Transcripts of Talks from the October General Conference Now Available

Hello, everyone! With my continued thanks to you all for your ongoing readership and support, I wanted to let you know that the Church has now posted the transcripts of the talks from the October General Conference. You can find any talks you might like to review here. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. As always, thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord continue to bless you all in all that you do.

Houston Texas Temple Closed for Restoration

Hello, everyone! Just wanted to post a minor update to let you know that the Houston Texas Temple, which as previously noted, was damaged by flooding, is currently closed for restoration. It is not anticipated to take too long. And since this is a restoration (wherein furniture will be replaced, along with anything else that might have been damaged), a rededication will not be necessary. How grateful I am that the Church has experience with dealing with temples damaged by natural disasters. You can depend on my reporting any updates in temple news. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish you all the best and pray the Lord's blessings upon each of you until then.

Funeral Arrangements Announced for Elder Robert D. Hales

Hello, everyone! This may be old news to some of you (as I am coming to it a little late) but funeral arrangements were announced earlier today for Elder Robert D. Hales. Those services will be held on Friday @ 11:00 AM, For more details, click here. Any comments are, as always, welcome. For now, thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.

Updated thoughts on Church Growth so far this year/Potential Future Growth

Hello again, everyone! Thanks for sticking with me through all the many posts I have done in the last couple of weeks. The sheer volume of Church news there has been to report has been wonderful and amazing to consider. I appreciate your ongoing interest in and support. In this post, I wanted to share my thoughts on Church growth. These are just my own observations. Others do very well in terms of putting these developments into perspective. I won't take that from any of them, nor will I "move in on their turf." What I will do is offer my thoughts about what we might expect in terms of unit information at the end of this year, based on what has already taken place.

So first, as previously noted, there will have been a total of 53 Sundays by the end of this year. There are 13 Sundays left, which means 40 have passed. In those 40 Sundays, the Church has seen a net increase of 45 stakes. That means there has been an increase of 1.13 stakes per week (rounded up). If that continues for the remaining 13 Sundays, we could see an additional 15 stakes created, meaning the Church would have a net increase of 60 stakes for the year, which would bring the year-end number of stakes to 3,326.

The current number of districts (546) is 10 less than we had at the beginning of the year. As previously noted, some of these districts have been upgraded to stakes, and some have simply been discontinued. What has happened in each case has been well documented by others who have expertise in that area. It is sufficient for my purposes merely to note the decrease. Given that there are 10 less districts 40 Sundays later, that means we have lost around one per month. If that continues, we could see 3 less districts by the end of the year, which would bring the total number of districts to 543 by the end of the year.

The Church has also seen a net increase of 55 congregations. Therefore, in the 40 Sundays that have passed in 2017, there has been an average increase of 1.375 congregations per week. Therefore, in the 13 Sundays remaining, the Church could see an increase of around 18 more congregations. If that happens, the number of congregations by the end of this year (in most sources) will be 30,377.

But as also previously noted, there are between 75-100 "sensitive units": congregations which most sources don't count but which are noted in the end of the year statistical report presented in General Conference each April. That would put the actual number of congregations at the end of this year somewhere around 30,465.

That does it for this update on unit developments in 2017. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.

Some Thoughts About the Apostolic Vacancy

Hello again, everyone! Even though we do not yet have any indication when the funeral for Elder Hales will be held, and even though, with his death yesterday, it is awfully early to be thinking about the apostolic vacancy, I have taken the liberty of writing down some of my thoughts in that regard. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Apostles appointed during President Monson’s prophetic tenure have, at the time of their calls, ranged in age from Elder Rasband’s 64.7 years to Elder Andersen’s 57.7 years, having a range of 7 years. After Elder Rasband, the next oldest apostle at the time of his call was Elder Christofferson at 63.3 years, then Elder Renlund at 62.8 years, then Elder Stevenson, who was 60.2 years old, then, of course, Elder Andersen. Of the 14 apostles, they have ranged in age from the oldest apostle, Elder Quentin L. Cook, who was 67.1 years old at the time of his call, to President Monson, who, as we know, was 36.1 years old at the time of his call, which gives us a spread of 31 years between the ages of the two at the time of their call. The average age of the 14 apostles at the time of their calls was 57.98 years. As this data shows, the Church has no end of options in terms of the age of the new apostle. If the Church sticks to the average age at which apostles have been called during President Monson’s presidency, then the new apostle will be no older than 61.7 years. At a quick glance, that would include two members of the Presiding Bishopric (Bishops Causse & Waddell), three members of the Presidency of the Seventy (Craig C. Christensen, Ulisses Soares, & Patrick Kearon), and 39 General Authority Seventies.

The question arises, as it always does, would the Church look to someone internationally born, in the vein of President Uchtdorf, or would they tap someone American born who has international Church service experience? And would they look to someone with more experience as a General Authority, or someone newer? The most recently called apostle, Elder Renlund, was called in 2009. If we assume that the Church will look for a more-tenured General Authority Seventy within the age range above, who has international experience and is a US citizen, we have the following brethren:

1.      Elder Craig C. Christensen: 61.5 years old; called as a GA Seventy in October 2002; born in Salt Lake City; served a mission in Santiago Chile; mission president in Mexico City; served for four years as president of the Mexico South Area.

2.      Elder Paul B. Pieper: will be 60 on the 7^th of this month; called as a GA Seventy in April 2005; born in Pocatello Idaho; served a mission in Monterrey Mexico; moved to Kazakhstan, where he learned to speak Russian; mission president in St. Petersburg Russia; has served in the Europe East Area Presidency; coordinated Church efforts in the Middle East/Africa North Area; currently serves as a counselor in the Mexico Area Presidency.

3.      Elder Marcus B. Nash: 60.5 years old; called as a GA Seventy in April 2006; born in Seattle Washington; served a mission in San Salvador El Salvador; helped construct the Seattle Washington Temple; served as a counselor in and then president of the South America Northwest Area.

4.      Elder Kevin W. Pearson: 60.4 years old; called as a GA Seventy in April 2008; born in Salt Lake City; served a mission in Helsinki Finland; has served as a counselor in the Europe East and Pacific Areas; served as president of the Pacific Area.

5.      Elder Michael T. Ringwood: 59.4 years old; called as a GA Seventy in April 2009; born in Provo, Utah; served a mission in South Korea; President Nelson’s son-in-law; mission president in Seoul Korea; has served as a counselor and president of the Asia North Area.

There is always a possibility that the Church could choose an internationally-born apostle in that age range. If that happens, there are a couple of picks at the top of my list:

1.      Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse: 54.3 years old; called as a GA Seventy in April 2008, to the Presiding Bishopric in April 2012, and as Presiding Bishop in October 2015; born in Bordeaux, France; stake president for six years (from 2001-2007); area seventy for one year; served in the presidency of the Europe Area. When there were 3 apostolic vacancies to fill in 2015, I thought he might be called, but that didn’t happen.

2.      Elder Ulisses Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy: his 59^th birthday is today; called as a GA Seventy in April 2005; born in Brazil; served a mission in Rio de Janeiro Brazil; worked for a time as director of temporal affairs for the Church in Brazil; stake president in Brazil; mission president in Portugal; has served as a counselor and president of the Church’s Brazil South Area; counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency. I thought he would also be called to fill one of the apostolic vacancies in 2015, but that didn’t happen.

3.      Elder Michael John U. Teh, General Authority Seventy: 52.3 years old; called as a GA Seventy in April 2007; born in the Philippines; served a mission in Davao; worked full-time for the Church as a recorder in the Manila Philippines Temple; also worked as a manager in the Church’s Member and Statistical Records Division in the Philippines Area; was a counselor in a mission presidency and an area seventy; served as a counselor in the Philippines Area Presidency both prior to and after his call as a General Authority; served as president of that area from 2011-2013; has served as president of the Taiwan Taichung Mission since last year. After President Hinckley died, I was praying about the apostolic vacancy and felt distinctly that Elder Teh would fill it at that time. Almost 9 years later, there have been four other apostolic vacancies, and despite my feeling that Elder Teh would fill one of them, that has not happened. It could happen this time.