Some Thoughts Regarding the April 2018 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post right now with some thoughts that I have had about the April General Conference. First, while the tradition of having the Solemn Assembly Sustaining of Church Officers conducted as the first item of business in the Saturday Morning Session has held true for the last three Church Presidents (Monson, Hinckley, and Hunter), that Solemn Assembly can happen at any point designated by the new Church President, which in the case of the Solemn Assembly for Ezra Taft Benson was held during the Sunday Afternoon Session after three addresses, one from Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the other two from General Authority Seventies James M. Paramore (who would be called to the Presidency of the Seventy in August of the following year) and Jacob de Jager. That appears to be the one exception in recent years.

Quick sidenote here, because I tend to go off on tangents a lot. At the time of that Solemn Assembly for President Benson, whatever the reason may have been for it, the apostolic vacancy was not filled, nor would it be until the following October, when President Benson called Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. As an additional interesting note, in addition to Elder Wirthlin, the other two apostles called by President Benson were Elders Richard G. Scott and Robert D. Hales, and the three have all died, oddly enough, in that same order, with Elder Wirthlin having passed away on December 1, 2008, Elder Scott doing so on September 22, 2015, and Elder Hales on October 1, 2017, which, as noted repeatedly in other posts, occurred between the Sunday Sessions of General Conference.

But getting back to the topic of Solemn Assemblies, since this was in the time when General Conference was held for three days, the April 1974 Solemn Assembly for President Spencer W. Kimball was held at the beginning of the Saturday Morning Session. The one peculiar anomaly about that is that two sessions of that conference were held the previous day, Harold B. Lee was also mostly an exception to the rule: although that sustaining occurred at the beginning of the first session of General Conference, that session was held Friday morning. I could go further back into history, but I wanted to get to my other points.

Since there have only been two of the last six Presidents of the Church that have had their Solemn Assembly held at other times than the beginning of the Saturday Morning Session, it is more than likely that the Solemn Assembly which will be held in April for President Nelson will be during that Saturday Morning Session.

Next, I wanted to note that Presidents Monson and Hinckley both gave their first addresses as Church president during the Priesthood Session of the General Conferences in which they were sustained, and their first address to the Church as a whole the following morning.  Presidents Hunter, Benson, Kimball, and Lee all gave their first addresses during the first session of General Conference (which was the Saturday Morning Session for the first two and the Friday Morning Session for the other two).

While there are no hard and fast rules about when a new Church President will first address Church membership, since the most recent two prophets both opted to wait to give their first addresses during the Priesthood and Sunday Morning Sessions, I think it likely that could occr again for President Nelson.

Also, there are not any set rules, as I'm sure most of you know, about who leads such Solemn Assemblies.We have had the First Counselor in the First Presidency lead them for Presidents Lee and Kimball (both of those times, that counselor was President N. Eldon Tanner), and for Presidents Benson and Hunter (both by President Gordon B. Hinckley), and President Thomas S. Monson (for President Hinckley). The one exception to the seeming precedence of the First Counselor leading out in that Solemn Assembly was for President Thomas S. Monson, for which President Dieter F. Uchtdorf led out as the prophet's Second Counselor. This may have mostly been due to the fact that President Eyring was in recovery from an ankle injury.

So, with that in mind, I feel confident that President Nelson could ask either of his counselors to lead out in April, and that President Nelson's first opportunity to speak as Church President will likely be during the Priesthood Session, with his first opportunity to speak to the entire Church membership occurring during the Sunday Morning Session (at which time he may also announce any new temple locations).

Additionally, while predicting how many addresses President Nelson might give, in addition to those of his counselors, may be hard to accomplish, it has been a long-standing custom for the Presidents of the Church to speak at both the beginning of each conference in the Saturday Morning Session and the end of each conference at the Sunday Afternoon Session. There have been some exceptions to that, such as when a new Church President is sustained in a Solemn Assembly during such conferences, or, as we saw more recently, in the last 5 General Conferences in which President Monson spoke, as his age and health did not allow him to speak in either of those sessions.

Finally, I wanted to talk a bit about how many members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles might speak to us in each of the 5 General Conference Sessions this April. As I have previously noted, during most General Conferences, we typically hear from 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during both the Saturday and Sunday Morning Sessions, with 4 others speaking Saturday Afternoon, 1 during the Priesthood Session, and the remaining 3 during the Sunday Afternoon Session.

That general pattern of speaking has been altered somewhat at times when there were two or more vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve. Both in October 2004 (when Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar were sustained) and again in October 2015, when our three newest apostles (Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund) were sustained,, the typical patterns were slightly altered.

During both of those conferences, 2 of the Quorum members spoke during both the Saturday Morning and Sunday Afternoon Sessions, with 3 in the Saturday Afternoon Session, 1 during the Priesthood Session, and the other 4 during the Sunday Morning Session. I think we will likely see that happen again as well, which means that if this order is used, the entire two hours of the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference will be comprised of talks from 6 apostles, 4 from the Quorum of the Twelve, along with President Nelson and whichever of his counselors does not speak during the Saturday Morning Session.

I could go on further about this, but I will forebear for the moment. I hope this post has provided helpful information to at least some of you. That does it for now. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: President Monson Funeral Arrangements Announced

Hello again, everyone! I have some additional breaking news to report. With the announcement having already been made that the First Presidency will not be reorganized until after the funeral services are held for President Monson, the Church has released this article, which states that the funeral has been set for Friday January 12 at 12 noon, which is 9 days from now. With that in mind, it seems likely that the First Presidency will likely be reorganized on the following Sunday, which would be January 14, and a press conference will be held the following day to introduce the new First Presidency. This also means that the Church will be under the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the 11 days between today and that second Sunday in January, which is longer than it has been in recent years, but still not too lengthy.

In recent times of transition, President Ezra Taft Benson passed away on May 30, 1994, and President Howard W. Hunter was ordained to succeeded him 6 days later (on June 5). Then President Hunter died the following March 3, and President Gordon B. Hinckley became Church President 12 days later. Only 7 days passed between President Hinckley's January 27 death, and President Monson's February 3 ordination has his successor.

So a 10-day period is not unprecedented, though it will be a longer time than we have seen in recent years. 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.

Some Personal Thoughts About President Monson's Passing

Hello again, everyone! With the busy day of news coverage as a result of President Monson's death just short of 18 hours ago, I haven't really had time to collect or process my thoughts about the personal impact this man had on my life. When I was born in December 1986, President Monson had been in the First Presidency for just over a year. So there was never a time in my life where I could not remember him in that capacity. In the course of his valiant service as a counselor to Presidents Benson, Hunter, and Hinckley, I grew to appreciate his candor, his tell-it-like-it-is approach, and his willingness to ever encourage and lift those around him, wherever his ministry took him. There are so many memories I could share of times when his counsel and service personally impacted me at pivotal moments. I would just like to address a few that mean the most.

First, I remember the shock we all felt when President Hinckley's death was announced. It was not unexpected, but we all knew that he had truly worn out his life in the service of Church members. I remember that on the Monday following the funeral services for President Monson, I was stuck at the office of my physical therapist. As he worked on my treatment, I was not making it easy for him to do so, since I wanted to hear every word I could of the press conference in which President Monson was introduced as Church President. I wound up having to watch the whole thing again after my appointment, which didn't bother me.

I was in attendance with my dad at our Stake Center a few months later for the memorable first conference over which President Monson presided, and I still remember to this day how delighted we all were to see this giant of a man with a huge heart tell his story, wiggle his ears in front of the entire priesthood body, and then impishly follow that up with his trademark humorous statement, "My wife told me not to say that."

In addition to the many policies and major announcements of his prophetic administration, I remember that in one General Conference shortly after he became the prophet, it felt like he was speaking directly to me as he mentioned that, for those who were unable to serve a full-time mission due to health constraints, the service such individuals render is just as acceptable to the Lord as it would be if they had been able to serve full time. This was a direct answer to the prayers I had offered prior to that General Conference to ask the Lord if my part-time efforts had been acceptable to him.

Then came another General Conference, where he and a couple of other leaders mentioned in the priesthood session that young men should earnestly be looking for an eternal companion following their missionary labors. That was a talking point in my family for a while. And just less than three full years after he took the mantle of Church leadership, I was able to follow that counsel and get married.

But I want to backtrack a little. Through many institute classes which I had over the years I attended, my favorite course of study was Teachings of the Living Prophets, as it offered me and my classmates the chance to study the latest talks from our apostles in more depth. At one point, one of those courses originated from a classroom on the BYU-Provo campus. In our study on President Monson in that class, we were asked to memorize our choice of one quote and one poem President Monson had shared in his talks previously. I can still remember to this day the ones I selected.

First, the quote: "Time marches on. Duty keeps cadence with that march. Duty does not dim or diminish. Catastrophic conflicts come and go, but the war waged for the souls of men continues without abatement."

And the poem was The Bridge Builder

An old man, going a lone highway,
Came at the evening, cold and gray,
To a cavern, vast, and deep, and wide
Through which was flowing a sullen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim:
The sullen stream held no fear for him,
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

"Old man," said a fellow pilgrim near,
"You are wasting your strength with building here:
"Your journey will end with the ending day,
"You never again may cross this way.
"You have crossed the chasm deep and wide,
"Why build you a bridge at the eventide?"

The builder lifted his old gray head,
"Good friend, in the path I have come," he said,
"There followeth after me today
"A youth whose feet must cross this way.
"He too must cross in the twilight dim:
"Good friend, I am building a bridge for him."

I feel that both the quote and the poem are excellent summaries of the principles to which President Monson devoted himself, and by which he governed his life. Wherever duty took him, he was willing to go. And he constantly reminded us, in both word and continued deed to the very end of his life, that we should make every effort to reach out and rescue those we see that are troubled or suffering. Such was the legacy of our dear prophet. And such was his impact on me, even though I never met him personally. I share these thoughts in grateful memory of the life and teachings of our beloved prophet, and I do so in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.