A Comment About General Conferences That Coincided With Easter Sunday

Hello again, everyone! As some of you may be aware, Easter Sunday (at least here in the US) falls sometime between mid-March and late April every year. At times, however, we have seen General Conference Sundays coincide with Easter Sunday of that year. According to my research, the last time that occurred was in April 2015, and I am pleased to report that the first General Conference held during President Nelson's presidency will be another such example.

This will make the April 2018 General Conference all that more significant. I haven't been able to search back too far, but it would appear (again from my research, which may be flawed or inaccurate) that the April 2018 General Conference will be the first time in a very long time (if it has happened before at any other point in Church  history) where this one General Conference will mark the Solemn Assembly for a new Church president and the calling of two new members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles the day before the world observes Easter Sunday.

I find that significant, amazing, and humbling. Unless he opts to speak after the Solemn Assembly, the first opportunity President Nelson will have to address the general Church membership in General Conference will be Easter Sunday, and, unless he feels inspired to do otherwise, the Easter Sunday Session of General Conference will be filled with talks from six special witnesses of Jesus Christ, two of whom will be speaking to the Church for the first time as such. That is amazing to think about.

I apologize if I have bored or troubled any of you unnecessarily with this trivia, but thought it was worth noting. 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.

Some Thoughts on Valentine's Day and My Own Special Valentine

Hello again, everyone! I am back as promised on this Valentine's Day to share some thoughts, and especially a tribute to my own special valentine. It has been somewhat of a tradition on this blog that every Valentine's Day, I post a copy of the poem I penned in High School, entitled "Will You Be My Valentine", and add to that a brief tribute to my wife. This year will be somewhat different. Having noted in my last post the beautiful tribute Elder Holland published to his wife on social media, that seems to be a better context for what I would like to say in tribute to my wife, Amy.

As many long-time readers of this blog know, I first met my wife in early 2009 when I was serving as a temple worker. The moment I first heard her voice, I had the distinct impression she would be my wife one day. Perhaps unwisely, I shrugged off that feeling (as we were not able to exchange much personal dialogue at the time, and since I had never previously met her and had no idea who she was), and I promptly forgot about that impression.

By contrast, I later learned that our brief exchange, though no personal dialogue was involved, had left a favorable impression of me on her. And in retrospect, it was just as well that her neither of us sought out the other until later, since her focus at that time needed to be on her mother, for whom she had been the primary caregiver for the previous 15-20 years or so, and who passed away in Janury 2010.

In due course, Amy became a temple worker herself. And when her school schedule prevented her from maintaining her assigned shift (on Tuesday evening), and her only option was to move to the Friday evening shift (on which I had been for about 3 years at the time).

She instantly recognized and remembered me, although my memory of our previous encounter was not restored in full until several years after that. Because I have always been a people person, she was one of the many temple workers I talked with on a regular basis during times that were less busy at the temple.

We continued to chat, forming a strong friendship, and although I didn't know it at the time, we both wondered whether or not we were mutually attracted to each other. In point of fact, she had (again without my realizing it) just been waiting for me to ask her out.

But in view of a wide variety of factors (which in retrospect were far more minor than they seemed to be at the time), I had convinced myself that she wouldn't be interested in going out with me. But I had decided that if the Lord opened a way for that door to be open, I would walk through it.

And so it was that during a time when the temple was closed for cleaning, I got a letter from her indicating her interest in me and her willingness to work around whatever my situation was to enable us to spend time getting to know each other better. Although an unexplained error resulted in my first acceptance of that offer not reaching her, once I learned that response had not gone through. I sent it again.

Having ascertained our mutual interest, we went on 14 dates in the next 3 weeks, agreeing after the first week that the question of marriage would be when and how rather than if, as long as the Lord approved of that course.

On July 4, 2010, we fasted together and thereby determined that we should go ahead and get engaged. In the 5.5 months that followed, we saw much in terms of both blessings from the Lord and challenges in the process of preparing for our marriage. Because we knew the Lord had brought us together, we trusted His promises, and that trust proved justified, as we were able to be married on December 18.

In the 7 (going on 8) years since that time, although trials have continued (and at times have been quite severe), we have been reminded over and over again that, in terms of the many reasons the Lord brought us together, perhaps the most fitting were that we are so much on the same wavelength that we not only complement each other in the best ways, but more than that, each of us has been able to help the other with times when struggles have been particularly challenging.

I could not ask for a better, more wonderful, or more loving eternal companion. Particularly in light of the many additional difficulties with which we continue to grapple (not the least of which are those factors relating to how my health limits my ability at times to do as much as I would like to), my wife has shown me great patience, understanding, sympathy, empathy, and so much more.

She sees me not as I am now, but as I may become And that takes a very special and unique kind of woman. Because of that, and because of all she constantly and consistently does to keep us going, I owe her a greater debt than I can every repay.

And so, on this Valentine's Day, I am infinitely grateful to the Lord for placing her in my path 8 or 9 years ago. She is my best friend, my confidante, someone who can help me look at situations in different ways than I have previously done, and someone who never fails to keep encouraging me to become better than I am, and someone with whom I am always in good company.

We were best friends before we ever started dating, and that has helped us realize just how good we are for each other. I find it no accident that the Lord put us in each other's paths. I am so grateful that I heeded the spiritual prompting to continue my temple service beyond the original length that service was supposed to be. If that had not been the case, we would never have met.

And so I could go on. My point in mentioning all of this is to demonstrate that the Lord is at work in and very much aware of the details of our lives. That was true for me, and I know it is true for all who have lived, are living, or will ever live on this earth.

That does it for this post. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If any of you have comments or questions about what I have said herein, let me know in the comments below, and I will be happy to address those 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.

Additional Church News Reported

Hello again, everyone! It was my intention to do a post earlier today in honor of Valentine's Day (and in tribute to my wife), but had to postpone that until now while I attempted to deal with ongoing health issues. In the interim, I became aware of some Church news updates that were well worth passing along. So this post will cover those items, and the next will be the one I intended to do earlier today. With that said, let's talk about the news updates from the Church.

First, although it has not been reported in official Church news resources (which rarely, if ever, devote time to such things), the First Presidency has observed one full month of service together as of today. A lot has occurred within that time, and it is obvious that they have hit the ground running. If the last month is any indication whatsoever, then the remainder of 2018 will be full of many Church and temple developments and updates. And you can catch many (if not all) of those developments here on this blog.

Second, in connection with this Valentine's Day, the Church News ran this article highlighting a sweet Valentine's Day tribute which was published on social media by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland honoring his wife. His tribute makes it clear how successful marriages are established and maintained. Next, in this article, dates and featured speakers were announced for BYU's annual Church History Symposium.

And as reported here, BYU hosted a forum today featuring the former US Chief Data Scientist, who spoke on the importance of gathering and sharing information and data. We do live in a remarkable time when data can be gathered, assimilated, analyzed, adapted, and shared on a scale and to a degree that we have not seen before in the world's history, and I hope the things I share on this blog agree with the principles taught in this address.

The Church News also reported on the three LDS athletes competing at the Olympics who are hopeful that they will earn medals. It is good to see that the Church continues to have a presence in the Olympics.

And we conclude this news update by mentioning that, from the Church's Pacific Area, we have this report covering the devastation and relief efforts in American Samoa and Samoa, and this one covering the same procedures which are underway in Tonga.

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.

1100th Blog Post: Temple Updates

Hello again, everyone! This will be my 1100th post on this blog, and I could not think of a better subject for this milestone than temple updates. I have found updated status reports for the Concepcion Chile Temple and also for the renovation process for the Raleigh North Carolina Temple. I have said before and will continue to say again that it is amazing to see how quickly things can change, even on a day-to-day basis, in terms of temple progress.

Before I get to those updates, I wanted to first pass along updates on where the Church stands in its' progress towards 200 operating temples. As I mentioned previously, the Church may be able to dedicate as many as four new temples during this year. Whether or not all of those four are dedicated, I have previously shared my thoughts that the Church could (and likely will) have 200 operating temples by or before its' bicentennial anniversary (which, as noted previously, will occur on Saturday April 6, 2030).

As of today, there are 12.14 years left before that date. So the Church would merely need to announce 18 new temples and complete the other 23 in various phases within that time. That means that with a total of 41 temples to be dedicated between now and the Church's bicentennial, as long as the Church completes roughly 3.38 temples per year, it could be done.

And since we have Elder Wilson's statement made in late April of last year that 80 potential locations are under active consideration for an official announcement within the 15 years that followed that statement, whether or not all of those locations make it to an official announcement within that time, it not only seems reasonable but also highly probable that 18 of those will surely be announced and that they, along with those 23 others, could easily be completed within that time.

With all of that noted, let's now turn our attention to the updates I referenced at the beginning of this post. First, for the Concepcion Chile Temple, reports show that landscaping is progressing, art glass is being installed, and the interior work on the temple is entering its' final stages.

Based on that progress, it seems entirely likely that the more-specific estimate I ventured for this temple's dedication (Sunday August 12 or 19) may be justified. I will post with further updates on those estimates or future announcements of such temple events as I become aware of them.

In the meantime, we now turn to the other item I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the progress made on the renovation process for the Raleigh North Carolina Temple. The latest updates I have been able to locate show that the interior has been fully dismantled, and that the removal of marble cladding around the temple's exterior is well underway.

I am grateful to have been able to pass these updates along to you all. I continue to keep my eyes open for further updates in such progress, and I will keep you all informed of the latest developments as I can.

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.

Tropical Storm Hits the Pacific Area: How Might That Affect Potential Future Temples There?

Hello again, everyone! As reported by this article, the South Pacific Islands have been devastated by a tropical cyclone (which is the same thing as a hurricane elsewhere). While we continue to pray for the safety of members and missionaries in that region, there is a very important question on my mind: How, if at all, might this storm's devastation impact both the renovation plans for the Hamilton New Zealand Temple and the timing of any new temples being announced within the Pacific Area of the Church? 

The article cited above seems to indicate that most of the devastation is in the nations of Samoa and Tonga, though there appears to have also been some degree of devastation in American Samoa as well. I could see the Church postponing the announcement of any new temples in the Pacific till the devastation clears, but since this may be the first time a natural disaster might potentially impact my thoughts on future temple possibilities in this region, I thought it would be worth asking.

And I thought that perhaps some of you may have been in a position at one point or another in your life experiences to witness firsthand how natural disasters have impacted currently operating or potential future temples. 

My initial research shows that only two temples (the original Nauvoo Temple and the original temple in Apia) were entirely destroyed by natural disasters, and both were the result of fire, the former being arson, and the latter occurring somehow in the midst of a renovation and expansion process.

We also know that the Houston Texas Temple was closed last year for a restoration process that evolved into a "renovation" of sorts. This letter from the First Presidency describes that process as "renovations and repairs", so I use the term renovation, although I have seen others use different terminology. 

My point in bringing up Houston is that this is the latest example of which I am aware where a natural disaster necessitated a short-term closure, but I doubt it is the only example of such a thing occurring.

And having recently (within the last 2 or 3 months) offered my opinion on potential future temple locations in all areas of the Church, the report of this natural disaster in the Pacific has me wondering whether any of the locations I previously mentioned might not get a temple in the near future in view of this tropical storm. Let me know your thoughts below. I look forward to the discussion and hope you all know that any and all comments are 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.

Open House Tickets Now Available for Jordan River Utah Temple

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post again now to share that open house tickets for the Jordan River Utah Temple, which closed for renovation almost two years ago (on February 15, 2016), are now available through an online reservation system, and they will continue to be made available through the duration of the open house, which is set to be held for a seven-week period between the Saturdays of March 17 and April 28.

Some of you may remember my mentioning in a previous post done on August 3 of last year, when the rededication for this temple was announced, that the Church indicated at that time that the open house tours would not run on March 18, 24, 25 and 31 or the Sundays of April 1, 8, 15, and 22.

New information received today in conjunction with the availability of the open house reservations indicates that, since the Church is no longer holding the Women's Session of General Conference on the Saturday before the other general sessions, open house reservations will be accepted on March 24, which would have otherwise been the day for that Women's Session. For any who want more information, reservations can be made here.

I also wanted to note that it seems very likely President Nelson will be the one to rededicate this temple, since it is the first major temple event of his administration. I am keeping my eyes open for information on all temple-related developments and will pass them along as I receive them.

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.

Slight Update Provided For the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple

Hello again, everyone! While Church and temple news has been somewhat slow this weekend (as the bulk of what I have shared in that regard came from reports and articles that were a few days old), I did find out earlier tonight that a slight update has been provided on the status of the Rio de Janeiro Brazil Temple. While rebar has been completely set for its' steeple base, a dewatering system has been put into place. As I have previously noted, it is amazing to see how temples progress (and how they do not) on a day-to-day basis. I will continue to track these developments, and will pass along any updates in temple construction as I become aware of them.

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..

Latest Apostolic Statistics: Part Two--The Quorum of the Twelve and the 13 Apostles Overall, Nonagenarians, and Other Interesting Tidbits

Hello again, everyone! I am back, as promised a few moments ago, with the second half of my updated information about the apostles. Again, any who are not interested in this information can bypass this post. For those sticking with me, here is the remainder of the information I wanted to share today.

We now move on to talk about the specifics relating to the long form and decimal versions of the ages of our 13 current apostles, since the Church has yet to call someone to fill the apostolic vacancies occasioned by the October 1 death of Elder Robert D. Hales, the January 2 death of President Thomas S. Monson, and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency on January 14. So let’s next talk about the current ages of the First Presidency, and follow that up with an overview of the 10 apostles in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a discussion of the overall standings, and some information about current and future nonagenarian apostles. And again, all information shared here is current as of today.

As noted above, President Nelson is now 93 years, 5 months, and 2 days old, with a decimal age of 93.42 years. President Oaks is 85 years, 5 months, and 30 days old, with a decimal age of 85.50 years. President Eyring, the youngest of the three, is 84 years, 8 months, and 11 days old, putting his decimal age at 84.70 years. The three have a combined 263.62 years of life experience, 91 of which, as observed by President Nelson last month, has been spent by the three in the apostleship. Their average age stands at 87.87 years as of today, with President Nelson being older than that average, President Oaks closest to it, and President Eyring younger than that average.

                                                                                                                          

With the reorganization of the First Presidency (including Presidents Nelson and Oaks leaving the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and now-Elder Uchtdorf rejoining it), not only has the age dynamic changed within the Quorum, but Elder Uchtdorf rejoins the other two apostles who were also born in 1940.

As for their current ages, President Ballard has reached the age of 89 years, 4 months, and 3 days old (which is 89.35 decimal years) as of today. Elder Holland is currently 77 years, 2 months, and 8 days old, making his decimal age 77.19 years. Elder Uchtdorf is currently 77 years, 3 months, and 5 days old, with a decimal age of 77.27 years.

Elder Bednar’s age in long form has now reached 65 years, 7 months, and 27 days, which puts his decimal age at 65.66 years. Elder Cook, who is older than both Elders Uchtdorf and Holland, who are senior to him in the apostleship, has reached the age (in its’ long form) of 77 years, 5 months, and 3 days, which makes his decimal age 77.43 years. Since Elder Christofferson has observed his 73^rd birthday, his long form age is 73 years, 0 months, and 18 days, which means his decimal age is now 73.05 years. Meanwhile, Elder Andersen is now 66 years, 6 months, and 2 days old, which makes his decimal age 66.51 years.

We have now come to the three newest apostles, since it will likely not be until April that we hear who has been called to fill the vacancies in the apostleship. For the ages of those newest three (who observed their second year anniversary in the apostleship last October), we first have Elder Rasband, who, as noted in a previous post, observed his 67^th birthday just 5 day ago.

This means Elder Rasband is currently 67 years and 5 days old, making his decimal age 67.01 years. Elder Stevenson, who is currently our youngest apostle (though he may or may not still be such after the newest apostles are called), has a long form age of 62 years, 5 months, and 5 days old, which makes his decimal age 62.52 years. That brings us to Elder Renlund, the least senior but second youngest apostle, who is 65 years, 2 month, and 29 days old as of today, which means his decimal age is now 65.25 years.

This means that, with the reorganization of the First Presidency, the 10 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have a combined 721.24 years of life experience, making the average age of those apostles 72.12 years, with Elder Christofferson as the youngest of the older half of those 10, and Elder Rasband being the oldest of the youngest half.

This means that the 13 current apostles have a combined 984.86 years of life experience, and their average life length stands at 75.76 years, with Elders Holland and Christofferson being closest to that average: Elder Holland as the youngest of the oldest 7, and Elder Christofferson as the oldest of the youngest 6.

Turning our attention now to a discussion of our current and future apostolic nonagenarians. President Nelson, as noted above, is 93 years, 5 months, and 2 days old, making him the 7^th oldest apostle in Church history. He will only become the 6^th oldest apostle roughly 1.5 years from now.

President Monson’s passing on January 2 means he remains (for now) the 17^th of our 18 nonagenarian apostles. And President Ballard will join the list of apostolic nonagenarians on his 90^th birthday, which occurs on October 8 of this year, and that is 7 months and 27 days away as of today. The other 12 apostles will join the list at varying intervals, with Elder Stevenson, the current youngest apostle, set to do so 27 years, 5 months, and 26 days.

I thought it might be fun to share with you some new numbers I have run about other apostolic averages that I found interesting. The death of President Monson left the average age of our current apostles at the time of their first (which for 11 of them is their current) marriage at 23.14, with Elder Christofferson and President Ballard on the oldest and youngest side of that average. President Eyring was the oldest to get married at 29.2 years, and President Oaks was the youngest at the time of his marriage, since he was 19.9 years old.

That said, both Presidents Nelson and Oaks have had spouses pass away and have remarried, and their average ages at the time of their second marriage was 74.8 years, with President Oaks being slightly younger (68 at the time of his second marriage) and President Nelson being slightly older, since he was 81.6 years old at the time of his second marriage.

I find it interesting that our new First Presidency has had varying experiences with marriage, with Presidents Nelson and Oaks having remarried following the deaths of their spouses, and President Eyring having been the oldest of the current 13 apostles when he got married for the first time. If anyone has a unique understanding of the death of a spouse or being single at an older age, it is these three Brethren.

Until his passing, President Monson had been the youngest apostle called of the currently serving group, as he was 36.1 years old. His passing did not affect Elder Cook’s status as the oldest at the time of his call (being 67.1 years old), but it did leave President Oaks as the newest “youngest called”, as he was 51.7 years old at the time of his ordination.

This means that the current 13 apostles at the time of their calls as such now stands at 59.7 years, which is why I believe that our newly called apostles will be somewhere between their early-50s and mid-60s.

In the meantime, I also wanted to mention the average of the current First Presidency and leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the time of their ordinations to their current positions. That includes Presidents Nelson, Oaks, Ballard, and Eyring, who are also the four oldest apostles. President Nelson is, of course, the oldest of those four and that President Eyring is the youngest, and I have already referenced the closeness in age of Presidents Oaks and Eyring. But I also find it worth mentioning that since the four ranged in age from President Nelson at 93.42 years old to President Eyring at 84.70 years old (with Presidents Oaks and Ballard at 85.5 and 89.35 years respectively, the average age of the four at the time they were set apart (and, in President Nelson’s case, ordained) on January 14 stood at 88.25 years old.  

I apologize that this update was so long, but that does it for this post, and concludes the miniseries covering this subject. 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.

Latest Apostolic Statistics: Part One--Updated Information for the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, Church President, and First Presidency

Hello again, everyone! Another 7 weeks have come and gone since I last posted an update on the latest apostolic statistics, so this will also be my first full update since the death of President Monson and the subsequent reorganization of the First Presidency. Be prepared: getting through it is not for the faint of heart. In beginning my coverage of this subject, I realize there may be some of my readers who have no interest in the minutiae of these details, and if any of you feel that way, I will not be offended in any way if you bypass my posts on this subject..

Having evaluated the best way to go about it, I will do it in two different parts So let’s get into the details, shall we? This first part will cover information about the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Church President, and current First Presidency, and will be followed up by a second part with the information about the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the 13 apostles overall, current and future nonagenarian apostles, and some other information I thought you'd find interesting.

This update will be somewhat different from those I have previously done, primarily because there has been a “changing of the guard” in terms of the Church presidency, and also the presidency of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. So in this first update following those changes, I will also be making observations about where Presidents Monson and Nelson stood at the conclusion of their tenures as Church president and President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

For those of you that are interested in these details, I first want to note that all the figures and data I will be presenting is, as always, current as of today. And we will start where we always do, by discussing the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (including where President Nelson stood at the end of his tenure and where his successor, President Oaks, now stands among the other Presidents of that Quorum).

So, as I’m sure is unnecessary to note, but which I want to mention for any who are newer to this blog and these reports I do, although President Monson passed away on January 2, until President Nelson’s ordination as Church President on January 14, he filled a dual role of President of the Quorum of the Twelve and the Acting President of the Church. At the time his tenure as Quorum President ended, the length of that tenure had exceeded that of Marion G. Romney by one day, resulting in President Nelson becoming the 15^th longest serving Quorum President.

Although President Oaks has taken the role of Quorum President, his service in the First Presidency means that President Ballard now serves as Acting President of the Quorum. But since President Oaks’ tenure as Quorum President depends entirely on the length of his own life and that of President Nelson, President Ballard’s service as Acting President (which may or may not last the duration of President Oaks’ tenure as Quorum President) will not be tracked in this update.

That said, with just under a month having passed since President Oaks became the Quorum President (he has had that assignment for exactly 4 weeks, or 28 days), he is the 28^th man to serve in that assignment, and the length of his tenure already puts that tenure as the 27^th longest in Church history.

This is in view of the fact that the shortest tenure for a Quorum President is that of Joseph F. Smith, who served for only a week between the death of Lorenzo Snow and his ordination as Church President. At that time, the calling of an Acting President had not been established, and any senior apostles serving in the First Presidency resulted in the most senior apostle in the Quorum, in this case, Brigham Young Jr., serving as Quorum President. Interestingly enough, one of Joseph F. Smith’s first actions as President of the Church was to officially establish the practice of calling the most senior member of the Twelve the Acting President if the Quorum President was also serving as a counselor in the First Presidency.

Getting back to President Oaks, who is less than a month into his calling as Quorum President, he will reach two other tenure milestones by the end of this year. Those will occur on Sunday September 16, 2018, when his tenure length will exceed that of President David O. McKay (at which time he will have served for 8 months and 2 days), and on Monday October 22, 2018. There are several other milestones President Oaks will observe next year (5 to be exact), and those will be detailed in further updates.

Moving on, we next will explore where President Monson stood in terms of his tenure length and age among the other 15 Church Presidents of this dispensation at the time of his death on January 2, 2018, and then discuss President Nelson’s age and tenure milestones as the new Church President. At the time of President Monson’s passing, his tenure length spanned 9 years, 10 months, and 30 days. 8 days ago (February 3) would have marked his 10 year anniversary as Church President, and, as already noted, a Face-to-Face Event with President Nelson and his wife that was scheduled for that day was subsequently postponed.

At the time of President Monson’s passing, he was also 90 years, 4 months, and 12 days old. In terms of his tenure and age records, he was the 8^th longest-serving Church president, the 16^th in birth chronology (although the subsequent ordination of the older but healthier President Nelson has resulted in President Monson being the 17^th in birth chronology), and he was the 7^th oldest until President Nelson’s ordination as well, and is thus now the 8^th.

Moving on now to President Nelson, he has, of course, been the Church President for 28 days, since his ordination and the setting apart of President Oaks both occurred on January 14 of this year. At the time of his ordination (as I may have already observed), he was the second-oldest but perhaps most healthy man of his age to take the mantle of the Church presidency.

I have already noted that he is the 16^th in birth chronology, and he ranks as the 5^th oldest Church president overall. I am confident we will see him reach many milestones. He seems to keep himself busy, as my blog posts since his ordination have shown that his Brethren have trouble keeping up with him. And I am glad that he has announced his intention to live as long as the Lord wills him to, so I feel confident he will reach many milestones.

Looking towards the future, he will only observe one milestone this year, and that will occur exactly 8 months from today, when his tenure length will have exceeded that of President Howard W. Hunter. But in 2019, he will observe one age milestone and one tenure milestone merely 2 days apart in July.

Turning our attention now to a discussion of the updated apostolic statistics, at the time of President Monson’s passing, he and his counselors still ranked as the 3^rd longest continuously-serving First Presidency in history. President Nelson and his counselors will have a long time to wait before their service length even reaches the top 13 longest periods in Church history. The current 13^th longest tenure is held by the First Presidency that consisted of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Willard Richards, with a length of 6 years, 3 months, and 6 days.

Our current First Presidency will thus only join this list of what will then be the top 14 on Monday May 6, 2024, by which time President Nelson would be just 4 months and 3 days away from becoming the first centenarian Church president. Given his health and vigor, he and his counselors could reach that milestone or any of the three others they would observe later that year. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

That wraps up my coverage of the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, the Church President, and the First Presidency, so that's all 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 Update

Hello again, everyone! After taking a couple of days to get some personal challenges handled, I wanted to post again now to pass along some Church News stories which have touched and impacted me. So let's get right into that.

First of all, continuing the series of articles on the new Church leadership announced almost a month ago, the Church News published this one to familiarize all of us with President M. Russell Ballard, who has been Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for just under a month now, and who, as noted late last week, will preside at the first temple-related event of President Nelson's administration (the private rededication of the Houston Texas Temple on Sunday April 22).

President Ballard, as some of you may know, was the final apostle called during President Spencer W. Kimball's prophetic administration, and his call came a year and a half after that of Presidents Nelson and Oaks (although, as noted, President Oaks had to wait just under a month to be ordained an apostle in view of his judicial obligations.)

It is interesting to me that the three most senior apostles all hold the title of "President" now, which we have not seen since late 2007, when Presidents Hinckley, Monson, and Packer filled identical roles as the three senior apostles now. In that previous case, the ordinations of the three were far more separated than those of Presidents Nelson, Oaks and Ballard. But since these newest three "senior apostles" have served side-by-side for so long, they are not only well-known to the Church, but will continue to work together to move it forward in their new roles and responsibilities.

That said, we now move on to the next bit of news. Some of you may be familiar with Jon M. Huntsman and his family, who are well-known in the Church in general and here in Utah in particular. He was a billionaire who more importantly had the heart of and acted foremost as a philanthropist. Amidst founding other organizations (including Huntsman Chemical Corporation, for which Elder Rasband worked professionally prior to his call to full-time Church service), he is perhaps best known for founding the Huntsman Cancer Institute, which he did with a view to eradicating cancer.

Though I had no idea it would be so at the time, the founding of that Cancer Institute wound up impacting me in a couple of ways. First, as I have previously noted, my pediatric neurosurgeon referred me to the neurologist I currently see, who also works for the University of Utah and for the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Second, if my memory serves me correctly, when a dear family friend was diagnosed with the cancer that eventually took her life, she spent some of her final days at the Huntsman Institute, where they ensured she was comfortable and well cared for.

So I found it more than fitting that when Jon M. Huntsman, who has the longest recorded tenure as an Area Seventy for the Church, passed away, his funeral was naturally attended by many Church leaders.

In addition to tributes from all but 2 of his children (one of whom preceded him in death and the other of whom is serving as a mission president), there were also addresses given by Presidents Nelson and Ballard.

Elders Uchtdorf and Rasband, at the family's request, gave the invocation and benediction respectively. The interesting thing to me about Brother Huntsman is that he married the daughter of Elder David B. Haight, and one of his daughters married a son of President Ballard.

So Brother Huntsman is well connected to the top leadership of the Church, and that was reflected in the fact that Elder Stevenson was also in attendance, in addition to many other general and auxiliary leaders.You can find more information on this noble servant of the Lord with a heart for humanity in this article.

Moving on to news stories that I hope to get through more quickly, this article covers auxiliary leaders who were invited to address women of various faiths in Wales, and this one describes how a Mormon Helping Hands Center was set up in Pyeongchang South Korea for use by athletes and people of all faiths who need it during the Olympics (which will likely be repurposed after the Olympics), this one shares enrollment numbers at BYU-Idaho which indicate that men outnumber women there, this one which focuses on new mission presidents called to serve in Nigeria and in my current city of residence, Orem Utah, and this one covering the Church's yearly musical production which pays tribute to the cultures and family histories of those born in Latin America.

And, rounding out this Church news update are this article, in which the Young Men General Presidency describes what led up to and what is hoped for in the recently-announced policy that priest-aged young men will now be able to baptize and serve as witnesses for baptisms for the dead, and this report of a guest lecture at BYU, wherein the presenter described ten simple ways in which Church leaders and members could create a sense of belonging for children and adults with disabilities.

In reference to that last article, I wanted to personally note (since I have dealt with lifelong disabilities) that I was blessed to grow up in wards where those disabilities were not seen as a reason to exclude me, and where inspired leaders instead regularly touched bases with both my parents and myself to determine how best to meet my needs, and how they could work around my situation. In short, these inspired leaders were following the principles mentioned by this guest lecturer long before they were being emphasized so strongly, and I am most grateful for that.

I apologize for the long post. There was a lot to cover. That does it for now. 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.