BREAKING NEWS: First Presidency Tweaks Guidelines for the April 2020 General Conference, Missionary Training, and Other Larger Gatherings

Hello again, everyone! Around half an hour ago, I received a breaking news alert on my phone from the Church News, wherein a new article indicated that 3 changes are being implemented effective immediately by the First Presidency in the wake of the ongoing worldwide spread of COVID-19. Those changes were further detailed in 3 official news releases published on the Newsroom website at around the same time. Let's look at those one-by-one. The first change will impact the April 2020 General Conference. With all five sessions thereof originating from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City (which should put rumors to rest about the conference being held in other locations), attendance at the Conference Center will be limited to participants only, including General Authorities and General Officers of the Church, the choirs that will be performing thereat, and the technicians and specialists required to help trasmit and translate the conference. The second announcement relates to missionary work. In order to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19, all missionaries who would otherwise have been trained in the MTCs in Provo Utah and Preston England will instead be trained remotely before flying out from their nations of residence to their fields of labor. This change also applies to missionaries from areas where there are a high number of cases of COVID-19. And the final adjustment will pertain to large gatherings of Church members in the following specific areas of the Church: Asia, Asia North, Europe, Europe East, and the 6 areas in the United States and Canada. In those areas of the Church all stake or large leadership gatherings  that would otherwise have been held are postponed out of an abundance of caution regarding the potential spread of COVID-19. For each of the other  11 (soon to be 12) areas of the Church, members and leaders are being counseled to follow directions received from the area presidencies.  In the meantime, for weekly worship servicesand and other meetings or activities that would have been held, local leaders will be tasked with making decisions on that on a case-by-case basis, as a result of what is determined through the lines of authority. The interesting thing that struck me about all of these announcements (aside from the fact that these three major developments were reported simultaneously) is that each of the letters outlining these changes were published in full via the official Newsroom of the Church. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that 3 letters have been simultaneously sent out and reported via the Newsroom website, rather than merely showing up in members' e-mail inboxes or on the Church's repository website for official communications. Aside from that analysis of these developments, I want to acknwoledge that it is wonderful to see Church leaders making these adjustments due to the changing asse\ssments and recommendations about COVID-19 from health and government officials.

These official announcements also all serve as corrections and clarifications to anything I have previously shared on this subject, since the determinations of the leading quorums of the Church as inspired by the Lord trump my own wisdom and analysis at any time.t These appear to be very common-sense adjustments allowing the utilization of technology to a greater degree to further the work of the Lord in the midst of the ongoing global scope and increasing threat posed by COVID-19.  That said, it is also important to note that, according to recommendations made by several doctors familiar with infectious diseases, there is no call at this time for widespread panic or mass hysteria in response to the virus. As long as proper precautions are being taken on all of the right fronts, and as long as Church members are prepared for how COVID-19 might impact individuals, families, and congregations, and as long as health officials indicate this is the case, there is no need at this time to be unduly concerned or troubled. Any further adjustments will be made based on recommednations from health officials and political and religious leaders at various levels. To quote the immortal words of President Gordon B. Hinckley, the enterally optimistic prophet, "Everything will work out." And above all else, the Lord is mindful of His people all over the world, and knows how best to assist all of us in preparing for and responding to the virus in all such cases.

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.

REVISTED: April 2020 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! Far later than I had originally planned, I wanted to note that I have finished the updates to my predictions for the April 2020 General Conference. After finishing tho updates, all that remained was to add the relevant refrences. However, that process is going to take more time than I originally thought, so I decided it would be best to post the predictions for now and enable discussion to start on them, and then to update them as I can with the relevant references. As I previously mentioned, upon reanalyzing the likely layout of the speaking order, I realized that this conference might have a higher-than-normal degree of participation from members of the First Presidency.  Where appropriate, I have allowed spaces for any major announcements that could be made.  Given President Nelson's statement that that conference would be different from any previous ones, there was a lot to think about. I am sure it will be different mostly due to the focus of its' content (honoring the bicentennial of the imprtant events of the Restoration), but I also wanted to make allowances for other things that might be announced. Nelsonian-era General Conferences are hard enough to predict as is, but when accounting for his statement regarding how the upcoming conference will be different from anything we have previously seen, it gets even more tricky. I should also perhaps mention that, in connection with the changes in general Church leadership, there are a couple of more specific notes I might have in the future, but I will need to think about the logistics of what I have in mind. Additionally, the statistics might be hard to pin down with any degree of accuracy, and the formulas and methods I use are less than perfect, but I gave it my best shot. And as far as my list of prospective temple locations is concerned, I have several new additions thereunto, and I have chosen in this latest revision to not predict any specific number as far as how many temples might be announced, although I do anticipate a higher-than-usual number to be announced. Other than these notes, and the references I eventually hope to add to contextualize these predictions, the content largely speaks for ittself. An open commenting period is now in effect for the next four weeks (until the night of Wednesday April 1), at which time I will take a few days to finalize those predictions before General Conference weekend. I look forward to your input. 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.

Miscellaneous Musings

Hello again, everyone, and Happy Leap Day 2020! It's not often that I have a chance to post new content on February 29, so I am grateful to be able to do so today. The last couple of days, I have benn running around physically, mentally, and in other respects, focusing on a wide variety of temporal and spiritual obligations. But I wanted to post again now to share some musings I have been having in the midst of all of it. First of all, let me say right out of the gate that what I share herein are no more and no less than my own thoughts, perspectives, and ideas based on the information I currently have available. And especially where matters relating to the Church are concerned, these thoughts that I offer are subject to either confirmation, denial, or correction through official channels. So the first thing that I wanted to share relates to temples. As some of you may know, the coronavirus outbreak, particularly as it is impacting the Asian continent, has had an impact on the operation of temples, and, I am sure, is also impacting the renovation efforts on the Tokyo Japan and Hong Kong China Temples. If the crews working on either or both temples have been advised to halt those efforts out of caution in relation to that virus, the duration of the delay in being able to resume that work may in turn impact the timing of the eventual completion of that work. Therefore, I am hazarding a guess that the rededication of the Tokyo temple may be deferred until early next year, though I don't know what that might mean for the timing of the anticipated rededication of the Mesa Arizona Temple.

Above and beyond that, however, with the Church having previously announced the opening dates and rededication for the Washington D.C. Temple, I had expresed surprise that there would be just over 6 weeks between the conclusion of the open house and the day of that temple's rededication. Yesterday, I came across an interesting article from someone currently living in the D.C. area, who posited the theory that the explanation for that lengthy gap (which could also explain the timing of the earlier-than-usual announcement of the information so far in advance of the relevant dates) could be the Church wanting to keep extra time open for tours, depending on the gauged interest in the open house process.

That in turn lead me to conclude that the Church may have initially put out a rededication date, but could subsequently determine to extend the rededication of that temple across multiple dates, in a reverse of the situation we saw for the Rome Italy Temple dedication last year, where 8 days of dedication were originally alloted, with the Brethren subsequently deciding to hold sessions over only 3 of the original 8. So I wouldn't be surprised if the rededication plans for this temple are also extended. On a separate note, I would also anticipate that the dedication of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, with it being a smaller temple, might take place before the rededication of the Washington D.C. Temple, and when I post my latest revisions to my estimates for future temple events, all of that will be reflected therein.

Next, over the last week, as time and circumstances have allowed me to do so, I have taken time to watch the Face-to-Face event for youth on the new Children and Youth program, which featured President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, and his wife, Kristen. While all of the broadcast was good, one thing in particular stuck out to me, which was a statement made by President Oaks. He said that one of his personal goals he's working on is putting together 7-8 talks, which will be given in various settings over the next six months, including in the upcoming April General Conference.

That statement led me to change my thoughts about the April 2020 General Conference yet again. And I realized that perhaps what would make the upcoming conference so unique would not be an increased number of addresses given by members of the Presidency of the Seventy and Presiding Bishopric of the Church, but the First Presidency having more opportunities to speak during this General Conference than we typically see. So in my newly-revised predictions, they will include only one speaker from the Presiding Bishopric, 2 from the Presidency of the Seventy, and 5 general officers of the Church, which will allow the First Presidency members more of an opportunity to speak.

I am taking my time with the revisions to my predictions, especially in light of the thoughts that came to me as detailed in the previous paragraphs. The insights I gleaned may delay the publication of those predictions 2-3 days beyond what I originally anticipated (as I had been planning on reposting them either later today or tomorrow sometime), so you can probably expect those to now be published later this week (by no later than Thursday or Friday, but hopefully on Tuesday or Wednesday).

And I have a variety of other projects coming down the pike in the near future, some of which I have outlined, others of which will be added to the plan going forward as I determine a need for them. Above and beyond anything else, I know that we are entering an unprecedented period of time, and I can't wait to see what's next. I am hopeful that between now and the weekend of General Conference that groundbreaking arrangements may be announced for at least 2 other temples, but that too is up to the discretion of the Lord and the inspiration He gives to His prophet, President Russell M. Nelson.

To the best of my ability, I continue to monitor all Church news reports and temple developments, and will pass along all such updates ASAP after I become aware of them. 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.