BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreaking Held for Fort Worth Texas Temple; Site Locations and Preliminary Details Confirmed for 3 Temples in Europe and the United States

Hello again, everyone! New reports from the Newsroom have confirmed the groundbreaking for the Fort Worth Texas and have confirmed locations and preliminary information for the Vienna Austria, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, and Winchester Virginia Temples. While the first report speaks for itself, let's break down the details of the second:

The Vienna Austria Temple, first announced in April 2021, will rise on a 0.80-acre site at Silbergasse 2, Vienna, Austria. The edifice is planned to be a roughly 15,300-square-foot multi-story temple. I was particularly intrigued by the announcement that it will be built up rather than out. As I may have mentioned in the past, my sweet wife served in what was then the Germany-Austria mission. She only spent a day in Austria itself, so she's not too familiar with where this temple will be. But she was happy to hear of this announcement nonetheless.

The Harrisburg Pennsylvania and Winchester Virginia Temples were both announced in April of this year by President Nelson. In Pennsylvania's capital city, a single-story 20,000-square-foot edifice will rise on a 5.36-acre site at 605 Rutherford Road in Harrisburg. Virginia's second temple will be a single-story 30,000-square-foot temple built on an 11.27-acre site at 200 Merriman's Lane in Winchester.

As a result of today's announcement, of the 97 announced temples, 55 have not had any official information confirmed yet. Hopefully, that number goes down further before the end of the year. It's also worth noting that I'm not sure why no temple dedications were included in today's announcement. I also was hoping for additional groundbreakings. But 3 temple sites, including one for a temple announced more than two years ago, is nothing to be disappointed about.

I am grateful for today's announcement. I continue to monitor any and all Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as they cross my radar. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Church Announces Schedule for 2024 Churchwide Events

Hello again, everyone! The Church has announced the schedule for the 2024 Churchwide Events. Here are the relevant dates:

January 28: Worldwide Event for Youth: “I Am a Disciple of Jesus Christ”

February 4: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

February 29–March 2: RootsTech Family History Conference and Family Discovery Session

April 6–7: April 2024 General Conference

May 5: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

October 5–6: October 2024 General Conference

October 27: Worldwide Event for Youth

November 3: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

December 8: First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional

A few surprises: The Worldwide Devotionals for Young Adults have typically been held in January, May, and August (the beginning of each third of the year). This year, they will be in February, May, and November. Likewise, although the First Presidency's Christmas Devotionals are typically held on the first Sunday in December, next year, it will be on the second Sunday, which may mean that new temples could be dedicated on the first and third Sundays of next year. The schedule otherwise speaks for itself.

Other noteworthy events are scheduled as follows:

January 26: Seminaries and Institutes Annual Broadcast

March 1: Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

March 9: Friend to Friend for Children

March 31: Easter Sunday

June 18: CES Religious Educators Conference

June 20–23: Seminar for New Mission Leaders

July 19–20: Tabernacle Choir Summer Concert

August 10: Youth Music and Arts Festival

September 14: Friend to Friend for Children

November TBD: Seminaries and Institutes Annual Broadcast

November TBD:  Luz de Las Naciones

November 16: Church Music Festival from Temple Square

December 12–14: Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert at Temple Square

December 25: Christmas Day

Interestingly, there are two Seminaries and Institutes Annual Broadcasts scheduled next year, whereas there has typically been only one. There is also a CES Religious Educator's Conference, which I assume may allow several general Church leaders to provide training and counsel to seminary and institute instructors. 

I'm also fascinated that the Church has scheduled both a Youth Music and Arts Festival and a Church Music Festival, which I assume will be for all Church members. Although it was not specified, I assume that on Easter Sunday and the Sunday before Christmas, it will be Sacrament Meeting only. And I think we could potentially see a couple other Churchwide broadcasts as well. 

Looking ahead to 2024, I also wanted to put out a fun teaser of my own plans ahead for 2024. I have compiled a 2024 schedule showing content I will focus on in the new year. We will have several more apostolic milestones next year, as the current First Presidency will join the list of the longest-serviung First Presidencies and observe several milestones related to their tenure, unless there are forthcoming changes in the First Presidency that would prevent that.

So there will be a lot to look forward to in the next 14 months.  I continue to monitor any and all Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples updates and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as they cross my radar. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Opening Arrangements Announced for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple; Groundbreaking Set for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, the First Presidency announced the opening arrangements for the Red Cliffs Utah Temple and groundbreaking arrangements for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple. Let's get right into the details: Media tours will be held for the Red Cliffs Temple on Monday, January 29, 2024, with VIP tours held for the next two days. The public open house will occur from Tuesday, January 30-Saturday, March 2, 2024 (marking the first time that both VIP tours and public tours will be held at the same time).

The Red Cliffs Utah Temple will then be dedicated in two sessions (at 10:00 AM and 1:30 PM) on Sunday, March 24, with President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, presiding over those sessions. I had assumed Elder Holland would preside at this dedication, but it could be he will be the apostolic companion to President Eyring, if he is able to be well enough to do so by that time. Since I had projected that the Red Cliffs dedication would only occur in May, this suggests an accelerated timeframe for temple dedications than what I had projected.

That being said, opening arrangements are easier to set for Utah temples than for many of their counterparts, so that's not surprising. Hopefully, by the end of this month, we see at least two more temple dedications set. In the meantime, if that wasn't reason enough for this post, as I stated, the Church has also set a groundbreaking for the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple. That will occur on Saturday, November 23, 2023, with Asia Area President Elder Benjamin M. Z. Tai presiding. 

I also was surprised by the announced timing for the groundbreaking of Taiwan's second temple. I had projected that the groundbreaking would be in mid-2024 at the earliest. But I am grateful that the Lord once again proved to me today that His timing trumps any mortal reasoning or projections I might offer.  So I am going back to the drawing board on those projections. I will have updated thoughts published here in some form as soon as I can make that happen.

I am grateful for today's landmark announcements. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates and will be sure to pass those along to you all here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Sister Kathleen J. Eyring Passes Away

An initial version of this report was published at 2:00 PM, with additions and edits made around an hour later. My thanks once again to you all.

Hello again, everyone! The Newsroom and the Church News have reported that Sister Kathleen J. Eyring, wife of President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, passed away earlier today in Bountiful surrounded by family. As some of you might be aware, Sister Eyring has struggled with significant health challenges, but has stood by her husband in all of his high-profile Church assignments since his call to the Presiding Bishopric in 1985. Apparently, at some point in 2007, then-Elder Eyring had surgery for cancer.

With how much Sister Eyring has struggled in recent years, I'm sure this is a period of time where President Eyring's feelings may be part grieving the loss and part rejoicing that she no longer has to suffer and has returned home to her loved ones. The articles to which I linked above did an excellent job of summarizing her life. I will not attempt to add to that here. But I will note that, if recent practice is any indication, the funeral services for Sister Eyring may be held on Thursday or Friday of this week.

It is also worth noting that President Eyring is now the third current apostolic widower. The other two are his immediate apostolic seniors, President M. Russell Ballard and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I will also state that I am grateful that President Eyring's son Henry J. Eyring was released as both an area seventy and as president of BYU-Idaho, with Henry J. intending to relocate to Utah (unless he has already done so). That means each of his 3 children will be close by.

President Eyring always spoke warmly, but carefully, about his wife, who is, as he has said "a very private person". My prayers are with him and his family at this time. I continue to monitor all other Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates, and will be sure to pass those along to you all here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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.

Initial Predictions for the April 2024 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! Having recently published my documents relating to the October 2023 General Conference, and bearing in mind that I still anticipate several major temple construction updates throughout the last quarter of this year, I wanted to now provide a look ahead and share my initial predictions for the April 2024 General Conference. 

We start with the speaker lineup. The last time that President Nelson spoke in the Saturday Morning Session was in October 2022, when he was the concluding speaker. Given his efforts to reduce and simplify, and give more general leaders the opportunity to speak, I think we may see him do what he did last conference again: only speak in the concluding session and have a full-length address.

I am also operating under the assumption that his two counselors and all 12 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will give one talk apiece, although I anticipate that President Oaks will present the Sustaining of Church Officers. Since the Presiding Bishopric only speaks once a year now, and since April has typically seen only 2 female General Officers speaking, I think we will see 11 GA Seventies speak.

Other than these notes, the lineup should speak for itself. Next up is potential changes I'm anticipating in general Church leadership. I still feel strongly that a third counselor in the First Presidency may be warranted at some point, in which case a new apostle would also be called. That in turn would necessitate other changes in general Church leadership. Also, last April, aside from new GA Seventies, the Church also called for a vote of appreciation for the GA Seventies who were granted emeritus status on August 1. This time around, that would include 8 GA Seventies, including 2 remembers of the Presidency of the Seventy. So those changes will likely be noted in advance.

If a new apostle needs to be called, that will lead to other potential changes in general Church leadership. But whether or not that happens, I am also anticipating a new Sunday School General Presidency, the release of at least a few area seventies, a longer list of those who will be released on August 1, and several new area seventies called. That document also contains my estimates for the figures in the statistical report for 2023. I have made estimates based on what I've been able to ascertain and what I was otherwise able to calculate using a rather complex algorithm that would be difficult to explain.

And the final element of my predictions for the April 2024 General Conference is the list of locations in which a temple could be announced. We have seen a total of 35 temples announced each year since 2021. In 2021, 20 temples were announced in April, one more in May, and the remaining 14 in October. In 2022, 17 were announced in April, with 18 more announced in October. And this year, 15 were announced in April, with the remaining 20 in October. 

I would just note here that I project 15-20 new temples to be announced in April 2024. It's also worth noting that this initial April 2024 list includes only those locations that were on my list for October of this year that did not have a temple announced. I will be on the lookout for other prospects and will be sure to add them to my list for subsequent drafts. If any of you are aware of any locations I have failed to consider or omitted, please let me know.

As always, any questions or comments on these predictions are both welcomed and encouraged. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and Church of Jesus Christ Temples updates and will be sure to pass those along to you all here as I become aware of them. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Provides Directive for Christmas Eve; Next Leg of Multiyear Global Tour Announced for Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square

Hello again, everyone! With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, the First Presidency has issued a directive for that Sunday. In a letter released on Monday, the First Presidency has indicated that all meetings except for Sacrament Meeting are canceled for Christmas Eve. In consultation with bishops and branch presidents, stake and district presidents have the option to adjust meeting times to best meet the needs of the members over whom they have stewardship.

I am grateful for the First Presidency's directive on this matter. I look forward to the Christmas season and all that it will bring with it. If that were the only breaking news, it would be reason enough for this new post. But while I was preparing this post to be published, the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square announced the next leg of its' multiyear global ministry tour, which will take the Choir to the Philippines for the first time in its' 95-year history.

That tour will span from February 20-29, 2024. Local Filipino artists will join the Choir in the 9-day tour, which may include multiple venues. The Choir's concerts, which will also incorporate local music, will be available to livestream online. The Choir will continue to go to one location per year every year for at least the next 4, and venue information about the Choir's performances will be released later.

So there you have it: two major developments in one post. I continue to monitor all Church News, Newsroom, and temple construction updates and will bring word of those to you all here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Site Location and Preliminary Information Confirmed for the Budapest Hungary Temple

Hello again, everyone! This afternoon, on the heels of the late September visit of Hungary's first female president to Church headquarters, the First Presidency has released the site location and preliminary information for the Budapest Hungary Temple, which had, before today, been the last temple announced in April 2019 that had not had any official information confirmed. Let's break down the details:

An arrival center and patron housing will join the planned single-story 18,000-square-foot temple, all of which will be built on a 5.92-acre site at Kocsis Sandor ut and Borsikafu utca, Harsanylejto, Budapest, Hungary. Though not explicitly stated, I take it as a given that project managers will begin working with government officials through the approvals process.

As a result of today's update, all temples announced between October 2018 and October 2020 have had official information confirmed. Between today's announcement (which also confirmed the Modesto California Temple groundbreaking) and the 20 new temples announced by President Nelson in General Conference over a week ago, of the 98 announced temples, 55 lack official information.

That may change in the near term (or so I hope). I was also surprised that there were not any temple openings announced, but hopefully such announcements will either come later this week or as the major announcement next week. I continue to monitor all such updates and will be sure to pass those along here as time and circumstances allow.

In the meantime, 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.

President M. Russell Ballard Observes His 95th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With the wonderful spirit of the October 2023 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 95th birthday today. Among the 20 total nonagenarian apostles, President Ballard is currently the seventh-oldest and he will next move up on that list in September 2024. 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 five 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 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 45 years as a general authority (with 38 years as an apostle), he has given a grand total of  88 addresses in General Conference, including the one he gave just this last weekend. Of those 88, 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 95th 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.

In the meantime, that does it for now. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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. 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.

October 2023 General Conference: Post-Conference Document Analysis

Hello again, everyone! As I have indicated on a few occasions, with General Conference weekend concluded, I anticipate a significant uptick in major temple construction announcements. Among those to which I think we can look forward in the near term are opening arrangements for the Red Cliffs Utah, Puebla Mexico, Layton and Taylorsville Utah, Urdaneta Philippines, Salta Argentina, and Coban Guatemala Temples. 

We could also potentially see groundbreakings set for the Knoxville Tennessee, Cleveland Ohio, Tarawa Kiribati, Cali Colombia, and Cape Town South Africa Temples (with the first two likely to be the only other temples likely to have groundbreakings before the end of this year), and something more official (whether just a rendering, or in addition to a groundbreaking) for the Teton River Idaho, Vitoria Brazil, and Charlotte North Carolina Temples, based on their latest updates). 

And I'm hoping it's not too long before we hear information about the Dubai UAE Temple, since the land for it was supposed to be turned over to the Church before the end of 2022.  These potential announcements aren't relevant to what I want to share in this post, but the anticipated announcements are the reason I am choosing to post a new update now. This post will share my post-conference document analysis. So let's get right into it. 

First of all, I have updated my document showing how many talks have been given by each of our apostles. That document reflects one more apiece for 13 of our 15 apostles. President Eyring's presentation of the sustaining of Church officers gives him 2 for this conference, and Elder Holland's number has not changed since last Octoer, since he was absent from and didn't speak during either conference this year. By next conference, the number of talks given by our apostles should total just above 800.

Second up is my document showing the length of each of the 15 talks given by our apostles, which should speak for itself. I have also put together my projection for what the table of contents for the November 2023 Liahona (General Conference edition) might look like. I also wanted to provide a look back at my projections for the speaker lineup, the projected changes in general Church leadership, and potential temple locations.

Based on my analysis on each of the predicted elements, the results are displayed in a scorecard. Longtime followers of this blog will know how I calculated the scores on each element, yielding the total. 

But in a nutshell, I assigned each predicted element a total of 3 points. For the speaker lineup, every time I correctly predicted the right person in the right order in the right session, 3 points were awarded. If I had the right person in the right session but the wrong slot, 2 points were awarded. 1 point was awarded if I correctly projected any speaker, even if that was in the wrong session and the wrong position within that session. 0 points were awarded if something happened that I didn't predict.

I noticed something interesting that I hadn't noticed before this go-round. With the exception of the first two General Conferences of President Nelson's prophetic administration and the April 2022 General Conference (which featured a Women's Session) Presidents Oaks and Eyring have alternated between conducting 3 and 2 sessions apiece per conference. But for the last few General Conferences, President Oaks has conducted 3 and President Eyring the other 2. That will likely be a trend that continues.

For the changes in general Church leadership, since I and several others had been convinced that an additional counselor in the First Presidency might soon be called, I gave myself half-credit for a potential change in the First Presidency and the resulting change that would then have been necessary for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Every other element was graded on whether I correctly predicted each change, whether I was half-right, or whether I was incorrect. And for the new temples, 3 points meant I had the right exact location, 2 meant I had the right general area but the wrong specific one, and 0 was for anything I wasn't expecting.

The results are otherwise self-explanatory, but if any of you have questions, feel free to ask. As I stated at the beginning of this post, I wanted to get this post-conference document update out of the way before what I expect will be a windfall of major temple construction announcements to round out the final quarter of the year. I will be sure to report on any such updates as they are announced. In the interim, when I am not focused on updates for this blog, I will be starting to work on my predictions for the April 2024 General Conference, and I will have an initial version of those predictions available ASAP.

One key consideration for those predictions will be the likely prospect that any GA Seventies likely to be granted emeritus status on August 1 of next year who have not spoken within the last few years or so will likely do so, which includes 2 current members of the Presidency of the Seventy. It is also likely that only 2-3 female speakers will be featured as a result. Stay tuned for those predictions as I can formulate them. In the meantime, 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.

Elder Ulisses Soares Marks His 65th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! On this day after the October 2023 General Conference, I am pleased to bring you all a post honoring Elder Ulisses Soares, who is celebrating his 65th birthday today. 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. Ulisses Soares 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 17 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 9 given since his call to the apostleship, which includes his address given this General Conference weekend.

I 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 2022 General Coferece.

In the meantime, that does it for now. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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. 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 20 New Temples

Note: An initial version of this post was published at 4:07 PM as scheduled. Due to circumstances, which I explained here, a full report on this update wasn't published between 5:00-6:00 PM. This post bears the original timestamp.

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to report that my theory was incorrect. President Nelson didn't speak until Sunday Afternoon, and in his prerecorded remarks concluding General Conference, he announced 20 new temples, the exact number of temples I had theorized would be announced. 

The temples will be built in each of the following locations: Savai’i Samoa, Kahului Hawaii, Fairbanks Alaska, Vancouver Washington, Colorado Springs Colorado, Tulsa Oklahoma, Roanoke Virginia, Cancún Mexico, Piura & Huancayo Peru, Viña del Mar Chile, Goiânia and João Pessoa Brazil, Cape Coast Ghana, Calabar Nigeria, Luanda Angola, Mbuji-Mayi Democratic Republic of the Congo, Laoag, Philippines, Osaka Japan, and Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.

I correctly predicted temples in Savaii Samoa, Fairbanks Alaska, Colorado Springs Colorado, Cancun Mexico, Viña del Mar Chile, Goiânia and João Pessoa Brazil, Cape Coast Ghana, Calabar Nigeria, Mbuji-Mayi DR Congo, Osaka Japan, and Ulaanbaatar Mongolia (12 of the 20) to the exact location. I had the right general area but the wrong specific one for the newest temples in Hawaii, Peru, and the Philippines, but the wrong specific cities. 

Angola had been on my list, but I had removed it, which was also the case for Tulsa. OOPS! I was blindsided by Roanoke Virginia, Vancouver Washington, Piura and Huancayo and Piura Peru. The accuracy calculation will be included in my General Conference predictions results post, which will come out at some point in the next two weeks.

It seems the plans of President Nelson regarding the temple program of the Church have not been exaggerated. I have received feedback that the Church could potentially have 400 temples operating by 2030, but I have not been able to substantiate that further. I anticipate that tomorrow, there will be another major temple construction update. Stay tuned for coverage on that.

In the meantime, 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.

UPDATED: Current Apstolic Data

Hello again, everyone! It has been a tradition on this blog for me to provide updates on apostolic data every 7 weeks. Having last done so on Sunday, August 13, it is time to publish the newest such data. As with every two-part update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, in addition to updated information on the tenure length records for each of the 28 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

The first document likewise notes information on the tenure length rankings for three sets of apostolic groups: the longest-serving First Presidencies (which will not be updated with the current First Presidency until 2024), in addition to the longest-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles), and an overview of when each of those current groups will move up on the list.

Meanwhile, the second part of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the apostolic groups overall, in addition to the average ages of each group and apostolic nonagenarians (with 4 of the current 15 apostles being on that list), and a final table showing the remaining time between today and when each of the other 11 apostles will become nonagenarians and join that list. With these updates coming every 7 weeks, the next update will be posted here on the morning of Sunday November 19. That next update will serve as the last one for 2023.

Hopefully, this post and the others this weekend will be of interest to you all. Again, I offer an open invitation to ask anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. I continue to monitor all temple updates and Church news reports and will be sure to bring word of those to you as I become aware of such updates.

In the meantime, 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.