Possible Table of Contents for May 2017 Ensign

As per my usual custom, with the availability of the transcripts of General Conference talks that confirm the titles of each address, I have taken the opportunity to work up a possible table of contents for the General Conference Ensign that will be published later this month and will be delivered to all of us early next month.

I have based this table of contents on the past patterns that have prevailed with previous ones. I have noticed these patterns because it is something I have followed extensively. I have particularly noticed that the May General Conference Ensigns have typically been a 144-page issue, and that the November versions have only contained 128 pages.

For the counselors in the First Presidency and many of the apostles, the talks span three or four pages. Everyone else's talks, except President Monson's, span two or three pages. President Monson's talks have typically been either one or two pages since he has had his health issues. Also, for May issues, the chart of the General Authorities is contained on page 72, while it appears on page 64 for the November issue.

The locations of the features at the back of the magazine have sometimes switched in order, but there is enough consistency there to enable me to make a relatively safe prediction. And the other news section for each issue vary in content but have the same general features. I have felt confident enough to provide, for the first time, some of the things I think will appear as news items in this issue. Enjoy, and please let me know your thoughts.

Possible Table of Contents for May 2017 Ensign

[Text in brackets indicate the actual page numbers and features]

Session	Page	Title	Speaker
	2	Conference Summary for 187th Annual General Conference
	3	Indexes
	4	Highlights from the 187th Annual General Conference
GW	6	Trust in the Lord and Lean Not	Bonnie H. Cordon
	9	The Beauty of Holiness	Carol F. McConkie
	12	Certain Women	Linda K. Burton
	15	“My Peace I Leave With You”	President Henry B. Eyring
SAM	19	Gathering the Family of God	President Henry B. Eyring
	23	His Daily Guiding Hand	M. Joseph Brough
	26	Our Father’s Glorious Plan	Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
	29	Our Good Shepherd	Elder Dale G. Renlund
	33	Confide in God Unwaveringly	Elder Ulisses Soares
	35	Brighter and Brighter until the Perfect Day	Elder Mark A. Bragg
	38	Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives	President Russell M. Nelson
SAA	42	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	44	Church Auditing Department Report, 2016	Kevin R. Jergensen
	44	Statistical Report, 2016	Brook P. Hales
	45	Becoming a Disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ	Elder Robert D. Hales
	48	Songs Sung and Unsung	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	52	Stand Up Inside and Be All In	Elder Gary B. Sabin
	55	The Language of the Gospel	Elder Valeri V. Cordon
	57	Overcoming the World	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	61	Return and Receive	Elder M. Russell Ballard
SPH	66	Kindness, Charity, and Love	President Thomas S. Monson
	67	Called to the Work	Elder David A. Bednar
	75	Prepare the Way	Bishop Gerald Causse
	78	The Greatest among You	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	82	“Walk With Me”	President Henry B. Eyring
SUM	86	The Power of the Book of Mormon	President Thomas S. Monson
	88	A Sin-Resistant Generation	Joy D. Jones
	91	Don’t Look Around, Look Up!	Elder Yoon Hwan Choi
	93	Let the Holy Spirit Guide	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	96	Whatsoever He Saith unto You, Do It	Elder L. Whitney Clayton
	99	The Godhead and the Plan of Salvation	Elder Dallin H. Oaks
	102	Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
SUA	105	The Voice of Warning	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	109	To the Friends and Investigators of the Church	Elder Joaquin E. Costa
	111	Then Jesus Beholding Him Loved Him	Elder S. Mark Palmer
	114	How Does the Holy Ghost Help You?	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
	118	And This Is Life Eternal	Elder C. Scott Grow
	122	That Our Light May Be a Standard for the Nations	Elder Benjamin De Hoyos
	124	Foundations of Faith	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	72	General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
	128	They Spoke to Us
	130	Conference Story Index
	131	News of the Church 131: Taylor G. Godoy/Joni L. Koch 132: Adilson de Paula Parrella/John C. Pingree Jr. 133: Brian K. Taylor/Taniela B. Wakolo 134: Jean B. Bingham/Sharon Eubank 135: Reyna I. Aburto/Christina B. Franco 136: Other Church News (Including changes in Church leadership, the new Church Headquarters mission, Teachings for Our Times, any new scripture translations, and an update on temple progress worldwide, with special emphasis on the 5 new ones announced this conference)
	144	Last page in Ensign

General Conference Talk Transcripts Available Online

Transcripts of General Conference talks are now available online, which is excellent news. Click here to review those talks. What a wonderful time we live in where the words of our Church leaders are available so swiftly following each Conference. Enjoy!

Length of Apostolic Talks for last weekend's General Conference

One thing I do shortly after each General Conference is to track the lengths of the addresses given during each conference by our 15 apostles. This will be the very first time I have posted those times on my blog.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SPH)—20:08

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SUM)—19:14

President Henry B. Eyring (SPH)—18:24

President Henry B. Eyring (SAM)—18:01

Elder Quentin L. Cook—16:24

Elder David A. Bednar—16:15

Elder M. Russell Ballard—16:10

Elder Neil L. Andersen—15:52

Elder Ronald A. Rasband—15:43

Elder Gary E. Stevenson—15:28

Elder Dale G. Renlund—15:21

Elder Dallin H. Oaks—15:19

Elder D. Todd Christofferson—15:18

President Russell M. Nelson—14:50

President Henry B. Eyring (GW)—14:39

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland—14:33

Elder Robert D. Hales—11:07

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (SAA—Sustaining of Church Officers)—8:53

President Thomas S. Monson (SPH)—4:04

President Thomas S. Monson (SUM)—3:28

As you can see, President Uchtdorf's two talks in the main sessions were the longest, followed closely by President Eyring's two talks from the main sessions. All four of those addresses spanned around 20 minutes each, which has been typical for First Presidency members. Most of the talks by members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spanned 14 minutes at shortest to just over 16 at the longest, and President Eyring's address from the General Women's Session was about the same length. Elder Hales spoke for just over 11 minutes, which has been typical for his talk lengths in the recent past. The Sustaining of Church Officers usually spans between 5 minutes (in October) to 10+ minutes (in April). And President Monson, as before noted, spoke for a combined total of less than 10 minutes between his two addresses, which has also been very typical.

So there you have it. A first for this blog that I hope at least a few of you will find interesting. Thanks for reading this.

Rumors of President Monson's death are false; his hospitalization continues

There have reportedly been some unfounded rumors circulating today that President Monson died this afternoon. Though I am late in posting about this, the Church acted very quickly in debunking that rumor. President Monson remains hospitalized as reported earlier this evening.

If the Lord's prophet does pass away at any point in the near future, that will be subsequently confirmed by the Church Public Affairs department. In the meantime, I hope no one who reads this blog was duped in any way by those rumors. Click here for KSL's updated status report on our prophet's health situation.

In the meantime, I wanted to take this opportunity to reiterate my absolute testimony that the Lord is in control of if and when each prophet is released from his calling, and that release will only ever happen by death. Anyone who says the Church should be run by younger individuals, and that an emeritus status of sorts should be enacted for apostles and prophets, or that the Church should call a second Quorum of the Twelve to help shoulder the load is not at all being influenced by the spirit of the Lord. That is not the Lord's way of doing things. The pattern of apostolic succession has been divinely orchestrated, and we would be much better served to leave the release date of apostles in His hands. After all, He has been involved in this process for so very much longer than any of us will ever be.

For now, I feel that is sufficient for this post. Thanks for your readership and support. May God continue to bless our dear prophet, President Monson, and may He continue to be with those who assist him in carrying on this work. Thanks to you all for reading this. Comments are welcome, but please be civil about making them. Thanks again.

General Conference Speaker Predictions Results

Here I am yet again with what might be my last post for the immediate future. I am posting to share how my predictions for the speaking order turned out. I got several things correct, with many of the correct speakers either in the correct spots, the correct session, or having spoken at all. What was perhaps the greatest surprise in all of this was that I had the greatest accuracy I have ever had with my predictions for the apostles, and that we only heard from one female auxiliary leader during the last weekend. I had correctly anticipated that Sister Joy D. Jones, who has not yet spoken since her call as the new Primary General President, would speak during the Sunday Morning Session, but I had Sister Linda K. Burton speaking during the Saturday Morning Session, and that did not happen.

For the first time in a long time, the Young Men General Presidency member did not speak during the Priesthood Session. But he did during the Saturday Morning Session, and Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse, who I had predicted would speak during the Sunday Morning Session as his counselors had during the last two conferences, took the one Priesthood Session spot not filled by the four apostles that spoke during that time. In a first for him, President Monson opened the Priesthood Session with his brief remarks.

I correctly had the right Presidency of the Seventy members in the session in which they actually spoke, but the General Authority Seventy speakers were all mostly in either a different session or at least a different position from what I had predicted, and there were more than a few of them that spoke that I had not predicted, while some I was sure would speak did not.

As for the apostolic predictions, I had President Nelson in the right session but in the wrong position, though I had acknowledged elsewhere that President Nelson might be the last speaker in whatever session he spoke. I had Elders Bednar and Renlund reversed in the sessions in which they spoke. The same was true for seatmates Elders Andersen and Rasband. Though I did have Elders Ballard and Holland in the correct session, I had them reversed. I correctly had Elders Hales and Oaks in the exact positions in which they spoke. And I correctly identified the fact that Elders Cook, Christofferson, and Stevenson would speak in the Sunday Afternoon Session, but I had them in a somewhat different order (predicting Stevenson, Cook, and Christofferson, when it was actually Christofferson, Stevenson, and Cook). That said, as I have before noted, it has been customary to have to generally have at least one apostle in each General Conference whose place in the apostolic speaking order for that conference matches their seniority order in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. For this conference, I had President Nelson, our most senior member and therefore the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as the first speaker from that quorum. But what actually happened was that our second-to-last of those Twelve was the second-to-last Quorum member to speak.

That said, what follows are the predictions I gave for the speaking order, and the report of the actual speakers, whose names appear in brackets. Before I post that, I do want to note that my overall average for these predictions (which has been 60-80%) held true for this conference (for which I scored myself at a very respectable 68.21%). I was on the lower end than I have been in the last several conferences, but that is still not bad for being what it what was.

And, in other news, I got my predictions together for next General Conference already, but I will wait for a time to post those. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, here are my predictions vs. what actually happened.

April 2017 General Conference Predictions

Speaking Order (Text in brackets indicated what actually happened.)

Session	Conducting	Speaker
General Women’s	Bonnie L. Oscarson	Bonnie H. Cordon
	[Carol F. McConkie]	Linda S. Reeves
	[Linda K. Burton]	Carol F. McConkie
		President Henry B. Eyring
Saturday Morning	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Henry B. Eyring
	[M. Joseph Brough]	Elder Ulisses Soares
	[Elder Weatherford T. Clayton]	Linda K. Burton
	[Elder Dale G. Renlund]	President Russell M. Nelson
	[Elder Ulisses Soares]	Elder O. Vincent Haleck
	[Elder Mark A. Bragg]	Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
	[President Russell M. Nelson]	Elder David A. Bednar
Saturday Afternoon	President Henry B. Eyring	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Sustaining of Church Officers)
	Church Auditing Department Report, 2016	Kevin R. Jergensen
	Statistical Report, 2016	Brook P. Hales
		Elder Robert D. Hales
	[Elder Jeffrey R. Holland]	Elder M. Russell Ballard
	[Elder Gary B. Sabin]	Elder Larry Y. Wilson
	[Elder Valeri V. Cordon]	Elder Ian S. Ardern
	[Elder Neil L. Andersen]	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	[Elder M. Russell Ballard]	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Saturday Priesthood	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	Elder Dale G. Renlund [President Thomas S. Monson]
	[Elder David A. Bednar]	Douglas D. Holmes
	[Bishop Gerald Causse]	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	[President Dieter F. Uchtdorf]	President Henry B. Eyring
	[President Henry B. Eyring]	President Thomas S. Monson
Sunday Morning	President Henry B. Eyring	President Thomas S. Monson
	[Joy D. Jones]	Elder L. Whitney Clayton
	[Elder Yoon Hwan Choi]	Joy D. Jones
	[Elder Ronald A. Rasband]	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	[Elder L. Whitney Clayton]	Bishop Gerald Causse
		Elder Dallin H. Oaks
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Sunday Afternoon	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	Elder Gary E. Stevenson [Elder D. Todd Christofferson]
	[Elder Joaquin E. Costa]	Elder Gary B. Sabin
	[Elder S. Mark Palmer]	Elder Yoon Hwan Choi
	[Elder Gary E. Stevenson]	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	[Elder C. Scott Grow]	Elder Jose A. Alonso
	[Elder Benjamin De Hoyos]	Elder S. Mark Palmer
	[Elder Quentin L. Cook]	Elder D. Todd Christofferson

NOTE: Though I had noted on my predictions above that Linda K. Burton would conduct the General Women’s Meeting, when I was looking back at the predictions I made for the session originally, I had Bonnie L. Oscarson listed as conducting the meeting, and, according to the rotation I had observed in that duty, that’s what should have happened. And I should have double-checked on that. As soon as I confirmed it, I changed the information to reflect my original thoughts.