BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: First Temple Dedication in Over a Year Includes Slight Change to Dedicatory Procedures

Hello again, everyone! This morning, the latest edition of "In Case You Missed It" was published by the Church News. 5 of the top 9 developments reported were about the ministry of the apostles. The last of those 5 updates detailed the real reason (rather than the previously-conjectured one) that the Church held the temple dedication youth devotional one week ago today.

The Church had previously announced that the temple dedication would occur in four general sessions held today at 8:00 and 10:00 AM and at 12:00 and 2:00 PM, with the option to hold a fifth at 4:00 PM if that is needed.

As we also know, under normal arrangements, the Church would include the sealing of the cornerstone as part of the first dedicatory session. But with the dedicatory sessions for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple being held within two-hour intervals today, in order to allow more speakers to offer remarks during the first dedicatory session, Elder Gong officiated at the cornerstone ceremony yesterday evening.

So, while COVID-19 may impact the timing of temple dedications, particularly having a youth devotional the week before the dedication will allow the cornerstone ceremony to occur the day before the dedication, and the Church could allow one or two additional dedicatory sessions to encourage smaller groups in attendance at each session.

I am grateful to have learned about these updates and to pass them along to you all here. I'm hopeful we could see temple reopenings announced for the Tokyo Japan and Hamilton New Zealand Temples soon, in addition to opening arrangements soon for the Yigo Guam and Quito Ecuador Temples, and that between now and the only currently-scheduled groundbreaking (in mid-December for the Bacolod Philippines) there could be at least a few other groundbreakings held, whether or not they are announced in advance.

In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Quetzeltenango Guatemala Temple Transitions to Phase 3; Nearly 93% of All Temples Now Offering Proxy Ordinances

 Hello again, everyone! This morning, the Church News has reported that the Quetzeltenango Guatemala Temple is the latest to transition to phase 3, offering all living and proxy ordinances in priority order, with appropriate protocols and procedures in place to keep all Church members safe. With this latest development, the Church has almost 93% of its' 168 temples open in phase 3. 

With this weekend marking the dedication of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, and next weekend marking the dedication of the Pocatello Idaho Temple, the Church will then have 170 operating temples by mid-November, 158 of which will be open in phase 3, as a result of which the percentage of temples open in phase 3 by mid-November will then remain steady at 93%.

The Church also noted that the Medford Oregon Temple, which had been projected to move into phase 3 in August of this year, has not yet moved into that phase, but will do so at a later time when COVID-19 conditiions allow that to occur. Aside from these updates, there have not been any other changes reported. so the latest data, which is also featured in the temple reopening status tracker and in the Church's official Newsroom release, now shows the status of temple reopenings as follows: 

9 remain closed for major renovations,, all but 2 of which (Hong Kong China and Tokyo Japan) have been granted phase 3 designation, which allows the members residing in those other 6 temple districts to schedule living and proxy ordinances at the temples cloesest to them that are also in phase 3); 3 remain paused in their reopenings (with 2 that were in phase 3 and 1 that was in phase 2 at the time their pauses went into effect); just 2 remain in phase 1; 3 in phase 2; 4 in phase 2-B; and the remaining 147 in phase 3.

I continue to find it very humbling to witness the inspired and careful way the Brethren have directed the weekly efforts to reopen temples around the world. Modern technology has allowed the apostles to more frequently check in with the area presidencies for the areas in which they each have oversight, and since those conversations are able to carry on weekly, no matter where any of them are geographically, the Church has been very smart in evaluating and assessing things and responding accordingly.

I also keep going back to what President Nelson described as he came to the painful decision that all temples should be closed for the time being. He noted that he agonized over what he would say to them and that he was "going to see them soon"(which to me does not sound like he's talking about when his ministry as prophet ends and he is called home to help direct the work from the other side of the veil). I can understand his feelings on some level: it's a huge, unprecedented thing for the Church to have closed all temples worldwide for a significant duration of time. 

At the same time, unprecedented times (during a global pandemic of a highly-transmissible disease) call for unprecedented measures, and I for one do not find it accidental in any respect that the Church is dealing with the effects of a global pandemic at a time when the prophet representing the Lord to the Church is a former medical physician and surgeon. I think on that level, President Nelson's fellow prophets would be very understanding of what had to be done. I also think that their biggest question for him would be: "Did you do what the Lord instructed you to do on the matter?" And when he answered in the affirmative, that would be the only thing they'd be concerned about.

It's something I've thought about a lot and wanted to put into words now. It's natural that unprecedented times requiring unprecedented measures would cause worry for the Lord's prophet, but my personal opinion is that he didn't need to worry on that count. As I've previously mentioned, two weeks ago today, no temple reopening updates were provided. With such updates provided anew the last couple of weeks, I think that most weeks will see updates on that going forward, especially as COVID-19 becomes less of an issue worldwide, but that there could be a few weeks where no updates are announced as things hold steady.

It's also worth noting that  I anticipate that the Church could potentially begin to transition temples to phase 4 either just prior to Christmas 2021 and New Years' Day 2022 or as 2022 progresses. I will be sure to monitor all of that and bring you word of those developments as I become aware thereof. I'd be remiss if I also didn't note that it seems more likely than not that opening arrangements for the Yigo Guam and Quito Ecuador temples could be coming down the pike within the next week or two, as could the reopening arrangements for the Tokyo Japan and Hamilton New Zealand Temples.

Right now, the Church only has 2 temples currently scheduled for a groundbreaking: Pago Pago American Samoa (on Saturday October 30), and Bacolod Philippines (on Saturday December 11). Right now, no other temple groundbreakings have been scheduled. I have been hoping that for some temples, it might be psosible to hold a private groundbreaking for the temple before publicly releasing the video and photographs verifying that those groundbreakings took place on those dates.

Either way, I am anticipating that a maximum of 9 temples within the United States will have groundbreakings occur soon (whether or not they are announced in advance), along with a maximum of 8 other temples outside the United States. And if at least 10 of those 17 are able to have a groundbreaking by the end of this year, temple groundbreakings in 2021 will exceed the 21 that occurred last year.

I will monitor all of those updates and will do my best to bring you word of any developments as I become aware thereof.In the meantime, 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.

UPDATED: Temple Construction Progress Report

Hello again, everyone! Throughout this week, there have been periodic changes in the number, ordering, or time-frames for the completion of new temples under construction. As a result of the changes made in the last couple of days, I have prepared an updated copy of my temple construction progress report. I am pleased to be able to share that with you.

On my end, I also continue to minotor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be happy to pass those along to you all as I receive such updates. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS': First Presidency Releases Official Information about the Ephraim Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! On this Friday, we have some more breaking temple news. The site location has been confirmed and the preliminary details released for the Ephraim Utah Temple. Plans call for a three-story temple of roughly 39,000 square feet. The temple will rise on a 9.16 acre site located at the intersection of 400 East and 200 North. Although no groundbreaking date has been announced, it's good to see the Church taking this next step on Ephraim.

Regarding temple groundbreakings, information I have informally receieved indicates that as many as 17 temples could have groundbreakings occur within the next 6 months I know of at least four (Farmington New Mexico, Willamette Valley Oregon, Elko Nevada, and Grand Junction Colorado) that could have groundbreakings set to occur by the end of this month or early next month.

For my part, I continue to monitor all of this and will be sure to bring you word of updates as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Spontaneous Fire Erupts at Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Hello again, everyone! At the top of the 10:00 PM KSL newscast, a breaking news update was shared regarding a fire that erupted today at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The KSL news story shared an official Churh statement on the fire was provided by long-time Church spokesperson Brother Eric Hawkins:

"At around 7 this evening, a fire started on the second-floor roof of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The most likely cause of the fire is from combustible construction materials that ignited on their own.We are grateful for the quick response of emergency personnel, who were able to extinguish the fire and are on site conducting their investigation. We are also grateful that no one was injured in this incident and that property damage is minimal and the building will be operational tomorrow." Just wanted to pass that along here. I continue to monitor any and all Church News updates and reported temple developments and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all as I become aware thereof.

In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Church Leaders Worldwide Will Be Able to Electronically Sign and Print Temple Recommends through LCR

 Hello again, everyonne! As some of you might be aware, I have been checking periodically to see whether the PDF version of the Novembeer 2021 Liahona has been made available. Although the PDF availability is still pending,I was able to glean from portions of the magazine what has changed for the conference issue of the Liahona. Based on what I found there, although the shortened length of time for talks given by the apostles will mean the text of those talks no longer will cover the standard 3-5 pages in most cases, I was not prepared for some other surprises. 

With the summary of conference talks given by the First Presidency and a few members of the Quorum of the Twelve, along with some of the female officers of the Church, the combined data provided on that summary page, when taken together, shows that some of the talks given by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles actually only spanned 2 pages, as did a fair few other talks by general leaders.

It appears that the Church was able to do that through a slight adjusted sizing of the conference isssue by contrast with the other 10 issues of the Liahona. And that means that in October, the sustainings portion might only take one page, while for April, a colum of one other page will show the auditing department report. If the General Conference Liahona does indeed have 128 pages every time going forward, then doing a slightly taller edition of the Liahona would help facilitate that.

The HTML version of the magazine being available now would be sufficient grounds on its' own to warrant a breaking news report here, but when you add to that the fact that another major development has been reported in that conference edition of the Liahona magazine, The reported update notes that ward and stake leaders now have the option to electroically fill and then e-sign Church members' temple recommends through their administrative capacities available to those individuals in the LCR (Leader and Clerk Resources). 

The fact that this option was not available before now seems to suggest thaT President Nelson may be in a better position that makes him willing to more fully embrace and encourage technology for the worldwide Church than it may have to do with the fact that his predecessors never considered that update, or may not nhave found it feasible. By contrast to his two immediate predecessors, our current prophet, who brings all the precision and problem-solving skills he finessed and all the inspiration he has honed to bear on his role as the only man authorized to receive revelation for the entire Church, is making common-sense adjustments that might have never occurred to his predecessors because they never thought to ask those questions in a way that would enable them to receive the revelation the same way President Nelson has done.

I will continue to monitor what happens and will share more complete information when the PDF of the magazine becomes available. Above and beyond that, however, I am keeping my eyes open for official announcements relating to temples. I remain committed to bringing you those updates as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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. 

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Church Upgrades Manila Philippines Temple to Phase 3,; 95% of Temples Now Open for Proxy Wrk

Hello again, everyone! On the literal heels of th is morning's announcement about the Farmington temple's exterior rendering, and following a one-week hiatus on temple reopening adjustments, the Church announced that the Manila Philippines Temple, which, if my memory serves me correctly, had previously transitioned to phase 3 before those arrangements were paused, will once again open for phase 3 ordinances. 

This means that husband-to-wife sealings, endowments for the living, and all proxy work (including baptims for the dead will be able to be scheduled in that temple. But above and beyond that, the fact that Manila will be returning to phase 3 means that 95% of all currently-operating temples (including 7 of the 9 temples currently closed for renovations) will be open in phase 3. 

The changes reported in the Church News article to which I linked at the beginning of this post are further confirmed by the updated Newsroom release and in the temple reopening status tracker. As a result of this latest update, the reopening of the first temple in the Philippines of the Church remain closed for renovation (although 7 of those temple districts have been granted phase 3 designations); 3 other temples remain paused (with 2 of those 3 being in phase 3, and the other 1 temple in phase 2 at the time those reopenings were paused); with 3 more apiece in phases 1 and 2. 5 additional temples are in phase 2-B (baptistry open for proxy work with living ordiances available in priority order., which means the remaining 146 temples aow in phase 3. 

I have mentioned this a few times in the recent past, but the COVID-19 pandemic has provided the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles assigned to each of the Church's 22 areas worldwide a chance to virtually and regularly taouch bases with and ascertain infrmation from each area presidency, which in turn informs the apostles of any new updates of which they need to be made aware, especially if those updates pertain to the ongoing and in-flux temple reopenings week-to week.

The process of reopening temples has been inspiring to see, and I look forward to seeing what happens in that respect throughout the remainder of this year. In the meantime, with the Church releasing the exterior rendering for the Farmington New Mexico Temple, the approvals process for that has moved to the next phase, so hopefully between the latest updates on all new US temples, the Church could then plan on breaking ground for each of the now-14 temples for which sites have been confirmed and exterior renderings released. 

There is also the possibility that the Church could potentially hold some of those groundbreakings without publicly announcing when they will take place. And if that is the case for more than a few of those 14 temples, it's also possible that other temples for which official information is still pending could also have a groundbreaking without drawing attention to that occurring until after the fact.

Whether or not any or all of those temples have groundbreakings announced before thy occur,, even though the Church has not yet scheduled any temple groundbreakings, unless and until we have proof to the contrary, I still fully believe that this year, the Church will both meet and exceed the total number of temple groundbreakings which took place last year (21).

I am monitoring any such updates, and will bring you all word thereof here as I become aware of such updates on my end. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Rendering Released for Farmington New Mexico Temple

Hello aagain, everyone! As some of you might recall, the site location for the Farmington New MexicoTemple on June 23, Although the exterior renderings have since been releaased for Grand Junction Colorado and Burley Idaho, Farmington has not yet had a rendering released up to this point. The wait on that temple's rendering  is now over, in view of this mroning's announcement relative to that announcement. 

Although this temple is roughly the same sizes as the Grand Junction Colorado Temple, the design reminds me very much of a scaled-up version of the renderungs for Elko Nevada, Casper Wyoming, and Helena Montana, which suggests to me that the modular design of smaller temples of a similar size could als use the modular design.

I am grateful to have heard this news and been able to pass that along to you all here. I continue to monitor temple milestonesi and other reported developments, and will be sure to pass that information along to you all as I become aware thereof.

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

Initial Predictions for the April 2022 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! Given the fact that no breaking Church news or temple deelopments have been shared thus far this week.I was able to spend a good chunk of time yesterday getting the initial version of my predictions for the April 2022 General Conference. Those predictions include 3 separate segments: the potential speaker lineup, a list of changes in general Church leadership (which also includes my estimates for the numbers that may be featured in the 2021 Statistical Report, and my preliminary list of locations in which a temple seems most likely to be announced.

A bit of context might be helpful. On the speaker lineup, I have used a similar (if not identical) template for each featured speaker. In view of the fact that so many GA Seventies spoke during the October 2021 General Conference, it appears more likely than not that the April 2022 General Conference will follow a similar format, but with Presidents Oaks and Eyring switching speaker slots this time around. 

It seems likely that 3 apostles each will speak Saturday Morning,Saturday Afternoon, and Sunday Morning, with 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the final session, and the one remaining apostle will speak Saturday Evening. 

It also seems likely to me that, with the Church having shortened the amount of time alloted for the Sustaining of Church Officers, and for the duration of all talkgs given by our apostles, that there will be ample room for one member of the Presidency of the Seventy (Kearon), one Presiding Bishopric member (Causse), and 5 General Officers of the Church.

Additionally, in view of the fact that 15 current GA Seventies spoke earlier this month, the adjusted talk lengths for all apostles will leave room for about that same number of GA Seventies. There is only one current GA Seventy (Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran) who was sustained in April 2020 but has not yet spoken in General Conference, All GA Seventies called in April of this year spoke for the first time in General Conference earlier this month.

As a result, in addition to Elder Ojediran, my predictions for other GA Seventy speakers does not take Elder Baxter into consideration, since he is still reportedly on medical leave. But the next name on that list of when each current GA Seventy last spoke to us is Elder Randy D. Funk, who gave his first address as a GA Seventy during the Priesthood Session in October 2013. 

I went down through the list, and with the way the speaker predictions apeear to be set up going forward, I was able to plan out a scenario that would see every GA Seventy listed between Elder Funk and Elder Hugo Montoya (who gave his first address during the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2015 General Conference).

The only notes I have on the changes in general Church leadership are that new GA Seventies are likely to be sustained, with area seventy releases and sustainings conducted in advance, and the release of the Relief Society General Presidency and the calling of new leaders for that organization. The numbers showing up in my projected version of the data likely to be included in the 2021 Statistical Report for the Church are based on both estimates and somewhat elaborate algorithms that are hard to explain.

And with the final document showing the list of locations in which a temple seems most likely to be announced, I eliminated all candidates that had been announced in October. I will be looking to add any locations to the list based on research verifying those choices, or based on any recommendations from you, my readers, who would like to submit feedback for consideration here. With those explanations handled, I am pleased to declare the commenting period for these predictions is now open.

The commenting period will remain in effect until 10:00 PM on Friday April 1, which will then give me a few hours to make any adjustments before General Conference weekend gets underway with the first session on Saturday April 2 at 10:00 AM. I look forward to any feedback any of you might offer on what I've put together. I also continue to monitor all major Church news and temple developments and will bring you all word here of the latest as I can once I become aware of that information.

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.

Post-Conference Document Analysis: Part Two—Additional Relevant Documents

Hello again, everyone! Having just provided the first part of my two-post analysis on General Conference, I am back to share some additional analysis I have put together. First up, we have the length of talks given by each of our apostles. A side-by-side comparison of that document to the lengths of talks given during the April 2021 General Conference, you'll notice that the length of time taken by each apostle was shortened by between 2-4 minutes. 

In view of that fact, and in view of the fact that President Nelson and his counselors each gave 1 less talk each by contrast to what occurred last October, more time was made available for other general leaders to speak.In April, there was a total of 15 talks given by other leaders (the non-apostolic speakers). 

By contrast, 22 General Authorities and General Officers spoke in October, which makes sense in view of the decision to reinstate the Saturday Evening Session so more general leaders could speak Because each member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave one talk each, and the prophet and his cousnelors gave one less talk apiece, the consequent adjustments were noted to the running total of talks given by our apostles. 

And in view of the aforementioned talk transcript release by the Church (which included the title of each talk), I was able to also create a mock-up showing what the table of contents for the November 2021 Liahona might look like. I anticiapte the PDF of that magazine will be available within the next week or two, so we'll see how close my predictions come this time around.

I am grateful to have been able to provide this two-part analysis of General Conference, and my documents related thereunto. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and reported temple developments and will bring word of those to you all as I become aware thereof.

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.

Post-Conference Document Analysis: Part One—Predictions & Scoring Results

Hello again, everyone! Although the Church has not released any updates today on the reopening process for temples, the lack of new information there allowed me to focus more fully today on updating several of my files relating to General Conference.As I reported exactly one week ago, tthe Church released the transcripts for the October 2021 General Conference. 

Based on the release of that information, I was able to complete my analysis of that conference. As a reminder, I have links to my predictions for the speaker lineup, the anticipated changes in general Church leadership, and the most likely locations in which a temple could be announced. 

I had previously noted I would give myself a slightly higher margin of error than I usually do, since this was the first General Conference held with a Saturday Evening sesion instead of a Priesthood or Women's Session. That being said, I wanted to share how scoring my predictions worked this time around.

As I mentioned, I gave myself a slightly higher margin of error with these predictions. With that in mind, let me now shed light on what the scoring signifies. For every possible element of my predictions, I use a 3-point scale. In terms of the speaking order, I gave myself 3 points if I had the correct individual in the correct position in the session in which they spoke. 

So for the Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, and Sunday Afternoon Sessions, 3 points each were awarded by correctly predicting that President Nelson would speak in those slots during that session. 2 points were awarded if I had the correct individual in the right session, but if they spoke in a different slot than I had projected. 

An example of that would be President Eyring in the Satruday Evening Session, since he was the last speaker, or the 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who spoke during the Saturday Morning Session, but did so in a different order.  I had Christofferson first, then Soares, then Holland, but it was Holland, Soares, and Christofferson). 

Although I was correct about Elder Soares being the second ajpostle, his slot earned me 2 points because I did not have him in the right slot within that session. 1 point was awarded if I correctly predicted a speaker at all, but had them in the wrong slot and in the wrong session. Examples of that from the Sunday Afternoon Session are Elders Sean Douglas and Michael A. Dunn.

I had predicted they would speak in that order in the Saturday Mroning Session, but they did so in the reverse order in the Sunday Afternoon Session, as a result of which I gave myself a score of 1 for each of them. For changes in Church leadership, I gave myself a 3-point score for every GA Seventy I correctly predicted would be granted emeritus status, and 3 points each for the fact that current area seventies have been released while a couple of new ones were sustained.

That brings us to the new temples. I had the exact locations on my list for the newest temples in the Philippines, Liberia, Mexico, Bolivia, Texas, and Utah, each of those were 3 points apiece. Although I had a second Rexburg temple correct, I didn't predict it would be tn the northern area of that city, so it was 2 points, as were the temples announced in Taiwan, the DR Congo, Chile and Wyoming. I correctly surmised that a new Brazilian temple would be built, but Vitoria wasn't on my radar, so that was scored at a 1.

With a possible 3 points for each individual element of these predictions, the grand total I used to determine the accuracy percentage was 204. And the 130 points awarded of that total were based on that 3-point scale, but with a margin of error applied,  I hope that explains my method for scoring these predictions.

That being said, I also have other relevant documents to share. But because I don't want to make this post excessively long, this will conclude part 1 of my Post-Conference Document Analysis. A second part will follow later tonight and will focus on the other updated documents.

As I prepare to wrap up this first part, I wanted to note that this General Conference will likely be a template for others held going forward with the Saturday Evening Session. That means that President Nelson will continue to open and close each conference and conclude the Sunday Morning Session, but that he will also likely take his turn to speak every third Saturday Evening Session. 

The counselors in the First Presidency will rotate between being the final speaker on Saturday Morning or Saturday Evening, or, for conferences in which President Nelson speaks during the Saturday Evening Session, whichever counselor does not speak last in the Saturday Morning Session will speak first Sunday Afternoon.

The five sessions will feature 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles each speaking Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, and Sunday Morning, with 2 members speaking in the final session, and 1 at the beginning of the Saturday Evening Session. The other general leaders of the Church (Presidency of the Seventy, General Authority Seventies, members of the Presiding Bishopric, and General Officers of the Church) will speak in the five general sessions with some degree of rotation that will vary each General Conference.

So that seems to be what we will be looking at going forward for General Conferences. Of course, it's also possible that there will be different speaker lineups for April vs. October, but until that is proven to be correct, I think the October 2021 General Conference will be the standard template. I will be back shortly with the second part of my analysis.

In the meantime, 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.

Tribute to President M. Russell Ballard on His 93rd Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With the wonderful spirit of the October 2021 General Confeence still strongly impacting all of us, I wanted to post in honor of President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who is observing his 93rd birthday today. Among the total of 19 nonagenarian apostles, President Ballard is currently the tenth-oldest and he will next move up on that list in March of next year. That said, let's get to some biographical details.

Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. was born in Salt Lake City Utah to Melvin Russell Sr. & Geraldine Smith Ballard, on this day in 1928. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers (Melvin J. Ballard and Hyrum M. Smith) were apostles, and Elder Ballard is thus a direct descendant of the early leaders of the Church (Hyrum M. was the son of Joseph F., who was the son of Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph.

As I previously mentioned, the Church has, by tradition, had at least one apostle currently serving who has ancestral ties to the Smith family. It is further interesting to note that Bruce R. McConkie, who was the last apostle indirectly related to the Smith family (being the son-in-law of Joseph Fielding Smith, who was the son of Joseph F. who was the son of Hyrum, who was the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith), was the apostle whose death resulted in the apostolic vacancy that necessitated Elder Ballard's call.

As a young man, now-President Ballard served as a missionary in England, as has been noted in previous blog posts. Upon his return, he served in the US Army Reserves, where he rose to the rank of First Lieutenant. As a result of obtaining his secondary education from the University of Utah, he met a young lady named Barbara Bowen, whom he married on August 8, 1951 in the Salt Lake Temple. Sister Ballard passed away roughly three years ago.

They became the parents of 7 children, and one of their daughters, Brynn, married Peter Huntsman, whose mother, Karen Haight Huntsman, is the daughter of Elder David B. Haight, one of Elder Ballard's apostolic colleagues. It is interesting to see the additional relationship Elder Ballard has to other LDS apostles. Brother Ballard worked professionally in auto sales. His Church service included serving as a counselor to his mission president, as a bishop twice, and as president of the Canada Toronto Mission. He completed the final year of that assignment as a General Authority Seventy, having received that call in April 1976.

Less than four years later, on February 20, 1980, he was called to the Presidency of the Seventy. Both before and as a result of that assignment, he served in a wide variety of capacities. Particularly, the Church had established an International Mission in the late 1970s, and in 1985 then-Elder M. Russsell Ballard was called to serve as president of that mission, overseeing the isolated congregations within it from Church headquarters. During his roughly 5 years and 7 months or so in the Presidency of the Seventy, he had moved up in that Presidency from being the junior member thereof to the third most senior member.

A few short weeks after rising from his sickbed to give a his powerful final testimony, Elder Bruce R. McConkie passed away, and Elder Ballard was then called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Now-President Ballard is known and respected for the emphasis he has placed on missionary work in his apostolic ministry. Since October 1985, he has moved from the position of the junior apostle to now being the third in apostolic seniority. In his 43 years as a general authority (with 36 years as an apostle),, he has given a grand total of  82 addresses in General Conference, including the one he gave just this last weekend. Of those 80, 7 were given prior to his apostolic call.

And, as we know, the death of President Thomas S. Monson in early January of 2018 resulted in the First Presidency being reorganized on January 14, with President Russell M. Nelson choosing his apostolic seatmate and the new President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Dallin H. Oaks, as his First Counselor. Consequently, President M. Russell Ballard was set apart as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve. He thus is tasked, with the approval of the First Presidency, with giving the other 11 members of that Quorum their various assignments around the world and at Church headquarters. I am grateful for the life and apostolic ministry of President M. Russell Ballard, and on this, his 93rd birthday, testify of the divine inspiration that attended both his apostolic call and the way and timing by which he has moved up in ranks of apostolic seniority and among all apostolic nonagenarians.

I gladly sustain him and the other apostles in their foreordained roles. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will bring word of all such developments to you all here as I learn about them.

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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Location Confirmed, Rendering Released, and Groundbreaking Scheduled for the Bacolod Phlippines Temple

Hello again, everyone! Within the last hour or so, the Church's official Newsroom announced official details for the Bacolod Philippines Temple. The released information includes a location, exterior rendering, and the announcement that ground will be broken for that temple on Saturday December 11, 2021. Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, the pesident of the Philippines Area of the Church, will preside thereat.

The temple will be situatted on the Bacolod Airport Access Road, North of Buri Road in Bacolod. The single-story edifice of 26,700 square feet will be joined by patron housing, an arrival center and a distribution center, all of which will be found in the ancillary building adjacent to the temple. The Bacolod Philippines Temple was one of 2 announced originally in October 2019. for which no official information had been announced. The only one now remaining from that group is now the Freetown Sierra Leone Temple.

I wanted to quickly note here something related to the timing: Although this temple will not have a groundbreaking until December 11, I am reasonably certain that the Church will announce groundbreakings for quite a few temples that will wind up occurring between the last currently-scheduled groundbreaking (for the Pago Pago American Samoa Temple on October 30 of this year) and the groundbreaking for the newest temple in the Philippines on December 11.

I will be sure to keep my eyes open for any update in that regard, and will pass that along to you all here as needed. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Transcripts of General Conference Now Available

Hello again, everyone! This is just a quick note to confirm that the transcripts of talks given during last weekend's General Conference are now available. President Nelson has invited us to regularly review those addresses for the next six months, so I'd urge all mty readers to follow and take advantage of that invitation.

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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Temple Reopenings To Continue Throughout October

 Hello again, everyone! A shot time ago, the Church released its' weekly update on temple reopenings. Aside from the main Church News report, updates have also been relfected in the temple reopening status tracker and were documented in the updated Newsroom release.  Let's get into the details. Two temples, which had previously paused their reopening due to COVID-19 conditions, regulations, and restrictions, have reopened in phase 3: Duban South Africa and Papeete Tahiti.

Additionally, several weeks ago, the Church announced that, following the dedication of the Pocatello Idaho Temple (which is set to occur on Saturday November 7), that temple will open in phase 3 right off the bat. The Church also announced this morning that the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, which is scheduled to be dedicated on October 31 (with that announcement coming after the information about Pocatello's opening was announced) will also start operations in phase 3.

The Medford Oregon Temple, which had originally been projected to move to phase 3 in August,  has not yet transitioned to that phase, and no new updates are available on when that might occur.  The Church also has 7 temples remaining in phases 1 or 2 (neither of which opens those temples for proxy work), among which 2 temples are closed for renovations.

It may also be of interest to some of you that, with the recent renovation closure of the Manti Utah Temple going into effect over General Conference weekend, the Church has given that temple a phase 3 designation so that patrons within that temple district can schedule living and proxy ordinances at the temples nearest to them. 

The latest announcements leaves the reopening status of temples worldwide as follows: 9 closed for renovation (all but 2 of which of those districts have been granted phase 3 designations); with 3 more each either paused (2 in phase 3 and 1 in phase 2) or in phases 1 & 2; 4 temples operating in phase 2-B (allowing all living ordinances in priority order in addition to limited poxy baptisms by appointmen); and the remaining 146 are in phase 3.

The Church continues to monitor conditions and restrictions relating to COVID-19 and to adjust temple reopening plans accordingly in a cautious and carefully-coordinated manner, which continues to be wonderful to observe. I testify The inspired nature of thsese reopening announcements week-to-week have been both humbling and gratifying to see. I testify that the Lord, though inspiration and providing good information to our apostles in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, is directly effecting the miraculous circumstances under which each week's announcements are made.

On my end, I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all as I become aware thereof. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: President Nelson Announces 13 New Temples As the October 2021 General Conference Concludes

Hello again, everyone! As the concluding moments of General Conference neared its' President Russell M. Nelson announced 13 new temples of the Church. Given this developing news, I am going to publish an initial version of this post, then update it as I can carry out that analysis thereof. I anticipate that most of these temples will be on the smaller side, to fill existing gaps. I am grateful that, on my own list, I had the following locations exactly correct: Tacloban City Philippines, Monrovia Liberia; Antananarivo Madagascar; Culiacan Mexico; La Paz Bolivia; Fort Worth Texas; Rexburg North Idaho; and Heber Valley Utah.

Meanwhile, I had the following general locations correct, but the specific city was not what I listed: Kaohsiung, Taiwan (I had predicted Taichung); Kananga Democratic Republic of the Congo (I had Mbuji-Mayi on my list, which could be the next one for that nation); Vitoria Brazil (I had prioitized other prospects); Santiago West Chile (I had prioritized Osorno and Vina del Mar); and Cody Wyoming (I had again prioritized Evanston).

It might take me a few days into this week before I can even post a preliiminary analysis of my General Conference predictions. For now, though, the other major development was the prophet announcing that, once the Orem Utah Temple is in operation, the Provo Utah Temple will be closed for an extensive reconstructive process. So that's a breaking news update I wasn't anticipating, though I am not as surprised by another double-digit number of new temples being announced. 

With these 13 announced temples, the total number of temples throughout the world in any phase has now risen to 265. It's also worth noting, I think, that the temples announced for Libeia and Madagascar will kick both of those nations off of the list of the top ten nations with the stongest Church presence without a temple. Liberia and Madagascar had been second and third on that list respectively.

I'd probably defer to Matthew Matinich at the Church Growth Blog for any information on how the latest temples on the list haing temples announced has changed that top ten list. In any case, I am impressed by the announcement of 13 new temples today. Hopefully a lot of those temples will be smaller and more easily approved. And the more I think about that, the moe it occurs to me that maybe President Nelson doesn't need to spell out the specifics of his temple construction plans, since his fellow apostles have been open on that subject.

I am grateful to have learned about this development and to pass it along to you all here. I continue to monitor ongoing Church News and temple construction updates and will bring you all word of those as I become aware thereof. 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.

First Day of General Conference Constitutes Some Surprising Developments

 Hello again, everyone! After trying to wrap my head around some of the nuances that occurred during the three Saturday Sessions of General Conference. In the first session, I correctly predicted that Presdient Nelson would open the first session, which would be closed with an address from President Oaks. I also correctly pinpointed the 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve, though I had them in the wrong order. In the afternoon session, I correctly predicted 3 apostles that would speak (though I had added a fourth that didn't), and that President Eyring would lead the sustaining vote.

And I was correct as well that President Ballard would be the member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the Saturday Evening Session, and that President Henry B. Eyring spoke during that session. But I was incorrect about the other First Presidency members also speaking to close out that session. I was also not anticipating the high number of general officers, including more specifically the significantly-higher number of female speakers.. Additionally, I did not anticipate that so many GA Seventies, including one member of the Presidency of the Seventy, would also speak.

So, at the outset, it looks like I owe someone here an apology. In a previous thread, when I published my speaking order predictions, someone (wish I could recall who it was) mentioned a theory that the entire First Presidency would not speak to conclude the Saturday Evening Session. Although it seems unimportant right now, I apparently dismissed the idea because there wasn't any kind of precedent for such a prediction, and because it was not clear whether the entire First Presidency speaking during that session was more traditional than a doctrinally-based requirement. Since it has been noted by a previous apostle 

So here we are, about 9 hours from when the encore "Music & the Spoken Word" episode will immediately precede the Sunday Morning Session. Each counselor in the First Presidency has spoken once, but that's only if President Eyring presenting changes in Church leadership for a sustaining vote is not considered. President Nelson is going into the final two sessions of this General Conference with just his opening address, and it's not very clear at the moment whether either or both counselors will be giving one more address each.

But when I thought about this further, my mind was drawn to a statement made years ago by Elder Bruce R. McConkie, who was quoted in Doctrines of the Restoration as follows: "The proper course for all of us is to stay in the mainstream of the Church. This is the Lord’s Church, and it is led by the spirit of inspiration, and the practice of the Church constitutes the interpretation of the scripture”  

In view of the statement, if the practice of the Church constitutes the interpretation of the scriptures, then it waws clearly more tradition than official doctrine or policy that the entire First Presidency speaks in an evening meeting. What that mean for the concluding sessions of General Conference is that with 5 apostles left to speak, it seems likely that the Sunday Morning Session will see remarks from 3 apostles, since that has been standard, and that the 2 apsotles remaining will do so in the Sunday Afternoon Session.

But as a ChurchBeat email noted, with 8 addresses of a normal length occuring in the first 3 sessions, 8 speakers might also be featured in each of the Sunday Sessions. Whatever happens in the remaining 2 sessions, that will probably illustrate what we can expect from those sessions.going forward While it's possible that the speaker parameters could be changed conference-to-conference, that won't necessarily be taken as rote,. Hopefully there is enough consistency in the rotations to draw some conclusions. 

In any case, this conference has already blown the possiblities clearly out of the water, so I'm not sure what to expect or hope for. But whever happens, you can count on my analysis thereof ASAP. I fully anticipate that President Nelson will announce new temples tomorrow. What will be interesting to see is if he speaks in both sessions, whether either or both of his counselors will do so, and anything else that might point to new patterns and rotational traditions.

I remain committed to bringing you all word of those developments as they occur.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.

Honoring Elder Ulisses Soares on His 63rd Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With the first session of the October 2021 General Conference a little over an hour from now, I am pleased to bring you all a post honoring Elder Ulisses Soares, who is celebrating his 62nd birthday today. Unless I am mistaken on this, it has been several years since any General Conference has coincided with an apostle’s birthday. And among the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Soares is the only one who has not spoken in the first session since the April 2019 General Conference. If, as I have predicted, Elder Soares does wind up speaking in the Saturday Morning Session of General Conference, he would be the first apostle in a while (if not the first one ever) to have the opportunity to address the General Conference audience on his birthday.

As I've mentioned previously, Elder Soares has a most unique life story and background, and I am grateful to share some thoughts about him with you all today. He was born on this day in 1958 in São Paulo Brazil to Apparecido Soares and Mercedes Carecho Soares. He has European and Amerindian ancestry. When an aunt joined the Church, that was how the Soares' family first learned of the gospel. His parents, after being taught by the missionaries, were baptized when young Ulisses was five years old.;

Regarding his experience with worshipping in the Church during his growing-up years, his small branch would meet in a tiny rental place that was located above a bakery. He served a full-time mission in Rio de Janeiro, Upon his return, he connected with;Rosana Fernandes Morgado, who had served in the same mission at around the same time, but whom he had not met until after they both had returned. The two were married in the Sao Paulo Temple, and together they raised three children

His academic experience involved studying at the;;Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, from which, in 1985, he received a bachelor's degree in economics and accounting. He then continued his studies at the;National Institute of Postgraduate Study, where he earned a Master's Degree in Business Administration. He spent his professional career working for several multinational companies (one of which was Pirelli Tire Company) as an accountant and an auditor. Donald L. Clark, who at that time was serving as director of temporal affairs for the Church in Brazil, convinced him to take a job with the Church as a senior auditor.

When Brother Clark was asked to serve as a mission president, Brother Soares took over for him as director of temporal affairs. He went on to fill a special assignment for the Church's Presiding Bishopric. Within the Church, Elder Soares has served as an elder's quorum president, counselor in a bishopric, stake high councilman, and as a regional welfare agent.

When the;São Paulo Brazil Cotia Stake was created in 1995, Elder Soares was called as the first president thereof. 5 years later, he served a three-year term as president of the Porto Portugal Mission. Less than two years after his return (during the April 2005 General Conference), he was called as a General Authority Seventy.

As a General Authority Seventy, he served as First Counselor in the Brazil South Area.from 2005-2007, as First Counselor in the Brazil Area from 2007-2009, and as President of that area from 2009-2011. He served from August 2011-January 2013 as First Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency, at which point he was called to serve in the Presidency of the Seventy, with responsibility for the North America Southeast Area; Then, in November 2015, Elder Soares was reassigned to oversee the Idaho and North America Central Areas of the Church. He still had oversight of both of those areas in 2018.

On March 31, 2018, Elder Soares was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and he was ordained an apostle on Thursday April 5, 2018. He thus became both the first Latter-day Saint apostle from Brazil and the first one from Latin America. Elder Soares has had many opportunities to grow into his new assignment. In the last 1.5 decades in which has has served as a general authority, he has given a total of;12 General Conference addresses, with the first 2 given as a General Authority Seventy, 3 more as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 7 given since his 2018 call to the apostleship. He will, of course, be speaking to us again in General Conference either later today, or at some point tomorrow,, which will mark his eighth address as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his eleventh overall.

At this point, I wanted to mention one additional thing: Both the Deseret News and the Church News published articles about the recently-released biography of President Dallin H. Oaks. One of the elements featured in those articles about President Oaks’ biography detailed the conditions under which President Nelson called Presidents Oaks and Eyring as his counselors: Those callings were only made after President Nelson had personally met individually with each of his other 12 apostles. President Nelson requested these interviews with each of his fellow apostles with a desire to have his Brethren’s best thoughts about which two of them should serve as his counselors and who should be called to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

While we don’t know specifically how Presidents Oaks and Eyring were selected, iit seems to be a safe conclusion that most of the apostles felt those two should be his counselors. And with that being the apparent outcome there, I am reasonably certain that a high percentage of those 12 apostles recommended that Elders Gong and Soares be called to fill the resulting vacancies in the apostleship.

In any case, if nothing else, we know that the Lord inspired the calls of Elders Gong and Soares. I gratefully and wholeheartedly sustain all 15 “special witnesses of Christ” in their divinely-inspired and doctrinally-supported roles prophets, seers, and revelators in their roles and responsibilities as special witnesses of Christ, and am grateful to have been able to provide this birthday tribute to him today. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring you all word of the major developments as I learn thereof, particularly those that will occur during this weekend of the October 2021 General Coferece.

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.

UPDATED: Predictions for the October 2021 General Conference (Final Version)

Hello again, everyone! Given the fact that first session of General Conference is now only 12 hours away, I am back to post the final version of my General Conference predictions. First up, as always, is the potential speaker lineup. As I've previously mentioned, if the Church has 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak during each of the two sessions on Sunday, that will allow for around 4-5 additional speakers aside from the members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Aposttles.

Next up are my predictions for changes in general Church leadership. (including 6 current GA Seventies, with the possibility that 1 other who is under 70 but in ill health, might also be released and granted emeritus status. There is also a possibility, in my mind, that the Church could call current BYU-Provo President Kevin J Worthen to finish his term as president thereof with the additional role as  a GA  Seventy. The acknowledgement of the previously-announced releases for area seventies will likely be followed by a sustaining vote for a few new area seventies.

And the third and final part of my predictions shows a revised list of locations in which new temples could be announced. In the updates to that list, I have taken some of the feedback I had received under advisement. In particular, I used a comment made by Steven Cuff to guide my research into those prospects. So if any temples not on the previous list is now featured on this one, that is because I discovered strong reasons to add those locations to the list.

I still believe that a double-digit number of temples will be announced, and that the number will likely be between 12 on the low end and 20 on the high end (which averages out to 16 additional temples this time around). That will be especially trrue if many of those tempjles are on the smaller end of the scale as is the case with Helena Montana, Casper Wyoming, and Elko Nevada. 

Having seen the succesful ways that the temples with modular components worked in the US, that will also be true of the temple in Torreon Mexico. So if those smaller temples with modular components are used around the wrld, that will cut cost and the amount of time needed to build them, which could then allow crews to quickly move on to the next project.

I have also been thinking ni preparation for this General Conference that , in view of the fact that Saturday Evening Sessions going forward will not be directed to any particular group, whatever does wind up happening this time around might give uw a better idea of how that change impacted the number of speakers and anyt noticeable rotations.

I am very much looking forward to this General Conference weekend, and I also look forward to bringing you all word of the latest developments, especially in terms of breaking news, throughout the General Conference weekend as those developments are reported. If nothing else, we know President Nelson will likely announce more new temples, most likely doing so during his address to conclude the General Conference.

)I am hopeful (but not necessarily convinced] that perhaps his concluding remarks might be slightly longer, and that that would give him a chance to explain his temple construction plan, but I also have thought that would be possible in the lead-up to the last 3-4 General Conferences. I was also considering whether there would be any other announcements.or major developments.

If that is the case, I don't know what might be left that needs to bie changed or corrected. I wouldn't be surprised at some point if the Church took a look at the current organization of areas and made some changes there, but the question would be, why would those changes be necessary? It's possible that we could perhaps get updates on the new Church hymnbook and children's song book, and there may be other things in the Churc that are more tradition than doctrine. 

It would also, in my opinion, be good to see the poetntial canonization of either the Family Proclamation and/or The Living Christ. especially since a majority of the apostles serrving at the time both documents were released. But there is also less of a need to canonize something as scripture given that basicallym anything the apostles and prophets say publicly in their assignments as such is defined by the Lord as scripture.

I will be sure to cover anything that comes up in that respect throhgout this weekend. In the meantime, 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.

2100th Blog Post: CORRECTION: New Area Seventies Sustained; Others Released

Hello again, everyone! You may recall that in a new post published yesterday, I mentioned that the leadership session for General Conference included some changes for the area seventies of the Church. The link I shared in that post has since been taken down, which means it might only be during General Conference weekend itself that we hear anything about what was said during the leadership training sessions.

In the interim, the Newsroom has provided a new article about the changes in area seventies. Part of that article clarified that the previously-announced releases were ratified in that session. So those for whom a release was granted received a vote of gratitude for their service. As far as the new area seventies are concerned, in what I believe is a first for the Church, the new area seventies have beeen designated to replace a couple of those previously called. 

Elder Charden Ndinga will replace Elder Gaëtan Kelounou. As near as I can figure out, Elder Kelounou, called as an area seventy just six months ago, was released from that assignment to assume oversight for the Republic of the Congo Brazaville Mission. Elder Pedro E. Hernández has been called to serve in the Seventh Quorum of the Seventy, replacing Elder Guillermo I. Guardia, who has served since April 2017. Not sure why Elder Guardia will be replaced by Elder Hernandez, as I wasn't able to find anything on that.

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With all of that in mind, I also continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my best to bring word of those to you as I become aware thereof. 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.