Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares Meet with Media

Hello again, everyone! This will be the first of at least three or four posts which I will be publishing here over the next several hours to pass along the latest Church news and temple updates, since there have been a number of significant developments in that regard. In this, the first of those posts, I wanted to pass along some very interesting information I found out about late last night but have not been able to blog about before now.

As most (if not all) of you are aware, the Church has customarily held a press conference to allow the media to introduce newly called First Presidency members or members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and to allow media representatives the opportunity to ask them questions on all subjects that are of interest to everyone around the world.

Prior to the January 2018 press conference for President Nelson and his counselors, the last such event was held in October 2015 to introduce newly-called Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund. And, as was recently observed in another post on this blog and the comments responding to it, Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares did not have that chance, at least initially.

But late yesterday, reports indicated that the newest apostles had met for two hours with local and national media representatives to respond to questions and to talk about their first three months in the apostleship. Two reports of those interviews were carried in the Church News and on Mormon Newsroom (with the latter also carrying a brief video summary of those interviews).

Not surprisingly, the interviews covered topics such as how they were adjusting to their new callings, the paramount support of their wives and families, their extensive international experience that, in many ways, helps them relate very well to the needs of members worldwide, and the kindness of both members of the Church and their fellow apostles, including and especially President Nelson.

But my two biggest takeaways from these reports had a profound influence on me. I am sure I knew this already, but apparently, when new apostles come into the Quorum of the Twelve, one of their senior apostolic colleagues mentor them to help them transition well to the new responsibilities and opportunities. Elder Christofferson is mentoring Elder Gong, while Elder Andersen serves as a mentor to Elder Soares.

Above and beyond that, however, is the significant fact that, for the first time that I can recall, the new apostles shared with the media a complete list of their current assignments. As I have previously noted, it used to be standard procedure in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the Church Almanac to share details of the specific assignments held by each of the apostles, but by the time I started purchasing the Church Almanac in 2005 or so, those details were no longer included.

Sometimes, through various sources, information has been provided as to some of the assignments held by the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are detailed, but we have not had a full list of individual assignments for the apostles in at least the last decade or so. This may go back to what I have previously said about President Nelson's efforts to promote more transparency in terms of Church matters.

But I digress. Elder Gong has the following assignments: He chairs the Church Scripture Committee, and is a member of both the Leadership and Training Committee and also the Outreach Committee. He has additionally been assigned as a member of the Priesthood and Family Council, and has been given supervisory responsibility for the Church's Asia & Asia North Areas.

Before detailing Elder Soares' assignments, I wanted to note that, while it may seem somewhat irregular to some that such a junior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is chairing a committee, Elder Gong's wide experience as both an educator and one who has lived and worked in many nations uniquely qualifies him to oversee efforts to get the scriptures translated into additional languages. And the fact that he both has Asian ancestry and has lived and worked in various Asian countries makes him uniquely suited for those area assignments he has been given.

Getting back to Elder Soares, he has been assigned to serve on the Missionary Executive Council (as I noted yesterday) and also on the Human Resource Councils, and he has been given an assignment to oversee the Central America and Africa West Areas of the Church. Prior to his service in the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Soares was president of the Africa Southeast Area, so he has no small familiarity with how the Church is progressing on the African continent.

I had reported earlier this week that Elders Andersen and Soares recently traveled through the Africa West Area together, which makes sense, since Elder Andersen is serving as mentor to the junior apostle, and since Elder Soares is supervising the Africa West Area.

I apologize. This post ran a lot longer than I had anticipated it would. 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.

Updated Information Provided on the Seminar for New Mission Leadership

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post now to share some big news that has come out of the coverage of the Seminar for New Mission Leadership. The Church continues the tradition of having all members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles participate in that seminar in some way. As noted in previous reports (specifically from my coverage of last year's seminar), some apostles have been given the opportunity to speak with their wives to those new mission leaders.

So the first thing I wanted to mention is that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife spoke together to these new leaders. Their address focused on the most important character mentioned in the pages of the Book of Mormon. Elder Holland mentioned that when he asked people who they thought that character was, he got a lot of the standard answers you would expect: several of the prophets whose words had a great impact.

But he noted that none of those answers were correct. The most important figure mentioned in the Book of Mormon is our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is mentioned both in the subtitle of the Book of Mormon, and is mentioned very frequently within its' pages. Elder and Sister Holland went on to highlight and emphasize how important that book should be to all Latter-day Saints, but particularly those who are involved in the Church's missionary efforts.

That address also provided some interesting information of which I was not aware. Apparently at some point in the recent past, Sister Holland had to deal with an illness which she described as "nearly fatal". She noted that while she was comforted and cared for by Elder Holland to the extent that he could do so, there were times when, due to his ecclesiastical obligations, he could not be with her.

So during those times, she ensured her Book of Mormon was always close by. She said that the doctors doubted she would survive, but that she was able to because of her faith in the principles of the gospel that are taught so well within the Book of Mormon's pages. There were several other significant things Elder and Sister Holland shared during their address, and you can read more on that in this article.

In the meantime, the Church News section on lds.org also continues to carry coverage of the seminar, with subsequent articles being added to this article as they are published. Among the many significant things covered in that main story was the note that Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke on both the opening and closing days of the seminar, and that he was asked to do so because he chairs the Missionary Executive Council.

When I learned that information, I did some research, and I found out that the reason then-Elder Oaks gave addresses to open and close last year's mission president's seminar was because he was the chair of the Missionary Executive Council at that time.

As I noted in mid-January of this year, among the key assignments that Elder Uchtdorf was given following his return to the Quorum of the Twelve was oversight for the Church's two European areas, and that those assignments had previously been held by President Nelson and then-Elder Ballard.

And since Elder Uchtdorf also was asked to take over the assignment to chair the Missionary Executive Council from now-President Oaks, we see that the key assignments he has been given were previously the responsibility of the three most senior members of the Twelve prior to the reorganization of the First Presidency. If that is not a clear indicator of the trust the senior apostles have in Elder Uchtdorf, I don't know what would clarify that point further.

But there was something even more interesting in the "home article" for coverage of the seminar. The article cited above also notes the membership of the Missionary Executive Council, which is as follows: Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Andersen, and Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; General Authority Seventy and Executive Director of the Missionary Department Elder Brent H. Nielson, Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric; Sister Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President; and Sister Cristina B. Franco, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency.

I find this information significant for one simple reason. As some of you may know, in the 1990s and early 2000s, when the Deseret News published the Church Almanac every year, it had been somewhat common for the biographies of the Quorum of the Twelve to include details of their memberships in the councils and committees of the Church. By 2005 (at which point I made sure to buy the newest edition of that almanac every year), that information was not included.

And until now, except for articles published by the Church that identified certain assignments of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, we have not seen any complete lists of all Church leaders who serve on those councils and committees. So the fact that we now have that complete list of the members of the Missionary Executive Council is very noteworthy.

Although the page to which I shared a link above will carry full coverage of the other addresses that were given during the Seminar for New Mission Leadership, I will also do my level best to bring you coverage of individual articles as they are published.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time and also for wading through the content in this post, which was longer than I originally intended it to be. 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.

Temple Updates Provided

Hello again, everyone! The LDS Church Temples Facebook site has provided some exciting updates within the last 12 hours or so. Picture updates have been posted for the Rome Italy, Concepcion Chile, Baton Rouge Louisiana, and Washington DC Temples, and a video has been posted showing progress on the Mesa Arizona Temple. Major progress has also been reported for the Durban South Africa Temple.

But perhaps the most significant development is the report that the angel Moroni statute has been officially installed atop the Fortaleza Brazil Temple. As we have previously seen occur for other temples worldwide, once that statue is officially installed, a dedication is announced not long after that.

With that said, I would anticipate that the Church would defer making an official announcement in that regard until after the annual July recess for the General Authorities. And it is very likely that the dedication itself may take place in the late spring or early summer months of 2019. But this development is very exciting indeed. I continue to monitor all temple developments and will bring word of those to you ASAP after I learn of them.

In the meantime, it may also interest some of you who have expressed concerns about the LDS Church Temples website being unavailable still to know that a projected window of late summer 2018 has been offered regarding how much longer that site restoration will take place. I am sure that any additional prayers we can offer in behalf of those working to solve those issues would continue to be appreciated.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are alo, 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.