Revisiting my thoughts yet again about the potential timeline for future temple-related events

Hello again, everyone! I know I have posted quite a bit today, but I wanted to post again now and let you all know that I have recently heard from a wide variety of sources that I may need to rethink things yet again in terms of the potential timeline for temple-related events within the next three years or so. That is an ongoing and evolving process. It appears that there are so many more factors to consider in that regard than just climate and temperature. Back to the drawing board I go about all of that. It will be interesting to see how my ongoing study about such things will change these estimates. Just wanted to pass that along. That does it for this post. Any 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.

April 2018 General Conference Preliminary Predictions Part 1: Speaking Order and Possible Changes in General Church Leadership

Hello again, everyone! Not long after General Conference ended last month, as I always do, I immediately began preparing my preliminary predictions for General Conference next April. As I have previously mentioned, while I continue to work on and invite feedback about the series of posts I am doing about potential future temple locations, which will be one part of those predictions, and while I am waiting more towards the end of this year to prepare my predictions for what the year-end statistical report might look like, I thought I would post here and now with what I have assembled in terms of the potential speaking order and potential changes in general Church leadership. Those predictions follow below. That does it for this post. Any 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.

April 2018 General Conference Predictions

Preliminary note on these predictions: On October 27, 2017, the First Presidency announced that the Women’s and Priesthood Sessions of General Conference would both be held annually, with the Priesthood Session every April, and the Women’s Session every October, with both to be held two hours following the Saturday Afternoon Session. As I have previously stated, my predictions in recent years have averaged between 60-80% in their accuracy because I have been able to notice patterns of the past and have used those to predict what may happen for the future. The new policy will result in new patterns, which I hope to have figured out by April 2019. That said, the only thing that might be different during this conference is that President Eyring will be giving one less talk than he has in recent April General Conference sessions. Other than that, I don’t anticipate much deviation from previous conferences.

Speaking Order (Text in brackets indicated what actually happened.)

Session	Conducting	Speaker
Saturday Morning	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Henry B. Eyring
		Bishop Dean M. Davies
		Christina B. Franco
		Elder David A. Bednar
		Elder Massimo De Feo
		Elder Larry Y. Wilson
		Elder Ronald A. Rasband
Saturday Afternoon	President Henry B. Eyring	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Sustaining of Church Officers)_
	Church Auditing Department Report, 2017	Kevin R. Jergensen
	Statistical Report, 2017	Brook P. Hales
		Elder Dale G. Renlund
		Elder D. Todd Christofferson
		Devin G. Durrant
		Elder Taniela B. Wakolo
		Elder Dallin H. Oaks
		Elder M. Russell Ballard
Saturday Priesthood	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
		Douglas D. Holmes
		Elder Gerrit W. Gong
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
		President Henry B. Eyring
Sunday Morning	President Henry B. Eyring	New apostle
		Elder Patrick Kearon
		Neill F. Marriott
		Elder Neil L. Andersen
		Elder Brian K. Taylor
		Elder Paul B. Pieper
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Sunday Afternoon	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Russell M. Nelson
		Elder Larry Echo Hawk
		Elder Taylor G. Godoy
		Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
		Elder Walter F. Gonzalez
		Elder Anthony D. Perkins
		Elder Quentin L. Cook

Predictions for Changes in Church Leadership

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: New apostle and Quorum member sustained to fill the vacancy created by the October 1, 2017 death of Elder Robert D. Hales. Note about this apostolic vacancy: The newest apostle could be any worthy man in the Church, whether or not he is known to Church membership (including any currently serving General Authority, Area Seventy, member of the Sunday School or Young Men General Presidencies, or the Church at large). That said, the last time a new apostle did not come from among those currently serving General Authorities occurred with the 2004 sustaining of Elder David A. Bednar, who was then serving as both an area seventy and as president of BYU-Idaho at the time of his call. So it is more likely that someone from the general leadership of the Church will be called. Of those five apostles called during President Monson’s Church presidency, three were called from the Presidency of the Seventy (one of whom was the second most senior member, and the other two who were the Senior President of the Seventy), one was the Presiding Bishop of the Church (who had also served as a General Authority Seventy prior to his call as Presiding Bishop), and one was a General Authority Seventy. Note about the timing of the announcement: While I would not be surprised at all if we do not find out who will be filling the apostolic vacancy until the Sustaining of Church Officers during the Saturday Afternoon Session, at the same time, I could also see President Monson authorizing President Eyring to lead the sustaining of the new apostle during his Saturday Morning address. Result: Elder (name of new apostle goes here) was called and sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Presidency of the Seventy: If the new apostle is any of these men, he will be released and a new member will be sustained. Result:

General Authority Seventies: If the new apostle comes from among these men, he will be released. As is typical for the April General Conference, new General Authorities will be sustained from the Area Seventies or the Church at large (including any current mission or temple president). Result:

Presiding Bishopric: If the new apostle is any of these three men, there will be changes to this group. Result:

Area Seventies: Releases and sustainings, especially if the new apostle comes from among these men. NOTE: The last area seventy called as an apostle was Elder David A. Bednar in 2004. It is possible that the Church could look to one of the current area seventies to fill this vacancy. It is also common to see the bulk of releases and sustainings happen in April, when President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, leads out in the sustaining, rather than in October, when President Eyring does so. Last October was the exception to this, so anything is possible. Result:

Young Women General Presidency: Sisters Bonnie L. Oscarson, Carol F. McConkie, and Neill F. Marriott released; new Young Women General Presidency sustained, whether or not either of the current counselors are retained in the new presidency; new presidency members may also come from among the outgoing members of the general board, or the new president could be one of the counselors in the Primary or Relief Society General Presidency. If that happens, changes in the affected presidency will also need to be sustained. Note: The current presidency has served since 2013, meaning that they have reached the standard 5 years of service that have been typical for general presidencies in recent years. It is therefore more than likely that the current presidency will be released. And the last time any member of an outgoing presidency were retained in the new one was in 2007, so it could very easily happen again. It has also been common for one or more members of the outgoing Young Women General Board to become part of the new presidency. So the Church has options there. Result:

Sunday School General Presidency: Possible changes made, if new apostle comes from this presidency. Result:

Young Men General Presidency: Possible changes made, if new apostle comes from this presidency. Result:

Clarifying the intent of my responses to comments on this blog

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post again at this time, as the title of this post says, to clarify the intent of my responses to comments on this blog. I always value feedback from others. When I hear comments and thoughts from other people about things that I have "sounded off" about, I have, more often than not, posted personal replies to each of those comments. I am concerned that some might have felt my doing so is meant to end the chance for discussion of such topics.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I am happy to welcome any and all comments from anyone on any post at any time any of you do want to comment. I know some people who blog regularly that have, to a certain degree, let their comment boards run themselves, only responding if and when questions are directed to them personally. And I respect that as their right. But in my case, my intention in responding to each comment that, in my opinion, deserves a reply, as I have done up to now (and will continue to do, if that's okay with all of you), is to acknowledge the merits (and when needed, correction and clarification) in the comments each of you make, and I hope that by doing so, each one of you to whom I do respond will understand clearly how much I value all comments on this blog.

Rather than ending the conversation, I hope that such replies will provide more of an opportunity for the discussion to continue in an orderly manner, and will be a clear indicator of how much I appreciate all of you who do comment. That has always been my only intent for commenting as extensively as I have here on my own blog. I hope any I may have offended by so doing will forgive me. In the meantime, I also hope that the conversations on here, to whatever extent my personal replies may be involved, will continue to be inspiring for all who follow them. I have been humbled to my very core to realize how many regular readers I have gained, and to see how readership of this blog has expanded to various parts of the world. The fact that my thoughts, as imperfect as I myself am, are of interest to so many means everything in the world to me.

That seems like a good note to end on. That does it for this post. Any 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 each one of you in all that you do.

Temple News Updates

Hello again everyone! I wanted to post today and pass along some wonderful news about temples. More details were provided today that set the context for the developments I previously reported about the Rome Italy Temple. In that city that is iconic to the history of Christianity, scaffolding, which has been part of the temple for the last 4 years or so (including when the project changed hands and the existing scaffolding was replaced in 2015), has been removed. Interior work continues there as well.

Now, I wanted to offer a disclaimer here: Despite my general tendency to be optimistic whenever I hear updates like this, at the same time, unless more significant progress is made on this temple within the next 6-8 months, I still have not seen sufficient evidence that this temple will be completed and dedicated prior to the end of next year. But you can be sure that if that changes, I will be passing that along.

Additionally, I learned earlier today that the angel Moroni had been replaced on the temple in Monticello Utah. That was apparently reported yesterday, but I missed passing that along in view of needing to take a personal day to work out a health-related crisis. The problem has passed (and long-time readers of this blog are no doubt aware of how reticent I have been lately to post about personal matters, choosing to focus on Church news, of which there is always an abundance) but it has been a tricky few weeks. I only mention this as an explanation about why I was not able to report on the Monticello development yesterday.

As I observed over the weekend, tours continue until the end of the day Saturday for the new temple in Meridian Idaho. The cultural celebration will follow one week after, and the dedication will be held the next day. Still no word on who might represent the Church at this event, but wanted to note it anyway.

Full-scale construction has not yet begun on the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple. That said, unless it becomes another Winnipeg (which will not see full-scale construction efforts start until spring 2018, 15 months or so after the groundbreaking ceremony was held), completion is still anticipated for Haiti's first temple in early-to-mid 2019. That will likely not change, unless construction cannot begin on this temple within the next six months. With the relatively great year-round weather in Haiti, there are not anticipated to be many weather-related delays to impede the construction of this temple.

One other thing worth noting in terms of temple-related developments: I have not yet heard how (if at all) the design of the Asuncion Paraguay Temple might change while it undergoes the renovation process. I had wondered if it might be given the same exterior look as Memphis and Oklahoma City, but that has not yet been clarified by any of the sources I have available to me. Stay tuned for more on that as I learn of it.

That does it for this post. Any 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.

More Information Given for 2018 Church-related Events

Hello again, everyone! In yet another check of the Church's official website, I discovered some more information has been released about some of the early Church-related events that will be held during the first several months of 2018. Read ahead for more on that.

On Sunday January 14, 2018, the first of the Church's three Worldwide Devotionals for Young Adults will be held. The featured speakers will be President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency and his wife, Sister Harriet R. Uchtdorf.

While a speaker will be announced in the future, we know that the 2018 Evening with a General Authority (which will be held for seminary and institute instructors, CES employees, and their spouses) will be held Friday January 26, 2018.

The first Face-to-Face event for youth in 2018 will feature President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife, Sister Wendy W. Nelson, and will be held on Saturday February 3 (the same day when the First Presidency will mark a decade of service together).

Exactly four weeks later, on Saturday March 3, the RootsTech Family Discovery Day will be held for Family History enthusiasts. Selected leaders and general officers of the Church, who will be announced at a later date, will be featured.

As already announced, the open house for the renovated Jordan River Utah Temple will be held from Saturday March 17- Saturday April 28, with the cultural celebration on May 19, and the rededication on Sunday May 20.

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will present a sing-along of Handel's Messiah on March 23. In the meantime, April General Conference will be held on Saturday and Sunday March 31 and April 1.

Over a month later, the second Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults will be held on May 6, with the speaker announced at a later date. The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will be holding their annual Pioneer Day Concert on Saturday July 21, 2018.

Rounding out the year will be the already-announced third Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults on September 9, 2018, General Conference on October 6 and 7 (which will feature the Women's Session on that Saturday for the first time) and the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional held on December 2, 2018.

Already, with what is known, 2018 will be a great year for the Church. I am, of course, keeping my eyes open for any additional information on any of these events, and also for temple-related events during the year as well, and will be passing all of that along as I am able to.

That does it for this post. Any 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 all that you do.

Case Study: How soon could the Church have 200 operating temples?

Hello again, everyone! As I may have mentioned previously, I started the prior post with the intention of exploring how soon the Church might see 200 operating temples. I had before offered my opinion that that could occur by or before the 200th anniversary of the Church, which is what prompted my deviation from that subject in the post previous to this one. So, let's examine what the Church would have to do to make that possible, and how temple progress will be looking over the next 2-3 years.

As many of you are no doubt aware, there are 182 temples in various stages. This means that the Church would just have to announce 18 more, in addition to completing the other 25 currently in various stages. That's a total of 43 temples that would need to be dedicated in between now and April 6, 2030. With that in mind, the Church, as of today, has 12.41 years to complete those 43. That works out to just around 3.5 that would need to be completed in each one of those years. So, what needs to happen to make that possible? Let's look at that.

As you  all know, the Church will have 2 more temples dedicated by the end of this year, bringing the number of those in operation to 159. By the end of 2018, the Church will have either 162 or 163 in operation, meaning 3 or 4 new temples will be added next year. 2019, as already noted, is anticipated to be a big year for temple-related events, without even considering how many announced temples might have a groundbreaking next year. If the data I have gathered proves correct, the number of operating temples by the end of will have risen to either 169 or 170. With that in mind, by the time the Church has 10 years left to dedicate the 200, there will be around 30 temples left to complete. So as long as 3 or 4 are dedicated each year, that could easily be done.

That said, as already noted, if many other temples have a groundbreaking next year and in 2019, the number of those that could subsequently be dedicated in 2020 and beyond, along with those new temples that may be announced within the next two years, could be anyone's guess. That said, it seems obvious to me that, whether or not an official goal is made to do so, the Church will have at least 200 temples in operation by April 6, 2030. In fact, for the span of the 17 years between January 2001 (the end of the temple-building boom that occurred between 1997 and 2000) and the end of this year, the Church will have seen an increase in operating temples from 102 to 159, which is 57 new temples. In those 17 years, that will have averaged out to 3.35 temples per year. And with the 41 that would need to be dedicated between January 1, 2018 and April 6, 2030 (a span of 12.26 years), that further works out to 3.34 per year.

Thanks for bearing with me as I have shared this information with you. Whatever might happen in terms of future temple-related developments, you can be sure to find all the latest news and developments here. That does it for this post. Any comments are 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.

How the Church has marked milestone anniversaries

Hello, everyone! I had begun this post intending to talk about temple progress, but it became more about the milestone anniversaries of the Church, so I will post my updated thoughts about temple progress shortly. In the meantime, for those not aware of this, the Church has held a big celebration every 50 years when the different milestone anniversaries of the Church came about. I wanted to discuss each of these milestones briefly

The 50th anniversary of the Church was marked on April 6, 1880. At that time, President John Taylor, as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (he would officially be ordained and set apart as 3rd Church President following the General Conference that would be held six months later) directed the events of the conference, which spanned three days, from Tuesday April 6 to Thursday April 8 (at that time, conferences were focused on ensuring that the April one always included the Church's anniversary, rather than on being held on the weekends). Exercises honoring the commemoration of the Church's 50th anniversary were held at the Assembly Hall the Sunday and Monday prior to the three-day conference. All of those proceedings were carried in the April 1880 print edition of Conference.

By the time of the 100th anniversary of the Church (on April 6, 1930), the tradition of having days rather than months or even years between the death of one Church President and the appointment of another had been observed three times, and President Heber J. Grant was serving as 7th President of the Church. As was still the tradition of that day, General Conference that year spanned 4 days, from Sunday-Wednesday April 6-9. At the top of his address opening the conference, President Grant read a proclamation authored by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in honor of the anniversary. While none of that General Conference originated from Palmyra (since the technology to allow that to happen would not come along until much later), just over five years after that centennial conference, in June 1935 a monument was dedicated at the Hill Cumorah, which was not far from Palmyra.

50 years later, when the Church observed its sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary, President Spencer W. Kimball had been the 12th President of the Church for just over a year. Because technology had sufficiently advanced to allow it, the General Conference originated from Salt Lake, but featured Church leaders speaking from Palmyra. The conference, held on Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th, featured an opening address from President Kimball. His second counselor, President Romney, was the only First Presidency member to address the Priesthood Session of that conference, as President Kimball had flown with Elder Gordon B. Hinckley to Palmyra for the anniversary commemoration.

At the top of the Sunday Morning Session, from the Peter Whitmer Farm House in New York, President Kimball gave a brief introduction to a commemorative proclamation that was, at his request, read by Elder Hinckley. While Elder Hinckley read that proclamation from the Farm House, the others in attendance, including three direct descendants of the Smith family, hurried over to the new stake center in the city, and from that location, President Kimball gave remarks and offered a dedicatory prayer of that stake center, the farmhouse where the Church started, and the nearby home that the Whitmers had moved to later on. President Kimball's remarks allowed Elder Hinckley time to join them in the chapel, from which he spoke at the conclusion of President Kimball's remarks. The session then shifted back to Salt Lake, where the remaining speakers of that session gave their addresses. During the concluding session of the conference, Elder Hugh W. Pinnock and President Spencer W. Kimball gave their remarks from New York.

The Church's bicentennial General Conference will, if the tradition of recent years is kept, will be held on Saturday and Sunday April 6 and 7. I have previously shared my thoughts that either Elder Holland or Elder Bednar could be the president of the Church at the time of that anniversary. And based on how much technology has evolved, some or all of General Conference could originate from New York. It will be interesting to see.

Thank you for wading through this information. I love considering what might occur for the Church's bicentennial. If the recent passage of time is any indication, that time will soon be upon us. It has been wonderful to do the research on all of this and to pass it along, and I hope it proves useful to some few of you, if not all who read this.

That does it for this post. Any 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 the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Post Honoring President Dieter F. Uchtdorf on his 77th birthday

As promised, I am posting now in honor of President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who is celebrating his 77th birthday today. Aside from being only the 11th apostle born outside the US and the first with ties to both German and the Czech Republic, President Uchtdorf is the 6th of those 11 to serve in the First Presidency. At the time of his call to the First Presidency in February 2008, there were only two apostles more junior than he (Elder Bednar, also called to the apostleship in October 2004, and Elder Cook, who was called 3 years after that, but 3 months before President Monson became Church President. Since that time, President Uchtdorf has gone up in the ranks of the apostleship to become the 7th most senior apostle in the Church, which makes him the least senior of the first half of our 14 apostles. So, what is important to note about the life of this wonderful man? Let's talk about all of that.

Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf was born on November 6, 1940 in Czechoslovakia to Karl Albert and Hildegard Else Opelt Uchtdorf. He was raised in Germany, where his family joined the Church in 1947. He studied engineering, business administration, and international management. Joining the German Air Force in 1959, he trained to be a fighter pilot. In 1965, he joined Lufthansa German Airlines as a pilot, working as an airline captain from 1970-1996. He held many responsible executive positions with German Airlines. He married Harriet Reich on December 14, 1962, and they have two children and several grandchildren. He served as a stake president before his call as a General Authority. He was sustained a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 2, 1994. On April 6, 1996, he was sustained to the First Quorum of the Seventy. He became a member of the Presidency of the Seventy on August 15, 2002 and was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 2, 2004 and ordained an apostle on October 7, 2004. On February 3, 2008, he was set apart as 2^nd Counselor in the First Presidency to President Thomas S. Monson.

President Uchtdorf, who has become so well loved by many members of the Church, has had the experience of being a refugee twice, and of seeing how their conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ blessed him and his family. He also also spoken before of first being impressed by the woman he would eventually marry, when he saw them come to Church after being found by the missionaries. President Uchtdorf has spoken frequently about ways in which Church members should consider themselves called to action. I enjoy hearing what he has to say in his General Conference addresses every six months. Throughout his almost 24 years as a general authority, almost 14 years as a special witness of the Savior, and nearly a decade of service in the First Presidency, he has given 67 talks, only 2 of which were given prior to his apostolic call. To review any of these remarkable and noteworthy addresses, click here. Also worthy of note (in my opinion) is the fact that, in addition to being the 7th in seniority in the apostleship, he is also, coincidentally enough, the 7th oldest of our apostles. Though he may never read this, I wanted this post to stand as a tribute to this remarkable, unassuming man that has had such a profound effect on me personally.

That does it for this post. Any 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 all that you do.

BREAKING NEWS: Matthew Holland to serve as mission president

Hello again, everyone! I will get to my post honoring President Uchtdorf, but there is big news from the campus of Utah Valley University. Matthew S. Holland, who has served as the university's president since 2009, and is also the son of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, has announced that, in view of his recently given call to serve as a mission president (which will start at the end of June next year), he is stepping down as UVU president. He said that he will still be committed to the university until his replacement is named, but wanted to give the governing board of UVU the next six months to find and inaugurate his replacement. He also said that he was given permission to make his new call public because of the time it will take to find the new president.

Now, that said, I did want to note that this news (especially because he is the son of an LDS apostle) may have Church critics crying "nepotism is alive and well in the Church", and may not make people happy. But in defense of both Elder Holland and the current and future President Holland, I also wanted to note that, as far as I can tell, Elder Holland has no role currently on the Missionary Executive Council, and he would likely say what President Eyring likely said about his son's call as president of BYU-Idaho, which surely echoed President Gordon B. Hinckley's response to the  call of his son, Richard, as a General Authority Seventy in 2005, that none of them advanced their son's names,  that that was done by others who have the right to do so, that they all are and were qualified because of their excellent mothers and perhaps in spite of their fathers. The Church is, always has been, and always will be very sensitive about matters of nepotism, and anyone who says otherwise obviously has never bothered to gain for themselves a testimony of the process by which such calls come.

All that aside, I will be back in a short while to publish my tribute post to President Uchtdorf, whose special day may have been overshadowed by all of this, but who is well deserving of the post which I hope will honor him sufficiently. That does it for this post. As always, any comments are 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 all that you do.

Elder Christofferson reorganizes a stake he was once sent to dissolve

Hello, everyone! While I have not forgotten my promise to post about President Uchtdorf's birthday, and while I am actively working on getting that put together to post shortly here, there was yet another apostolic coincidence that I learned of recently, and it is well deserving of a mention here. So, what is that latest coincidence? Let's talk about that.

In early June 2007, amid the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, who was serving as the second most senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and was just 10 months away from the time he would be called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which, though he did not have any idea that would happen, was surely known to the Lord), had a supervisory role in overseeing the Church response to Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of that natural disaster, and knowing that many Saints had been forced to move out of the Slidell Louisiana Stake and find both new homes and work outside of the storm's destruction zone, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave Elder Christofferson the assignment to go supervise the dissolution of that stake.

It was a sad day for all concerned, but the remaining members in the region gave their full support to this decision. Fast forward now to the middle of October 2017. Having been an apostle of the Church for almost 10 years, and following General Conference, Elder Christofferson was given the joyful assignment to represent his Brethren in the apostleship by returning to the Slidell Louisiana region, this time to reorganize the stake he had dissolved over 10 years earlier.

Elder Christofferson commented to the Church News that he told the Saints in that area that he was pleased to fill this assignment, which, as he put it, gave him the opportunity to repent and redo what he had undone a decade before. As further evidence that the Lord not only knew this situation would happen the way it did (including that Elder Christofferson would be an apostle when he was sent to reestablish the stake he had previously dissolved), the Lord indicated to him that the man who should be the first president of the reinstated stake was a man who had, not coincidentally, given a prayer at the gathering 10 years earlier when the stake had been disbanded.

It was awesome to read the account the Church News shared in publishing this story.  You can find that article here. This is yet another witness to me that the Lord is, in a very real way, clearly involved in the minute details of the lives of each of us. I am confident that each one of us could share many examples of how such coincidences have occurred in our own lives, and while it may seem that the leading Brethren have such things occur more often than the rest of us, I am grateful to testify that I know for myself how mindful the Lord is of each of us as individuals. In His infinite wisdom and compassion, He orchestrates events in our lives that are not in any way random or happenstance, that demonstrate His tender mercies in the details of our lives.

I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to share all of this with each of you today. That does it for this post. Any 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 all that you do.