April 2018 General Conference Predictions Alterations: Part Four--Overview of Speaking Order Alterations

Hello again, everyone! I am back with part 4 of my series on altered predictions for this next General Conference. In this post, I will be sharing my overall alterations for the speaking order during this conference.

A couple of notes before I do so: there are a lot of unknowns here, including who might be called to the apostleship. If the new apostles are any of the other speakers listed below, then someone else will speak in the spot I have set aside for them. Second, members of the Presidency of the Seventy have typically spoken in either the Saturday Morning, Priesthood, or Sunday Morning Sessions (with two members of that Presidency speaking).

With that in mind, the altered pattern for the Sunday Morning Session will necessitate the member of that Presidency speaking in a different session, and since the Sunday Afternoon session has recently yielded some addresses from the Presidency of the Seventy, it would make sense to have one member of that Presidency speak in that session this time.

Next, with a few exceptions, the two speakers from the women's auxiliary presidencies have typically spoken in the Saturday and Sunday Morning Sessions. With the Sunday Morning Session this time anticipated to feature all apostolic speakers, it made sense to shift the second female representative to the Sunday Afternoon Session.

In connection with that, the only reason we heard from four general officers last October was primarily because President Monson couldn't be there. With a new Church president who is, by comparison, much healthier and better able to function, I do not anticipate we will hear from any more than three general officers during this General Conference, and I believe those talks will occur in the Saturday Morning, Priesthood, and Sunday Afternoon Sessions.

I wanted to next observe that the members of the Presiding Bishopric in recent years have alternately spoken in the Saturday Morning, Priesthood, or Sunday Morning Session. But the members of the Presiding Bishopric during President Hinckley's tenure as Church president (and at times during President Monson's tenure) were assigned to speak during the Saturday or Sunday Afternoon Sessions. After considering my options there, it seems to make the most sense to have the representative from the Presiding Bishopric (unless he is called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) speak during the Saturday Afternoon Session.

As far as other speakers, the difficult thing to know about the General Authority Seventies is how many might speak in each conference session, and who to put where. In my case, I have placed priority on Elder Massimo De Feo, who is the one General Authority Seventy called in April 2016 that has not yet spoken in General Conference. I then interspersed veteran General Authorities that had not spoken in General Conference during the last 5-6 years with the remaining 3 Seventies sustained in April 2017 that have not yet spoken to us.

I hope my overview of the reasoning behind what I have done relating to predicting other speakers has been helpful to at least some, if not all, of you. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.