Miscellaneous Church News Items Reported

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased at this time to bring you several Church News items that had a profound impact on me. Many of them brought my emotions very close to the surface. There is a lot to get to, so let's get started.

First of all, on Tuesday, the Church News reported on an address given by Elder Neil L. Andersen the day before at a BYU-Provo devotional gathering. Elder Andersen used his address to provide more context to the ministering announcement that President Nelson made in the last session of General Conference. Before I share a link to Elder Andersen's address, I have felt a need to point out something:

In many venues of discussion in which I have participated, many people have expressed surprise about the ministering announcement, saying that it is a new concept that will take some getting used to. But in this address given by Elder Holland during the Priesthood Session of the October 2016 General Conference, Elder Holland was very clear about what effective home teaching should look like, with his counsel echoing the oft-repeated phrase of other Church leaders: "Never let a program to be run become more important than a person to be saved." Effective home teaching, if I have understood what the Brethren have said on the subject, was always supposed to be more focused on showing genuine love and concern than it was to be more concerned with just getting it done or sharing an assigned message.

The fact that the Brethren have repeatedly reiterated what effective home teaching should look like and the fact that the concept of home and visiting teaching as we know it has been retired indicates to me that most of the Church is missing the mark on this. The so-called "new practice" of ministering is simply placing greater emphasis on something that should have been done all this time.

Sorry to get on my soapbox there. I have just been so bothered by everyone talking about a "new program" when what has actually been done is to put the idea of caring for our fellow Church members in its' proper perspective. Getting back to Elder Andersen's BYU address, what he said to those in attendance reiterates the idea that it is not a "new program" at all, but rather a refinement of something that was misunderstood or being done improperly. You can read more about his remarks here.

Having taken a chunk of time on one news story, I will try to be more concise in covering the others I wanted to share. In an effort to better serve the needs of members worldwide, the Church has noted additional changes to temple garment styles for endowed Church members. Next, with it being early Friday morning now London time, the Church News has reported on President Nelson's visit with members and missionaries. It is great to see his enthusiasm, vigor, and desire to be out among the people of the Church.

Next, the Church News has covered the publication of the next volume in the Joseph Smith Papers Project. The latest volume covers the Saints efforts to recover and seek governmental redress from their persecutions in Missouri after they relocated to Illinois. Among other interesting insights, the newest volume provides more context for the response of US President Martin Van Buren when he told early Church leaders that come to see him: "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for you." That was an intriguing article to read.

And rounding out these newest articles I wanted to cover, there are two others. First, we have one that highlights the reactions of Church members in Russia, India, and Nicaragua to the temples announced by President Nelson for a major city in Russia (which apparently means the temple will be located in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Saratov, where the 3 stakes of the Church in Russia have been established), Bengaluru, and Managua respectively.

Before sharing the last article, I just wanted to interject here that the article about the reactions to those temples was one of the two that brought tears to my eyes. To hear of the sacrifices these Saints have made to get to the temples closest to their nations (which has involved extensive travel, and at times, some Saints having to miss their children's marriages due to visa issues) made my heart ache for them. But each one interviewed expressed gratitude for a temple in their midst. Particularly in Russia, it appears that, whichever of the three cities are chosen, the Saints in the other two locations will still have an extensive journey, although it will not be as lengthy or as costly as going to their currently assigned temple.

It is also worth reiterating something I have said before: For the Nicaraguan Saints, they have waited for a temple for a while. Six years ago, in January 2012, then-Elder Nelson felt to make an apostolic promise to the Saints in Nicaragua that they would have their own temple in the future. And now, as Church president, he has fulfilled that promise by announcing a temple for Managua. I do not think it is an accident that President Nelson has come to the Church presidency at a time when Managua was on the list of potential locations for which a temple could be built. With land having been held in reserve for such a temple for a while now, I would imagine that President Nelson will do everything in his power to ensure that he is around to preside at that temple's groundbreaking ceremony himself.

In the meantime, I also do not believe that it was accidental that temples have been announced recently in Russia and in India. As some of you might recall, I was one of many who, in offering thoughts about potential future temples, noted that such edifices might be a more distant prospect. In regards to that, I was grateful for the reminder that the Lord's ways, thoughts, and timing are higher than those offered by myself or anyone else. The timing of these announcements has always been the Lord's to govern. With that said, I also fully believe that the Lord held such announcements in reserve until President Nelson could make them as the new Church president.

The fact that the Lord's ways, thoughts, and timing are higher than ours also applies fully to the last Church news article I wanted to share. As many of you are aware, before General Conference, I had shared my opinion that, while I would love to see both of the newest apostles hail from outside the US, it was more likely that the Church would opt for someone American-born who had extensive international experience.

I was never more pleased to be proven wrong in that regard. Elder Gerrit W. Gong was born in the US, but has Asian ancestry, and Elder Soares is both the first South American and first Brazilian-born apostle appointed. With these appointments, 1/5 of the current 15 apostles were born outside the US, something we have not seen in Church history before now. Because Elder Gong is just short of 2 years older than Elder Stevenson, while Elder Soares is the new youngest apostle, it may be a while before we know how likely it might be that either could become president of the Church at some point.

But these appointments are very historic and significant, and demonstrate that President Nelson may be more willing to look at other internationally-born apostolic candidates than his predecessors might have been. That said, of the current apostles, all but one (President Ballard, who will be 90 later this year) are in their mid-to-late 70's or younger. With that in mind, it is hard to know how many (if any) other apostles might pass before President Nelson does. That will be interesting to see. Whatever happens, perhaps seeing President Nelson's willingness to appoint two international apostles as his first picks may mean that his successors in the presidency, whomever they may be, might be more willing to do so as well.

Sorry for that tangent, but it set the context for the final article I wanted to mention. In keeping with their tradition of publishing articles to introduce new Church leadership to Church members, the Church News as published one to introduce Elder Gong. His extensive experience includes being well educated, and time spent as a BYU-Provo administrator. As some of you might also recall, he was called as a General Authority in April 2010, and he was called to serve in the Presidency of the Seventy following Elder Rasband's October 2015 call to the Quorum of the Twelve.

If I may, I would like to share a personal experience I had with Elder Gong. He was an area seventy assigned to the Utah South Area who had been asked to accompany the General Authority Seventy visiting the conference in my parents' stake during the years I served in the temple. I was greatly impressed with his message, in which he demonstrated a clear understanding of the scriptures and encouraged us to improve ourselves in the ways that were suggested during that conference. After the session was over, I took the opportunity to greet him, and was impressed by his personal warmth and manner of expressing himself.

Because of this encounter, I can witness firsthand that he has been prepared throughout his life for his new calling. Although he has only given three talks in General Conference, two of those three (given in response to his apostolic call earlier this month, and one other given two years ago this month) spoke of the Savior and the important role He should have in our lives, while the other (given in October 2010 in response to his call as a General Authority) focused on the important role temples should have in the lives of Church members. I imagine these two topics will have a highly important emphasis during his ministry, among other subjects.

But I have rambled on long enough. That concludes the discussion of the articles I wanted to pass along to you all, so 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.