An Interesting Tidbit I Picked Up On/Upcoming Apostolic Birthdays

Hello again, everyone! While I am still planning on posting any updates I find regarding the dedication held earlier today for the Concepcion Chile Temple, I wanted to switch gears here for a minute and address a somewhat interesting tidbit I picked up on as I recently began scanning Church leader's biographies for any noted assignment changes.

As some of you might recall my mentioning previously here, the apostles (particularly the members of the Quorum of the Twelve) are given responsibility for the worldwide administration of the Church, and part of that involves having specific apostles assigned to specific areas. Such assignments are made and altered at the discretion of the President of the Church.

For a few years now at least, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has had a role in supervising the Middle East/Africa North Area (which is done from headquarters). And Elder L. Whitney Clayton has been assisting him with this assignment. But a recent recheck of Elder Clayton's biography notes that he now assists Elder David A. Bednar in the supervision of that area.

So what does that tell us? Different people might come to different conclusions in that regard. But it seems to me to be a safe assumption that the transferal of that assignment from Elder Holland to Elder Bednar may be because President M. Russell Ballard, the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is now 90 years of age, and if and when he passes away (assuming no other changes in the apostleship between now and that time), Elder Holland will, as the next in line, take over that assignment.

It appears that Elder Holland still has a role serving on the Church Board of Education, but perhaps this change indicates the First Presidency may want Elder Holland to be ready if he needs to take on that role in the future, which seems more likely than not. Of course, until anything official is announced, this is mainly just my personal opinion, and may be totally incorrect or not accounting for information that is unknown about this development.

That said, it wouldn't shock me to find out that I am correct in this theory. Currently, all 15 of our apostles appear to be in very good health, and 11 of the 15 are under 80 right now, while 7 of those 11 are under 70. Still, President Nelson has shown a willingness to tweak things now to prepare for the future, so I could see the wisdom in planning ahead for the future leadership of the Quorum if and when that becomes necessary.

In the meantime, as October winds to a close and November begins by the end of this week, I wanted to note that we have two apostles whose birthdays are coming up in November. On Tuesday November 6 (which coincides with Election Day here in the United States), Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf will be celebrating his 78th birthday. Exactly one week later, on Tuesday November 13, Elder Dale G. Renlund will observe his 66th birthday. You can count on my providing posts in honor of these two apostles on those dates.

I also continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple developments and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.