Renovation Process Formally Begins For the Raleigh North Carolina Temple

Hello again, everyone! While I don't want to unduly detract from what occurred today with the reorganization of the First Presidency, at the same time, I wanted to note that formal efforts have reportedly begun for the Raleigh North Carolina Temple, where site clearing is underway, construction trailers are on-site, and a construction barrier has been put up before the process of  disassembling it occurs. Other than that, there have been no other developments in temple progress to report, so 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.

First New Stake Creation Reported for 2018

Hello again, everyone! This will be just a quick post to let you know that the Church has reported the creation of the first new stake in 2018, the Queen Creek Arizona Ocotillo Stake (unless I'm mistaken, the name is likely pronounced o-co-tee-o; correct me if I am wrong; I'm assuming it's Spanish). With as careful as I try to be not to step on the expert analysis of others on such subjects, I will not detail the affected units. You can catch analysis in that regard on the LDS Church Growth Blog in the coming days from Church growth expert Matthew Martinich. 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.

More Coverage & Thoughts on Today's Events (Including a Historical Perspective)

Hello again, everyone! Continuing my coverage of today's events, if I have not already shared this (the last 8 hours have been somewhat of a blur, so I'm honestly not sure), the Church News has shared this article which has provided a summary of the questions that were asked and answered during the press conference held earlier today.

I also wanted to put into perspective some data about President Nelson. During the process of researching content I posted today, I was reminded that while President Nelson ranks as the least tenured Church president thus far (it will be interesting to see how long he serves given his announced intention to live for at least the next several years), he is also the 16th in birth chronology (since President Monson was born roughly three years after he was), and his age makes him the second oldest man in Church history to ascend to the presidency (the oldest ever Church President at the time of his ordination was Joseph Fielding Smith, who took the mantle of Church President when he was 93 years, 6 months, and 4 days old (which occurred on January 23, 1970), meaning that President Smith was at that time just 2 months and 1 day older than President Nelson was when he was ordained and set apart as the 17th Church President on Sunday.

This last Sunday, President Nelson's ordination made him the 5th oldest Church President of the 17. It will be interesting to see what occurs in terms of how long he does live. All going well, I could see him at least passing President Hinckley as the oldest president in Church history, and if the Lord wills, I could also see him becoming the first ever centenarian prophet. What will be interesting to see is if he will outlive his current First Counselor, or whether President Oaks will succeed him. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that President Oaks would prefer the former over the latter, but time will tell what occurs in that regard.

Whatever the case might be, I will do my level best to bring the latest to you as it 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.