Hello, everyone! While I have not forgotten my promise to post about President Uchtdorf's birthday, and while I am actively working on getting that put together to post shortly here, there was yet another apostolic coincidence that I learned of recently, and it is well deserving of a mention here. So, what is that latest coincidence? Let's talk about that.
In early June 2007, amid the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, who was serving as the second most senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and was just 10 months away from the time he would be called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which, though he did not have any idea that would happen, was surely known to the Lord), had a supervisory role in overseeing the Church response to Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of that natural disaster, and knowing that many Saints had been forced to move out of the Slidell Louisiana Stake and find both new homes and work outside of the storm's destruction zone, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave Elder Christofferson the assignment to go supervise the dissolution of that stake.
It was a sad day for all concerned, but the remaining members in the region gave their full support to this decision. Fast forward now to the middle of October 2017. Having been an apostle of the Church for almost 10 years, and following General Conference, Elder Christofferson was given the joyful assignment to represent his Brethren in the apostleship by returning to the Slidell Louisiana region, this time to reorganize the stake he had dissolved over 10 years earlier.
Elder Christofferson commented to the Church News that he told the Saints in that area that he was pleased to fill this assignment, which, as he put it, gave him the opportunity to repent and redo what he had undone a decade before. As further evidence that the Lord not only knew this situation would happen the way it did (including that Elder Christofferson would be an apostle when he was sent to reestablish the stake he had previously dissolved), the Lord indicated to him that the man who should be the first president of the reinstated stake was a man who had, not coincidentally, given a prayer at the gathering 10 years earlier when the stake had been disbanded.
It was awesome to read the account the Church News shared in publishing this story. You can find that article here. This is yet another witness to me that the Lord is, in a very real way, clearly involved in the minute details of the lives of each of us. I am confident that each one of us could share many examples of how such coincidences have occurred in our own lives, and while it may seem that the leading Brethren have such things occur more often than the rest of us, I am grateful to testify that I know for myself how mindful the Lord is of each of us as individuals. In His infinite wisdom and compassion, He orchestrates events in our lives that are not in any way random or happenstance, that demonstrate His tender mercies in the details of our lives.
I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to share all of this with each of you today. That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Elder Christofferson reorganizes a stake he was once sent to dissolve
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.
President Nelson Will Preside at the Inauguration of BYU-Pathway Worldwide President Clark G. Gilbert
Hello, everyone! As one who has done extensive study on what happens when the Church President is dealing with age- or health-related issues that prevent him from actively presiding over Church matters, the remaining First Presidency members (in this case, Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf) from time to time have the option of delegating responsibilities to the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, whether or not those assignments and responsibilities relate to assignments in which he is taking an active part. That happened just recently. So what is it that Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf have asked President Nelson to do? Read on for more on that.
As I mentioned in another blog post earlier this year, the Church Educational System membership expanded earlier this year to include four members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (Elders Oaks and Holland, who serve on the Executive Committee, and were on the Board prior to the changes), and Elders Bednar and Renlund, who were added when membership expanded), Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse, Elder Hallstrom (who continued his role on the Board after his release from the Presidency of the Seventy, while Elder Gong represents the Presidency of the Seventy on the Board), and the Young Women, Young Men, and Relief Society General Presidents (the RS and YW Presidents were part of the board prior to the changes, but the YM President was added when board membership was expanded).
With all of that in mind, it was significant to me that Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf, who serve as First and Second Vice Chairmen on the Board, have given President Nelson, who has no direct role on the Board, the assignment to represent them in presiding at the inauguration ceremony for BYU-Pathway Worldwide President Clark G. Gilbert. The new organization, announced earlier this year, allows groups of students in the BYU program to gather together at various locations worldwide for their study and certification, rather than having to negotiate being on the BYU campus. The new organization, administered from Salt Lake City, is an official secondary educational organization that had started at BYU-Idaho. While the appointment of President Gilbert had been announced earlier this year (as he was serving as President of BYU-Idaho), he has not yet been inaugurated. That is set to happen 10 days from now, on November 16.
The inauguration of President Gilbert is set to include a charge he will be given during the event that will give him guidelines to use as he officially assumes this new assignment, though it is unclear whether President Nelson will administer that charge himself, or if he will call on one of the four members of the Quorum of the Twelve serving on the Board to do so. For more on what is known about this event, the official article from the Church News on that subject can be found here.
I will be back later on today to post the birthday tribute to President Uchtdorf, who is celebrating his 77th birthday today. That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you in all that you do.
As I mentioned in another blog post earlier this year, the Church Educational System membership expanded earlier this year to include four members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (Elders Oaks and Holland, who serve on the Executive Committee, and were on the Board prior to the changes), and Elders Bednar and Renlund, who were added when membership expanded), Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse, Elder Hallstrom (who continued his role on the Board after his release from the Presidency of the Seventy, while Elder Gong represents the Presidency of the Seventy on the Board), and the Young Women, Young Men, and Relief Society General Presidents (the RS and YW Presidents were part of the board prior to the changes, but the YM President was added when board membership was expanded).
With all of that in mind, it was significant to me that Presidents Eyring and Uchtdorf, who serve as First and Second Vice Chairmen on the Board, have given President Nelson, who has no direct role on the Board, the assignment to represent them in presiding at the inauguration ceremony for BYU-Pathway Worldwide President Clark G. Gilbert. The new organization, announced earlier this year, allows groups of students in the BYU program to gather together at various locations worldwide for their study and certification, rather than having to negotiate being on the BYU campus. The new organization, administered from Salt Lake City, is an official secondary educational organization that had started at BYU-Idaho. While the appointment of President Gilbert had been announced earlier this year (as he was serving as President of BYU-Idaho), he has not yet been inaugurated. That is set to happen 10 days from now, on November 16.
The inauguration of President Gilbert is set to include a charge he will be given during the event that will give him guidelines to use as he officially assumes this new assignment, though it is unclear whether President Nelson will administer that charge himself, or if he will call on one of the four members of the Quorum of the Twelve serving on the Board to do so. For more on what is known about this event, the official article from the Church News on that subject can be found here.
I will be back later on today to post the birthday tribute to President Uchtdorf, who is celebrating his 77th birthday today. That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you in all that you do.
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.
Meridian Idaho Temple Set to Begin Its Final Week of Open House Tours
Hello, everyone! With today being November 6, I have a post in the works for President Uchtdorf's birthday, which will be published within the next 12 hours or so, if not sooner. But I wanted to post now to note that the Meridian Idaho Temple is beginning its final week of open house tours. The dedication is two weeks from yesterday. After the open house concludes, the Church will ensure that the temple is ready for the dedication. Still no word on who will be in attendance from the leadership of the Church, but I will post information on that as soon as I find it. That does it for this post. Any comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless all of you in everything you do.
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, November 5, 2017
Apostolic Age Averages Updated; Summary of Remaining Apostolic Birthdays in 2017
Hello again, everyone! This has been a busy day for temple-related news and developments, but I wanted to switch directions, if I may, and focus a post on the remaining apostolic birthdays that will be observed before the end of this year, and to pass along updated averages for the First Presidency, 11 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the 14 apostles as a group.
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During the remainder of this year, two of our apostles will observe their 77th birthdays, President Uchtdorf tomorrow, and Elder Holland on December 3. Additionally, one week from tomorrow, the second apostolic birthday in November will occur when Elder Renlund observes his 65th. I will be honoring each of these men with a birthday tribute on or around each of these days. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, before mentioning the apostolic averages, I wanted to mention one interesting anomaly regarding President Uchtdorf. When doing my weekly update of the apostolic decimal and full ages, I discovered that President Uchtdorf today has a decimal age of 77.00, even though his actual birthday will, as noted, not be until tomorrow, which makes his full age today 76 years, 11 months, and 30 days old.
That said, here are the apostolic averages of which I spoke, current as of today. With the First Presidency having aged .06 decimal years since last Sunday (if we round up), they now have a combined 251.64 decimal years of life experience, giving them an average age of 83.88 years, to which President Eyring is the closest of the three.
With no word yet on who the newest apostle might be, the 11 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has seen an increase of their combined life experience of .22 years (.02 for each member), making that new number 819.94, which averages out to 74.54 years per member. Of those 11, those closest to the average are Elder Holland on the older side (at 76.92 years) and Elder Christofferson on the younger side (at 72.78 years). The two are currently 5th and 6th oldest respectively among those 11.
With the fact that the 14 apostles have each aged approximately .02 years within this last week, that puts the total life experience of them all at 1,071.58 years. And because of that, their average age individually sits at 76.54 years. The same apostles that are closest to the average age of the 11 are also closest to the average age of the 14.
As I may have previously mentioned, while there is always a chance that an older man could be called, I don't see anyone over the age of 70. The new apostle could fit anywhere between the youngest five apostles currently serving, from Elder Rasband's 66.75 years to Elder Stevenson's 62.25 years, or could even be younger than Elder Stevenson or slightly older than Elder Rasband.
I have mentioned this as well, but the oldest apostle called of the current group was Elder Cook at 67 years old. The youngest was, of course, President Monson at 36. By contrast, the youngest apostle called by President Monson was Elder Andersen, who, as already mentioned, was 57 at the time of his call. And the oldest called during President Monson's administration so far was Elder Rasband at 64. Of course, the age of any new apostle does not matter as much as his qualifications for the office, but it is interesting to think about where the newest apostle may fit among the others in age.
Enough of my ramblings. That does it for this post. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
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During the remainder of this year, two of our apostles will observe their 77th birthdays, President Uchtdorf tomorrow, and Elder Holland on December 3. Additionally, one week from tomorrow, the second apostolic birthday in November will occur when Elder Renlund observes his 65th. I will be honoring each of these men with a birthday tribute on or around each of these days. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, before mentioning the apostolic averages, I wanted to mention one interesting anomaly regarding President Uchtdorf. When doing my weekly update of the apostolic decimal and full ages, I discovered that President Uchtdorf today has a decimal age of 77.00, even though his actual birthday will, as noted, not be until tomorrow, which makes his full age today 76 years, 11 months, and 30 days old.
That said, here are the apostolic averages of which I spoke, current as of today. With the First Presidency having aged .06 decimal years since last Sunday (if we round up), they now have a combined 251.64 decimal years of life experience, giving them an average age of 83.88 years, to which President Eyring is the closest of the three.
With no word yet on who the newest apostle might be, the 11 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has seen an increase of their combined life experience of .22 years (.02 for each member), making that new number 819.94, which averages out to 74.54 years per member. Of those 11, those closest to the average are Elder Holland on the older side (at 76.92 years) and Elder Christofferson on the younger side (at 72.78 years). The two are currently 5th and 6th oldest respectively among those 11.
With the fact that the 14 apostles have each aged approximately .02 years within this last week, that puts the total life experience of them all at 1,071.58 years. And because of that, their average age individually sits at 76.54 years. The same apostles that are closest to the average age of the 11 are also closest to the average age of the 14.
As I may have previously mentioned, while there is always a chance that an older man could be called, I don't see anyone over the age of 70. The new apostle could fit anywhere between the youngest five apostles currently serving, from Elder Rasband's 66.75 years to Elder Stevenson's 62.25 years, or could even be younger than Elder Stevenson or slightly older than Elder Rasband.
I have mentioned this as well, but the oldest apostle called of the current group was Elder Cook at 67 years old. The youngest was, of course, President Monson at 36. By contrast, the youngest apostle called by President Monson was Elder Andersen, who, as already mentioned, was 57 at the time of his call. And the oldest called during President Monson's administration so far was Elder Rasband at 64. Of course, the age of any new apostle does not matter as much as his qualifications for the office, but it is interesting to think about where the newest apostle may fit among the others in age.
Enough of my ramblings. That does it for this post. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
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.
Additional Update Reported on the Fortaleza Brazil Temple
Hello again, everyone! It has been an interesting day because updates on temple-related progress keep coming in. I heard from a few sources just a short while ago that a vapor barrier and stone cladding was being attached to the Fortaleza Brazil Temple, and that is an additional development to the earlier report I received about the roof trusses being set for the adjoining meetinghouse (which I had mistakenly reported as having occurred for the temple instead; I apologize for the unintentionally provided misinformation, and am grateful to readers who have been good enough to catch this and other errors on my part and let me know about them. That aside, I have not seen anything that would indicate that this temple will be completed any earlier than mid-to-late 2019, and, as I have previously stated, I see that happening in either June or August (note that if it does happen in August, it wouldn't surprise me, as I have previously stated, if the open house is held in June, prior to the annual July recess for our General Authorities.
I am keeping my eyes open for any and all temple-related news, and I will continue to do my level best to post updates, including any changes to estimates I have previously provided, along with any clarifications or corrections of previously posted content, as I become aware of all of that. That does it for this update. Any comments continue to be welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
I am keeping my eyes open for any and all temple-related news, and I will continue to do my level best to post updates, including any changes to estimates I have previously provided, along with any clarifications or corrections of previously posted content, as I become aware of all of that. That does it for this update. Any comments continue to be welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in all that you do.
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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