Birthday Tribute to Elder Gerrit W. Gong, Who Marks His 67th Today

Hello again, everyone! I am back two days before Christmas to post a birthday tribute to Elder Gerrit W. Gong, who is celebrating his 67th today. As I mentioned earlier this month his is the last apostolic birthday to occur this year. The first apostle to observe his birthday in 2021 will be Elder D. Todd Christofferson, marking his 76th on January 24. Incidentally, for the first time ever on this blog, the next update I will provide on the latest apostolic data will be featured on the same day as my tribute to Elder Christofferson.

Having dropped that teaser, we turn our attention again to today's tribute to Elder Gong. Gerrit Walter Gong was born in Redwood City, California, on this day in 1953, to Walter and Jean Char Gong. While he was given his father's name for his middle name, his first name was given in honor of and out of respect to Gerrit de Jong, whose family his mother had lived with while studying at BYU-Provo. Both of Elder Gong's parents trace their ancestry back to China, although his father's family emigrated from China to the US during the late 19th century, and his mother's family are ethnic Chinese who lived in Hawaii.

After graduating from high school in Palo Alto, California, young Gerrit served as a missionary for the Church in Taiwan. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree at BYU, then continued his education at Oxford University, where, as a Rhodes Scholar, he earned a master's degree and a doctoral degree in philosophy. He first met Susan Lindsay, the woman he would later marry, while giving presentations at the MTC focused on the culture of Taiwan, to groups of missionaries assigned to serve in that nation (Sister Lindsay, at that time, was preparing to serve her mission in Taiwan).

At some point following her return from missionary service, while he was on summer break from Oxford, the two began dating. After Gerrit returned to Oxford, he and Susan (who was a BYU student) continued their courtship long-distance The couple was married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 2, 1980, and raised 4 sons. They spent most of their married lives in Virginia and Maryland. Brother Gong became a special assistant to the US Secretary of State in 1985. He went on to be a professor at Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University.

He continued his career as a special assistant in the US State Department and as a special assistant to the US embassy in China. In 1989, he served as China Chair and Asia Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was also invited to participate in multiple education summits, in addition to serving on the United States Department of Education's National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity. Towards the end of his professional career, he served as an Assistant to the President of BYU for Planning and Assessment.

As impressive as his career may have been, the far more significant things he accomplished was in the course of Church service over several decades, during which he was a bishop, stake president, and area seventy. During his time in the latter assignment, he accompanied the presiding authority to my parent's Stake Conference. As he spoke, I was impressed by his warmth, knowledge of the scriptures, and ability to teach from them. While I may not remember any specifics of what he said, the power of the Spirit which I felt when he was speaking was unmistakable.

After that conference, I had the opportunity to greet and chat with him informally. What I had seen at the pulpit while he spoke was even more apparent in his personal interactions with me and other members of my parent's stake. This is a man who feels and teaches by the Spirit. During the April 2010 General Conference, Elder Gong was among those called as a General Authority Seventy. He filled various assignments at Church headquarters for the first year or so after his call. From August 2011-August 2013, he served in the Asia Area Presidency as a counselor. In 2013, he was called as president of that same area.

As a result of Elder Ronald A. Rasband's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the October 2015 General Conference, Elder Gong was called to the Presidency of the Seventy on October 6, 2015. He transitioned out of his role as Asia Area President and into that new assignment effective January 4, 2016. During his two years of active service in the Presidency of the Seventy, he had responsibility for overseeing the work of the Church in the North America Northeast Area. He also served on the Church Board of Education and Boards of Trustees, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Boards.Following the October 2017 and January 2018 deaths of Elder Robert D. Hales and Church President Thomas S. Monson, new Church President Russell M. Nelson called both Elder Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares to serve as members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, marking history as the first Asian American and Latin American apostles of the Church.. They were sustained as such on March 31, 2018, and both were ordained to the apostleship the following Thursday (April 5, 2018).

Consistent with the general practice of the Church, and for the first time since the October 2015 appointments of Elders Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund, with the two apostles called, sustained, and ordained on the same day, Elder Gong, who is older, became the senior apostle to Elder Soares. In June 2018, Elders Gong and Soares met with representatives of the media for the first time as new apostles, at which time Elder Gong reported that he had been asked to chair the Scriptures Committee. He also serves as a member of the Priesthood and Family Executive Council, the Leadership and Training Committee, and the Outreach Committee, and had apostolic oversight for the Asia and Asia North Areas.

Elder Gong has given a total of 8 addresses in General Conference thus far, which includes 1 as a General Authority, 1 other given while he served in the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 6 since beginning his service in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Due to his potential exposure to COVID-19 (for which he tested positive a few days later), he had pre-recorded his remarks in the days leading up to the most recent General Conference. Having successfully completed his quarantine, he was able to preside at the groundbreaking for the Taylorsville Utah Temple later that month.

And because he had originally been assigned to preside at the dedication of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, even though that event has been postponed, hopefully 2021 will see Elder Gong able to preside at that event or another temple dedication. I am grateful to have been able to honor Elder Gong on this, his 67th birthday. Because of my previously-referenced personal interaction with him, I can testify that the Lord has prepared him for his present assignment, and I whole-heartedly sustain him and the other 14 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple To Reopen Under Phase 3 Next Week; Site Location Announced for the Lindon Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! Two breaking temple developments have been announced by the Church wintin the last hour. First of all, a couple of weeks ago, the Church announced that some temples would soon reopen under phase 3 of the four-phase plan. Phase 3 allows the scheduling of limited proxy work, where local COVID-19 conditions and restrictions allow, and as scheduled. The first four temples set to reopen in that phase were based in the Pacific Islands and the Asia North Area of the Church. The Taipei Taiwan Temple became the first of those to reopen under phase 3, which became effective today.

Today, the Church announced that the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple will be the second of the original four announced to reopen under phase 3, and that change will go into effect next week. That is the one and only change in the phased reopening of temples that will go into effect next week. As of today, 11 temples remain in a "paused" status in their reopening due to local COVID-19 conditions and restrictions. 23 others remain in phase 1 of the reopening process, whiich allows for limited living husband-to-wife sealings were both individuals have previously been endowed. 

The reamining 121 temples that are reeopened remain in phase 2, which allows for all living ordinances, with priority given first to previously-endowed couples to be sealed in the temple, then to those preparing to be married who have not yet received those ordinances, then to missionaries already out in the field who were not able to receive those ordinances before their departure, then to all missionaries preparing to go out into the mission field, then to anyone else who may need to receive their own ordiancnes for any other reason.

I am grateful that the phased reopening of temples continues relatively unabated, and if that were the only news to report today, I'd be happy enough. But the Newsroom also reported today on the announcement of the location and preliminary details for the Lindon Utah Temple. Utah County's newest temple had been announced in General Conference two months ago, and the confirmation of the first official initial details today makes sense in light of the fact that the Church has announced temple locations for many United States cities of late within 2-3 months of the original announcement for that temple.

So let's get to the details. The Lindon Utah Temple is planned to be a 3-story edifice of roughly 81,000 square feet and will be built on property near 800 East and Center Street in Lindon. In the coming days, project managers will beging working with city leaders through the approvals process for that temple. One the necessary approvals and permits are issued, the Church will then set a groundbreaking time-frame for the temple. An exterior rendering for that temple will also be released once the necessary approvals are given for that.

Today's announcement marks the first time in roughly two months since the Church last announced any offficial details for previously-announced temples. This is also the first time the Church has identified a temple site without releasing a temple rendering at the same time since the announcement of the temple for Syracuse Utah, for which the preliminary information was announced on August 28. We see from this announcement that the Church continues to work on the current queue of announced temples. It will be interesting to see if any other announcements related to temple construction are made before the end of this year.

I will keep tabs on all those developments, in addition to all Church news updates, and will provide information about all of that here as I become aware of it. 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: Ground Broken for the Mendoza Argentina Temple

NOTE: This post was originally published to this blog on December 16, 2020, at 6:28 PM MST, but the third-to-last and second-to-last paragraphs were added  above that last paragraph of this post on December 17, with the updated post published just before 4:00 PM the following day.

Hello again, everyone! Breaking temple news has just been brought to my attention in these early evening hours of December 16. As confirmed by the Church of Jesus Christ Temples site, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mendoza Argentina Temple is set to occur tomorrow, Thursday December 17, at an undisclosed time. That temple's groundbreaking had been set to occur in November, but due to COVID-19 conditions in the Argentine province of Mendoza, that had to be delayed 2.5 weeks into mid-December.I am grateful to have been able to learn of and pass along this update. 

I had been reasonably certain that the Church would try to hold al the remaining temple groundbreakings for this year by no later than one week before Christmas Day (which would be Friday December 18), and it's nice to have that confirmed. With the groundbreaking queue cleared that much in advance of Christmas Day, I'm also certain that, at some point after Christmas and leading up to the new year, the standard announcements might be made of any changes to missions around the world and also relative to any groundbreaking ceremonies that might occur in January-March. 

You can count on my coverage of these developments as they occur. In the meantime, once sources are available confirming that the groundbreaking for this temple has actually occurred, they will be added to this post in some way, which will eliminate the need to cover that in a new post, or in the comment threads of this once that has occurred. For now, my thanks once again to you all.

Hello again, everyone! At some point this afternoon (December 17), an official report from the Newsroom was provided to confirm that the groundbreaking for this temple has indeed taken place. The Church has thus broken ground for 21 temples this year alone, which is an increase of 10 from the number for which ground was broken last year. 

The queue of temples for which a groundbreaking was set to occur this year has been completely cleared. so hopefully the Church will soon be able to announce other groundbreakings.And again, I am not entirely sure how soon construction might begin on any of the now-10 temples for which that process is currently pending, I am hopeful that at least a couple of these temples might have that occur. I will be most interested to see what happens with respect to temple construction to close out the year. 

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: Further Adjustments Announced to More Fully Align Seminary and Institute with the "Come Follow Me" Curriculum

Hello again, everyone! As some of you might recall, in March of last year, Church leaders announced that  the seminary curriculum schedule would be adjusted to align with "Come Follow Me" starting this year. Fast forward to today. The Church just announced a short while ago that additional adjustments are on the way for seminary students in 2021. Previously, the seminary study involved a 9-month schedule aligned with corresponding reading assignments for other Church Sunday School classes and home study schedulee, with students essentially being placed on the honor system to continue their personal study of the applicable book of scripture when school was not in session during the summer months.

In order to ensure greater accountability in personal study with the seminary curriculum, Church leaders today unveiled new requirements that are consistent with standards that existed when I was in seminary 16-19 years ago (Has it really been that long? Apparently so.) During the period of time when school is not in session, seminary students will be responsible for reading through the curriculum and essentially learning the lessons personally when they are not being taught in class (that had only been optional wihen last year's announcement was made.)

Additionally, a new reading requirement will go into effect, In order to obtain seminary credit for any given academic semester, students will need to read in the relevant book of scripture 75% of the days in each semester. With a school year in the United States lasting roughly 180 days, each semester is roughly 90 days, which means that, in order to obtain seminary credit for any 90-day semester, students in the United States will be required to read from the relevant book of scripture 67-68 of those days.

Despite the relatively minor adjustments made to the seminary curriculum and requirements, this is another example of the Church taking action to place more responsibility for spirtual growth and progression on the shoulders of seminary students in this particular case, which is similar to individual and familial responsibility that has been put into place in conjunction with the "Come Follow Me" curriculum. Any additional details on this development can be found in the official notice that was released in conunction with this announcment. I am grateful to have been able to learn of and pass along this news.

I continue to monitor all other Church news and temple developments, and will be sure to pass word of those along to you all as they occur. 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.

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BREAKING NEWS: Taipei Taiwan Temple To Shift to Phase 3 of Reopening; Parents Can Now Manage an LDS Account for Their Children

Note: This post was originally published at 10:28 AM, with subsequent updates added at around 4:00 PM.

Hello again, everyone! The Newsroom and the Church News have noted that the Taipei Taiwan Temple will be the first to shift to phase 3 of reopening one week from today (Monday December 21). Phase .3 allows for limited proxy work and all living ordinances to be performed. The Asia North and Pacific Areas of the Church have seen specific success in controlling the conditions of the pandemic.

On that same date, the Tegucigalpa Honduras Temple will shift from phase 1 to phase 2. Phase 2 allows all living ordinances to be performed, with priority given to temple sealings for those previously endowed, then to living ordinances for those preparing for a temple sealing who have not received those ordinances, then to all misionaries currently out in the field who were not able to receive those ordinances prior to commencing that service, then to those who are preparing to depart for the mission field, and finally, to any others who may need to receive their own ordinances for any other reason.

Additional information on this can be found in the Church News' new temple tracker, with further information available through the Newsroom's official update. Consistent with the practices observed by the Church since the pandemic led to the closure of all temples, the general leaders of the Church are making decisions regarind the phased reopening of each temple based on information received from congregational leaders, and area, mission, and temple presidencies, in addition to monitoring any local or regional pandemic restrictions that has impacted and may yet continue to impact the phased reopening of all temples.

With numerous former physicians, surgeons, and other medical professionals in the leadership ranks of the Church, and bearing in mind how many governmental leaders are being cavalier in terms of their lack of support for recommendations provided by competent medical professionals, it is heartening to see the way the Church has been able to keep their adustments consistent with what is safest for all members of the Church wherever they may live.

The Newsroom also covered an additional breaking development, announcing that parents now have the option to manage an official Church account for their children. Technically, each member of the Church with a valid membership record is capable of setting up and managing their own accounts. But any Church member under 18 needs parental permission to set up their individual accounts, so this step of allowing parents to manage their children's accounts through their own accounts eliminates problems that previously existed in that respect.

Additionally, over time, Church leaders have noted that many children and youth who had managed their own accounts from the time they were set up have experienced problems remembering their login information over time. Adding parentral controls for Church accounts for those under 18 eliminates that particular problem as well. In conunction with this change, the Church has added a more flexible way to recover an account, which had not been enabled before now. The Account Recovery feature will particularly help in view of the fact that only one Church account can be established per member (since member accounts are tied to a specific and unique membership record number).

I am grateful to have been able to learn about and pass along this report of these developments. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will be sure to pass those along to you all here as I become aware of such reports. 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.