2024 February 1, Thursday, Journal Entry

During our coordinators meeting yesterday morning we got a hint that, among other things, there would be an increase in the number of foreign languages that we would be asked to accommodate when the missionaries from the MTC start coming to our temple beginning on February 28, 2024.

With the opening of the new Orem temple, which has now occurred, the "old" Provo Temple will be demolished and rebuilt from the ground up. This temple is basically across the street from the MTC and has been a huge part of MTC training. Now, with the rather dramatic increase in the number of missions in the world, I believe that the MTC in Provo, the principal MTC of the church worldwide, is anticipated to be busier than ever.

The current plan is to bus the missionaries to Mt. Timpanogos temple (our temple) during the rebuilding of the Provo Temple. Our temple is easily the largest temple in Utah County and can easily accommodate the influx of additional patrons (Missionaries).

So how does the increase in foreign languages figure in? Haven't heard yet but when I got to the men's dressing room where I am the coordinator for the first shift on Wednesdays I found that we now had language cards for six additional foreign languages (two different Chinese languages (Mandarin and Cantonese), Japanese, French, Portuguese and, if I  remember correctly (a big if), Korean. These are written in native fashion meaning that the Asian cards are absolutely unreadable to me.

If I were to guess, I would surmise that Missionaries called to serve in this foreign language missions that were attending the Provo MTC might be asked to look at the foreign language card as they receive the new name ordinance prior to embarking on an endowment session.

Come Follow Me 

1 Nephi 18:16 Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions.

"Look forward. Your troubles and sorrows are very real, but they will not last forever. Your dark night will pass, because “the Son … [did rise] with healing in his wings.”… My brothers and sisters, it is my promise to you that increasing your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will bring you added strength and greater hope. For you, the righteous, the Healer of our souls, in His time and His way, will heal all your wounds. No injustice, no persecution, no trial, no sadness, no heartache, no suffering, no wound—however deep, however wide, however painful—will be excluded from the comfort, peace, and lasting hope of Him whose open arms and whose wounded hands will welcome us back into His presence."

Elder Neil L. Andersen, October 2018

Regarding the anticipated first coming of the Lord approximately 600 years after Nephi's time:

1 Nephi 19:7 For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet; I say, trample under their feet but I would speak in other words—they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels.

 8 And behold he cometh, according to the words of the angel, in six hundred years from the time my father left Jerusalem. 

 9 And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long‐suffering towards the children of men.

Regarding the anticipated second coming of the Lord approximately 2600 years after Nephi's time:

The scriptures say that Jesus will come a second time in the beginning of the 7^th thousand years. We have finished 6 thousand, and so we are now in the beginning of the 7^th thousand years. We do not know exactly when the Second Coming is, but it is getting closer.

There is a time set, and He is going to come when He is supposed to come. It is our duty to be ready and to watch for the signs. Some people say "the Lord delayeth his coming" (Matthew 24:8), but He is not delaying His coming, and we cannot make Him come faster just because of what we do or desire. He is going to come when it is time for Him to come. So, we should watch and be ready because that is what He told us to do, to look for the signs and be ready for His Second Coming.

Do we know that he is coming again? Yes. Just as much as Nephi knew that he was coming the first time. Nephi was a great prophet. He believed in Christ, that he would come in 600 years after they left Jerusalem. We believe that Christ is coming again, maybe during this century. I do not know when, but it is getting closer.