A Look at My Projected Table of Contents for the May 2018 Ensign

Hello again, everyone! Having reported yesterday on my predictions for General Conference, in accordance with my usual tradition, I wanted to note that I have put together a projection for what the table of contents might potentially look like.

There were a couple of challenges around which I had to navigate in order to prepare this. First, with the Women's Session not occurring one week before the remainder of General Conference, there will be some extra space in the magazine that would have otherwise been devoted to those addresses. The second is that the Solemn Assembly and Sustaining of Church Officers were done separately, so I had to figure out how to split that.

Another problem in putting this together was that the entire First Presidency spoke one after the other in the Sunday Morning Session in addition to their usual Priesthood Session addresses. Connected to that, of course, was the short introductory remarks President Nelson provided to make the major announcements in the Priesthood and Sunday Afternoon Sessions.

And with 5 of the 12 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the final session of General Conference, there was that to consider as well. I also had to factor in how the lengths of the non-native English speakers might compare to those of their English-speaking counterparts.

Initially, I also considered putting the Statistical Report in its' traditional place within the Saturday Afternoon Session, but based on the fact that it wasn't read outloud during that time, it seemed safe to surmise that that report will likely appear at the back of the magazine with all other Church news.

With the many General Conference announcements and leadership changes, it also seemed safe to assume that that traditional Church news section in the back of the magazine will likely be longer than it has traditionally been. I cannot say for sure this will happen, but it would not surprise me in any way at all if this General Conference En sign has more than the 144 pages that has been traditional for the May edition each year.

With all of that in mind, and noting that it will likely turn out that my version of this might not be anywhere near what the actual table of contents for this Ensign will turn out to be, the version below represents my best-researched efforts to put it together. Hope you enjoy reading these thoughts on the subject.

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.

Session	Page	Title	Speaker
	2	Conference Summary for the 188th Annual General Conference
	4	Highlights from the 188th Annual General Conference
SAM	6	Solemn Assembly	President Henry B. Eyring
	9	Precious Gifts from God	President M. Russell Ballard
	13	Am I a Child of God?	Elder Brian K. Taylor
	16	Even As Christ Forgives You, So Also Do Ye	Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk
	19	The Heart of a Prophet	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
	23	Until Seventy Times Seven	Elder Lynn G. Robbins
	26	The Prophet of God	Elder Neil L. Andersen
SAA	30	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Dallin H. Oaks
	32	Church Auditing Department Report, 2017	Robert W. Cantwell
	33	Meek and Lowly of Heart	Elder David A. Bednar
	37	One More Day	Elder Taylor G. Godoy
	39	Young Women in the Work	Bonnie L. Oscarson
	42	Saving Ordinances Will Bring Us Marvelous Light	Elder Taniela B. Wakolo
	45	Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility	Devin G. Durrant
	48	Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing	Elder Dale G. Renlund
SPH	52	What Every Aaronic Priesthood Holder Needs to Understand	Douglas D. Holmes
	55	Introductory Remarks	President Russell M. Nelson
	56	The Elders’ Quorum	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	59	Behold! A Royal Army	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	62	Inspired Ministering	President Henry B. Eyring
	65	The Powers of the Priesthood	President Dallin H. Oaks
	68	Ministering with the Power and Authority of God	President Russell M. Nelson
SUM	76	Take the Holy Spirit As Your Guide	Elder Larry Y. Wilson
	79	With One Accord	Reyna I. Aburto
	82	Pure Love: the Sign of Every True Disciple	Elder Massimo De Feo
	85	He That Shall Endure unto the End, the Same Shall Be Saved	Elder Claudio D. Zivic
	88	His Spirit to Be with You	President Henry B. Eyring
	92	Small and Simple Things	President Dallin H. Oaks
	96	Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives	President Russell M. Nelson
SUA	101	Christ the Lord is Risen Today	Elder Gerrit W. Gong
	103	Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit	Elder Ulisses Soares
	105	Ministering	President Russell M. Nelson
	106	Be With and Strengthen Them	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	110	Ministering as the Savior Does	Jean B. Bingham
	113	Behold the Man!	Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	117	It Is All about People	Bishop Gerald Causse
	120	Prepare to Meet God	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	124	Let Us All Press On	President Russell M. Nelson
	72	General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
	126	They Spoke to Us: Making Conference Part of Our Lives
	128	Conference Story Index
	129	News of the Church (including new leader biographies, an overview of the announced policy and practice changes, new temples, and any other general Church news)
	144	Last Page of Conference Ensign

Confirmation Provided for the Temporary Closure of the Edmonton Alberta Temple

Hello again, everyone! Some of you might recall that an anonymous comment on this blog just before General Conference suggested that the Edmonton Alberta Temple would be closing for several months later this year. At the time, because it had not been officially or even unofficially confirmed, many, /myself included, commented to note that until such confirmation was provided, the report could not be substantiated.

At some point today, a few of the sources I have available did note the confirmation of the closure details that were previously shared here. The temple closure is set to occur from June 23-November 6, 2018, for renovation and repairs that will be focused mainly on the baptistry. It would appear that news of this closure was sent to the Edmonton Saints via a First Presidency letter on February 8 of this year, and that patrons will be accommodated at other operating temples, including the one in Calgary.

The material problem I (and others) expressed when this closure was mentioned in an earlier comment on this blog was that it had not been officially verified through any sources in the public domain. But clearly, members in the area that would be affected would need more of an advanced notice than the rest of us.

So that information has now been confirmed. Until that confirmation occurred, those of us unconnected to this temple had only the word of the individual who commented on this blog on that subject, which is why it was difficult for myself (and likely many of you as well) to believe until it was confirmed by sources that are in the public domain.

I should also note that the schedule for this temple on the official Church website has not yet been updated to reflect this closure, but that will likely occur in the coming days. For my part, I continue to monitor all temple-related developments and will do my best to bring you word of them as I receive it.

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.

Report on April 2018 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! It took me a while to do so, but yesterday, I finally had a chance to run some numbers and figure out how I did with my predictions for the April 2018 General Conference. Because of all of the unexpected things that occurred during that conference, even though I allowed myself a margin of error, as I indicated I would do, my calculations showed 54% accuracy this go-round.

That is only slightly less than the 60-80% range within which those usually fall, which, given all the unexpected things that occurred (such as President Nelson giving 5 total addresses during the last 3 sessions of the conference, the calling of the new apostles, 5 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the last session, the entire First Presidency speaking during the Sunday Morning Session, etc.) is not too bad.

It will be interesting, to be sure, to see what unfolds with the next few conferences. I have begun the preliminary work of putting my predictions together for the October 2018 General Conference, which I may post within the next 3 months or so. In the meantime, I have a bunch of other projects underway, some of which will be posted here at some point.

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.