Length of Apostolic Talks for last weekend's General Conference

One thing I do shortly after each General Conference is to track the lengths of the addresses given during each conference by our 15 apostles. This will be the very first time I have posted those times on my blog.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SPH)—20:08

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SUM)—19:14

President Henry B. Eyring (SPH)—18:24

President Henry B. Eyring (SAM)—18:01

Elder Quentin L. Cook—16:24

Elder David A. Bednar—16:15

Elder M. Russell Ballard—16:10

Elder Neil L. Andersen—15:52

Elder Ronald A. Rasband—15:43

Elder Gary E. Stevenson—15:28

Elder Dale G. Renlund—15:21

Elder Dallin H. Oaks—15:19

Elder D. Todd Christofferson—15:18

President Russell M. Nelson—14:50

President Henry B. Eyring (GW)—14:39

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland—14:33

Elder Robert D. Hales—11:07

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SAA—Sustaining of Church Officers)—8:53

President Thomas S. Monson (SPH)—4:04

President Thomas S. Monson (SUM)—3:28

As you can see, President Uchtdorf's two talks in the main sessions were the longest, followed closely by President Eyring's two talks from the main sessions. All four of those addresses spanned around 20 minutes each, which has been typical for First Presidency members. Most of the talks by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spanned 14 minutes at shortest to just over 16 at the longest, and President Eyring's address from the General Women's Session was about the same length. Elder Hales spoke for just over 11 minutes, which has been typical for his talk lengths in the recent past. The Sustaining of Church Officers usually spans between 5 minutes (in October) to 10+ minutes (in April). And President Monson, as before noted, spoke for a combined total of less than 10 minutes between his two addresses, which has also been very typical.

So there you have it. A first for this blog that I hope at least a few of you will find interesting. Thanks for reading this.

Rumors of President Monson's death are false; his hospitalization continues

There have reportedly been some unfounded rumors circulating today that President Monson died this afternoon. Though I am late in posting about this, the Church acted very quickly in debunking that rumor. President Monson remains hospitalized as reported earlier this evening.

If the Lord's prophet does pass away at any point in the near future, that will be subsequently confirmed by the Church Public Affairs department. In the meantime, I hope no one who reads this blog was duped in any way by those rumors. Click here for KSL's updated status report on our prophet's health situation.

In the meantime, I wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate my absolute testimony that the Lord is in control of if and when each prophet is released from his calling, and that release will only ever happen by death. Anyone who says the Church should be run by younger individuals, and that an emeritus status of sorts should be enacted for apostles and prophets, or that the Church should call a second Quorum of the Twelve to help shoulder the load is not at all being influenced by the spirit of the Lord. That is not the Lord's way of doing things. The pattern of apostolic succession has been divinely orchestrated, and we would be much better served to leave the release date of apostles in His hands. After all, He has been involved in this process for so very much longer than any of us will ever be.

For now, I feel that is sufficient for this post. Thanks for your readership and support. May God continue to bless our dear prophet, President Monson, and may He continue to be with those who assist him in carrying on this work. Thanks to you all for reading this. Comments are welcome, but please be civil about making them. Thanks again.

General Conference Speaker Predictions Results

Here I am yet again with what might be my last post for the immediate future. I am posting to share how my predictions for the speaking order turned out. I got several things correct, with many of the correct speakers either in the correct spots, the correct session, or having spoken at all. What was perhaps the greatest surprise in all of this was that I had the greatest accuracy I have ever had with my predictions for the apostles, and that we only heard from one female auxiliary leader during the last weekend. I had correctly anticipated that Sister Joy D. Jones, who has not yet spoken since her call as the new Primary General President, would speak during the Sunday Morning Session, but I had Sister Linda K. Burton speaking during the Saturday Morning Session, and that did not happen.

For the first time in a long time, the Young Men General Presidency member did not speak during the Priesthood Session. But he did during the Saturday Morning Session, and Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse, who I had predicted would speak during the Sunday Morning Session as his counselors had during the last two conferences, took the one Priesthood Session spot not filled by the four apostles that spoke during that time. In a first for him, President Monson opened the Priesthood Session with his brief remarks.

I correctly had the right Presidency of the Seventy members in the session in which they actually spoke, but the General Authority Seventy speakers were all mostly in either a different session or at least a different position from what I had predicted, and there were more than a few of them that spoke that I had not predicted, while some I was sure would speak did not.

As for the apostolic predictions, I had President Nelson in the right session but in the wrong position, though I had acknowledged elsewhere that President Nelson might be the last speaker in whatever session he spoke. I had Elders Bednar and Renlund reversed in the sessions in which they spoke. The same was true for seatmates Elders Andersen and Rasband. Though I did have Elders Ballard and Holland in the correct session, I had them reversed. I correctly had Elders Hales and Oaks in the exact positions in which they spoke. And I correctly identified the fact that Elders Cook, Christofferson, and Stevenson would speak in the Sunday Afternoon Session, but I had them in a somewhat different order (predicting Stevenson, Cook, and Christofferson, when it was actually Christofferson, Stevenson, and Cook). That said, as I have before noted, it has been customary to have to generally have at least one apostle in each General Conference whose place in the apostolic speaking order for that conference matches their seniority order in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. For this conference, I had President Nelson, our most senior member and therefore the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as the first speaker from that quorum. But what actually happened was that our second-to-last of those Twelve was the second-to-last Quorum member to speak.

That said, what follows are the predictions I gave for the speaking order, and the report of the actual speakers, whose names appear in brackets. Before I post that, I do want to note that my overall average for these predictions (which has been 60-80%) held true for this conference (for which I scored myself at a very respectable 68.21%). I was on the lower end than I have been in the last several conferences, but that is still not bad for being what it what was.

And, in other news, I got my predictions together for next General Conference already, but I will wait for a time to post those. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here are my predictions vs. what actually happened.

April 2017 General Conference Predictions

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

Session	Conducting	Speaker
General Women’s	Bonnie L. Oscarson	Bonnie H. Cordon
	[Carol F. McConkie]	Linda S. Reeves
	[Linda K. Burton]	Carol F. McConkie
		President Henry B. Eyring
Saturday Morning	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Henry B. Eyring
	[M. Joseph Brough]	Elder Ulisses Soares
	[Elder Weatherford T. Clayton]	Linda K. Burton
	[Elder Dale G. Renlund]	President Russell M. Nelson
	[Elder Ulisses Soares]	Elder O. Vincent Haleck
	[Elder Mark A. Bragg]	Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
	[President Russell M. Nelson]	Elder David A. Bednar
Saturday Afternoon	President Henry B. Eyring	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Sustaining of Church Officers)
	Church Auditing Department Report, 2016	Kevin R. Jergensen
	Statistical Report, 2016	Brook P. Hales
		Elder Robert D. Hales
	[Elder Jeffrey R. Holland]	Elder M. Russell Ballard
	[Elder Gary B. Sabin]	Elder Larry Y. Wilson
	[Elder Valeri V. Cordon]	Elder Ian S. Ardern
	[Elder Neil L. Andersen]	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	[Elder M. Russell Ballard]	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Saturday Priesthood	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	Elder Dale G. Renlund [President Thomas S. Monson]
	[Elder David A. Bednar]	Douglas D. Holmes
	[Bishop Gerald Causse]	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	[President Dieter F. Uchtdorf]	President Henry B. Eyring
	[President Henry B. Eyring]	President Thomas S. Monson
Sunday Morning	President Henry B. Eyring	President Thomas S. Monson
	[Joy D. Jones]	Elder L. Whitney Clayton
	[Elder Yoon Hwan Choi]	Joy D. Jones
	[Elder Ronald A. Rasband]	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	[Elder L. Whitney Clayton]	Bishop Gerald Causse
		Elder Dallin H. Oaks
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Sunday Afternoon	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	Elder Gary E. Stevenson [Elder D. Todd Christofferson]
	[Elder Joaquin E. Costa]	Elder Gary B. Sabin
	[Elder S. Mark Palmer]	Elder Yoon Hwan Choi
	[Elder Gary E. Stevenson]	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	[Elder C. Scott Grow]	Elder Jose A. Alonso
	[Elder Benjamin De Hoyos]	Elder S. Mark Palmer
	[Elder Quentin L. Cook]	Elder D. Todd Christofferson

NOTE: Though I had noted on my predictions above that Linda K. Burton would conduct the General Women’s Meeting, when I was looking back at the predictions I made for the session originally, I had Bonnie L. Oscarson listed as conducting the meeting, and, according to the rotation I had observed in that duty, that’s what should have happened. And I should have double-checked on that. As soon as I confirmed it, I changed the information to reflect my original thoughts.