My Projection for What the November 2018 Ensign Table of Contents Might Look Like

Hello again, everyone! Hopefully, within the next week or less, the PDF version of the November 2018 Ensign will be available. In preparation for that occurrence, I have put together a projection for what the table of contents for that Ensign might look like. That projection follows below. So as not to disturb its' flow, I will end here as I always do. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time.

Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

Possible Table of Contents for the November 2018 Ensign

Session	Page	Title	Speaker
	2	Conference Summary for the 188th Annual General Conference
	4	Highlights from the 188th Annual General Conference
SAM	8	Opening Remarks	President Russell M. Nelson
	11	Deep and Lasting Conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	14	Lift Up Your Head and Rejoice	M. Joseph Brough
	16	Laying the Foundation of a Great Work	Elder Steven R. Bangerter
	18	Be Not Troubled	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	22	Gather Together in One All Things in Christ	Elder David A. Bednar
	26	Truth and the Plan	President Dallin H. Oaks
SAA	30	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Henry B. Eyring
	32	Firm and Steadfast in the Faith of Christ	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	36	Come, Listen to a Prophet’s Voice	Bishop Dean M. Davies
	39	One in Christ	Elder Ulisses Soares
	42	Our Campfire of Faith	Elder Gerrit W. Gong
	45	All Must Take upon Them the Name Given of the Father	Elder Paul B. Pieper
	48	Believe, Love, Do	Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
GW	52	For Him	Joy D. Jones
	54	Divine Discontent	Michelle D. Craig
	56	The Joy of Unselfish Service	Cristina B. Franco
	58	Women and Gospel Learning in the Home	President Henry B. Eyring
	62	Parents and Children	President Dallin H. Oaks
	66	Sisters’ Participation in the Gathering of Israel	President Russell M. Nelson
SUM	70	The Vision of the Redemption of the Dead	President M. Russell Ballard
	78	Becoming a Shepherd	Bonnie H. Cordon
	82	The Ministry of Reconciliation	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	86	The Role of the Book of Mormon in Conversion	Elder Shayne M. Bowen
	88	Wounded	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	92	The Correct Name of the Church	President Russell M. Nelson
SUA	96	Try, Try Try	President Henry B. Eyring
	100	The Father	Brian K. Ashton
	103	Taking upon Ourselves the Name of Christ	Elder Robert C. Gay
	106	Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?	Elder Matthew L. Carpenter
	108	Choose You This Day	Elder Dale G. Renlund
	112	Now is the Time	Elder Jack N. Gerard
	114	Shepherding Souls	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
	118	Becoming Exemplary Latter-day Saints	President Russell M. Nelson
	72	General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
	120	Conference Story Index
	122	News of the Church
	132	Last Page of Conference Ensign

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! Within the last 50 hours or so, the Church News has shared several news articles covering a few different topics. This post will serve the purpose of passing along those articles, along with any analysis of those developments as needed. We will move as quickly as possible through these articles, so let's jump right into that discussion.

First of all, the BYU-Provo Museum of Art (hereafter referred to as MOA) has a new exhibit on display which showcases some unique illustrations done by a Jesuit Priest. Next, as many of you may recall, during the recent Women's Session of General Conference, Church President Russell M. Nelson issued four invitations to women of the Church. The first of those was to take part in a 10-day fast from social media, and he provided a prophetic promise that doing so would prove to be a blessing. The Church News is requesting feedback from those who responded to that invitation.

Also published was another set of death notices for Church members who had served in various prominent leadership positions around the world. This week's edition notes the passing of 4 former mission presidents (1 of whom had also served as an MTC presidency member and a regional representative, and 1 other of whom had also served a regional representative and a member of a temple presidency), 2 former mission president’s wives (1 of whom also served as a temple matron), 1 member of the Church curriculum committee, and 1 former Primary General Board member.

As some of you may recall, among the changes in area leadership which occurred on August 1, an area presidency was reestablished for Utah, and Elder Randy D. Funk now serves as Second Counselor in that presidency. He spoke at a recent devotional for LDS Business College students, at which he shared 4 ways in which college students (and, by extension, everyone else) can lighten their burdens in the course of day-to-day living.

The Church News has also provided picture quotes from the October 2018 General Conference, which are designed to be perfect for phones and tablets. I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple developments on an ongoing basis, and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of them. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time.

Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong Speaks at BYU-Provo Devotional; Highlights Importance of Life-Long Learning

Hello again, everyone! As some of you might recall, roughly one month after his call to the apostleship, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife Susan were asked to substitute for Church President Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy, when the latter were unable to speak at the BYU Women's Conference in May of this year due to a scheduling conflict. Elder Gong, who had been in the administration of BYU prior to his call as a general authority in April 2010, returned to that campus earlier today to speak at the weekly devotional.

He addressed the importance of lifelong learning, taking a unique approach in covering that topic by asking his audience to imagine themselves in the future, and how they would feel at that time about their BYU experience in which they are currently engaged. It is a timely message in a way. It has often been said that "hindsight is 20/20", meaning that looking at past experiences through the lens of where it has brought us now helps us see clearly what we may have overlooked or failed to realize during that same period of time.

In moments where we cannot see the hand of the Lord directing the major details of our lives, we may find ourselves wondering what the purpose behind such experiences might be. And for a while, perhaps none of that makes sense in the moment. We may feel neglected, forsaken, and abandoned in challenging or trying times where nothing makes sense and when it feels very much like nothing will get better, or that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

But as Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf reminded priesthood bearers in April 2006, we need to develop the capability the Lord has perfected, to see the end from the beginning in any situation in which we find ourselves. When we retain in remembrance the ultimate purpose of our lives: to live so we can one day return to our Father in Heaven, and to do so knowing we have each fought our individual battles well and are "returning with honor", that can always put any mortal experience, whatever it might be, into its' proper perspective.

We are, after all, eternal beings going through a mortal experience, rather than mortal beings going through an eternal experience. The Lord has taught me that repeatedly through various ways and means throughout my life. There have been several experiences in my more than 30 years of life that, in the moment, I would have preferred not to have, but for which, looking back on them now, with the benefit of hindsight, have shaped me into who I am now.

The Church News summary of Elder Gong's address was a timely message for me personally. As I may have referenced previously, in early spring of last year, my health took a nosedive from which I am still attempting to recover. And within that same period of time, if and when things have changed, it has usually just been to a different kind of worse rather than any sort of improvement. The same goes for the health situation of my sweet wife, with the only differences being that in her case, it has dragged on more than twice as long, and that we are still trying to find the root cause for her ongoing health challenges.

So right now, I have had nearly two years of yet another experience that doesn't seem to make much sense right now, but which I can only hope will make sense at some point in the future. If previous examples in my life are any indication, that will be true in this case. So I can, from experience, say that keeping an eternal perspective is hard in the midst of severe and lengthy periods of those kinds of tests, but that there is always a light of the end of the tunnel. Even when we cannot see more than one step ahead in the paths of our lives, sometimes, all we need to do is to keep trudging ahead as best we can. Is it difficult? Absolutely. He didn't say it would be easy: He only said it would be worth it.

And, if we allow Him to do so, not only can He strengthen our backs to bear our burdens, or lighten the loads we bear, but He can and will carry us through such periods of time. One of the hardest things to do in such times when everything feels out of our control is to surrender whatever control we have left completely to His hands. But He alone knows how best to uphold, strengthen, and succor us in such times, so if we cut Him out of giving us the help we need, going through hardship will only be that much more difficult.

I hope all of us can take that message to heart. It is an important one to understand. We may not know the reasons for anything we might experience, but we don't necessarily have to. We just need to understand that He does know, and that He can and will help us through such things, if we allow Him to do so. I leave these thoughts, my testimony of their truth, and my love and blessing with all of you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.