As I have also mentioned, when he was a young man, Elder Holland, who was born and raised in St. George, was my dad's dad's home teaching companion. I have very vivid memories of my grandfather expressing his wonderment that a boy like that could grow up to be an apostle of the Lord. Many members of the Church may be prone to putting our apostles on pedestals, forgetting about the paths which have taken such men from the circumstances of their births to the point where the Lord sees fit to call them to be His special witnesses.
The difference is in the choices they made which enabled them to be ready, worthy, and able to accept such calls when they have come. But on another level, each of us can do likewise to ensure that we are where the Lord needs us to be and will be ready to do what He needs us to do in any circumstance in which we find ourselves.
I also have another indirect connection to Elder Holland. My mom is a freelance proofreader, and in the early days of her marriage to my dad, she worked on many projects for the Church Educational System. Since that occurred at the time when Elder Holland was the Commissioner of the CES, he was essentially my mom's "boss." And she speaks warmly of the experiences she had working with him. And my dad also reconnected with him a few different times when he (my dad) worked for the Church in Salt Lake.
Personal connections aside, I wanted to share a brief biographical sketch of Elder Holland. Jeffrey Roy Holland was born in
Upon his return from his mission, he married his high school sweetheart, Patricia Terry, in 1963. They are the parents of a daughter and two sons. Elder
He served as Commissioner of Church Education from 1976-1980. While serving in that assignment in 1980, he led a search for someone to succeed the current BYU-Provo President, Dallin H. Oaks (who would also become an apostolic colleague in the future). He was surprised when President Gordon B. Hinckley, who was then serving as Second Counselor in the First Presidency, called him one day to note that he (Jeffrey R. Holland) would be the next president of BYU.
Elder
In the space of a few short hours on June 23, President Hunter issued a call to the apostleship to Elder Holland, gave him his apostolic charge, set apart and ordained him to that calling, had him join the other 14 apostles in their weekly meeting at the temple, and arranged a press conference to enable him to take questions from the media. That action was sustained by Church membership during the Solemn Assembly that was held less than three months later.
Elder Holland gave 3 talks prior to his apostolic call (one of which he gave in April 1983 as president of BYU during the Priesthood Session, with his son (a teacher at the time) also speaking during that session, and the other 2 while serving as a General Authority Seventy. And since his call to the apostleship, he has spoken 49 additional times, meaning he has given 52 addresses altogether in General Conference. To review any of these wonderful addresses, click here.
Some of my favorites among those 50 in recent years have been None Were With Him (from the Easter Sunday Morning Session of the April 2009 General Conference); Lord, I Believe (from the Sunday Afternoon Session of the April 2013 General Conference); and Songs Sung and Unsung (from the Saturday Afternoon Session of the April 2017 General Conference).
The last thing I want to mention about Elder Holland is that he is currently the second most-senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the fourth most senior of our 15 current apostles. He is also the fourth-oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and is the 7th oldest among all 15 apostles.
Although it is unlikely Elder Holland will ever read this personally, I am grateful for the chance I had to present this post in honor of his birthday today. I joyfully and whole-heartedly sustain each and every one of our 15 current apostles in their callings, and I look forward to seeing the way in which Elder Holland will continue his apostolic ministry in the future.
That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated,. on any post at any time, as long as such comments remain true to the established guidelines for this blog. 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.
Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post some temple updates here (as providing them in a comment is easier right now than doing a brand new post). First of all, at the Barranquilla Colombia Temple grounds, the final cleaning process is underway while the temple is prepared for its' dedication this weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the grounds of the Oakland California Temple, while the display of Christmas lights and interior work continues, a new water feature that has been installed is now operational. I do continue to monitor all such developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of it. Thanks again, everyone!
Hello again, everyone! I have a couple of additional updates I wanted to note here. One relates to temples, and another to general Church news. First, the temple update. It appears that, between my last check late last night and when I checked just a few minutes ago that enough is now known about the progress on the renovation process for the Frankfurt Germany Temple that a more specific general estimate can now be provided. It has thus been noted that a rededication of this temple is now anticipated for sometime during mid-to-late 2019. It is somewhat disheartening to consider that this temple closed in 2015, was originally anticipated to be rededicated at some point last year, but will likely not now be rededicated until sometime during the final 3-6 months of next year. That said, the Lord does seem to know what He's doing in terms of the way in which such processes progress, so if a little more time is needed than anticipated on this temple, there must be a good reason for it.
ReplyDeleteJust a general observation here as well: Unless the Church announces something different within the next couple of days, it appears that the Church leaders who will be presiding at the Barranquilla Colombia Temple dedication this weekend will just make the trip to Colombia later this week, take care of that dedication, then return to Salt Lake. I had mentioned the possibility that President Nelson might do another leg of his Global Ministry Tour in conjunction with this event, but I had also said I would not be shocked if presiding officers merely dedicated the temple this weekend, so as not to distract or detract from the focus on the Christmas season. Barring anything unexpected, I would now anticipate that another leg of that Global Ministry Tour would occur sometime next year.
But there is also a possibility that President Nelson could ask one of his two counselors or one of the senior six members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to preside at this dedication. Previous Church Presidents have been known to do so, so that would not surprise me either.
That said, let's move on to the Church news story about which I spoke. In the early evening hours yesterday, the Church News reported that Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recently returned from a nine-day visit to the South America South Area. It was noted that he visited many of the same cities and nations President Nelson had visited during the first South American leg of his Global Ministry Tour in mid-to-late October. In some of those locations, Elder Gong mentioned that he took the time to follow-up with the members of the Church on how they had been responding to the invitations issued by President Nelson during that October tour.
I have a high respect for Elder Gong, whom I personally met before his service as a General Authority even began, and it was good to read about his time in this area. The article sharing more detail about his time in the South America South Area follows below. My thanks again to you all.
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2018-12-03/an-apostles-perspective-on-the-universal-nature-of-the-gospel-48531
Hello again, everyone! At some point between the time I posted the above comment and now, a report came in of a construction update for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple. Workers are continuing to build the temple foundation of that temple, while wood framing and sheathing is progressing for the meetinghouse which is also being built adjacent to that temple. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments, and will do my level best to bring those to you here as I receive them. That said, the effort to put together content is somewhat more laborious than it usually would be as I continue my recovery process, so I also appreciate all of you bearing with me as I give myself time to take care of all of that. I will still be doing the new posts I promised in the coming days, but may have to confine anything of a more minor nature to comments I add to existing posts. Hope that is okay with all of you. Thanks for your understanding and ongoing interest and support.
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