BREAKING NEWS: New Guidelines and Parameters Set for Saturday Evening Session

Note: This post, composed on Tuesday April 5, was retroactively dated April 2, in view of a major announcement made during the Saturday Evening Session that was inadvertently overlooked. It bears the date and timestamp which would have originally been applied, had the post been published after the announcement as usual.

Hello again, everyone! President Dallin H. Oaks, who represented the First Presidency at the request of Church President and Prophet Russell M. Nelson, announced a "new direction" involving the new guidelines and parameters which will be in place for the Saturday Evening Sessions going forward. He noted that the parameters of all General Conference sessions, including speakers and music, have been approved by the First Presidency. He then noted that the Saturday Evening Session will continue "for now", but with a different direction and focus than prior Saturday Evening Sessions have had. 

In the same way that Women's Sessions have been conducted by the presidents of the female-led organizations of the Church, any of the 15 General Officers of the Church in the 5 General Presidencies thereof may be called upon to conduct future Saturday Evening Sessions of General Conference. This will reduce and simplify the workload of the First Presidency as well. In general, the First Presidency has always been responsible for conducting all general sessions of General Conference, with the obvious exception of the Women's Sessions. 

There was also a period of time between 1981 and 1985 wherein President Hinckley was the only active member of the First Presidency, and with the approval of President Spencer W. Kimball, called upon President Ezra Taft Benson, then-President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, to assist in conducting the sessions of General Conference. 

So it will be interesting every April and October from now on to see what kind of session is held, to whom that session is directed, and how that will play into which of the 15 General Officers conduct that session. I am excited for the future of this session, and to see how long it might continue to be part of General Conference weekend. 

I am grateful to have been able to provide this report to you all here. I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple updates and remain committed to bringing word of those to you all as such updates are provided. In the meantime, 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 feedback offered is consistent with 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. 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.

UPDATE: April 2022 General Conference Predictions (Final Version)

Hello again, everyone! The window for discussion of my General Conference predictions closed 24 hours ago, so I wanted to provide a look at the final version of those. First up, as always, we have the projected speaker lineup. Given the fact that the Saturday Evening Session will be the Women's Session, in order to allow more general leaders to speak, I am predicting that 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will speak in each of the 4 general sessions. 

I have also discovered that, aside from doing so once as a member of the Primary General Presidency, outgoing Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham has not yet spoken in the Women's Session, so she could do so this go-round. What I don't know is whether this session will be different than its' predecessors as it will be held to honor the 180th anniversary of the formation of the Relief Society. 

I also think that, in view of this anniversary, the Church might opt to have the full First Presidency speak in that session. If that happens, then I assume neither of the counselors will speak in any other sessions. And I think that such an arrangement will allow more GA Seventies to speak during the other four sessions. Other than that, hopefully, the document detailing these predictions is self-explanatory. Feel free to post any questions you might have.

For my projected changes in general Church leadership, as noted in my post from earlier today, the Church presented releases for a few area seventies during the General Conference Leadership Session and presented a list of new area seventies who will begin serving. So that part of the predictions has already been resolved. 

But we don't know how many new GA Seventies will be sustained, whether any changes will be made in the Presidency of the Seventy, or what changes are coming to the Relief Society General Presidency and any other groups of general officers. Similarly, although I use a complex method to calculate the figures I've offered for the statistical report, there is no real way to tell how accurate those calculations might turn out to be. 

And although I do think it's safe to anticipate new temples as a sure thing, I have no idea how many (if any) new temples are on my general location list or the more specific list of the most likely locations. But I would in fact only be surprised if a hiatus on temple announcements occurs. It will be interesting to see just how accurate or inaccurate any part of these predictions could be.  Hopefully all of you, my readers, will enjoy following along with these.

You can count on my full report of the major announcements throughout this weekend. Stay tuned for all of that. In the meantime, 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 feedback offered is consistent with 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. 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.

UPDATE: Temple Construction Progress During the First Quarter of 2022

Hello again, everyone! As this last day of March 2022 draws to its' conclusion, I wanted to provide a look back at the progress the Church has made in the construction of temples as the first quarter of 2022 also wraps up. So for a refresher course, I am providing a look at where things stood as this year began. And as this first quarter of 2022 wraps up, there have been significant updates with the Church's temple construction program.

The Church has already broken ground for 1 temple this year, with 8 more temple groundbreakings set to occur during the second quarter of this year. 3 new temples have had dedications scheduled, all of which will take place during the next three months. The Church also defined, clarified, and expanded the length of the opening dates for the Washington D.C. Temple, and has announced the rededication arrangements for the Tokyo Japan Temple. While neither of those rededications will occur this quarter, that is also a positive sign.

Current temples have also been announced to shift to phase 4 as local conditions and area presidency directions provide. Oddly enough, this quarter passed without the Church announcing official details for any of the 4 US cities in which temples were announced last October. As we also know, 2 temples each are awaiting announcements of their opening or reopening arrangements. That number may increase in the next quarter, but hopefully official announcements are coming there as well.

I am likewise hopeful that the Church may release more official information (either just a site announcement, or a site announcement and artist's rendering, or a site announcement, artist's rendering, and groundbreaking arrangements for a few more temples this quarter. And, of course, we have the always-anticipated announcement of new temples likely to occur on Sunday during General Conference. 

Although I have provided an extensive list of locations in which a temple could be announced this weekend, I have also put together a more specific list of 16 locations in which I have felt a new temple could be announced this time around. As I've mentioned in the past, when Elder Kevin S. Hamilton presided at my stake conference in December, he alluded to the Church having more than 300 temples in various phases. 

Since there are 265 current temples in any phase, the Church might be looking to announce at least 35 temples. And since the number of temples which have had may soon have a groundbreaking scheduled is 8, announcing the smaller number of those 35 could allow the Church to focus on clearing the current queue of announced temples more before the October General Conference, then announcing a larger number of temples to total or exceed 35 could work out nicely.

With that being said, hope you all enjoyed this look back at temple construction progress during the first quarter of 2022. I continue to monitor all such developments, and will be sure to pass along any updates to you all here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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 feedback offered is consistent with 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. 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: 45 New Area Seventies Sustained; 1 Deceased; No Releases Noted

Hello again, everyone! The Church has reported this morning through the Newsroom and the Church News that 45 new area seventies have been called. Additionally, aside from noting that 1 current area seventy has passed away after a battle with stage IV cancer, no releases were presented. If any current area seventies are sustained as General Authority Seventies, I assume their releases will be presented over the pulpit this weekend. 

At a glance, it appears that a few former area seventies who have recently completed or will soon complete assignments as mission presidents will begin serving as area seventies again. I have a few minor personal issues to handle relating to my health today, but aside from taking care of those, I hope to be able to have a more complete analysis on the newly-sustained area seventies later today. 

One other note: last April, it was noted that Elder Christofferson presented the list of changes and that President Nelson then called for a sustaining vote. The news release this year mentioned nothing about who presented those changes. Further analysis from me will be provided later today. In the meantime, my thanks once again to you all.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Reopening Arrangements Annouced for the Tokyo Japan Temple

Hello again, everyone! At this early evening hour, I have breaking temple news to report. As shared by the Newsroom and the Church News, reopening arrangements have been announced for the Tokyo Japan Temple. Let's get right into the details: A public open house will be held from Friday June 3 to Saturday June 18, with no tours offered on Sunday June 5 or 12 (making the open house a total of 14 days). 

A youth devotional will be held on Saturday July 2, with the rededication thereof following the next day. President Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, will preside over the 3 rededicatory sessions, which will be held at 9:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and 3:00 PM on that day Tokyo time, which is 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM on Saturday in Utah, and the final session occurring at midnight Utah time when Saturday July 2 becomes Sunday July 3.

Unless I am mistaken, this is the first time since the Hinckley-era smaller temples that any dedication or rededication of a temple occurred in July, which typically marks the annual recess month for the General Authorities of the Church. But as recently as this morning, I had privately theorized that the rededication arrangements for the Tokyo temple might be one of the next major announcements made. And this will actually put the rededication of the Tokyo Temple occurring roughly 6 weeks before the August 14 rededication of the Washington D.C. Temple. 

I am grateful for this announcement. My research on the timing for other temple events indicates that we could see announcements soon for the reopening of the Hamilton New Zealand and Hong Kong China Temples, and that the opening arrangements for the Quito Ecuador, Belem Brazil, San Juan Puerto Rico, and Helena Montana Temples could also follow. My understanding is that New Zealand is hoping to reopen to the United States towards the end of spring or the beginning of summer in Utah.

But as always, COVID-19 has been the huge game-changing variable here. So I will be interested to see what happens with all such announcements in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, I'm thinking that any other temple groundbreakings might only be announced to occur after the annual July recess. I'd be pleased to be wrong on that, or on anything else, but for right now, it seems like the Church is easing into scheduling future events, which I think is a very smart approach.

I continue to monitor all such developments and will bring word of those to you here as I become aware thereof. In the meantime, 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 feedback offered is consistent with 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. 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.