Tonight, in the women’s session of the 2019 semi-annual General Conference of the Church — and I think that the place and time of the announcement is not insignificant — President Russell M. Nelson announced new temples for
Bacolod, Philippines
Cobán, Guatemala
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea
Bentonville, Arkansas
McAllen, Texas
Taylorsville, Utah
And Orem, Utah!
I confess that that last one really caught me by surprise.
Moreover, a friend suggests an intriguing possible site in Orem, which really doesn’t have a lot of available open space left. It turns out that there is a large tract of Church-owned land essentially within walking distance of my home, with an old and currently unused chapel sitting on just one portion of it. That would be astonishing. I mean, we’re also literally just around the corner from the site of Utah Valley University’s future art museum. This is becoming a pretty cool neighborhood — and a temple wouldn’t exactly ruin it.
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I once had the dream of doing an endowment session in every temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And then the Church began its modern period of intensive temple-building. I remember one day when President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Boyd K. Packer each dedicated a temple on the same morning. I recall screaming out in frustration, “Stop! I can’t keep up with this!”
More recently, my goal has been to attend a session in every temple in Utah.
Now I’m thinking that I may have to content myself with performing an endowment in every temple in Utah County.
Sigh.
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This is a few days old, but some of you may still be craving more material to stuff into your already bulging Christopher Hitchen’s Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File:
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From the indispensable Jeff Lindsay:
“The Book of Mormon’s Ties to the Northern Kingdom of Israel: New Research from Dr. Richley Crapo”
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From Ireland’s Robert Boylan:
“Blake Ostler, Re-vision-ing the Mormon Concept of Deity”
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I’m pleased to see this:
“LDS Church’s Young Women theme now to refer to ‘Heavenly Parents’”
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A nice article from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
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Finally, do any of you recognize “Master Skywalker” here?
“Star Wars General Conference Parody Trailer”
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