Prayers Would Be Appreciated (Yet Again)

Hello again, everyone! Earlier this afternoon, my wife Amy got an update on her dad, who is around the same age as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. While we may not have all the details at present, what we do know about her dad's present health isutaion troubles us deeply. As a result of Amy having chatted with one of her brothers (who lives next door to her dad), they have made the determination that she needs to go stay with her dad. She will be heading out to do so later this evening. Because we have a cat here at home, and due to my not feeling well, I will be staying here at our house during the time she is gone. Your prayers woul again be very much appreciated on behalf of her dad (Gene Nuttall), and on behalf of my wife and myself during this time, especially since, with all temples still closed due to COVID-19, we will not be able to put our names and her dad's name on the prayer roll at the present time. Although there may be logistical changes to my availability to report Church news and temple developments during the period of time when my wife will be staying with her dad,  I will still do my level best to bring you all word of any Church news, temple updates, or anything else, as I become aware of such things. In the meantime, 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.

BREAKING NEWS: PDF Version of May 2020 Ensign Now Available

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to be able to report a breaking news development. The PDF version of the May 2020 Ensign is now available. Aside from my running a comparison between how my mock-up of the possible table of contents for this Ensign compared to the actual thing, I gleaned a couple more interesting insights from that layout. First of all, the Church managed to pack all the content from the conference into a 128-page magazine, rather than using the 144 pges which have been somewhat standard for the May Ensign most years, and occasionally has been the case for the November edition. That suggests to me that a 128-page edition may be the new standard going forward. As a result of it being a 128 page edition, the chart showing the current General Authorities and General Officers of the Church was on pages 64-65, not 72-73 as I had conjectured. And oddly enough, rather than having two full-page images on either side of that chart, this edition saw the text of General Conference messages take up pages 63 and 66. There were some talks by the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, GA Seventies, Presiding Bishopric, and General Officers of the Church which also took up a different amount of space (some more, and some less) than I had predicted. But one of my biggest takeaways from this General Conference edition is something in the photographs that I had not anticipated. We had been aware, of course, that the Church had requested images from members of them watching General Conference in their homes, of which many were featured. But I wasn't exactly sure how the First Presidency had handled the positioning of those who spoke or prayed in each session. We did see in the sessions that the First Presidency members were observing a 6-foot distance between each other, and that the apostles were seated the same way by seniority per session. But apparently, aside from the apostolic participants, the decision was made to have all other speakers and the two leaders giving the prayers in each session sit in the audience seats of the auditorium, then come up to the podium from there when it was their turn to speak or pray. That ensured that any who were participating in any manner were always at least 6 feet apart. It makes sense that was done, but I hadn't considered it as a possibility. With that said, I did want to note that I am still working on some of the other projects to which I have previously referred, and which I hope to post ASAP.

I have even put together a preliminary edition of my predictions for the October 2020 General Conference. I may hold off on publishing that here for the time being so I can continue to make any necessary adjustments. As of right now, it is my hope that the October 2020 General Conference may be more of a normal one, being able to convene in the Conference Center without limitations on attendees or the number of participants taking part in each session, but I am holding off on putting anything solid in that respect up on this blog until more is known about any adjusted meeting regulations. The Utah Governor, Gary Herbert, spoke during a press conference earlier this afternoon, nd stated he hoped to be able to initiate a soft reopening of some of this state one week from today. If that happens, and is a successful step in opening Utah fully, that might lift restrictions on social distancing, and would enable the October 2020 General Conference to proceed with the standard number of participants (with most General Authorities and General Officers able to attend most sessions) and being able to be held in the Conference Center for a capacity congregation (21,000 individuals). Stay tuned for those predictions once I figure that out, and for all other projects as I am able to complete them.

I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all here as 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Site Location and Preliminary Details Confirmed for the Bentonville Arkansas Temple

Hello again, everyone! Right after publishing my most recent comment in the threads of the previous post, something prompted me to refresh my browser on the Newsroom website. When I did, I came across a brand new breaking news development. The First Presidency has confirmed the location and preliminary details for the Bentonville Arkansas Temple. It will be built on an 8.8 acre site at 1101 McCollum Road. In addition to retaining the on-site meetinghouse, the site will feature a single-story temple of roughly 25,000 square feet. Project leaders in the coming months will work with city leaders through the approvals process. And it would not shock me at all if a groundbreaking for this temple could take place before the end of this year, which seems more likely than not. The temple, originally announced in October 2019, becomes the fourth of the eight announced during that General Conference, to have preliminary details officially confirmed.

As anticipated, President Nelson is not letting the proverbial moss grow under his feet, and is taking serious action on the backlog queue of announced temples. I continue to monitor all such developments and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of such things.

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.