On this blog, I, James Stokes, share insights and analysis covering the latest news and developments reported about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My specific emphasis and focus is on the ministry of our current apostles, General Conference, and up-to-date temple information. This site is neither officially owned, operated, or endorsed by the Church, and I, as the autthor thereof, am solely responsible for this content.
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Monday, April 25, 2016
Star Valley Wyoming Temple will have its Angel Moroni placed on the spire today.
Sorry about two posts in one day. Hope you guys don't mind. I wanted to let you know that at 11:00 AM this morning (11:00 AM our time and Wyoming time. Who knew we were in the same time zone!), the Star Valley Wyoming temple is scheduled to have its angel Moroni placed. What an exciting time we live in when so much is happening on the temple news front! I am keeping a careful eye on all temple-related developments and will put out an updated list whenever there is major temple news (such as a scheduled dedication, rededication, or groundbreaking) announced. Thanks so much to all of you for your readership. I hope my posts are helpful to you all. Have a great day!
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
PDF of May 2016 Ensign now available/How my predictions for the table of contents panned out
Hello, friends! Hope you all are well. I am posting today something I meant to address yesterday, but I ran out of time to do it then. As soon as the talk transcripts of the April 2016 General Conference were available, I right away did what I have done for several conferences now--put together my predictions for what a table of contents might look like for the Conference Ensign. I had meant to post that prediction on my blog, but something told me to hold off on doing so. Then yesterday, I was on lds.org and felt impressed to just check and see if the PDF of the May Ensign was available. I'm glad I followed that impression. The PDF was available, and I got an advanced look at what it looked like. I present to you the table of contents I put together, along with the actual page number for each talk or article (actual page numbers will be in parentheses). Since the number of pages of each talk or article is unpredictable, it is always intriguing to see just how right (or wrong) I am. Here's the list. Let me know what you think.
Possible Table of Contents for May 2016 Ensign
(Text in Parentheses indicates what actually was)
Session
|
Page
|
Title
|
Speaker
|
|
2
|
Conference Summary for the 186th Annual
General Conference
|
|
|
3
|
Indexes
|
|
|
4
|
Highlights from the 186th Annual General
Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
|
|
GW
|
8 (6)
|
He Asks Us to Be His Hands
|
Cheryl A. Esplin
|
|
11 (10)
|
What Shall We Do?
|
Neill F. Marriott
|
|
14 (13)
|
“I Was a Stranger”
|
Linda K. Burton
|
|
17 (16)
|
Trust in That Spirit Which Leadeth to Do Good
|
President Henry B. Eyring
|
SAM
|
21 (19)
|
Where Two or Three Are Gathered
|
President Henry B. Eyring
|
|
25 (23)
|
A Child’s Guiding Gift
|
Mary R. Durham
|
|
27 (26)
|
I Am a Child of God
|
Elder Donald L. Hallstrom
|
|
29
|
Where are the Keys and Authority of the Priesthood?
|
Elder Gary E. Stevenson
|
|
33
|
The Healing Ointment of Forgiveness
|
Elder Kevin R. Duncan
|
|
36
|
Be Thou Humble
|
Elder Steven E. Snow
|
|
39
|
“That I Might Draw All Men unto Me”
|
Elder Dale G. Renlund
|
SAA
|
43
|
The Sustaining of Church Officers
|
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
|
|
45
|
Church Auditing Department Report, 2015
|
Kevin R. Jergensen
|
|
45
|
Statistical
Report, 2015
|
Brook P. Hales
|
|
46
|
Standing
with the Leaders of the Church
|
Elder Ronald A. Rasband
|
|
49
|
“Whoso
Receiveth Them, Receiveth Me”
|
Elder Neil L. Andersen
|
|
53
|
To the
Rescue: We Can Do It
|
Elder Mervyn B. Arnold
|
|
56
|
The Sacred
Place of Restoration
|
Elder Jairo Mazzagardi
|
|
59
|
Always
Retain a Remission of Your Sins
|
Elder David A. Bednar
|
|
63
|
Family
Councils
|
Elder M. Russell Ballard
|
SPH
|
67 (66)
|
The Price of
Priesthood Power
|
President Russell M. Nelson
|
|
75 (70)
|
The Greatest
Leaders are the Greatest Followers
|
Stephen W. Owen
|
|
78 (77)
|
In Praise of
Those Who Save
|
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
|
|
82 (81)
|
Eternal
Families
|
President Henry B. Eyring
|
|
86 (85)
|
A Sacred
Trust
|
President Thomas S. Monson
|
SUM
|
87 (86)
|
Choices
|
President Thomas S. Monson
|
|
88 (87)
|
Do I
Believe?
|
Bonnie L. Oscarson
|
|
90
|
Learn,
Listen, and Walk
|
Bishop W. Christopher Waddell
|
|
93
|
Fathers
|
Elder D. Todd Christofferson
|
|
97
|
See Yourself
in the Temple
|
Elder Quentin L. Cook
|
|
101
|
He Will
Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You
Home
|
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
|
SUA
|
105
|
The Holy
Ghost
|
Elder Robert D. Hales
|
|
108
|
Always
Remember Him
|
Elder Gerrit W. Gong
|
|
111
|
Refuge from
the Storm
|
Elder Patrick Kearon
|
|
113 (114)
|
Opposition
in All Things
|
Elder Dallin H. Oaks
|
|
117 (118)
|
The Power of
Godliness
|
Elder Kent F. Richards
|
|
119 (121)
|
And There
Shall Be No More Death
|
Elder Paul V. Johnson
|
|
122 (124)
|
Tomorrow the
Lord Will Do Wonders among You
|
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
|
|
72
|
General Authorities and General Officers of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
|
|
|
126 (128)
|
Conference Story Index (They Spoke to Us)
|
|
|
127 (130)
|
They Spoke to Us: Making Conference Part of Our Lives
(Conference Story Index)
|
|
|
128 (131)
|
News of the Church
128: Conference Summary
128: New temples
129 (130): W.
Mark
Bassett/Mark
A. Bragg
130
(131): Weatherford T. Clayton/Valeri V. Cordon
131
(132): Joaquin A. Costa/Massimo De Feo
132
(133): Peter F. Meurs/K. Brett Nattress
133
(134): S. Mark Palmer/Gary B. Sabin
134
(135): Evan A. Schmutz/Joy D. Jones
135
(136): Jean B. Bingham/Bonnie H. Cordon
136-144
(137-144): Other Church News (Included all facets of temple-related progress made since last conference, including those announced during this conference)
|
|
|
144
|
Last Page of Conference Ensign
|
|
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Official Name Announced for the second Lima Peru Temple
Hello, dear readers. Just wanted to let you know the latest on the temple news front. The LDS Church Temples site reports that the Church has announced the official name for the second temple announced for Lima Peru. The temple will be known as the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple. I was surprised when I looked at the Church's Newsroom at lds.org and there was no mention of this. I did a little digging, and it turns out that the news item posted about the announcement of the four new temples had been updated to include the name of the temple in question. I will update this information on my personal temple construction progress list and post that list the next time there are any major changes to report. Hope you all are well. Thanks so much to all of you for your interest and readership. Have a good weekend.
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
KSL Features Two Church-related videos
Hello, all. I was just sitting here when I realized I forgot to post about two fun Church-related videos I've recently come across on KSL.com. The first features a darling toddler girl who became an internet sensation after the video of her singing "Part of Your World", In this sequel news story, the little girl offers an Easter tribute to the Savior with her sweet rendition of "Gethsemane". A link to the story and the video follows.
3 year-old star of "Little Mermaid" video sings song about Christ for Easter
The second is a parody of Adele's classic "Hello" song, written by two BYU students and featuring an excellent vocalist that strangely reminded me of my good friend Kent Willis. It's a genius video that some of you have no doubt heard about, but I just wanted to share it for the benefit of those who haven't had a chance to enjoy it yet.
BYU students create missionary parody of Adele's "Hello"
Enjoy!
3 year-old star of "Little Mermaid" video sings song about Christ for Easter
The second is a parody of Adele's classic "Hello" song, written by two BYU students and featuring an excellent vocalist that strangely reminded me of my good friend Kent Willis. It's a genius video that some of you have no doubt heard about, but I just wanted to share it for the benefit of those who haven't had a chance to enjoy it yet.
BYU students create missionary parody of Adele's "Hello"
Enjoy!
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Change to Open House Dates for Philadelphia Pennsylvania/Significant Posts about Church Growth from Matthew Martinich
Interesting developments on the temple news front. The Church has announced a change in the dates during which the Philadelphia Temple open house will occur, though the reason for it remains to be seen or officially made known. The good news is that this change in open house dates will in no way impact the dates of either the cultural celebration or temple dedication, which are still set for September 17 and 18 respectively. Originally slated to run from Friday August 5-Saturday September 3, the open house will now run from Wednesday August 10 (five days later than previously announced)-Friday September 9 (six days later than previously announced), so the open house will actually pick up 1 additional day in the process, allowing for additional visitors to the temple. I also wanted to let you know that I am keeping a careful eye on developments as articles are written about new General Authorities which will identify their quorum affiliation. I also wanted to remind my readers that an excellent article in the April 2016 Ensign by Elder M. Russell Ballard introducing Elder Ronald A. Rasband to the world.
Additionally, Matthew Martinich, whose interesting posts I frequently share, has done a number of noteworthy posts. He posted yesterday to let his readers know that the first stake in Benin is set to be created in 8 days. He has also posted about congregational growth by country for 2015 (devoting two posts to that very subject), the most populous countries without an LDS mission, the districts that are most likely to become stakes in the not-too-distant future, and a Church-growth related analysis of the temples that were announced in General Conference earlier this month. All of these posts are very interesting and well worth the read. Check out his blog by following this link. Hope you all are enjoying my posts!
Additionally, Matthew Martinich, whose interesting posts I frequently share, has done a number of noteworthy posts. He posted yesterday to let his readers know that the first stake in Benin is set to be created in 8 days. He has also posted about congregational growth by country for 2015 (devoting two posts to that very subject), the most populous countries without an LDS mission, the districts that are most likely to become stakes in the not-too-distant future, and a Church-growth related analysis of the temples that were announced in General Conference earlier this month. All of these posts are very interesting and well worth the read. Check out his blog by following this link. Hope you all are enjoying my posts!
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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