Stokes Sounds Off: Initial Predictions for the October 2023 General Conference

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Thursday, April 13, 2023

Initial Predictions for the October 2023 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! In the absence of any major announcements by the Church this week, I have been able to put together the initial draft of my predictions for the October 2023 General Conference. First up, as always, we have my predictions for the potential speaker lineup. A few notes on that: Last conference marked only the third time that President Nelson didn't deliver any remarks to open the General Conference. 

I don't know if that means he won't be speaking in any of the opening sessions for however many General Conferences he continues to serve as prophet, so I wanted to at least allow for the possibility. Secondly, as acknowledged in the one footnote to these predictions, last conference, President Oaks not only presented new GA Seventies, he also noted the upcoming August 1 release of 3 GA Seventies and led the group sustaining of the changes in area seventies and the advanced sustaining of the incoming Young Women General Presidency.

Since all of the changes effective on or before August 1 were already presented last time, the sustaining in October is likely to only include the First Presidency, the President and Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve, the members of that Quorum, and a motion to sustain all other GA Seventies, area seventies, and general officers as presently constituted. Since that process may only take a couple of minutes, it is possible that more general Church leaders could speak in the Saturday Afternoon Session than I have predicted here.

With the major changes already noted, these predictions mark the first time that they do not include a document showing the likely changes in Church leadership. It's also worth noting that, of course, I am assuming that all apostles will be able to speak in October and that the Saturday Evening Session will again be open to all members and friends of the Church. 

So the only other element remaining are my predictions for the most likely locations in which new temples could be announced. Regarding the likely new temples, if the information I have is correct, President Nelson may announce a minimum of 35 temples per year. If that remains the case for this year, then with 15 new temples announced earlier this month, the Church may look to having a minimum of 20 others announced in October. 

I see no reason to not believe that will be the minimum possible number of temples. With those introductory notes shared, the rest of the predictions largely speak for themselves. I am pleased, therefore, to declare the commenting period for these initial predictions officially opened. That commenting period will remain active until Thursday, October 2, at 10:00 PM, which will then give me 36 hours to finalize these predictions.

Unless the Church continues to take a temporary hiatus on temple construction announcements, I assume the next major announcement will be shared on Monday. In the interim, I continue to monitor all major Church News and Newsroom updates and any other temple construction updates and will be sure to pass those along to you all as they cross my radar. 

That does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 

Please subscribe if you liked what you read here and would like to be informed of newly-added posts and comments. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

4 comments:

  1. Hello again, everyone! Early on this Sabbath morning, I wanted to note that my comments from Friday were not featured in this thread but can be found at the bottom of the threads on my previous post:

    https://stokessoundsoff.blogspot.com/2023/04/update-post-conferencee-documents.html?showComment=1681492533429#c5018697757733085079

    That being said, since I posted my last comment at the bottom of that thread, 6 new Church News updates (one of which includes an additional link to a PDF file) have been noted in the last 24 hours:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2023/4/15/23681196/sarah-jane-weaver-how-respect-supports-collaboration-and-friendship

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2023/4/15/23682536/april-2023-general-conference-download-chart-general-authorities-and-general-officers

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2023/4/15/23682536/april-2023-general-conference-download-chart-general-authorities-and-general-officers

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d8jjjexiDvQ1Aq3QSqQwA6Qmu_9zx20y/view?usp=drivesdk

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/global/2023/4/15/23679876/rootstech-uniting-song-adassa-jonathan-wing-family-history

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2023/4/15/23683908/april-2023-byu-hawaii-graduation-elder-cordon

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2023/4/15/23683024/music-the-spoken-word-true-friendship

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2023/4/16/23684491/elder-uchtdorf-cairo-branches-friday-sacrament-service-unites-as-a-community

    I will be back later on this Sunday afternoon with any additional Church News, Newsroom, or temple construction updates. For now, my thanks once again to you all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I failed to mention thtat a new update was provided for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple:

      https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/red-cliffs-utah-temple/

      My thanks once again to you all.

      Delete
    2. Here are three new updates from the Church News:

      https://www.thechurchnews.com/callings/2023/4/16/23681204/5-new-stake-presidencies-called-from-south-africa-to-south-america

      https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2023/4/16/23681973/week-in-review-president-nelson-award-elder-bednar-church-news-video

      https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2023/4/16/23683634/utah-28-temples-saratoga-springs-open-house

      My thanks once again to you all.

      Delete
    3. On this Monday, we are an hour out from the next anticipated temple construction update. Since no new open houses eegin this week, I'm reasonably certain that today's announcement will either be about temple dedications, groundbreakings, exterior renderings and/or site confirmations. In the meantime, here are two new Church News updates that speak for themselves:

      https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2023/4/16/23685436/elder-rasband-paris-france-ministry-missionaries-members-mayor

      https://www.thechurchnews.com/history/2023/4/17/23679879/joseph-smith-papers-church-history-documents-volume-14

      My thanks once again to you all.

      Delete

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