In Honor of Elder Quentin L. Cook's 80th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! I am back in the early morning hours of September 8 to share some thoughts about Elder Quentin L. Cook in honor of his 79th birthday today. Let's dive right into that subject. Quentin LaMar Cook was born to J. Vernon and Bernice Cook on this day in 1940 in Logan, Utah.His ancestry includes his great-great-grandfather, Elder Heber C. Kimball, who was one of the original apostles of the Church and who was instrumental in bringing the gospel to England and supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith at key moments when apostates made efforts to replace Brother Joseph as the Lord's mouthpiece. Young Quentin was a middle child, having an older brother and a younger sister. He grew up in a very gospel-centered home, although his father eventually lost interest in Church activity.At age 15, he had a discussion with his brother Joe that changed his life. Joe was unsure whether to continue with his medical school studies, or to delay that in order to serve a mission, with their father favoring the former. During that conversation, they determined that either the gospel was true or it wasn't, and that if it was, serving a mission would be the best use of Joe's time. Joe’s decision to go resulted in young Quentin eventually accepting his own call to serve in the British Mission.

One of his two mission presidents was Elder Marion D. Hanks, who simultaneously served as a general authority. At one point during his mission, his companion was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Though the two didn't know it at the time, both would go on to serve as General Authority Seventies and as colleagues in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Of his service in the mission field, Elder Cook noted the following in relation to Elder Holland: "Sometimes we receive revelation even when we do not know the Lord’s purposes. Shortly before Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was called to be an Apostle in June of 1994, I had a beautiful revelatory experience that he would be called. I was a regional representative and could see no reason I would be given that knowledge. But we were companions as young missionaries in England in the early 1960s, and I had a great love for him. I considered the experience a tender mercy for me. In recent years, I have wondered if the Lord was preparing me to be junior in the Twelve to an incredible missionary companion who was my junior companion when we were young missionaries. I sometimes warn young missionaries to be kind to their junior companions because they never know when they might be their senior companion."

Elder Cook returned from his mission with a strong testimony of the Savior and a resolve to associate with people who love the Savior, both within and outside of the Church. He married his high school sweetheart Mary Gaddie in the Logan Utah Temple on November 30, 1962. Their posterity includes three children and numerous grandchildren. He graduated from Utah State University with a degree in political science and from Stanford University with a juris doctorate degree. As a managing partner in San Francisco Bay area law firm, he specialized in business law. He later became president and chief executive officer of California Healthcare System, and vice chairman of Sutter Health Systems. His church service has included being a bishop, stake president’s counselor (during a period of time when his brother Joe was president of that same stake), stake president, regional representative, and area authority. While he was in the stake presidency, he was instilled with a love of people from all nations when he had responsibility for Spanish, Tongan, Samoan, Tagalog, Mandarin, and Cantonese congregations.

He was named a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 1996, and as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 4, 1998. He served as a member of area presidencies in the Philippines, the Pacific, and North America, and he also served executive director of the Church Missionary Department during the period of time that "Preach My Gospel" was developed and instituted as the standard guidebook for missionaries, and was subsequently called to the Presidency of the Seventy on August 1, 2007. Nine days after that, the death of President James E. Faust, who had been serving as Second Counselor to Church President Gordon B. Hinckley, would wind up having an unexpected impact on Elder Cook's life. As the October General Conference rolled around, then-Elder Henry B. Eyring was called as President Hinckley's new Second Counselor, which created a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. On October 6, 2007, Elder Cook was sustained to fill that vacancy, and he was ordained an apostle five days later.

Elder Cook has spoken 28 times in General Conference: twice as a General Authority Seventy and 26 additional times in the almost-13 years since his call to the apostleship. I am grateful for his service as a special witness of Christ, and I wholeheartedly sustain him and the other apostles. 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: October 2020 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! Although I have a few other projects on my plate for the future, given that the October 2020 General Conference will occur in just over 3 weeks, and because the arrangements for it have been officially confirmed, I wanted to provide today an updated version of my predictions for that, which I finally was able to complete.Again, given that I can now share those predictions here with links to the appropriate documents, I have separated my predictions out into three subsections: predicted speaking order, anticipated changes in general Church leadership, and potential locations in which a temple could be announced this go-round.

Each document includes relevant notes with explanations that I kept as brief as they could be for context. The open commenting period on these revised predictions remains in effect for the next 3.5 weeks, until 10:00 PM MDT on Thursday October 1, which will then allow me roughly 36 hours to make any necessary adjustments. I look forward to your feedback. Also coming up soon here are Elder Quentin L. Cook's 80th birthday on Tuesday and the 96th birthday of our beloved prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. I have those tributes ready and set to publish on the applicable days. I also hope to soon have updates available once again to many of my temple files, which are outdated as a result of the latest developments.

I will continue to additionally monitor all major Church news and temple updates and pass those along to you all here ASAP after I learn 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: Church Postpones Opening of Winnipeg Manitoba Temple

 Hello again, everyone! This just in from the Church's official Newsroom. The open house, youth devotional, and dedication arrangements for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple  have been postponed until large public gatherings are deemed safe once COVID-19 conditions ease. At this point, due to the unpredictable naturue of COVID-19, it appears that the Church will likely defer all temple open houses and dedications/rededications until large public gatherings are once again deemed safe.

On the upside, however, with President Nelson extending opportunities to his fellow apostles to preside at temple dedications or rededications, it seems certain that, once COVID-19 is under control globally, apostles could be sent out individually, or iin various groups, to dedicate or rededicate temples in the queue. My personal thought was that with Winnipeg being a smaller temple, a smaller-scale open house and dedication could occur, but obviously, the Church doesn't feel comfortable about doing that.

As a consequence, it may be almost impossible for any of us to gauge how soon each dedication/rededication may be able to occur. I am not personally worried about this, however, because the Lord's hand has obviously been involved and His inspiration present in this decision. Whenever the dedication is reset to occur, I am sure that Elder Gerrit W. Gong will preside thereat as previously arranged.  In the meantime, I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to bring word of those 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.