Current Apostolic Statistics: Part One—Updated Data for President Oaks, President Nelson, and Longest-Serving Apostolic Groups

Hello again, everyone! While I continue to welcome comments on any previous posts (particularly any feedback you have on the list of potential locations for which I have felt a temple could be announced in October), per the new schedule I am observing, it is time once again to bring you all updated information on the latest apostolic statistics. This data will again be published in two posts. Again, all data is current as of today (Sunday June 16, 2019). As always, it is my sincere hope that most of you will find this information interesting and enlightening. With that said, I am fully aware that some of you may not be interested in this update. Consequently, I will not in any way be offended or bothered if any of you skip over this post and the next one.

This first post, as has been the case for previous updates, will address President Dallin H. Oaks’ tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then shift to explore where Church President Russell M. Nelson currently stands in terms of his age and tenure length among his prophetic predecessors. That will be followed by some observations about the tenure lengths of our current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and all currently-living ordained apostles as a group. The more specific data about upcoming apostolic birthdays, the long-form and decimal ages of our 15 current apostles, and details about current and future apostolic nonagenarians will then follow in a second post, which will be published a few minutes after this one is.

My last such update was posted on Sunday April 28. In keeping with my new 7-week schedule for these updates, I plan to share the next one here on Sunday August 4. There is a lot to get to, so let’s jump right in. President Oaks has now served as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for a period of 1 year, 5 months, and 2 days. As I noted previously, his next two milestones will be observed on July 7 and 9 of this year. On July 7, the length of his service as Quorum President will be equal to that of Spencer W. Kimball. Then, two days later, his tenure will be equal to the second (and shortest) non-consecutive tenure of Brigham Yong Jr., by which time, President Oaks will then be the 22^nd longest-serving Quorum President. His next three milestones will be observed over the 3-month period of November and December 2019 and January 2020. I will detail each of those milestones closer to the time.

Turning now to President Nelson, who was ordained and set apart as Church President on the same day he set apart President Oaks as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, his prophetic tenure has spanned 1 year, 5 months, and 2 days as well. He is also now 94 years, 9 months, and 7 days old. He will observe his only 2019 tenure-length and age-length milestones two days apart on July 3 and 5 respectively with subsequent milestones more spread out in the years following that. The first milestone will see his tenure length match that of Harold B. Lee, and he (President Nelson) will thus become the 15^th longest-serving Church President. And the second will mark the day when the length of President Nelson’s lifespan will match that of President Ezra Taft Benson, with President Nelson thus becoming the 4^th oldest Church President.

In the meantime, as also noted previously, I have been keeping lists of the longest-continuously serving First Presidencies, Quorums of the Twelve Apostles, and apostolic groups as a whole. Those lists include 13 of each of those groups that have served together for the longest continuous periods of time. The current First Presidency will only be joining the list of other First Presidencies on Saturday April 20, 2024, so I will be outlining their future milestones on that list closer to the time. As for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the current members will mark 3 years together on March 31, 2021, at which point they will join the list of the longest-serving Quorums of the Twelve Apostles in Church history. I will likewise be providing updates on those future milestones closer to that time.  

Interestingly enough, less than two months prior to that, the 15 apostles will make the list of the longest-serving such group (the exact date is February 8, 2021). With that said, I want to conclude this portion of the update. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are in accordance with the established guidelines. 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 (which will be the second half of this update that published here within the next few minutes), I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

Elder David A. Bednar Celebrates His 67th Birthday Today

Hello again, everyone! Given that today is June 15, 2019, I wanted to take an opportunity to pay tribute to Elder David A. Bednar, who is marking his 67^th birthday today. So let's get in to some details about his life experiences. David Allan Bednar was born on June 15, 1952 in Oakland California to Anthony George and Lavina Whitney Bednar. His mother came from a long line of Latter-day Saint ancestors, but his father was not a member of the Church.

Despite that fact, Anthony Bednar fully supported the rest of his family participating actively in the Church, and he would often step in and participate in meetings and Church activities, including various service projects, whereby he was in essence functioning in the same supportive way as other Church members did, but as someone who was not actually a baptized member thereof.  Young David would often ask Anthony when he would be baptized, to which his father replied that he would do so when he felt it was right.

Elder Bednar served a mission in southern Germany, during which time, then-Elder Boyd K. Packer visited his mission, and was advised that to get through the necessary border security, he would need money. The future President Packer would later recount in General Conference that a young missionary provided him with the money he needed, and later revealed that missionary was Elder Bednar.

Elder Bednar attended BYU-Provo, where he earned a bachelor's degree in communication and a master's in organizational communication. He went on to earn a doctoral degree in organizational behavior from the prestigious Purdue University.

He met Susan Kae Robinson at an activity for young adults. He recounts that they were playing flag football, and that he threw a pass, which she caught. Susan would later note that, incidentally, that was the only time she could remember catching a pass. That experience left a positive impression on both of them, and the two started dating not long afterward. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 20, 1975, and would go on to raise 3 sons together.

One major highlight of Elder Bednar's life came long after his marriage. Anthony called his son one day and asked, "Would you be free on (and he named a date in the near future)? I would like you to come and baptize me." He was able to baptize and confirm his father, and also ordained him to the priesthood.

He spent his vocational career as an educator at several secondary schools. For a four-year period (1980-1984), he was an assistant professor of management at what was then the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas. He spent the next two years as an assistant professor at Texas Tech University, after which he returned to Arkansas, where he served first as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, then the Director of the Management Decision-Making Lab.

During this time, he was recognized with numerous awards as being an outstanding educator. He also had a few ecclesiastical responsibilities within the Church at around the same time. He spent several months as a bishop, then went on to serve first as the president of what was then the Fort Smith Arkansas Stake, then as the first president of the newly-established Rogers Arkansas Stake. During the final months of his service as a stake president, he was called to serve as a regional representative.

In 1997, he was among the first men called to be an area seventy. That same year, he was also called by the Church Board of Education serve as president of Ricks College, during which time he led the transition of that college to BYU-Idaho. In October 2004, due to the apostolic vacancies resulting from the July deaths of Elders Neal A. Maxwell and David B. Haight (which occurred 10 days apart), Church President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that the vacancies would be filled by Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf and David A. Bednar.

Interestingly enough, Elder Bednar joined only two other current apostles (now-Presidents Nelson and Oaks) who were called to the apostleship without having previously served as a general authority. At the time of his call to the apostleship, Elder Bednar, who was 52 at that time, was the youngest apostle to have been called since then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks, who was called to the apostleship in 1984 at the age of 51.

Although he immediately commenced his service in the apostleship, he also continued to serve as president of BYU-Idaho for several weeks prior to the appointment of an interim president. Elder Bednar's tenure as an educator has molded how he speaks and ministers as an apostle. One of his hallmarks is to invite the Holy Ghost to bless him and us as we listen to his remarks. In view of his almost-15-year tenure in the apostleship, he has given 30 General Conference addresses, which are always well crafted and insightful, and are well worthy of review by all of us.

He is currently the fourth most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which, including the current members of the First Presidency, makes him the seventh in apostolic seniority), and is still among the younger apostles, being the fifth-youngest both among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and all 15 ordained apostles as well. While I have never had the honor to meet him personally, from the moment his apostolic call was first announced and onward since then, I have had a testimony that his apostolic call has been inspired and directed by the Lord, which I reiterate to you all today.

Given his relatively younger age in comparison to both the six apostles senior to him, and four of the eight apostles who are junior to him, I fully believe that, at some point in the future, Elder Bednar may serve as Church President. That, of course, will be up to the Lord’s will and the health and longevity of Presidents Nelson, Oaks, Eyring, and Ballard, and Elders Holland and Uchtdorf. And I want to make it very clear that such a prospect is merely my own personal opinion, and not anything I can attribute to anyone else. As the Lord himself reminds us, he days of each apostle are known, and their years shall not be numbered less.

I hope this post has served as a fitting tribute to this remarkable servant of the Lord. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

Several More Church News Items Reported

Hello again, everyone! This will be the first post I publish to kick off a big weekend of new content for this blog. In this post, I will be covering several additional Church news stories which have been reported. That will be followed in around 1.5 hours with the publication of a post I have prepared in tribute to Elder David A. Bednar, who will be observing his 67th birthday tomorrow. Then this weekend,I will provide coverage of the rededication for the Oakland California Temple (over which President Dallin H. Oaks will preside, in company with his wife, Kristen M. Oaks, and Elder David A. Bednar and his wife, Susan, along with at least one representative from the Temple Department.

But I will also have the latest apostolic statistics published on this blog on Sunday as well.  At some point, I hope to provide temple updates, either through another new post, or through the comments on existing posts. With that said, let's dive right in to the Church news updates. We start with the Church News website, where the latest edition of "This Week on Social" features posts on a wide variety of topics from the following leaders:

*From the First Presidency: President Russell M. Nelson and his First Counselor, President Dallin H. Oaks.
*From the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: Acting President M. Russell Ballard, and Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf, David A. Bednar, Dale G. Renlund, and Gerrit W. Gong
*From the general officers of the Church: Sister Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency; Sisters Joy D. Jones, Primary General President, and her First Counselor Lisa L. Harkness; and Sister Becky Craven, Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency..

The Church News also reported several updates on the ministry of our apostles: President Nelson visited Florida and shared 7 truths that can change lives; President Oaks spoke at BYU-Hawaii, and Elder Holland spoke to CES instructors, In addition, several apostles have been spread across the world recently, with Elder Holland in Mexico; Elder Cook in Kuwait, where he thanked the govermnent for officially recognizing the Church as approved for religious activy; Elder Christofferson in West Africa;  and Elder Gong who both spoke at a Japanese Interfaith Forum recently and personal apostolic contribution to the ongoing  "Special Witnesses of Christ" video series.

Meanwhile, in other news, highlights include articles on how a Latter-day Saint beatboxer has received the national spotlight; how the impact of the Fortaleza Brazil Temple is already being felt; the new southernmost stake of the Church being established in Tierra del Fuego Argentina (for which further coverage can be found on the Church Growth Blog) and the lesson on enduring which the Church News editor learned while covering President Nelson's Pacific Ministry Tour; and an article about the Church's first African-American general authority, Elder Peter M. Johnson.

Additional news includes coverage on the June 8 groundbreaking for the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple; remarks made at the aforementioned Interfaith Forum by Sister Sharon Eubank; coverage of remarks made by emeritus General Authority Elder Kent F. Richards at a devotional held at LDS Business College;. You can find additional Church news coverage which I have not mentioned herein on the Church News website, as well as the News & Events page on the Church's webiste and the official Newsroom.

In the meantime, I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple developments, and will do my level best to keep passing along word of those to you all as I become aware of such things. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed nof 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.