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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Lengths of Addresses Given By the Apostles During the April 2018 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! As long-time readers of this blog might recall, shortly after each General Conference of the Church, I take some time to look at the lengths of each talk given by the apostles of the Church (including those given by members of the First Presidency), and I then post the results of that research on this blog. Having looked at that information for this last General Conference, I am pleased to bring you the information below.

I did want to note something interesting that struck me as General Conference concluded: Although President Nelson only gave addresses in 3 of the 5 sessions, the fact that he spoke twice during the Priesthood Session and Sunday Afternoon Session (once in each to introduce new policies and practices, and a main address at the end of each session) meant that his 5 total addresses matched the number of addresses typically given by a Church president in most General Conferences. So that was amazing.

The information I have assembled follows. So as not to disturb the flow of that information, I will conclude now as I always do. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.


20:48—President Russell M. Nelson (SUM)
17:40—Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SUA)
17:35—President Dallin H. Oaks (SUM)
17:02—President Henry B. Eyring (SUM)
16:04—Elder Neil L. Andersen (SAM)
16:01—President Dallin H. Oaks (SPH)
16:01—Elder David A. Bednar (SAA)
15:53—President Henry B. Eyring (SPH)
15:29—Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (SUA)
15:04—Elder Quentin L. Cook (SUA)
15:07—Elder Gary E. Stevenson (SAM)
14:43—Elder Dale G. Renlund (SAA)
14:29—President M. Russell Ballard (SAM)
14:28—President Russell M. Nelson (SPH; main address)
13:35—Elder Ronald A. Rasband (SPH)
13:19—Elder D. Todd Christofferson (SPH)
12:10—President Dallin H. Oaks (SAA; Sustaining Other Church Officers)
11:03—President Henry B. Eyring (SAM; Solemn Assembly)
6:01—President Russell M. Nelson (SUA; concluding address)
5:24—Elder Ulisses Soares (SUA)
4:56—Elder Gerrit W. Gong (SUA)
3:39—President Russell M. Nelson (SPH; Priesthood Quorum Announcement)
2:15—President Russell M. Nelson (SUA; Ministering Announcement)


Church News Provides Summary of General Conference Talks

Hello again, everyone! While I was pleased to be able to report late last night that the transcripts of the talks given during General Conference are now available for us to study, as we have been invited by President Nelson to do, I recognize that there are many of my readers that, due to daily obligations, may not always have time to read a full address from General Conference.

For any of you who fit that description, I wanted to pass along this document, which provides summaries of each address given during General Conference. These summaries encapsulate the key elements of those addresses, and get right to the heart of what was said by every speaker. I am happy to recommend these summaries, along with the full transcripts, to which I posted a link last night.

In a world where so much is happening on a daily basis, it is wonderful indeed to consider how committed the Church News, and more particularly the Church itself, is to enable all of us to enjoy General Conference after it airs through a variety of methods.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.

Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple Moves Ahead of the Memphis Tennessee Temple

Hello again, everyone! I became aware a short while ago of information that points to the idea that the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple renovation process has progressed sufficiently swiftly enough that it will be the second temple rededicated during 2019, taking the spot once held by the Memphis Tennessee Temple. This is an interesting development, to be sure, which I am doing my best to analyze in terms of how and if that will necessitate yet another change in the estimates I have provided, and will have the results of that analysis ASAP.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

General Conference Talks Transcripts Are Now Available

Hello again, everyone! I just learned that the transcripts of all General Conference talks are now available. Since we have been invited by President Nelson to study those frequently, I wanted to note that those talks ca be reviewed here. I hope that all of us will take advantage of the invitation from our prophet, especially since the conference we just enjoyed last weekend was so historic.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.

The Current Number of General Authority Seventies

Hello again, everyone! In the comments made in response to my post highlighting the changes in general Church leadership that were announced by President Oaks at the beginning of the Saturday Afternoon Session, the observation was made that he may have been in error on the number of current General Authorities.

President Oaks had stated there were 116 currently serving General Authorities. What that means is that, in addition to those 25 men who serve in the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Presidency of the Seventy, and Presiding Bishopric, there should be 91 General Authority Seventies. Some pointed out that the list they keep only has 90 men listed. In checking my own list, I discovered that there are indeed 91 men serving as General Authority Seventies, which means that President Oaks was correct in saying there are now 116 men serving as General Authorities.

In order to verify that number, and to comply with Blogger formats, the easiest way in which I could share my list is to copy and paste the latest version of my list. It is divided into 3 columns and 10 full rows, with the final man on an additional row.

Before setting the context for this list, I should mention a couple of things: The last Deseret News Church Almanac (the 2013 edition) listed the numbering of the men who served in the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy as two separate groups, and numbered each according to the date on which these men were called to the Seventy. Generally that involved an alphabetical list by those dates, but there have been a few exceptions.

I also fully recognize that more men than are listed here have served in the First and Seccond Quorums of the Seventy. The numbering here reflects the dates of call for all of those serving currently, and any numbers and names not appearing on this list are not included for the reasons outlined above.

Additionally, until 2016, when the Church stopped publicly announcing to which Quorums newly-called Brethren were assigned, since a Quorum affiliation and distinction had been announced for all other Brethren called between 1994 and 2015, those called to the First and Second Quorums during that time are not listed in full alphabetical order, but first by Quorum assignment, then in alphabetical order within those Quorums. It may not be a perfect system, but it has worked for me.

When updating that list following General Conference, I realized (primarily because my own laptop is unbootable at the moment and because I had to retrieve this information from an old copy, which I subsequently updated) had many men on there that are now either in the Presidency of the Seventy, have been granted emeritus status, have passed away, or, in one case (James J. Hamula), had been excommunicated. I checked and double-checked the list to ensure that it was accurate, and unless I happened to overlook one man that should have been removed, I am reasonably confident in its' accuracy. That list follows below.

So as not to disturb the flow of it, I will end now as I always do. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. 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.


General Authority Seventies
Please note that the following General Authority Seventies are in the Presidency of the Seventy: 7; 37; 42; 52; 59; 68; 77
1. Claudio Roberto Mendez Costa
General Authority Seventy since April 1994; sustained to First Quorum in April 2001.
Presidency of the Seventy August 2007-August 2011.
5. Richard John Maynes
General Authority Seventy since April 1997; sustained to First Quorum in April 2001; Presidency of the Seventy January 2012-.August 2017.
4.  Lynn Grant Robbins
General Authority Seventy since April 1997; sustained to First Quorum in April 2000; Presidency of the Seventy April 2014-August 2018.

6. Donald Larry Hallstrom
General Authority Seventy since April 2000; Presidency of the Seventy April 2009-August 2017.
9. Christoffel Golden Jr.
General Authority Seventy since April 2001.
10. Walter Fermín Gonzalez
General Authority Seventy since April 2001.
Presidency of Seventy October 2007-January 2013.

11. Steven Erastus Snow
General Authority Seventy since April 2001. Presidency of the August 2007-January 2012.
12. Craig Cloward Christensen
General Authority Seventy since October 2002; sustained to the First Quorum in April 2008; Presidency of the Seventy August 2012-August 2018.
13. Mervyn Bennion Arnold
General Authority Seventy since April 2003.
14. Benjamin De Hoyos
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
15. David Frewin Evans
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
14. Benjamin De Hoyos
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
15. David Frewin Evans
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
16. Cecil Scott Grow
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.

17. Paul Vere Johnson
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
18. Paul Bowen Pieper
General Authority Seventy since April 2005.
19. David Steward Baxter
General Authority Seventy since April 2006.

20. Shayne Martell Bowen
General Authority Seventy since April 2006.
22. Marcus Bell Nash
General Authority Seventy since April 2006.
23. Anthony Duane Perkins
General Authority Seventy since April 2006.

24. Craig Allan Cardon
General Authority Seventy since April 2006.
29. Enrique Rienzi Salvator Falabella
General Authority Seventy since April 2007.
30. Erich Willi Horst Kopischke
General Authority Seventy since April 2007.

31. Michael John Uy Teh
General Authority Seventy since April 2007.
32. Claudio Daniel Zivic
General Authority Seventy since April 2007.
33. Marcus Anthony Aidukaitis
General Authority Seventy since April 2008

35. Lawrence Edward Corbridge
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.
36. Eduardo Gavarret
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.
39. Allan Forrest Packer
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.

40. Kevin Wayne Pearson
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.
41. Rafael Eduardo Pino
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.
44. Jorge Hernando Zeballos
General Authority Seventy since April 2008.

45. Yoon Hwan Choi
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
46. Brent Hatch Nielson
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
48. Michael Tally Ringwood
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.

49. Joseph Wafula Sitati
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
45. Wilford Wayne Andersen
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
48. Bradley Duane Foster
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.

47. James Boyd Martino
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
49. Gregory Allan Schwitzer
General Authority Seventy since April 2009.
50. Kevin Read Duncan
General Authority Seventy since April 2010.

53. Juan Alberto Uceda
General Authority Seventy since Apr 2010; Presidency of the Seventy August 2017-August 2018.

57. Jose Luis Alonso
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.
58. Ian Sidney Ardern
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.

60. LeGrand Raine Curtis Jr.
General Authority Seventy since April 2011
62. Kazuhiko Yamashita
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.
63. Randall Kay Bennett
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.

64. John Devn Cornish
General Authority Seventy since April 2011
65. Otto Vincent Haleck
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.
66. Larry Young Wilson
General Authority Seventy since April 2011.

67. Larry Echo Hawk
General Authority Seventy since April 2012.
69. Scott Duane Whiting
General Authority Seventy since April 2012.
70. Edward Dube
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.

71. Stanley Gifford Nielsen
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.
72. Arnulfo Valenzuela
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.
73. Timothy John Dyches
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.

74. Randy Dennis Funk
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.
75. Kevin Scott Hamilton
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.
76. Adrian Ochoa Quintana
General Authority Seventy since April 2013.

78. Chi Hong (Sam) Wong
General Authority Seventy since April 2014.
79. Jörg Klebingat
General Authority Seventy since April 2014.
80. Larry S. Kacher
General Authority Seventy since April 2014.

81. Hugo E. Martinez
General Authority Seventy since April 2014.
82. Kim Bryce Clark
General Authority Seventy since April 2015.
83. Allen Decker Haynie
General Authority Seventy since April 2015.

85. Hugo Montoya
General Authority Seventy since April 2015.
86. Vern Perry Stanfill
General Authority Seventy since April 2015.
87. William Mark Bassett
General Authority Seventy since April 2016

88. Mark Allyn Bragg
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
89. William Weatherford Touchstone Clayton
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
89. Valeri Vladimir Cordón Orellana
General Authority Seventy since April 2016

90. Joaquin Esteban Costa
General Authority Seventy since April 2016. 
91. Massimo De Feo
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
92. Peter Fletcher Meurs
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.

93. Kevin Brett Nattress
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
94. Stanley Mark Palmer
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
95. Gary Byron Sabin            
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.

96. Evan Antoine Schmutz
General Authority Seventy since April 2016.
97. Taylor Guillermo Godoy Atanacio
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.
98. Joni Luiz Koch
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.

99. Adilson de Paula Parrella
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.
100. John Cannon Pingree Jr.
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.
101. Brian King Taylor
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.

102. Taniela Biu Wakolo
General Authority Seventy since April 2017.
103. Steven R. Bangerter
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.
104. Matthew L. Carpenter
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.

105. Jack N. Gerard
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.
106. Mathias Held
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.
107. David P. Homer
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.

108. Kyle S. McKay
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.
109. Juan Pablo Villar
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.
110. Takashi Wada
General Authority Seventy since April 2018.