How Dieter F. Uchtdorf was introduced at the Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

Hello again, everyone! I am posting with the answer to the anomaly I noted in how different Church resources referred to Dieter F. Uchtdorf in preparation for tonight's Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults, which is now in progress. In the introduction of the Uchtdorfs, the former Second Counselor to President Monson was introduced by the honorific title of "Elder", and it was mentioned that he was there as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

And while it might have been easy for him (had he been given leave to do so) to mention how and if the First Presidency has been reorganized, he neatly sidestepped any mention of that by saying that he brought with him the love and greetings of all the other members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He then offered another beautiful tribute to our beloved prophet, and went on to testify and reemphasize to all in attendance that the Lord controls who comes to the Church presidency and when that occurs. And that was just about all he said, which, in my opinion, was very nicely done. Clearly the Church has been very careful about revealing any specifics until Tuesday, and that is as it should be.

So that settles the question for now. While I anticipate blogging again on Tuesday with the specific report of President Nelson's address and my reaction to the press conference that will follow, if anything else comes up in terms of Church and temple news between now and then, I will be sure to pass that along as well.

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.

A Note on the Readership of This Blog

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post today to send a special message of thanks to my international readers. I was surprised (and gratified) to discover yesterday that my thoughts published on this blog have, in addition to reaching so many in the United States, have included page views from Spain, Portugal, Venezuela, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Canada. As I have previously noted, my original intention in starting this blog was to keep family & friends informed about what was happening in the lives of my wife and myself (we just celebrated 7 years of marriage).

But then, I began to slowly shift the focus to the day-to-day news and developments relating to the LDS Church in general, and on the subject of temples particularly. And it has been that shift whereby I have found whatever degree of success I have achieved. Ongoing Church history has long been a passion of mine, and it means a lot to me to know that I can pass such things on to all of you who are kind enough to read (and respond to) those thoughts as they come to me.

I consider it a great obligation to keep current on such things, and am blessed beyond measure to have found that my thoughts, which are just as imperfect as I myself am, matter to so many of you. Even if several posts are put up with no comments, I know they are being widely read because each post has been showing double-digit views just hours after I put them up. And that is something I never could have imagined occurring.

Thank you all for bearing with the way my posts get sidetracked so easily, and for wading through the more massive posts, which is not a task for the faint of heart. Thank you for proving to me that what I post here has value, and is of interest to so many of you. And thanks especially to those who have posted questions or comments to clarify or correct things I have said here. As we continue this journey together, I hope the content of this blog and the discussions we have here continue to prove illuminating and inspiring.

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.

Another Update Provided on Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple Renovation Process

Hello again, everyone! While I have no desire to overshadow the news about the address from President Nelson and the press conference on Tuesday, I did want to pass along an update of which I have become aware relating to the progress on the renovation of the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple. That update is that structural framing is being put up for the new tower. It is good to see these day-to-day milestones, and if President Nelson does only half as much for temples as President Monson has (we went from having 124 temples in operation at the beginning of 2008 to 182 in various constructional phases as of April 2017), it will be awesome to see the progress that occurs. 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.