Minor Temple Updates (Including a status change for the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple)

Hello, everyone! As I previously mentioned, a new tradition on this blog will be brief updates relating to temple construction progress. In that regard, there are a couple of great things to report.. Let's get right into those details.

First of all, I have mentioned previously on this blog that I have been tracking the amount of time the Church has between the current date and Saturday April 6, 2030, when the Church will mark the 200th anniversary of its restoration. I have offered my opinion previously that the Church could easily have a minimum of 200 operating temples by that time. All it would take is for the Church to announce 18 additional temples and complete the other 25 in various stages. There are 12.47 years between now and then, which means the Church could easily have those 200 temples if 3 or 4 are dedicated per year within that time.

Additionally, as previously mentioned on this blog, we know that the open house for the Meridian Idaho Temple is set to begin this Saturday, and that the open house for the Cedar City Utah Temple will start a week from this Friday. Additionally, we also know that the groundbreaking for the Port-au-Prince Haiti Temple is set to take place ten days from now.

I also learned today that Elder David A. Bednar, who has been traveling in the Africa Southeast Area conducting an area review, has visited the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple,  where the steeple is being cladded and where roof shingles are being laid.

Aside from these updates, there has been no notable temple progress to report. Any and all comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. May the Lord be with and bless you all until my next post. Until that time, I wish you all the best.

PDF of the November 2017 Ensign is finally available

Hello, everyone! I am pleased to report that I found out earlier today that the PDF version of the November 2017 Ensign is finally available on the Church's website. I am still going over it as time allows, and will post within the next couple of days about how the table of contents I put together compares with what that actually looks like. In the meantime, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord be with you all until my next post. Until that time, I wish you all the best.

Updated List of Possible Candidates for the Current Apostolic Vacancy

Hello, everyone! I promised to do this earlier today, and now it's done. This is my revised list of possible candidates for the current apostolic vacancy. Time will tell how likely any of these men might be to be appointed to the apostleship. As always, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time, and may the Lord bless you all in all that you do.

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, and 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 and 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 (Elders Gong and Cook, who are on this list for the reasons explained below, are on there inview of their age, and because their experiences have given them qualifications that would more than compensate for having been called later than 2009.

Elder Gerrit W. Gong: 63.8 years old; called as a GA Seventy in October 2010 and to the Presidency of the Seventy in October 2015 (is currently fifth in seniority in the Quorum, which (which was Elder Uchtdorf’s status at the time of his apostolic call in 2004; well educated; has had a vice presidential role at BYU; born in California; has Asian ancestry (and would thereby have international appeal); served a full-time mission in Taiwan; is married to the daughter or Richard P. Lindsey, who was a GA Seventy; has been a counselor and president of the Church’s Asia area.

Elder Craig C. Christensen: 61.5 years old; called as a GA Seventy in October 2002; is currently the second most senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy (which was Elder Christofferson’s status at the time of his apostolic call in 2008, and before that, the status of Elder Faust at the time of his call to the apostleship in 1978); Elder Christensen was appointed to that presidency in January 2013 and has been the second most senior member of that presidency since August 2017) 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.

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.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.

Elder Paul B. Pieper: 60 years old (birthday was on the 7th 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.

Elder Carl B. Cook: 60 years old (birthday was on the 15th of this month); called as a GA Seventy in April 2011; born in Ogden Utah; served a mission in Hamburg Germany; mission president in Auckland New Zealand; has served as a counselor and president of the Church’s Africa Southeast Area. He also made this list because he recently filled an assignment from the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that is usually filled by an apostle. It is unclear why that was, but I recall that the First Presidency (consisting of Presidents Hinckley and Monson, after the August 10 death of President Faust), sent Elder Eyring on an assignment usually filled by the First Presidency, and he was called to that Presidency shortly thereafter. Given the nature of the assignment Elder Cook filled, the Church could be looking to do the same thing here as happened with Elder Eyring. That said, I have not been able to ascertain if Carl B. is in any way related to Quentin L., who was called as an apostle 10 years ago.

Elder Michael T. Ringwood: 59.5 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.

Elder Michael John U. Teh: 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.

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.

Elder Ulisses Soares of the Presidency of the Seventy: turned 59 on October 2; called as a GA Seventy in April 2005 and to the Presidency of the Seventy in January 2013 (is currently third in seniority in that Presidency, which was the status of Elder Neal A. Maxwell at the time of his July 1981 call to the apostleship); 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.

New Blog Tradition: Minor Temple Construction Update

Hello, everyone! Hope you are well. Following an excellent suggestion from a couple of my loyal readers, I am starting a new tradition on this blog: a short post highlighting changes in temple progress. Before doing so, I would like to apologize to you all. The reason for the new tradition stems from a suggestion that, with the longer reports, it is harder to tell what has changed. I have always had a problem being brief in things I write and post, and it is something I am constantly working on. I apologize for any inconvenience my lengthy posts may have caused.

That said, I wanted to report that VIP and media tours have begun for the Meridian Idaho Temple (full tours for that temple will begin this Saturday). And given that the open house is set to start for the Cedar City Utah Temple in 1.5 weeks, we can assume that media tours for that temple will likely start in about a week.

With those observations, there have been no other changes to report in terms of temple construction. Your comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each of you all the best.

Interesting Tidbits from the November 2017 Ensign (PDF version not yet available, though text is)

Hello, everyone! Even though the PDF version of the November 2017 Ensign is not yet available, the text of it is, and it appears that there are a couple of surprises in store for this issue. First, as observed previously, the latest editions of the Conference Ensigns have featured 144 pages (for the May edition and 128 for the November edition. However, given the new curriculum, the Church noted in the instructions for curriculum for next year that the conference Ensign (both the November and May editions) would contain the instructions for the next six month's curriculum on pp. 137-144. So it appears that every Conference Ensign for as long as this new curriculum is used will contain 144 pages. That is something we have not previously seen before.

Additionally, while the PDF version has yet to be made available, I also learned that the General Authorities Chart will be a four-page spread from pages 71-75. Additionally, there will be something very unique about this Ensign that we have not seen for a while. In view of the death of Elder Robert D. Hales, and because the resulting vacancy in the apostleship has not yet been filled, there will obviously only be 11 apostles pictured on the General Authorities chart. If the Church keeps to its tradition of previous times when this has happened, the six senior apostles (from Nelson to Cook) will be pictured on the top row, and the remaining 5 (from Christofferson to Renlund; which also comprise the apostolic picks of President Monson's presidency, on the bottom row).

As I always do, I want to put this development into its proper historical context. The last time we saw 11 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on a General Authorities chart was in the May 1986 Ensign. President Kimball had died about a month after the previous General Conference, and the First Presidency had been reorganized 5 days following that death, on November 10, 1985 (with Presidents Benson, Hinckley, and Monson). Whatever the reason, the resulting vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was not filled until the following General Conference, in that May 1986 Ensign, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles only contained 11 members.

As previously noted, we live in an interesting time. President Monson is the only current apostle remaining who was called during President McKay's presidency. All others senior to him, and the eight junior to him, who were called by other prophets, have passed away. President Nelson and Elders Oaks and Ballard were called during President Kimball's administration (with Elder Ballard's apostolic appointment coming 1 short month before President Kimball passed away). The three apostles appointed during President Benson's presidency have all passed away as well.

Elder Holland was the only apostle appointed during President Hunter's brief administration. Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf, and Elders Bednar and Cook received their calls to the apostleship during President Hinckley's presidency. And with the death of Elder Hales, whomever is called to fill the current vacancy will be President Monson's sixth apostolic appointment, which is significant when we consider that President Monson will have filled six such vacancies in the same amount of time that President Hinckley filled four.

I will, in the coming days, as more details become available, provide the results of how my projected table of contents for the November 2017 Ensign compares to what it actually looks like. In the meantime, any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each of you all the best.