Instead, Elder Craig C. Christensen, a General Authority Seventy with pioneer ancestry, who is also currently serving as President of the Utah Area, has been asked to fill that assignment. KSL carried a one-on-one interview between one of the anchors and Elder Christensen, who discussed the honor he felt at having been asked to represent the Church and the Brethren in responding to this assignment.
Additionally, I have a couple of preliminary insights to offer due to the August 2019 Ensign being made available in its' HTML format earlier this afternoon. As has been the tradition for at least the last 20 years or so, the area leadership assignments, as they were announced in late April, were confirmed therein. Two takeaways from that: For the first time in a year or two, there have been no changes whatsoever in those assignments since the original announcement was made.
Also, beyond a general statement confirming the merging of seven North American areas into three, the specifics were not spelled out. One or two sidenotes as well: first, for the last several years, the August edition of the Ensign has featured the area leadership assignments on pages 14-15, but this year, that edition of the Ensign has those featured on pages 36-37, which I assume is where they had space for them.
And secondly, until the PDF version of the magazine is made available, there is no way currently to tell if there has been any change in the magazine editors and advisers, as has typically been the case each year. But I will be watching for that information and will pass it along here once I learn of it. In that respect, I am only anticipating 3 changes.
Brian K. Ashton, who served as Second Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency until April of this year, was released as an adviser to the Church magazines as a result of his release as a general officer of the Church, so he is likely to be replaced by a new member of that same presidency. Last month, Elder Erich W. Kopischke was also released as an adviser to the Church magazines, in view of his new assignment ias a member of the Europe Area Presidency.
And Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, who has been an adviser to the Church magazines for a couple of years now, will observe his 70th birthday in just 4 days. Since he will likely be granted emeritus status during the upcoming October 2019 General Conference, I would anticipate his release as an adviser has occurred as a result. Insofar as I have been able to ascertain, official confirmation of this information is still pending. But when I find anything more solid in that respect, I will be sure to bring it up here.
I continue to also monitor any and all Church news and temple updates and will bring word of the significant highlights to you all here as well. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such feedback is in compliance with the established guidelines. 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.
In order to not disturb the flow of that information, I
will end here as I always do: That does it for now. Any and all comments are,
as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such
feedback is in compliance with the established guidelines. 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! Both the Newsroom and the Church News have recently reported on the BYU-Idaho Spring Commecement Exercises. Among other speakers, Primary General President Sister Joy D. Jones and Elder Kim B. Clark, the outgoing Commissioner of Church Education, addressed the graduates. You can find the reports of this development at the following web addresses:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/sister-jones-urges-graduates-spiritual-entrepreneurs
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-07-24/sister-jones-teaches-byu-idaho-graduates-how-to-be-spiritual-entrepreneurs-50377
At this year's annual sunrise service held in conjunction with Pioneer Day, President Dallin H. Oaks was in attendance as Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge, a General Authority Seventy, spoke of how the hardships faced by Latter-day Saints today can make each of us modern-day pioneers, who may thereby experience great oppportunities for growthg and improvement:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2019-07-24/hardship-has-always-been-the-common-lot-of-the-faithful-said-elder-corbridge-during-pioneer-sunrise-service-50379
The Church News also shared picture highlights of today's KSL 5 Parade:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2019-07-24/days-of-47-parade-journey-of-hope-a-pioneers-legacy-50381
I will continue to monitor all such news, and temple developments as well, and will do my best to pass such things along ASAP. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.
Hello again, everyone! New information received today on the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple indicates that the open house (which had been set to begin on Saturday August 3) will instead begin on Thursday August 8. No reason has been given for this delay, but it is possible that more time is needed to prepare it, or that because it is a smaller temple, less time will be needed to tour it.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I will continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all here as I become are of it. Thank you.
It's an exciting time in history for temples. I look forward for more remote areas to get them. I am also excited that areas with nearby temples get more because that means that the nearby temple is being utilized sufficiently to warrant another temple (such as Utah, Manila, Lima, and in the metro area of Sao Paulo/Campinas). It could mean more temples in the 50 to 100 mile range from each other rather than the suggested 200 mile goal. (200 miles man mean that temples are up to 400 miles apart with the stakes halfway between being 200 miles from a temple. I look forward to closer temples for all, especially remote areas such as Tierra del Fuego, Kirabati, Vanauatu, Puapa New Guinea, and Lubumbashi DRCongo,Mongolia Sierra Leone, and Liberia among other places far from the nearest temple.
ReplyDeleteHello, CHris! Thanks for stopping by to comment. I have provided a revised and expanded list of the most likely potential loactions where a temple could be announced in October, which you can find at the following web address:
Deletehttps://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2019/07/revised-and-expanded-list-of-potential.html
What I may do, if it is all right with you, is post a copy of your comment in a new comment on that thread. But I won't do so unless I get your permission for it. In the meantime, I will say that most (if not all) of the locations you mentioned by name above are on that list this go-round. We are certainly entering unprecedented territory in terms of temple developments, and I definitely look forward to seeing what may come next in regards to temple construction. The next big announcement(s) I am anticipating are the confirmation of the plans to break ground for the Belem Brazil Temple (as that groundbreaking has been set to occur less than a month from now), the release of open house and dedication information for the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple, and possibly groundbreaking information on 2-3 other temples, with those set to occur through August and September. It will be interesting to see it all unfold, and for my part, I look forward to seeing what's next. As always, Chris, thanks for taking time to comment.
Go ahead and post it. This is already a public forum for others to read.
DeleteThank you, Chris! I will do so shortly.
DeleteHello again, everyone! Two additional Church news stories have crossed my radar today. The first talks about how, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the National Goovernor's Association, which is being held in Salt Lake this year, the spouses of several governors toured Welfare Square, where at the Humanitarian Center, they helped to assemble several hygiene kits:
ReplyDeletehttps://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/governor-spouses-humanitarian-center-2019
Reading that particular story brought several fond memories to my mind from the 2 years I spent serving part-time as a Welfare Services Missionary, where I worked with local humanitarian efforts, among which was the assembly of innumerable hygiene kits, similar to what was assembled by this group of governors' spuoses.
And from Boyd Matheson comes an editorial piece about Reverend Amos C. Brown, a clergyman working with the NAACP, who was tasked with introducing President Nelson prior to the prophet's speech to the NAACP. The piece focuses on how the bonds we share as children of God can enable us to do good things and to make a real difference in the world:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2019-07-25/boyd-matheson-it-can-be-well-with-this-nation-if-we-lock-arms-as-children-of-god-50387
As always, I am monitoring all Church news and temple developments and willl bring word of such developments to you all here as I become aware of such things. In the meantime, my thanks again to you all for your continued interest and support.