I really liked general conference. Elder Holland's talk declaring a powerful witness of the Book of Mormon truly stirred me. I also enjoyed Elder Sitati's reference to his children being married without dowry, although I wished he had mentioned what country was his home. I knew he was from Kenya, but I am sure others did not. I should point out that Elder Sitati is not only from Kenya, but was one of the very earliest members baptized there, he and his family having joined the Church in 1986. The Church has not been in Kenya nearly as long as Nigeria or Ghana. I guess officially the lag was only about eight years, but while in Nigeria there were groups seeking to join the Church even in the 1940s and the government of Ghana gave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (although it was a group of people not actually part of the Chruch) official recognition in 1968, in Kenya the Church had few links when the Sitati's were baptized in 1986. The branch they joined was mainly expatriates, I think mostly people connected with various embassys in Nairobi.
President Monson's talk was very good. The themes of love and service seemed to be throughout. I also enjoyed President Monson's Priesthood session talk, although I felt rebuked for my at times loosing my temper.
The temple announcement at the start was awesome. On the Deseret News comment board many people have talked of long waits at the Ogden and Logan Temples, so Brigham City is a needed temple. Brigham City itself is cut between those two temple districts. The temple will also lessen the travel time to the temple for those in the Bear River Valley (not that long really) and from the far North-west areas of Utah (still not that long compared to many places). I am reminded of when President Hinckley went to visit the Promontory Branch. It gives you a feel for how remote some of those places are that they have branches in Utah.
Conceptcion is not that much of a surprise. True, it is closer to Santiago than Puenta Arnas or Antofagasta, but it is the only city besides Santiago with two missions, and it is not that close to Santiago. Valparaiso /Vina Del Mar and their surrounding cities form the third largest Metro-area in Chile, but they are 50 as opposed to 250 plus miles from Santiago. Beyound this, Concepcion is 250 or so miles south of Santiago, where as Valparaiso is basically the coastal city for Santiago. As such the Concepcion Temple does in fact cut the distance for the people further south, whie a temple in Valparaiso would hardly cut the travel time or costs for members in Antofagasta.
With Supporo it is good for those saints, and I am still waiting to hear how close that will put a temple to Vladisvostok. It will be the closest temple, and a shorter trip than to Tokyo, and MUCH shorter than to Kyiv.
Forteleza I was a little surprised because I think of it as close to Recife. However on looking at the map I figured it was probably over a 500 mile drive between the two, and places close to twice as far the other way from Forteleza than that by driving are still closer to Forteleza than to Manaus.
Fort Lauderdale was like Concepcion not surprising. There are more members in Florida than in any other state east of the Mississippi, although the three states that do have two temples east of the Mississippi (Illinois, New York and Tennessee) all have a situation where large chunks of the temple districts are outside of the state. In New York, much of New Jersey is in the Manhattan Temple District as well as some of Conneticut, while Palmyra beenfits from travelers from elsewhere, and I think has part of Pennsylvania in its temple district.
Chicago has much of Indiana and Wisconsin (and even some of the UP of Michigan) in its temple district, while the Nauvoo Temple also benefits from outside visitors, but takes in chunks of Iowa and Missouri in its district.
Tennessee has the Nashville Temple which takes in some of Kentucky, and the Memphis Temple which is on the border with Mississippi and Arkansas, neither of which has a temple.
On the other hand, with the possible exception of South Georgia, the Florida Temple District is Florida plus the Bahamas and maybe some other Caribean Islands. still I think there are more members in Florida than in Japan, and there is a good number in the Miami to Palm Beach corridor, so a temple is not surprising.
Monday, October 5, 2009
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5 comments:
I always love hearing where the new temples are going to be. That's always one of my favorite parts of Conference. I hope that someday soon there will be a temple built in Ireland, though. The Saints there have to fly from Dublin or Belfast to Manchester, and then travel from there to the Preston Temple. They make stake trips twice a year, and encourage the members to go on their own as often as possible, but it's just not an easy trip for many people to make very often. While I was living there, there were a lot of faithful members praying for the chance to have a temple of their own someday. I really hope they're able to get one soon.
I am with you in hoping for a temple in Ireland, but I am not holding my breath. With two stakes and a district, and with some wards with fewer than 50 active members, I am not sure they yet have enough members for a temple. Of course, my main knowledge on the state of the Church in Ireland comes from someone who returned from his mission in 2001, so things may be much better.
Another factor is that Quebec only had two stakes and a district when they built the temple, although they assined another district and stake in the United States, and maybe a stake based in Ontario to the Temple district.
Also, when the Sascachuwan Temple was built there may have only been two stakes in the temple district, with another outlying branch, so I guess a temple in Ireland is doable in theory.
Scotland at least outwardly is closer to having a temple. I think they have five stakes. Although you can drive to a temple from Scotland, it is a long drive even down to Preston, so they would rejoice in a temple in that land.
Of course, I could go on all day about places from Kenya to India to France to Pueto Rico to Wyoming that do not have temples, and cities such as Pittsburgh and Springfield (Missouri) that are good ways from temples, so while there are many temples, it is not hard to see how Elder Kikuchis prediction that there will literally be thousands of temples will be fulfilled.
Oh, I think everybody has a list a mile long of where they'd like to see temples built in the future. =) Someday, every country will have at least one. I just wish it'd happen a little more quickly than it is, that's all. I've never been terribly patient.
I also liked the part of the talk about not needing dowerys.
Also, thanks for the temple info. I missed that part of conference, and also, you give a lot more insight into where things are and the church situations than I would get on my own. :)
Sarah Nicole,
I know what you mean about not being patient enough. I was predicting a temple in Trujillo a decade before one was announced.
Of course probably the hardest is cases like the Kyiv Temple, which was announced in 1998 and is still not finished, although it is mainly done in the exterior and if all goes well will be dedicated sometime next year.
One thing is for sure, I have no complainst about distance to a temple, living 15 minutes drive from one. On the bus I can get there in 45 minutes if not less, and I think biking there is maybe an hour to an hour and a half journey. We are very blessed in Michigan.
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