Tribute to Elder Neil L. Andersen, Who Marks His 69th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With today being August 9, Elder Neil L. Andersen is celebrating his 69h 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 in Logan, Utah on this day in 1951 to Lyle and Kathryn Andersen. 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.

Through the next couple of decades as a Seventy, he served in a wide variety of Church assignments, including as 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 also served as the area president). In 2005, Elder Andersen was called to the Presidency of the Seventy, where he was assigned to preside over the Idaho Area (from 2005-2007). By the time his stewardship switched to the North Am erica Southwest Area (2007-2009), he had gone from being the second-least senior member of that Presidency to being the third-most-senior member. In 2008, with Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (in April) and the release of Senior President Elder Earl C. Tingey (in August, in preparation for his being granted emeritus status in the October General Conference), Elder Andersen then became the Senior President of the Seventy, a role in which he would only serve for around 8 months.

With the December 2008 death of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Elder Andersen was subsequently called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the April 2009 General Conference. An interesting bit of trivia is the fact that Elders Christofferson, Andersen, and Rasband were all seatmates in the Presidency of the Seventy as of August 2007, and they would all go on to be apostolic seatmates, with their apostolic calls occurring in April 2008, April 2009, and October 2015 respectively. Since Elder Andersen's original call as a General Authority Seventy in April 1993, he has given a total of 28 addresses in General Conference (3 of which he gave as a General Authority Seventy, with 2 others given while he was a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 23 since his call to the QuorIum of the Twelve Apostles).

Elder Andersen continues to serve as the seventh in both senirotiy and chronological birth order among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and ranks tenth among the 15 total apostles in both seniority and birth chronology. I gladly sustain him and each of his 14 apostolic colleagues as prophets, seers, and revelators, and am grateful to have been able to publish this tribute in honor of his birthday today. 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.

UPDATED: Documents About the Temple Construction Program of the Church

Hello again, everyone! Given the updates this week on the timing for the groundbreakings of the San Pedro Sula Honduras and Brasília Brazil Temples,  I knew I had to again revisit my previously-offered thoughts given in several temple files.  Although I had last done so just two weeks ago, things have vastly changed within that time. Without further ado, let’s get right into all of those updated files once again.

We start, as always, with the updated sections of my temple construction progress report. The second document this go-round is a new one that I just put together earlier today. It details some general observations about the Church’s progress on breaking ground for the 18 temples this year, as Elder David A. Bednar had outlined 4 months ago.during General Conference.

The next document details the probable timing for temple groundbreakings that will or could take place within the next year or so,. I have also updated my list of temples that could have a groundbreaking this year and next year.
Similarly, I have updated the documents showing the probable timing for all known temple events and the document showing some data about temples for which no official information has been announced yet. In the interim, with today (August 6) marking Elder Gary E. Stevenson’s 65th birthday, on Sunday, Elder Neil L. Andersen will observe his 69th, and on Wednesday of next week, President Dallin H. Oaks will be celebrating his 88th.Having said all of that, I continue to also monitor all Church news and temple developments, and will be sure to bring word of those 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.

BREKING TEMPLE NEWS: First Presidency Announces Groundbreaking for the Brasilia Brazil Temple

Hello again, everyone! Yesterday, we got the news of the groundbreaking for the San Pedro Sula Honduras Temple. Roughly 24 hours later, more breaking temple news has been reported. The groundbreaking for the Brasilia Brazil Temnple has been set. Brzil's newest temple will have its' groundbreaking on Saturday September 26. Elder Adilson de Paula Parrella, who became the President of the Church's Brazil Area on August 1 of this year, will preside thereat.

With the rendering havng been released for that temple in February of this year, the size of this temple has already been specified as "a single-story temple of approximately 25,000 square feet", with plans for a new meetinghouse and paron housing being included with the temple. I threfore anticipate that the construction process will take between 2-3 years to complete. This groundbreaking will also mark the first time since May of last year that more than two temples have had a groundbreaking on any given month. Additionally, the Brasilia Brazil Temple groundbreaking will be both the tenth in Brazil and the nintth temple to have a groundbreaking in 2020. I am hopeful for one or two other grounct.Idbreaking announcements to come down the pike and be set for September or October, but we'll see what happens in that respect. In the meantime, this means I have additional updates to make on my many temple files. In the meantime, I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as i become aware of those developments.

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.