Elder Ronald A. Rasband Observes His Birthday; Becomes the Second Current Septuagenarian Apostle

Hello again, everyone! As I noted in a previous comment on this blog, on January 19, the First Presidency and those 5 apostles over 70 received the vaccine for COVID-19. When I shared that report on this blog, I failed to mention that two more of our apostles would turn 70 this year as well: Elder Ronald A. Rasband today (February 6), and his immediate senior apostolic seatmate, Elder Neil L. Andersen, will do so in roughly 6 months (on August 9). So I have no doubt that Elder Rasband will be in line for the vaccine himself soon. And perhaps by Elder Andersen’s birthday, the priority order for vaccinations may have expanded to allow all other apostles to get it as well.

While I am grateful for the example of top Church leaders in getting the vaccine as they are eligible to do so (especially given the fact that the three junior apostles of the Church have dealt with that virus, that’s a sidenote. My point in mentioning it is that this post is written in honor of Elder Rasband, who today becomes the second current septuagenarian apostle. I am pleased to share a biographical overview of his life with you all on his special day. Ronald Anderson Rasband was born to Rulon Hawkins Rasband and Verda Anderson in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 6, 1951.

He served as a full-time missionary in the Eastern States Mission, which was headquartered in New York City and encompassed the whole New York Metro area, while also stretching into western New York and Pennsylvania. He met Melanie Twitchell in a class they both attended at BYU. At the time, both of them were dating other people, but they soon made arrangements to go on a date themselves, and once they started dating, that was it for both of them. They got engaged eight weeks later, were married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1973, and they raised five children.

Following their marriage, they continued their studies at the University of Utah. He later discontinued his college experience in order to begin his professional career in the Huntsman Container Company as a Sales Representative in 1976. Still in that employment 11 years later (in 1987), he was promoted to the position of president and chief operating officer of Huntsman Chemical Corporation, where he closely worked with Jon Huntsman Sr. and later served on the board of directors of that company. It was not until 1995 that, as a tribute to his success as a businessman, he received an honorary degree in business and commerce from Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University).

As prestigious as his professional career might have been, his life, in similarity to those of his fellow apostles, has been characterized by a variety of assignments in the Church. Elder Rasband has served as a bishop, Temple Square missionary guide, member of the Church’s Sesquicentennial Committee, and, from 1996-1999, as president of the New York New York North Mission. On April 1, 2000, he was sustained as a general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Over the next 5 years, he served in the Europe North & Europe Central Areas from 2000-2003 (with both areas having since been consolidated). From 2003-2004, he presided over the Utah Salt Lake City Area. In August 2004, responsibility for oversight of the work of the Church in North America was transferred to the Presidency of the Sevent

He then served from 2004-2005 as Executive Director of the Temple Department. He was called to serve in the Presidency of the Seventy in August 2005, at which time he was assigned oversight for the North America Northwest and North America West Areas. Two years later, his assignment shifted to supervising the Utah North, Utah Salt Lake City, and Utah South Areas (from 2007-2009).

By August of 2008, he had become the second most senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy. The following April, as a result of Elder Neil L. Andersen's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Rasband became the Senior President of the Seventy, and, as such, was given oversight for all areas in the United States and Canada.

He was still serving in that same assignment when, in October 2015, he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. With Elders Gary E. Stevenson and Dale G. Renlund called at the same time (something that had not happened since 1906), the number of those who had served as members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reached a total of 100. He is currently the eighth in seniority among the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the eleventh in overall apostolic seniority. He also ranks as the sixth oldest among the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve, and the ninth oldest among all 15 apostles.

As I’ve noted previously, I have an indirect personal connection to Elder Rasband. When my wife was initially involved in the institute program, Elder Rasband was one of her instructors. As a result of the three apostolic vacancies in 2015, my wife was one of many who felt Elder Rasband would be called to the apostleship to fill one of those, and she (and others who felt the same way) turned out to be right.

I will never forget praying in advance of the October 2015 General Conference for my own personal witness to know that whoever was called had indeed been chosen by the Lord. The moment President Eyring read the names of the three new apostles, I received the witness I had requested. For that reason, I gratefully sustain not just Elder Rasband. That experience is one that has been repeated for every apostle called since I entered my adult years. I gratefully sustain each of our 15 apostles in their divinely appointed roles.

Having served for nearly 21 years as a General Authority, Elder Rasband has had 17 opportunities to address us in General Conference: 1 as a General Authority Seventy, 5 more while in the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 11 since his call to the apostleship almost 5.5 years ago. Any of those addresses, covering a wide variety of topics, is well worthy of review. I am grateful for this opportunity I have had, in my own small way, to pay tribute to and reflect on Elder Rasband’s life on this day, when he is celebrating his 70th birthday. I do continue to monitor all apostolic updates, general Church news, and any temple-related developments and will keep bringing you word of those as I receive it.

It is worth noting that I have another post set to publish two days from now, which will highlight one of several milestones one of our current apostolic groups will be observing on that date, so stay tuned for that.

That does it for this post. 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: Tokyo Japan Temple Annex Dedicated Last Month

Hello again, everyone! Based on the newest information for the Tokyo Japan Temple, I did some additional digging on my end. I found an article from the Japan Newsroom, dated January 27, which that the new annex for the Tokyo Japan Temple was dedicated 2.5 weeks earlier, on Sunday January 10. Elder Takashi Wada, the Asia North Area president, presided at that event, accompanied by both of his counselors, Elders James R. Rasband and John A. McCune.

Although only the apostles have the doctrinal authority to preside at and officiate in the dedication or rededication of any completed temple, as assigned to do so by the First Presidency and/or Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, area presidencies, other General Authority Seventies, area seventies, local congregational leaders, or (in the early days of the Church) temple building missionaries, have been able to preside at temple groundbreakings, the dedication of chapels, etc.

The reasoning behind dedicating the annex last month when the full rededication of the temple proper may not occur for at least 8 months was because parts of that annex will be used by local congregations for Sunday worship, and will also be used as office and meeting spaces for the president of the Tokyo Japan stake and some of the bishops serving in the same stake. and the headquarters offices for the Japan Tokyo Mission and the Asia North Area.

It was also noted that Elder McCune conducted the dedicatory services, with remarks being offered by Elders Rasband and Wada, and a video message of congratulations featuring Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was also shown. Throughout the dedicatory services, it was frequently emphasized that the dedication of the annex would be a stepping stone to the eventual anticipated open house and rededication of the temple in its' entirety.

I would just add a few other observations here: Prior to the onset of COVID-19, the Church had originally planned to wrap up the renovation of the Tokyo Japan Temple and rededicate it last year in advance of the commencement of the 2020 Summer Olympics in mid-July. Conditions related to the global pandemic, along the decision to add the annex to the project, which had not been part of the original plan, delayed that process.

Given the information I have previously shared (indicating that the fall months in the Northern hemisphere are likely the soonest that any temple dedications or rededications may be held this year), the potential timing for any such events may be difficult to determine. That being said, there are parts of Asia and the Pacific, among other regions, that have kept the impact of COVID-19 to a relative minimum.

So whenever temple dedications and rededications do resume, I'd anticipate the Tokyo temple to be one of the first (but likely not the very first) to have an open house and (in Tokyo's case) a rededication. The second thing I wanted to mention is that both Elders Gary E. Stevenson and Gerrit W. Gong have connections to the Asian continent, with Elder Stevenson having served as a member of the Asia North Area Presidency for a few years prior to his call as the Presiding Bishop, which in turn preceded his call as an apostle.

Given the fact that both apostles have connections to Asia, it might be easy to surmise that either of the two apostles could be called upon to preside at the eventual rededication for this temple whenever that might happen. But despite Elder Stevenson's connections to Japan, he was not the one assigned to dedicate the Sapporo Japan Temple in 2016, although he did accompany President Russell M. Nelson, then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to that dedication.

If that temple had been dedicated after President Nelson became the Church President, he might have opted to send Elder Stevenson to handle that dedication on his own. But that didn't occur.

In the interim, three years after the dedication of the Sapporo temple, President Nelson, who had since become Church President, started giving his fellow apostles opportunities to officiate at temple dedications and rededications. But for each temple rededicated that year, those were handled by 8 of the 9 most senior apostles (with President Nelson himself not rededicating any of those).

That to me suggests a potential precedent that Elder Christofferson may be the most junior apostle asked preside at a temple rededication. While the President of the Church is free to delegate any task to any other apostle as he is prompted or inclined to do so, until there is an established precedent for any of the 6 junior apostles to be assigned to rededicate a temple, it's my assumption (for the time being) that temple rededications may continue to be presided over by any member of the First Presidency, or any of the 6 most senior members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

I could, however, see a scenario where the senior apostle presiding takes either Elder Stevenson, Elder Gong, or both, with him to rededicate the Tokyo Japan Temple, whenever that might occur. I need to offer the standard disclaimer here: i do not have any inside track to any information that would corroborate that theory, nor is it within my prerogative or privilege to receive any revelation that would justify that theory.

President Nelson has proven to be a very non-traditional prophet in so many ways, including when it comes to deviating from anything that has been typically a long-time established status quo, and the President of the Church is free to do whatever he is inspired to do. It is his prerogative to determine who to assign to each temple dedication or rededication. So if he is prompted to do so, he could send any of the six junior apostles to rededicate a temple.

But since Elder Christofferson has been the most junior apostle thus far to rededicate a temple, I am not entirely convinced that anyone more junior than Elder Christofferson will be sent to rededicate a temple. The Lord has proven me wrong in the past, and it will surely happen again, but for the time being, my research on recent temple dedications and rededications point me towards that theory.

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.

Initial Predictions for the April 2021 General Conference

Hello again, everyone! As we begin this second month of 2021, I have a few different projects in the pipeline. Among those on which I have had to put in frequent but sporadic work are my initial predictions for the April 2021 General Conference. I am pleased to present those to you today for your review and feedback. I will do so by sharing links to the relevant files. I will note at the outset that my predictions for the speaker layout are based on the announced parameters for the upcoming General Conference, and that the changes in Church leadership have been based on the announcement of new mission and temple presidents

Additionally, the projected numbers for the statistical report (which are featured in the same document covering anticipated Church leadership changes) are based on what has been confirmed, what can be calculated, or otherwise, thorugh a complex algorithm that hasn't always worked. In the meantime, new to the initial draft of my predictions this go-round, I have adjusted my list of potential locations in which a temple could be announced.

Aside from some new locations making the list for the first time, I have in some cases provided two or more potential locations for a specific nation or state because I had a hard time narrowing them down further than that. I have also opted, for this initial draft, to eliminate the accompanying references for context, because I want the list to be able to speak for itself until I have it slimmed down a bit more. I also hope that without the distraction of the lengthy notes section for the temple locations, that might more fully open up the conversation about these predictions. At some point, should the need arise to do so, I will add any adjusted notes for context.

That said, I am pleased to declare the commenting period on these predictions is open, effective immediately, through Thursday April 1 at 10:00 PM, which will give me 36 hours to make any final adjustments to these predictions. Between now and then, when appropriate, I will be providing updates that may be needed based on the feedback I receive on them here. Thanks for your consideration of these predictions. I look forward to your input.

I will also continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as I become aware of them. For the immediate future, I am planning on providing a new post on Saturday in honor of Elder Ronald A. Rasband's 70th birthday, and have a couple of apostolic tenure milestones to cover before I provide the next full apostolic data update on March 14. Stay tuned for all of that.

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.