Hello again, everyone! My wife and I received our copy of the May 2021 Liahona magazine last week, at which time I took the opportunity to compare how my mockup of the table of contents for the magazine compared with the actual physical copy, since the PDF version thereof remains unavailable due to a likely glitch in the Church's computer servers used to post that information. I had hoped that the PDF version would be up by now, but so far, that has not occurred.
So I decided just now to go ahead and share the report. First, I wanted to comment on a couple of interesting elements to the magazine. With the May 2021 Liahona being the first full General Conference edition, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. So as I was thumbing through it, I noticed something interesting. Where information about the editor and advisers of the magazine are listed, there were only a few nams specified this time, with Elder Randy D. Funk listed as the editor of the magazine, and 4 other leaders (Sharon Eubank, Walter F. Gonzalez, Jan E. Newman, and Michael T. Ringwood).
That was intriguing to me because the January-April and June editions had a longer list of advisers noted. In addition to the 4 names I mentioned above, Elders Marcos A. Aidukaitis, Jeremy R. Jaggi, Adrian Ochoa, Sisters Michelle D. Craig and Becky Craven (the respective First and Second Counselors in the Young Women General Presidency), Sister Cristina B. Franco (the since-released Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency), and Brother Bradley R. (Brad) Wilcox, Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency.
As I was pondering the difference in the lists of advisers in the May vs. June editions of the Liahona, I remembered that each conference edition of each magazine goes to print later than regular editions, due to the increased amount of content that needs to be accounted for. With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me if the June magazine went to print faster than the May edition, which might explain why the list of advisers mentioned in the May Liahona is different from June.
If that theory proves correct, then in the coming months, we may have more information, but for now, I am wondering if those who have been or will be listed as advisers going forward will be specifically assigned to individual magazines. If I am correct on this theory, then my assumption is that the editor and Elders Ringwood and Gonzalez (who respectively serve as the Executive Director and Assistant Executive Director of the Priesthood and Family Department) will be the only ones listed as serving in a role for all three magazines going forward.
I further assume that Brother Newman, as the representative from the Sunday School General Presidency, will also be listed as an adviser specifically to the Liahona (but possibly to one or both of the other two magazines), with Sisters Craig and Craven and Brother Wilcox being specifically assigned as advisers to the For the Strength of Youth magazine, and the member of the Primary General Presidency specifically listed as an adviser to The Friend.
Until further evidence suggests otherwise, the Church may have opted to assign specific advisers to specific magazines, rather than having all of the advisers be assigned to all of the magazines. Aside from that, this edition brought a few other surprises. Given the increased amount of photographs or other images used, more of the talks in General Conference are taking up slightly more spac than usual.
Let me explain what I mean on that further. For talks given by any of our apostles, those have ranged anywhere from 3-4 pages in general. A few more of the apostolic talks shared in the Liahona span 5 pages, including the photographs or images. Meanwhile, with most talks by non-apostolic speakers typically taking 2-3 pages, more of those took 3-4 pages this time around. The conference edition was also a standard 144 pages in length.
Additionally, something else I wasn't anticipating was that the News of the Church section in the back part of the magazine was subdivided into 3 new sections: New Callings (providing brief half-page biographies for newly-called leaders, including the two new incoming members of the Presidency of the Seventy), the News of the Church section covering other developments, and a two-page conclusion sharing some suggestions for those teaching from the General Conference talks.
Aside from these notes, the table of contents document to which I linked above is pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully whatever is causing the problems with the Church website server might soon be resolved, which will hopefully allow the PDF versions of the magazines to be published as usual. I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to pass word of those 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.
