Given the nature of these predictions, another miniseries of posts is needed. This post will provide an overview of those predictions, and will be followed up by a post sharing the changes I am anticipating to be made in general Church leadership, then my temple predictions, whether those last two are in the same post, or whether they are two separate posts.
For now, we begin with my predictions for the speaking order. A few preliminary notes: Given the difference between what happened in April 2018, October 2018, and April 2019, General Conferences under what has been termed the Nelsonian era are going to be harder to predict. President Nelson did not open the April 2018 or 2019 General Conferences, but did open the October 2018 General Conference.
It could be that we as a Church have gotten too comfortable with the routine as it has been observed for at least the last few decades or so, so I could see President Nelson continuing to do things in an unexpected way that keeps us on our toes, and that applies, I think, specifically to General Conferences of the Church. The longer the status quo is maintained, the more comfortable we might get, and the less likely some might be to actually pay attention to what is said and done in General Conference.
So the idea of changing the game frequently as far as conferences are concerned is a very smart move. That is one reason I loved the assessment of the April 2019 General Conference as found in the May 2019 Ensign: the conference was rightly observed as providing constancy in the midst of change, while still being significant in its' own right in terms of the subject matter covered in each address.
With all of that in mind, I put these predictions together based on what I knew: The First Presidency members will speak multiple times, each member of the Quorum of the Twelve will do so once. One member of the Presiding Bishopric will speak. Given the new precedent set during the last 3 General Conferences, it is likely that only 1 member of the Presidency of the Seventy will speak.
Although the number of general officers that speak has fluctuated in recent General Conferences based on what has occurred, given that the General Women's Session will be held during the upcoming General Conference, in addition to the 3 female leaders in that session, I have 3 other speakers from among the general officers in 3 other sessions.
Given that 8 new General Authority Seventies were sustained in April 2018 (with 1 more announced a month later) and that 3 of those spoke during the subsequent October General Conference, with 10 GA Seventies sustained last April, I am theorizing that a minimum of 3 of those Brethren will do so during the upcoming General Conference, and that 3 other seventies who have previously spoken will do so during this General Conference.
These are the most relevant notes relating to the predictions I have put together. I post them below. In order to not disturb the flow of that information, I will end here and now as I always do: 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 are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.
October 2019 General Conference Predictions (Text in brackets denote differences)
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Sess.
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Conducting
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Speaker
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SAM
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President Henry B.
Eyring
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President Russell M.
Nelson
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Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
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Douglas D. Holmes
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Elder Gerrit W. Gong
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Elder Ruben V. Alliaud
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Elder Dale G. Renlund
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Elder David S. Baxter
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President Dallin H. Oaks
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SAA
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President Dallin H. Oaks
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President Henry B.
Eyring (Sustaining of Church Officers)
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Elder Quentin L. Cook
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Elder Terence M. Vinson
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Elder Ronald A. Rasband
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Elder Jorge M. Alvarado
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Elder Scott D. Whiting
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Elder David A. Bednar
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GW
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Joy D. Jones
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Jean B. Bingham
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Lisa L. Harkness
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Bonnie H. Cordon
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President Henry B.
Eyring
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President Dallin H. Oaks
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President Russell M.
Nelson
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SUM
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President Henry B.
Eyring
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Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
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Cristina B. Franco
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Elder Ulisses Soares
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Elder Gary E. Stevenson
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Bishop Gerald Causse
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President Russell M.
Nelson
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SUA
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President Dallin H. Oaks
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President Henry B.
Eyring
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President M. Russell
Ballard
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Mark L. Pace
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Elder D. Todd
Christofferson
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Elder Anthony D. Perkins
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Elder Hans T. Boom
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Elder Neil L. Andersen
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President Russell M.
Nelson
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