Stokes Sounds Off: UPDATED: COVID-19 Status Report on the Senior Brethren of the Church

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Thursday, October 8, 2020

UPDATED: COVID-19 Status Report on the Senior Brethren of the Church

Hello again, everyone! Although this is no longer breaking news (since the report was provided a few hours ago), I wanted to provide an update (as reported by Newsroom and confirmed in the Church News) on the health of our apostles during this COVID-19 period. According to longtime Church spokesman Eric Hawkins, Elder and Sislter Gong, who tested positive for COVID-19 two days ago, continue to experience very mild symptoms, and are both taking proper precautions and remaining actively involved in contact-tracing as a result of their diagnosis.

Additionally, based on the positive diagnosis of Elder and Sister Gong (and, I'm sure, under the watchful eye of President Nelson, who continues to do what he can as a former physician and surgeon to provide a medically-supportive role to his fellow apostles), each of the other apostles (perhaps with their spouses) have been teted for COVID-19. With the exception of Elder and Sister Gong, all other tests taken returned negative results.

This news is both welcome and not surprising, since the Brethren have been foremost in encouraging COVID-19 precautions on the part of Church members and leaders. And hopefully, the confirmation that the Gongs continue to do well and that no other senior leaders have tested positive will be a comfort to any who may have been worried about that over the past several days. I am grateful to have been able to learn about this report and to pass it along to you all here.

I continue to monitor  all Church news reports and updated temple developments, and will be sure to bring you all word of those as I become aware of them. In the meantime, I wanted to mention that, due to the many other Church news reports which have been provided today, some of which relate to prior content posted on this blog, I may be sharing some of those updates across the threads of a few of the most recent posts, so be on the lookout for those.

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 comments are made in accordance 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.

5 comments:

  1. Retired Air Force Col. and Church member Gail Halvorsen, known worldwide by many as the "Candy Bomber" is preparing to observe his 100th birthday. The Church News has released an article in his honor a few days before he reaches that milestone:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2020-10-08/candy-bomber-turns-100-gail-halvorsen-wwii-hero-193661

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello again, everyone! Earlier this evening, the Church published the latest edition of Latter-day Saints Around the World:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saints-around-the-world-country-newsroom-websites-october-8-2020

    Featured this week were articles from the following countries/regions of the world: Colombia, Italy, South Korea, the Middle East, the United States (from which two stories were shared), and the Republic of the Congo.

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The Church News shared the additional article:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-10-08/young-women-general-presidency-class-presidencies-needed-pandemic-195072

    And the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site noted several hours ago that site clearing has started for the Moses Lake Washington Temple:

    https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/moses-lake-washington-temple/news/

    A few additional details that are indicative of how close to that groundbreaking the Church may currently be:

    https://columbiabasinherald.com/news/2020/oct/08/lds-church-prepares-break-ground-new-moses-lake-t/

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Church News has today shared the biographies of the area seventies sustained during the most recent General Conference:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2020-10-09/october-general-conference-new-area-seventies-nigeria-russia-ecuador-195304

    One note: The article mistakenly says that President Oaks presented those changes, but, as we know, it was President Eyring who actually did so, as verified by the following transcript:

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/21eyring?lang=eng

    My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Church News has published the latest edition of "This Week on Social", the newest installment of which constituted a recap and reemphasis of major addresses given by our 15 current apostles and the female general officers of the Church:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2020-10-09/social-media-general-conference-2020-president-nelson-195320

    The latest edition included posts from the following individuals: Church President Russell M. Nelson (from whom 4 posts were shared); his two counselors, Presidents Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring (from each of whom 2 posts were shared); the entire Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, including: Acting President M. Russell Ballard and Elders Jeffrey R. Holland, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, David A. Bednar (an additional post from Elder Bednar that was not related to General Conference was also shared), Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Andersen, Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, Dale G. Renlund, Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares); and the following female general officers of the Church; Sisters Micchelle D. Craig and Becky Craven, the respective First and Second Counselors in the Young Women General Presidency; Sisters Lisa L. Harkness and Cristina B. Franco, the respective First and Second Counselors in the Primary General Presidency; and Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency. My thanks once again to you all.

    ReplyDelete

In addition to my life-long love for the subjects which I cover in the posts of this blog, I have long held the belief that we can disagree without becoming disagreeable. Differences of opinion are natural, while being disagreeable in expressing those differences is not. And in that sense, I have no desire to close the door on anyone who earnestly desires to contribute to the ongoing dialogue on subjects covered in the posts on this blog.

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Any comments made by individuals who opt to not give a name by which they can ber identified may, depending on the substance and tone of such comments, be subject to deletion as well. I would respectfully ask that all of us do all we can to keep the dialogue positive, polite, and without malice or ill-will. May the Lord bless us all in our discussion of these important matters.