Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Observes His 82nd Birthday

Hello again, everyone! With today being December 3, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is observing his 82nd birthday. I know that the Lord is no respector of persons, and doesn't play favorites, but on a personal level, I wanted to reiterate again that Elder Holland is one of my favorite apostles. I have a couple of familial connections to him. My dad was born and raised in St. George, and his father (Dean Stokes), was Elder Holland's home teaching companion when "young Jeff" was an Aaronic Priesthood holder. According to my dad, his father often expressed his wonder that a boy like Elder Holland had become an apostle of the Lord.

I know that at times, it may seem that some members of the Church, to varying degrees, have put the leading Brethren of the Church on a pedestal, but I am reminded in accounts, such as that which was shared by my grandfather, that these men may have been foreordained to the apostleship, but they are no different than any other member of the Church; the Lord just ordered their lives based on their personal choices in such a way that when such calls came to them, they were qualified through years of service in the Church and living what they believe. That is important for all of us to remember.

My mom is a freelance proofreader, and in the early days of her marriage to my dad, she worked on many projects for the Church Educational System. Since that occurred at the time when Elder Holland was the Commissioner of the CES, he was essentially my mom's "boss." And she speaks warmly of the experiences she had working with him on such projects. Personal connections aside, I wanted to share a brief biographical sketch of Elder Holland.

Jeffrey Roy Holland was born in St. George, Utah to Frank D. and Alice Bentley Holland on December 3, 1940. He served a full-time mission in the British Isles. His mission president was Marion D. Hanks, (who at that time was a member of the now-defunct First Council of the Seventy and later served in the First Quorum and Presidency of the Seventy). One of young Elder Holland's missionary companions was Quentin L. Cook, alongside whom he would later serve in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Of Elder Holland, Elder Cook has remarked that it is interesting to him that he, as the previously-senior missionary companion to Elder Holland, is now the junior apostle to his former junior companion. Following the concusion of Elder Holland's missionary service, he attended BYU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in religious education. Additionally, shortly after his release from missionary service, he married his high school sweetheart, Patricia Terry, in 1963. They are the parents of a daughter and two sons, one of whom, Matthew, has served as the President of Utah Valley University and as president of the North Carolina Raliegh Mission. During General Conference in April 2020, Matthew S. Holland was sustained as a General Authority Seventy, marking the first time a fahter-and-son duo have served together as general authorities since the July 2015 death of President Boyd K. Packer. 

Once Elder Holland earned his bachelor's and master's degrees, he went on to earn a doctorate degree in American studies from Yale. He then became a professor at BYU, serving as Dean of the College of Religion. He served as Commissioner of Church Education from 1976-1980. In 1980, President Dallin H. Oaks, who was then serving as President of BYU-Provo, announced his intention to move on to other opportunities. Commissioner Holland was put in charge of the committee to find the new BYU President. 

Two days later, he was stunned when the First Presidency appointed him to that assignment. He had reportedly been favored for the position by President N. Eldon Tanner, who was then serving as First Counselor in the First Presidency, and was the protege of then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, who at that time was the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asssigned to the Church Board of Education. Elder Holland would go on to serve as president of BYU for 9 years himself, until his April 1, 1989 call as a General Authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. 

Prior to his call to general Church service, Elder Holland also served as a bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, and regional representative. After the First Presidency was reorganized following the death of President Ezra Taft Benson, President Howard W. Hunter took immediate action to fill the apostolic vacancy. In the space of a few short hours on Thursday June 23, President Hunter issued a call to the apostleship to Elder Holland, gave him his apostolic charge, set apart and ordained him to that calling, and had him join the other 14 apostles in their weekly meeting at the temple. That action was sustained by Church membership during the Solemn Assembly that was held exactly 100 days later.

Elder Holland has given a total of 60 addresses in General Conference.  Of those, 3 were prior to his apostolic call. The first time he spoke during General Conference was in April 1983, while he was serving as the President of Brigham Young University. He spoke alongside his son during that session. He gave two other talks following his 1989 call as a General Authority Seventy, and the remaining 57 General Conference addresses as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

To me, it always seems as though the talks given by Elder Holland are specifically focused on something I have been dealing with personally at the time. As a consequence, listening to him speak every six months is one of my favorite things about General Conference weekends. The last thing I want to mention about Elder Holland is that he is currently the second most-senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the fourth in seniority among all current apostles. 

He is also the fourth-oldest member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and is the seventh-oldest among all living apostles. Interestingly enough, although he is the most senior of the three apostles born in 1940 (with Elders Uchtdorf and Cook being the other two), he is the youngest of the three. His apostolic seatmate, Elder Uchtdorf,  obsrved his 81st birthday just under one month ago, with Elder Cook having done the same two months prior to that.

In recent years, he has seemingly had some health challenges, as he now uses a cane when speaking in public. Given his age and current apostolic seniority, some, myself included, have suggested that Elder Holland could one day serve as Church President. He is currently the second most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and is the fourth in seniority among all of our 15 apostles. He is also the fourth oldest in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the seventh oldest of our 15 current apostles.

The topic of who may lead the Church and when is an interesting thing to consider. President Nelson, at 98 years of age, only sat to give his remarks for the first time during October's General Conference. By all accounts, the prophet is still outpacing all of his fellow apostles. So if our current prophet does continue to lead the Church for the next decade or two, he could potentially outlive a few more apostles junior to him. So it will be interesting to see what happens there. I am grateful for the life and ministry of Elder Holland, and for the chance I had to write this post in his honor today.

I continue to monitor all temple updates and Church news reports and will be sure to bring word of those to you as I become aware of such updates. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please subscribe if you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING NEWS: Church Releases New Recommendations for YSA Wards and Stakes

Hello again, everyone! A short time ago, the Church News shared an article outlining revised recommendations for young single adult congregations. Those changes were announced by an official notice from the Priesthood and Family Department. These changes are being made in response to counsel given by Church President Russell M. Nelson to Young Single Adults in a Worldwide Devotional held last May 

So what are these changes? While married Brethren will continue to serve as bishops and stake presidents of YSA wards and stakes, all other adult married couples supporting YSA wards and stakes should be honorably released ASAP. Stake presidents and bishops will call YSA men to serve as their counselors, and the high council of each YSA stake should be made up of YSA members. That also extends to the stake officers serving in the Relief Society and Sunday School presidencies.

The Church is also requesting that, in non-YSA stakes, YSA committees should be formed, with a YSA man and woman called as co-chairs of that committee. If there are insufficient YSA numbers in non-YSA stakes, neighboring stakes may join to form that council. Stake leaders are encouraged to use stake budgets to create "gathering places" for YSAs.

In his address in May, President Nelson made it clear that the Lord trusts the Young Single Adults of the Church, and these adjustments reflect that. I am pleased to have been able to share this update with you all. I continue to monitor all temple updates and Church news reports and will be sure to bring word of those to you as I become aware of such updates. In the meantime, that does it for now.

All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please subscribe if you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS Part Two: Site Locations and Initial Details Released for 6 New Temples

Note: The first paragraph of this report was published this afternoon, as shown by the time stamp for this post. The additional analysis followed throughout the evening once I'd concluded my other obligations.

Hello again, everyone! As anticipated, the next major temple news has been shared by the Church. Site locations and preliminary details have been confirmed for 6 new temples. Further analysis will follow this afternoon/evening as my situation allows. For now, my thanks once again to you all.

I am pleased to be back now to share the additional analysis I promised. Once again, the Church has shared the location and preliminary information for 6 temples. That news was released just one day after another new report in the Church News shared insights from the Presiding Bishopric about the location, design, and construction of temples. 

As you might recall, that article noted that the process whereby temple sites are selected has been considerably shortened. Where it once took the Church a minimum of two years to get initial approval for a temple site, two years is now the maximum length of time in general, with more site locations actually being able to be procured and confirmed sometimes within weeks or mere months of a temple announcement. And that accelerated timeline was certainly reflected again in the 6 locations announced today. 

The Church has confirmed the sites and initial information for the Santa Cruz Bolivia Temple (the one remaining temple of the six originally announced in October 2020); the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple (originally announced in October of last year). the Wellington New Zealand and Santos Brazil Temples (originally announced in April of this year), and the Londrina and Ribeirão Prêto Brazil Temples (originally announced last month).

As an update to previously-shared information, this means that the Church has 3 temples remaining which were originally announced in April 2018, 1 each from the following October and April, 3 from April 2020, 5 from April of last year, 9 apiece from the following October and April, and 15 of the 18 from the temples announced last month in General Conference.

With that preliminary background in mind, let's now dive into details about each of the 6 temples had site locations confirmed and initial details announced. While both of the articles to which I linked earlier in this post listRibeirão Prêto Brazil Temple the 6 temples in unique order, I have chosen to provide the details on these 6 temples according to the same order in which they were originally announced.

So we'll start in Santa Cruz Bolivia, where a single-story temple of approximately 29,000 square foot temple will be built at Av. Quinto Anilla y Santa Rosa (Av. Radial 27), Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The acreage of the site in question was not specified. I believe I recall opining that the Church could possibly announce the official details for the La Paz Bolivia Temple before we got an announcement for Santa Cruz, but the Lord has proven me wrong in that belief, which is never shocking.

We now shift to the Kaohsiung Taiwan Temple, where a 10,900 square-foot single-story edifice will rise on a 1.26-acre site near Dachang Road and Dehua Street, Niaosong District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Given that it is only slightly larger than the standard 10,000-square-foot modular design, I could see the Church doing a minor tweak to that standard floor plan so modular components could potentially be used.

Regarding New Zealand's third temple, the Church will construct the 14,900 square-foot two-story edifice on a 3.35-acre site. The Church seems to have a solid relationship with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (the niece of Elder Ian S. Ardern, formerly the Pacific Area president who now serves as Second Counselor in the Africa Central Area), so that might help expedite approvals for this temple.

Moving on to the final 3 temples, all in Brazil, let's break down the details for each. We start with the Santos Brazil Temple, where, at Avenida Doutor Waldemar Leão, 305, Jabaquara, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil, a 23,000 square-foot two-story edifice will rise. The Santos Brazil Temple will be the third for the greater Sao Paulo area (with the others being the first Sao Paulo Brazil Temple and the Sao Paulo East Temple, and the site confirmation for the latter coming just under one month ago).

As for the Londrina Brazil Temple,  the single-story temple of 32,000 square feet. is planned for the Church-owned property at Avenida: Harry Prochet, S/N, Jardim São Jorge, Londrina, Paraná, Brazil. And the Ribeirão Prêto Brazil Temple will be a single-story edifice of 32,000 square feet, rising at the Church-owned property at Av. Antonio Marcal and R. Jose Brandani in Ribeirão Prêto, Brazil.

What I see the Brethren setting up here is a situation where 2023 will be another year for a high number of temple groundbreakings. There are now 23 temples with groundbreakings that can safely be anticipated, which will be reflected in the announcement of groundbreaking arrangements in the months ahead. 2023 is thus likely to claim its place in history as the year with the highest number of temple groundbreakings.

As expected, today's announcement did not relate to the opening arrangements for any new temples, though the Bangkok Thailand, Bentonville Arkansas, and Brasilia Brazil Temples are all nearing completion. Next week's temple announcement could either relate to opening arrangements for any of these three temples, more site confirmations, or more likely new temple groundbreakings, since the last such announcement was made on Monday October 17, when groundbreakings were set for four temples in Latin America.

I continue to monitor all temple updates and Church news reports and will be sure to bring word of those to you as I become aware of such updates. In the meantime, that does it for now. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. 

I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. Please feel free to subscribe if you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.