Church gives update on health of President Thomas S. Monson

I came across this next news item about the health of President Thomas S. Monson while I had some down time at work. I'm not sure whether to believe it or not. I'm torn. On the one hand, the article in question makes reference to a Church news release I can't find anywhere, so I don't want to believe it. On the other hand, it appeared in several reputable newspapers (the Salt Lake Tribune being one of them), so how can I do otherwise but believe it? I will let each of you form your own opinions.

The article quotes a Church news release. The release purportedly says, "President Monson is 87. It's natural that he and others in church leadership are feeling the effects of advancing age. However, he spoke publicly at General Conference [last] month and attended all the meetings. He comes to the office every day, attends all First Presidency and committee meetings, leads the discussion and makes decisions."

"The statement, the first to address directly Monson's health, also noted that 'the workload of the First Presidency is up to date.'

"President Monson has always been private about his health, but appreciates the prayers and sustaining support of church members, as do all of the First Presidency and the [Quorum of the] [T]welve [Apostles]."

The news release goes on to state that prophets are called for life and never released simply due to the effects of aging. Some (mostly Church dissidents) have proposed that an emeritus status be implemented for all apostles (at age 90). But this is not the Lord's pattern. Apostles serve to their very last breath. And it is a wonderful system that allows us to draw upon "the wisdom of the ancients" for as long as the Lord wants them to remain with us. I felt certain that President Monson would live to break President Hinckley's record as oldest living prophet, but now, in light of this article, I don't know what to believe or hope for. One thing I am certain of. President Monson will serve until his very last breath, whenever that may be. And I for one still accept and sustain him as our prophet today, no matter what anyone else says.

Now you have the facts about this, insofar as they are in my possession. On to the next post!

Area Leadership Assignments announced for 2015

The Church has announced area leadership assignments for 2015 that will be effective on August 1, 2015. Last year's assignments were highlighted in the August 2014 Ensign. The changes effective will be highlighted in the August 2015 Ensign. But while we wait for that to happen, I wanted to post about them. I only include in my personal list those seventies who will experience a change in their assignment. There are no changes to report in the Presidency of the Seventy. In August, Ronald A. Rasband will mark 10 years in the Presidency, which is significant, as members of the Presidency of the Seventy typically serve 5-7 years. He marked 5 years as the Senior President of the Seventy over April General Conference weekend, which is likewise significant. None of the Presidency are turning 70 or even close this year.

That said, here are the changes, followed by a couple of comments on them.

First Quorum of the Seventy:

Yoon Hwan Choi (who completes a two-year assignment as president of the Seattle Washington Mission in July) will be the new Second Counselor in the Asia North Area.

Edward Dube will be released as Second Counselor in the Africa West Area.

Larry J. Echo Hawk will be released as Second Counselor in the Philippines Area.

David F. Evans will be the new Second Counselor in the Africa West Area.

Carlos A. Godoy will be the new Second Counselor in the South America Northwest Area.

C. Scott Grow will be released as Second Counselor in the South America Northwest Area.

Allen D. Haynie will be the new Second Counselor in the Philippines Area.

Paul V. Johnson will be the new First Counselor in the Europe Area.

Patrick Kearon, the former First Counselor in the Europe Area, will be the new President.  

Jörg Klebingat, the former Second Counselor in the Europe East Area, will be the new First Counselor.

Michael T. Ringwood will be released as President of the Asia North Area.

Jose A. Teixeira will be released as President of the Europe Area and will be the new Second Counselor in the South America South Area.

Francisco J. Viñas, the former Second Counselor in the South America South Area, will be the new First Counselor.

Scott D. Whiting, the former Second Counselor in the Asia North Area, will be the new President.

Kazuhiko Yamashita (who completes a two-year assignment as president of the Japan Nagoya Mission in July) will be the new First Counselor in the Asia North Area.

Jorge F. Zeballos will be released as First Counselor in the South America South Area.

Second Quorum of the Seventy:

Wilford W. Andersen will be a new Co-Supervisor in the Middle East/Africa North Area.

Koichi Aoyagi will be released as First Counselor in the Asia North Area.

Randall K. Bennett will be released as First Counselor in the Europe East Area.

Bruce A. Carlson will be released as Co-Supervisor in the Middle East/Africa North Area.

Larry S. Kacher will be released as Co-Supervisor of the Middle East/Africa North Area and will be the new Second Counselor in the Europe East Area.

Larry R. Lawrence will be a new Co-Supervisor in the Middle East/Africa North Area.

A couple of comments on this.  There will be a likely reshuffle at Church headquarters. Elder David F. Evans, who will take an assignment as Second Counselor in the Africa West Area, currently serves as Executive Director of the Church Missionary Department. Elder Paul V. Johnson, who will take an assignment as First Counselor in the Europe Area, currently serves as the Commissioner of Church Education. In my early predictions for next conference, I predicted that Elder Wilford W. Andersen, who will take an assignment as Co-Supervisor in the Middle East/Africa North Area, would be released from the Second Quorum of the Seventy in October, along with the others who had been called to that quorum in 2009. I guess I was wrong. At least about Elder Andersen. So there you have it. Area Leadership Assignments for 2015. More to come in the next post.

Montreal Quebec Temple Rededication Announced/Star Valley Wyoming Temple Groundbreaking/Temple Progress

The First Presidency today announced the rededication date for the Montreal Quebec Temple. The 86th operating temple will have an open house from November 5-November 14, not including Sunday November 8. The open house date range surprised me because it is only 9 days. But I guess that's enough time for that area. A cultural celebration will be held on Saturday November 21, and the temple will be dedicated the next day in three sessions.. As with other temples dedicated this year, the dedication services will only be broadcasted to saints within the temple district. The temple serves saints in Quebec and Ontario Canada and the US state of Vermont. This brings the number of temples that will be dedicated or rededicated this year to seven, with one more possible (Provo City Center). Depending on whether or not the new Provo temple gets dedicated this year, next year we could see as many as 10 temples dedicated or rededicated.

Also, I neglected to report that ground was broken for the Star Valley Wyoming Temple last Saturday by Craig C. Christensen of the Presidency of the Seventy. It is anticipated that the temple will be completed in mid-2017.

This puts its anticipated completion date ahead of that of the Fortaleza Brazil Temple. The anticipated Brazilian temple has experienced delays in the commencement of construction initially because of local opposition that the Church had to get around. Once that was quelled, it had to be redesigned to fit in with the city's plans for the area in which it will be built. Only just now is a construction team being assembled. So hopefully the Church will be able to meet its goal of completing it by sometime in 2018, if not sooner.

As I mentioned before, all but five temples announced have a site announced. (Urdaneta Philippines, Durban South Africa, Abidjan Ivory Coast, Port-Au-Prince Haiti and Bangkok, Thailand.) Of the temples that have had a site announced, three are very close to having a groundbreaking announced. (Tucson Arizona, Cedar City Utah, and Concepcion Chile). The remaining six announced could have their groundbreaking either this year or next year.

Also, the Church News has started posting about those called as new temple presidents for this year. Except for those temples that will be completed at some point this year, all new temple presidents will begin serving on or around November 1. Not counting any temple presidents that may be announced in the latest edition of the Church News that will be featured in the Deseret News tomorrow, 15 new temple presidents have been called thus far.

After having given the above updates, I feel it appropriate to post the latest edition of my list about temple construction progress. It's something I enjoy doing very much, and it is my hope that this list can be informative and instructive to my readers. All temple status updates are reworded from information on ldschurchtemples.com, which, though it is not an official Church website, nevertheless has all the latest information about temples. Since the webmaster of this site has a pipeline to Church headquarters, I trust the site implicitly, though some may be unwilling to trust it at all because it is not an official website of the Church.

That said, here's the list:

Temples Undergoing Renovation:

26. Mexico City Mexico Temple: Scheduled to be rededicated Sunday September 13, 2015.

86. Montreal Quebec Temple: Scheduled to be rededicated Sunday November 22, 2015.

91. Suva Fiji Temple: Anticipated to be completed in early 2016.

33. Freiberg Germany Temple: Anticipated to be completed in mid-2016.

8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple: Anticipated to be completed in late 2016.

Under Construction:

145. Cordoba Argentina Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday May 17, 2015.

146. Payson Utah Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday June 7, 2015.

147. Trujillo Peru Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday June 21, 2015.

148. Indianapolis Indiana Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday August 23, 2015.

149. Tijuana Mexico Temple: Scheduled to be dedicated Sunday December 13, 2015.

154. Provo City Center Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2015-early 2016.

150. Rome Italy Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.

155. Hartford Connecticut Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.

156. Fort Collins Colorado Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2016.

151. Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-to-late 2016.

152. Sapporo Japan Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2016.

157. Paris France Temple: Projected to be completed in late 2016.

158. Meridian Idaho Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2017.

159. Star Valley Wyoming Temple: Projected to be completed in mid-2017.

153. Fortaleza Brazil Temple: Projected to be completed in 2018.

Announced:

167. Tucson Arizona Temple: Construction approval phase; general contractor selected; groundbreaking pending.

169. Cedar City Utah Temple: Local government approval phase; site plan presented at January 2015 meeting; groundbreaking pending.

160. Concepcion Chile Temple: Approval phase; temple and site design plans complete; groundbreaking pending.

161. Lisbon Portugal Temple: Planning and approval phase; land purchase finalized; groundbreaking pending.

168. Arequipa Peru Temple: Planning and approval phase; final piece of land for temple site acquired; groundbreaking pending.

164. Barranquilla Colombia Temple: Planning and approval phase; temple and site designs complete; groundbreaking pending.

163. Winnipeg Manitoba Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.

166. Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.

170. Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple: Planning and approval phase; groundbreaking pending.

162. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

165. Durban South Africa Temple: Planning and approval phase; awaiting official site announcement.

171. Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

172. Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

173. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning phase; awaiting official site announcement.

I think I've "sounded off" enough about temple news for now. It's late, and I need to get to bed. Hope you all are doing well and enjoying my blog posts still. Stay tuned for a general update that will be written either tomorrow or Sunday. Thanks for your readership. I love being able to share my thoughts about my life and Church news with all those interested. Until I write again, all the best!

PDF of May 2015 Ensign is available

I am pleased to be able to announce that the PDF of the May Ensign is now available. Featured for the first time is a page containing highlights from the conference. Also, from this conference Ensign on, the General Women's Meeting will be featured first, as it is now officially the first session of General Conference. Before each Conference Ensign comes out, I make predictions about what the table of contents will look like. I then compare it to the table of contents in that Ensign and put the corrections in parentheses. I will include my latest one to demonstrate what I'm talking about.

Possible Table of Contents for May 2015 Ensign

(Text in Parentheses indicates what actually was)

Session	Page	Title	Speaker
	2	Conference Summary for 185th Annual General Conference
	3	Indexes
	(4)	(Highlights from the 185th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
GW	4 (8)	Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth	Cheryl A. Esplin
	7 (11)	The Family Is of God	Jean A. Stevens
	10 (14)	Defenders of the Family Proclamation	Bonnie L. Oscarson
	14 (17)	The Comforter	President Henry B. Eyring
SAM	18 (22)	“Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?”	President Henry B. Eyring
	22 (26)	The Plan of Happiness	President Boyd K. Packer
	25 (29)	We’ll Ascend Together	Linda K. Burton
	28 (32)	The Parable of the Sower	Elder Dallin H. Oaks
	32 (36)	Choose to Believe	Elder L. Whitney Clayton
	35 (39)	Why Marriage and Family Matter—Everywhere in the World	Elder L. Tom Perry
SAA	38 (43)	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	40 (45)	Church Auditing Department Report, 2014	Kevin R. Jergensen
	41 (45)	Statistical Report, 2014	Brook P. Hales
	42 (46)	Therefore They Hushed Their Fears	Elder David A. Bednar
	46 (50)	Why Marriage, Why Family	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	50 (54)	The Music of the Gospel	Elder Wilford W. Andersen
	53 (56)	Latter-day Saints Keep on Trying	Elder Dale G. Renlund
	56 (59)	Truly Good and without Guile	Elder Michael T. Ringwood
	59 (62)	The Lord Is My Light	Elder Quentin L. Cook
SPH	63 (67)	The Greatest Generation of Young Adults	Elder M. Russell Ballard
	67 (70)	Yes, We Can and Will Win!	Elder Ulisses Soares
	70 (77)	Fatherhood—Our Eternal Destiny	Larry M. Gibson
	77 (80)	On Being Genuine	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	81 (84)	Priesthood and Personal Prayer	President Henry B. Eyring
	85 (88)	The Priesthood—a Sacred Gift	President Thomas S. Monson
SUM	89 (91)	Blessings of the Temple	President Thomas S. Monson
	93	Returning to Faith	Rosemary M. Wixom
	96	Seeking the Lord	Elder Jose L. Teixeira
	98	Is It Still Wonderful to You?	Bishop Gerald Causse
	101	Waiting for the Prodigal	Elder Brent H. Nielson
	104	Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	108 (107)	The Gift of Grace	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
SUA	112 (111)	Preserving Agency, Protecting Religious Freedom	Elder Robert D. Hales
	115 (114)	Stay by the Tree	Elder Kevin W. Pearson
	118 (117)	The Eternal Perspective of the Gospel	Elder Rafael E. Pino
	120 (119)	Thy Kingdom Come	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	124 (123)	If You Will Be Responsible	Elder Jorge F. Zeballos
	127 (126)	Be Fruitful, Multiply and Subdue the Earth	Elder Joseph W. Sitati
	129	The Sabbath is a Delight	Elder Russell M. Nelson
	72	General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
	133	Conference Story Index
	134	(They Spoke to Us:) Making Conference Part of Our Lives
	136	News of the Church
	144	Last Page of Conference Ensign

I am constantly intrigued by how close and yet how far I come to what actually happened with the predictions I make. The most surprising thing about this table of contents: I didn't think President Monson's Sunday Morning talk would only take up 2 pages. I predicted 4. His talk was shorter than I thought. I am hoping and praying that by next conference, he will be able to give his standard 4 addresses, even if he doesn't speak at the General Women's meeting, which I am predicting he will since he didn't last time. When President Eyring spoke instead, I wondered if President Monson did that so he could speak at the October meeting when we mark the official 20th anniversary of "The Family: A Proclamation to the World." At any rate, I am glad for the way the table of contents turned out, and I can hardly wait for the actual physical magazine. I was so excited to see the PDF version finally available after waiting for it for several days that I just had to post. I hope I am not considered a weirdo for all these predictions I like to make. If I am, well, the shoe fits, so I'll wear it. Thanks for reading this post, friends!

LDS Church Approves Electronic Method to Submit Tithes and Other Charitable Donations/Supreme Court Hearing Arguments on Same-Sex Marriage

Two major things I want to discuss with this post. First, the Church has approved an electronic method for members in the United States to pay tithes and other offerings. Also, the United States Supreme Court is hearing arguments on same-sex marriage. Let's get down to business!

The Church has approved an electronic method for members in the United States to pay tithes and other offerings. This method has been beta tested in areas of the United States and will soon be available for all members in the US. Local leaders will be informed when it is available in their area. This is an exciting development. It means that tithing and other offerings can be paid from a bank account in addition to the old-fashioned method of cash, checks, and currency. It will cut down on the work the ward financial clerk has to do. As a former ward financial clerk myself, I can't begin to articulate what this means to me. It will eliminate the need for clerks to try and read different types of handwriting. Of course, members can still submit their offerings the old-fashioned way. But this will be a more effective method of tracking donations. And this isn't just for members. Anyone with an LDS account in the United States, member or not, can donate to any of the Church's funds. I can't predict how many not in the Church will take advantage of this, but I do hope that someday this may be a Church-wide development. More to come on this as information becomes available.

Also, the Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments on the legality of same-sex marriage and determining whether it should be an issue decided by individual states or not. Most of you know that I am in favor of traditional marriage between a man and a woman and that I believe this is the only type of marriage sanctioned by God. I believe the Bible when it says, "For this cause shall a MAN leave his father and mother and cleave unto his WIFE and they twain shall be one flesh." I would be pleased if the court decided that this issue should be left in the hands of individual states and voters to decide. A majority of Utah voted for traditional marriage  when the issue was decided here, but a federal judge took it upon himself to reverse the majority decision and make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states, whether that ruling was wanted or not. I believe that a majority of people in the United States favor traditional marriage. This belief has been solidified by the fact that the LDS Church was just ONE of several entities, religious or not, who joined together to send an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of traditional marriage. The church's position is firm and will not change, no matter what the world does or what the court decides. Utah leaders have appealed to the court of last resort to not have to recognize or perform same-sex marriages. But that appeal has failed. This issue will have nation-wide impact. Whatever the ultimate outcome is, I hope we can all be respectful in our discourse about the issue. I hope I have not offended anyone by stating my opinion. If I have, though, so be it. I don't believe I should have to keep silent on an issue important to me simply because it might offend someone. And since I am using this blog to "sound off" about important topics to me, I wanted to give my perspective on a potentially life-changing and game-changing issue. You can be sure to find the latest on this issue here.

I am grateful for these two important developments. I was anxious to share my opinion on both with this post. And now I have. I think I have "sounded off" enough for today. I will try to post on Saturday, if not before, with a general update. So much has happened since my last general update that I need to fill all of you in on. But life has caught up with me in a major way and I haven't had much time to write that update. So hopefully I will get to it then. Until I write again, all the best!