A Tribute to Elder Neil L. Andersen on His 68th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With midnight having passed moments ago here in Utah, it is now August 9, and Elder Neil L. Andersen is celebrating his 68th birthday today. So I wanted to post and share some highlights of his life and ministry in the Church. Let's get right into all of that. Neil Linden Andersen was born on this day in 1951 to Lyle and Kathryn Andersen in Logan, Utah. His family relocated to Pocatello when he was five to run a dairy farm. He served a full-time mission in France, then obtained a bachelor's degree in economics, eventually earning his MBA from Harvard, also in economics. During his time at BYU, he met and married his wife, Kathy Sue Anderson, and together they raised four children.


He spent his professional career working various jobs. At the pinnacle of his career, he was Vice President of the Morton Plant Health System. He has served in the Church as a stake president’s counselor, stake president and mission president, assigned to the France Bordeaux Mission from 1989-1992. Less than a year after his return, he was called to be a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Interestingly, his call as a General Authority occurred in the same conference as that of his future apostolic seatmate, Elder D. Todd Christofferson.

During the time Elder Andersen served as a General Authority Seventy, he filled a wide variety of Church assignments, including executive director of the church's Audiovisual Department, assistant executive director of the Priesthood Department, and in the presidencies of the following areas: Europe West Utah North, Utah South, North America Southwest, North America Northeast, and the Brazil South Area (during which time he served as the area president). In August of 2005, Elder Andersen was called to the Presidency of the Seventy. His call coincided with that of his other future apostolic seatmate, Elder Rasband.

While serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, he had oversight for the Idaho Area (from 2005-2007) and for the North America Southwest Area (from 2007-2009). In 2005, as a result of his call and that of Elder Rasband as members of that Presidency, he was the second most-junior member thereof. By the time his assignment changed, he had become the third-most-senior member, with only Elders Earl C. Tingey and  D. Todd Christofferson senior to him. The latter was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in April 2008, and Elder Tingey was released the following August, in preparation for his being granted emeritus status in the October General Conference. As a result, Elder Andersen thus became the new Senior President of the Seventy.

He would only serve in that capacity for 8 months. In view of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin’s death in December 2008, Elder Andersen was subsequently called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the April 2009 General Conference.  Interestingly enough, three future apostles (Elders Christofferson, Andersen, and Rasband) were seatmates in the Presidency of the Seventy between August 2007 and April 2008, and they would each go on to be called to the apostleship in that same order (in April 2008, April 2009, and October 2015, respectively.

Quick sidenote here which may be of interest to some of you: 8 of our 15 current apostles were serving in the Presidency of the Seventy at the time they received their apostolic calls (President M. Russell Ballard and Elders Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Quentin L. Cook, D. Todd Christofferson, Neil L. Andersen, Ronald A. Rasband, Gerrit W. Gong, and Ulisses Soares). This suggests to me that, whenever future apostolic vacancies exist, the current members of the Presidency of the Seventy at that time may be top candidates to fill them. Of course, the Lord knows who He needs to be called to the apostleship and when, but that is an important note, all the same.

Gettingh back to Elder Andersen, he has given a total of 26 addresses in General Conference. Among those are 2 which were given as a General Authority Seventy, 3 others given as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 21 since his call to the apostleship. I am grateful for Elder Andersen's ministry, and I joyfully and wholeheartedly sustain him and each and every one of his 14 fellow apostles as prophets, seers and revelators. I appreciate every opportunity I have had to learn more about each of these Brethren through their spoken words and worldwide ministry efforts as special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

That does it for now. 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.

Further Blog Tweaks

Hello again, everyone! I have spoken before of some of the difficulties I have encountered optimizing the layout and setup of this blog to achieve the best financial returns from it. Over the last several weeks and months, as time and circumstances have allowed, since I am not an expert on matters of advertising for optimal yield, I have continued to do what research I can on the subject, which has resulted in my making periodic tweaks to the setup of this blog, particularly implementing suggestions I have found online about how to increase such revenue.


I found some information relating to those ongoing efforts earlier today which has led me to tweak the way I use the space I have available for content and for advertising yet again. So I am giving those suggestions a shot in the look and feel of this blog. At the same time, however, I do not want the amount of ad space I am utilizing here to detract from the contnent. My main problem at this time is that I have no training in effect advertising strategies, so experiments and tests that are largely trial-and-error based are the best way I know how to figure out if new strategies are worknig, or if they in any way are failing or detracting from content.

Over the next week or two, as time and circumstances allow me to do so, I will try to analyze how the most recent changes I have attempted here are helping or hurting both my revenue and the look and feel of my blog. Within that time, I am asking that any of you who find anything in the look and feel to detract from otherwise good experiences visiting this blog would please share your honest feedback on the subject.

And admittedly lately, in my experimentation and numerous tests, I have found more errors occurring than success in that respect. I am hoping the latest tweaks I have made will be more successful, but time will tell. I appreciate your patience, consideration, and earnest feedback as this process continues. Hopefully, one of these days,. I will be able to find the most effective methods and keep them in place going forward.

Again, I appreciate your indulgence and patience as I continue this process. In the meantime, I continue to monitor all major Church news and temple updates and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of it. Within the next 8-12 hours or so, I will have another new post published, this one in tribute to Elder Neil L. Andersen, who will be observing his 68th birthday tomorrow.

That does it for now. 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.

CORRECTION: Clarification on Angel Moroni Removal in Hong Kong

Hello again, everyone! As a result of the release of details on the renovation for the Hong Kong China Temple yesterday, I know there was some discussion in the comments of my last post, on the reasoning behind the removal. My expressed belief at that time was that the removal would be temporary. But as a result of that discussion, I determined to do some more digging on my end. And that additional research has led to some clarification on what is actually happening there and why. So let's talk about that.

First, some background: As previous temples have been dedicated or rededicated, a common question from media representatives is why, if the Church claims that Jesus Christ is the center of our faith, would the statue of the angel Moroni appear on top of such temples. And within the last year, we have seen President Nelson implementing measures to correct the Church's course and to ensure that the role of the Savior is being properly emphasized. With that background in mind, we have also seen recent examples in temple construction where the angel Moroni statue has not been included in the design of those temples. Such examples include the Paris France, Kinshasa DR Congo, Port-au--Prince Haiti, Yigo Guam, Praia Cabo Verde, San Juan Puerto Rico, and Lima Peru Los Oivos Temples.


The factors I have laid out here provide some context, I hope, into why the Church is moving away from having the angel Moroni statue on some temples. And in addition to the other reasons I outlined in the comments section of my last post, I hope my explanation here has provided further illumination, clarification, and correction on this matter. The angel Moroni statues serve a definitive purpose for the temples on which they still exist, and the fact that such a statue will be used on both the Quito Ecuador and Belem Brazil Temples once they are built indicates that in some cases, the Church will still use the statue. But in other cases, in order to send the right message about the proper central focus of our faith, the angel Moroni statue will have filled its' intended purpose for the period of time it was used, and thus may not continue to be used.

In conclusion, and by way of clarification and correction to what I noted yesterday, it is absolutely true that the angel Moroni removal will be permanent for the Hong Kong China Temple, and there may be more to the reasoning about that decision than what I have outlined here. In the meanwhile, I am sure that in some cases, the angel Moroni will continue to be used. And what this comes down to is that the prophets and apostles in our time have determined that the angel Moroni statue on this temple has served its' purpose, and that its' removal is in harmony with the Lord's will for it. I hope with that, we can all be content. I'd also like to apologize for unintentional misleading any of you based on what I said in the comment threads of yesterday's post. It was not my intention to perpetuate inaccurate or false information, and I am committed to being more careful in the future about ascertaining the facts before I offer an opinion or analysis on such things. In the meantime, I continue to monitor all other Church news and temple developments, and will pass word of such things along to you all ASAP through either new posts or via the comments on existing posts.

That does it for now. 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.