miles from Fort Collins to Rapid City in the northeast direction and 352 miles (566.49 kilometers) by car, following the I-25 N route. Fort Collins and Rapid City are 5 hours 8 mins far apart, if you drive non-stop.
3. La Paz, Baja California Sur, MX
-(2 Stakes) (Assigned to Tijuana Mexico)
-The distance from La Paz, Mexico to Hermosillo, Mexico is: 456 miles / 734 km driving, 340 miles / 547 km flying.
-The distance between La Paz, Baja California Sur and Guadalajara, Jalisco is 809 kilometers (503 miles).
-Tijuana from La Paz (Mexico): Nonstop drive: 919 miles or 1479 km. Driving time: 17 hours, 11 minute. Flight distance is 706 miles. Flight time of 1 hour, 55 minutes.
4. Juneau or Fairbanks, Alaska
-(1 Stake Apiece, Both Assigned to Anchorage Alaska)
-How far is Fairbanks from Anchorage: Nonstop drive: 359 miles or 578 km. Driving time: 6 hours, 7 minutes.
-How far is Anchorage from Juneau: Nonstop drive: 849 miles or 1366 km. Driving time: 20 hours.
5. Kiribati (4 Stakes, 3 Districts) or Vanuatu (2 Stakes, 4 Districts)
-(Both Assigned to Suva, Fiji)
-The distance between Fiji and Kiribati is 1,953 kilometers (1,214 miles).
-Distance between Port-Vila, Vanuatu and Suva, Fiji is 1071 kilometers (666 miles).
6. New Delhi, India
-(1 stake, 3 districts) (Assigned to Hong Kong)
-Distance from Bangalore to New Delhi (Kempegowda International Airport – Indira Gandhi International Airport) is 1058 miles / 1703 kilometers / 919 nautical miles.
7. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
-(2 stakes, 3 districts) (Assigned to Hong Kong)
-1,239 Miles (1,994 Kilometer) Ulan Bator (Mongolia) to Seoul (South Korea)
-Distance from Ulan Bator to Hong Kong (Chinggis Khaan International Airport – Hong Kong International Airport) is 1804 miles / 2904 kilometers / 1568 nautical miles.
8. Canary Islands, Spain
-(1 stake, 2 districts) (Assigned to Madrid, Spain)
-Distance from Cape-Verde to Las-Palmas-De-Gran-Canaria: 1,001.25 mi (1,611.36 km).
-The fastest direct flight from Lisbon to Canary Islands is 2 hours 9 minutes. A distance of 839 miles / 1,351 km.
-The air travel (bird fly) shortest distance between Canary Islands and Madrid is 1,791 km= 1,113 miles.
9. Antananarivo, Madagascar
-(2 stakes, 5 districts) (Assigned to Johannesburg, South Africa)
-The distance between Antananarivo, Madagascar and Harare, Zimbabwe is 1,745 kilometers (1,085 miles).
-The shortest distance (air line) between Johannesburg and Madagascar is 1,277.29 mi (2,055.60 km).
-The shortest distance (air line) between Madagascar and Durban is 1,208.88 mi (1,945.51 km).
10. Capetown, South Africa
-(3 stakes, 1 district) (Assigned to Johannesburg, South Africa)
-Distance between Cape Town and Johannesburg is 1262 kilometers (784 miles) in South Africa.
-Capetown to Durban: 17 h 30 min (1,635.2 km).
OR
-The calculated flying distance from Cape Town to Durban is equal to 790 miles which is equal to 1272 km. If you want to go by car, the driving distance between Cape Town and Durban is 1636.31 km. If you ride your car with an average speed of 112 kilometers/hour (70 miles/h), travel time will be 14 hours 36 minutes.
*In no particular order.
The Worcester Massachusetts Stake was created today, 30 August 2020.
It caused boundary realignments in 5 Stakes.
The new Worcester Mass. Stake includes the: Acton Ward; Gardner Ward; Littleton Ward; Oxford Ward; Worcester 1st & 2nd Wards; Worcester 3rd Branch (Spanish)
5 Stake Boundaries realigned: Blackstone Valley Massachusetts Stake; Nashua New Hampshire Stake; Providence Rhode Island Stake; Hartford Connecticut Stake and the Springfield Massachusetts Stake.
Wondering Star - I update the International Atlas regularly, but there are quite a few things that need updated such as with new stake creations and mission changes. Hopefully I will be able to get these done in the coming weeks and months.
@James
Thanks for the groundbreaking info, man. ;)
It does look like they'll be able to squeeze in the last few temples to make 18 this year.
Looks like the Eastern US has had a fair number of stakes created this year. Hope that keeps up.
Side note: one of my college girlfriends was from Worcester (pronounced "Wooster"). Glad to see the growth out there.
Johnathan,The Worcester Stake is the third stake creation in Massachusetts since 2016.
@Unknown
I didn't know that.
That's great news!
Does the growth seem to be more convert driven, or more move-in driven (or both)?
@Johnathan perhaps the statistics page on cumorah.com for Massachusetts would tell compared to other areas... but personally I think it is move-driven. I can list a handful of families who have moved there in the past 5-6 years from my area.
Thanks Unknown. I will check it out there.
My pleasure. In my own recent analysis of temple updates, I cited President Hinckley's goal of having 100 dedicated temples in operation by the end of the year 2000. I feel certain that the Lord, seeing the diligence of His servants in working towards the goal of 18 temple groundbreakings here 20 years later, in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, may open the way for that goal to not only be met, but exceeded.
Parenthetically, with President Nelson having delegated temple dedications and rededications to other apostles to the extent he has done so thus far, even with the recently-announced postponement of the opening dates for the Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Washington DC, and Winnipeg Manitoba Temples, the framework and precedent is in place for the apostles to go out individually or in sets of two or more to oversee temple dedications and rededications for those and others if the queue builds up more due to COVID-19. So it seems likely that 2021 could see more than one temple dedication and/or rededication on the same day. Thanks.
I had a boss from Worcester, Mass whose mother went to school with Conan O'Brien. None of them members. I wanna say the comedian actor Dennis Leary is from there, too. Close to the firefighters.
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