Additional Church News Resources Regarding the New First Presidency

Hello again, everyone! After a very long day yesterday, I am back to share some additional Church news resources about the new First Presidency. First, it is worth noting that the Church's leadership lists were updated with the changes yesterday evening.

With that said, the new First Presidency recorded these thoughts on social media in response to their newly announced assignments. The Church News also republished biographies of the new First Presidency that were featured in Church resources as a result of their original calls to general Church service.

For Presidents Nelson and Oaks, those appeared in the May 1984 Ensign, in the report of the conference where both were sustained to the apostleship. For President Eyring, the reproduction is pulled from resources the Church put out at the time of his April 1985 call to general Church service (which at the time was to the presiding bishopric; since he subsequently went on to serve in the Seventy, the Twelve, and the First Presidency, he is the only man in Church history to have filled all of those assignments.

Click here for President Nelson's biography, here for the one on President Oaks, and here for that of President Eyring. It was wonderful to read these words that were written about each of these men around the time their full-time service commenced. We now have the obligation and duty to sustain and support each of them individually but also collectively, as the First Presidency is the presiding Quorum of the Church.

That does it for this post. Any and all 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 everything you do.

Church News Articles Feature Responses to New First Presidency/Some Thoughts about Elder Uchtdorf

Hello again, everyone! It has been a busy day indeed in terms of my posting content on this blog, I just became aware of two additional articles the Church News has published about the reconstitution of the First Presidency. This article shares reactions to their new assignments from Presidents Oaks and Eyring. It is plain that President Eyring does not see serving as Second Counselor to the successor of President Monson, under whose inspired leadership he served as First Counselor, as any sort of demotion.

The same can be said for Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who returned to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles because he was not retained in the First Presidency after having served alongside Presidents Monson and Eyring. The Church News also featured his reaction to the change in this article, in addition to some thoughts expressed by his seatmate in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder David A. Bednar, who warmly reminisced in a tribute to President Monson in which he went on to share his support for the new First Presidency.

Many people have picked up on President Nelson's statement made earlier today in which he said that Elder Uchtdorf has already been given assignments which his service as an apostle since October 2004 and in the First Presidency for the last decade have been uniquely tailored to him.

While time may be needed to learn more about the nature and specifics of those assignments, it is obvious that President Nelson recognizes his administrative capabilities, and trusts him a great deal. It is also obvious that Elder Uchtdorf is unequivocally supportive of President Nelson's decision to have him return to the membership of that Quorum, and that it will not be a problem for him to do so.

In that regard, I also wanted to note a few things I found interesting, which I hope you will as well: The last time Elder Uchtdorf was listed and sustained among the membership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (in the October 2007 General Conference), only two other members of that Quorum (Elders Bednar and Cook, who was called during that same conference).

With his return to the membership of that Quorum now, he ranks as the third most senior member of that body . He has come a long way in the apostleship in the last 10 years, and that is reflected by the assignments, whatever they may be, with which President Nelson has entrusted him.

Additionally, while his time as a member of the First Presidency allowed him to give addresses in the Saturday Morning, Priesthood, and Sunday Morning Sessions, and while he led the Sustaining of Church Officers every April between 2008 and 2017 during the Saturday Afternoon Session, the last time he spoke as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (which again was in the October 2007 General Conference), he spoke during the Sunday Afternoon Session. And since that time, his assignments in the First Presidency did not present him another opportunity to speak in that session.

If, as I have theorized, the call of the two new members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles results in two veteran apostles speaking in the final session of the April 2018 General Conference, it would not surprise me if Elder Uchtdorf was one of those two. If you have any thoughts in that regard, please take your turn to "sound off" in the comments below to let me know. Your comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated.

That does it for this post. 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 everything you do.

The Unique Connection Between President Nelson and President Oaks/Verifying the Truth of Something I Previously Stated

Hello again, everyone! KSL aired a special tonight dedicated to President Nelson. In the course of that special, I learned about the unique personal connection that Presidents Nelson and Oaks have. Back when President Nelson was a practicing heart surgeon, President Oaks, a professor at the University of Chicago in the Law School Department was tasked with trying to convince President Nelson, a well respected surgeon, to relocate to Chicago and join that College's medical faculty. President Nelson was impressed by President Oaks's persuasion on the matter, but ultimately decided not to take that path. Several years later, when both were interviewed for the position of BYU President, President Oaks was appointed.

So by the time the two were both called to the apostleship at the April 1984 General Conference, they had known each other for years. They have been seatmates during the entire time they have served in the Quorum of the Twelve, and that personal affinity and camaraderie is no doubt what led to President Nelson picking President Oaks as his First Counselor.

Additionally, I wanted to confirm something I noted previously in a blog post: President Nelson looked haggard at President Monson's funeral because he had all the weight of being the senior apostle and not the mantle of Church leadership. But in watching the coverage of today, that mantle has clearly settled on him, and if he has anything to say about it, he'll be well enough to lead the Church for the next several years.

He will mark his 94th birthday on September 9 of this year, but I'm sure if the Lord wills it to be so, he could stick around not only to pass President Hinckley as the oldest living prophet and Elder Haight as the oldest living apostle in Church history, but we could even see him become the first centenarian prophet in the Church's history. And as previously mentioned, President Oaks has likely been praying for a while that his apostolic and now First Presidency colleague will outlive him.

Whatever might happen in that regard, you can depend on my ongoing reports here. That does it for this post. Any and all 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 everything you do.

Renovation Process Formally Begins For the Raleigh North Carolina Temple

Hello again, everyone! While I don't want to unduly detract from what occurred today with the reorganization of the First Presidency, at the same time, I wanted to note that formal efforts have reportedly begun for the Raleigh North Carolina Temple, where site clearing is underway, construction trailers are on-site, and a construction barrier has been put up before the process of  disassembling it occurs. Other than that, there have been no other developments in temple progress to report, so that does it for this post. Any and all 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 everything you do.

First New Stake Creation Reported for 2018

Hello again, everyone! This will be just a quick post to let you know that the Church has reported the creation of the first new stake in 2018, the Queen Creek Arizona Ocotillo Stake (unless I'm mistaken, the name is likely pronounced o-co-tee-o; correct me if I am wrong; I'm assuming it's Spanish). With as careful as I try to be not to step on the expert analysis of others on such subjects, I will not detail the affected units. You can catch analysis in that regard on the LDS Church Growth Blog in the coming days from Church growth expert Matthew Martinich. That does it for this post. Any and all 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 everything you do.