A Look at My Projected Table of Contents for the May 2018 Ensign

Hello again, everyone! Having reported yesterday on my predictions for General Conference, in accordance with my usual tradition, I wanted to note that I have put together a projection for what the table of contents might potentially look like.

There were a couple of challenges around which I had to navigate in order to prepare this. First, with the Women's Session not occurring one week before the remainder of General Conference, there will be some extra space in the magazine that would have otherwise been devoted to those addresses. The second is that the Solemn Assembly and Sustaining of Church Officers were done separately, so I had to figure out how to split that.

Another problem in putting this together was that the entire First Presidency spoke one after the other in the Sunday Morning Session in addition to their usual Priesthood Session addresses. Connected to that, of course, was the short introductory remarks President Nelson provided to make the major announcements in the Priesthood and Sunday Afternoon Sessions.

And with 5 of the 12 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the final session of General Conference, there was that to consider as well. I also had to factor in how the lengths of the non-native English speakers might compare to those of their English-speaking counterparts.

Initially, I also considered putting the Statistical Report in its' traditional place within the Saturday Afternoon Session, but based on the fact that it wasn't read outloud during that time, it seemed safe to surmise that that report will likely appear at the back of the magazine with all other Church news.

With the many General Conference announcements and leadership changes, it also seemed safe to assume that that traditional Church news section in the back of the magazine will likely be longer than it has traditionally been. I cannot say for sure this will happen, but it would not surprise me in any way at all if this General Conference En sign has more than the 144 pages that has been traditional for the May edition each year.

With all of that in mind, and noting that it will likely turn out that my version of this might not be anywhere near what the actual table of contents for this Ensign will turn out to be, the version below represents my best-researched efforts to put it together. Hope you enjoy reading these thoughts on the subject.

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.

Session	Page	Title	Speaker
	2	Conference Summary for the 188th Annual General Conference
	4	Highlights from the 188th Annual General Conference
SAM	6	Solemn Assembly	President Henry B. Eyring
	9	Precious Gifts from God	President M. Russell Ballard
	13	Am I a Child of God?	Elder Brian K. Taylor
	16	Even As Christ Forgives You, So Also Do Ye	Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk
	19	The Heart of a Prophet	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
	23	Until Seventy Times Seven	Elder Lynn G. Robbins
	26	The Prophet of God	Elder Neil L. Andersen
SAA	30	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Dallin H. Oaks
	32	Church Auditing Department Report, 2017	Robert W. Cantwell
	33	Meek and Lowly of Heart	Elder David A. Bednar
	37	One More Day	Elder Taylor G. Godoy
	39	Young Women in the Work	Bonnie L. Oscarson
	42	Saving Ordinances Will Bring Us Marvelous Light	Elder Taniela B. Wakolo
	45	Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility	Devin G. Durrant
	48	Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing	Elder Dale G. Renlund
SPH	52	What Every Aaronic Priesthood Holder Needs to Understand	Douglas D. Holmes
	55	Introductory Remarks	President Russell M. Nelson
	56	The Elders’ Quorum	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	59	Behold! A Royal Army	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	62	Inspired Ministering	President Henry B. Eyring
	65	The Powers of the Priesthood	President Dallin H. Oaks
	68	Ministering with the Power and Authority of God	President Russell M. Nelson
SUM	76	Take the Holy Spirit As Your Guide	Elder Larry Y. Wilson
	79	With One Accord	Reyna I. Aburto
	82	Pure Love: the Sign of Every True Disciple	Elder Massimo De Feo
	85	He That Shall Endure unto the End, the Same Shall Be Saved	Elder Claudio D. Zivic
	88	His Spirit to Be with You	President Henry B. Eyring
	92	Small and Simple Things	President Dallin H. Oaks
	96	Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives	President Russell M. Nelson
SUA	101	Christ the Lord is Risen Today	Elder Gerrit W. Gong
	103	Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit	Elder Ulisses Soares
	105	Ministering	President Russell M. Nelson
	106	Be With and Strengthen Them	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	110	Ministering as the Savior Does	Jean B. Bingham
	113	Behold the Man!	Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	117	It Is All about People	Bishop Gerald Causse
	120	Prepare to Meet God	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	124	Let Us All Press On	President Russell M. Nelson
	72	General Authorities and General Officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
	126	They Spoke to Us: Making Conference Part of Our Lives
	128	Conference Story Index
	129	News of the Church (including new leader biographies, an overview of the announced policy and practice changes, new temples, and any other general Church news)
	144	Last Page of Conference Ensign

Confirmation Provided for the Temporary Closure of the Edmonton Alberta Temple

Hello again, everyone! Some of you might recall that an anonymous comment on this blog just before General Conference suggested that the Edmonton Alberta Temple would be closing for several months later this year. At the time, because it had not been officially or even unofficially confirmed, many, /myself included, commented to note that until such confirmation was provided, the report could not be substantiated.

At some point today, a few of the sources I have available did note the confirmation of the closure details that were previously shared here. The temple closure is set to occur from June 23-November 6, 2018, for renovation and repairs that will be focused mainly on the baptistry. It would appear that news of this closure was sent to the Edmonton Saints via a First Presidency letter on February 8 of this year, and that patrons will be accommodated at other operating temples, including the one in Calgary.

The material problem I (and others) expressed when this closure was mentioned in an earlier comment on this blog was that it had not been officially verified through any sources in the public domain. But clearly, members in the area that would be affected would need more of an advanced notice than the rest of us.

So that information has now been confirmed. Until that confirmation occurred, those of us unconnected to this temple had only the word of the individual who commented on this blog on that subject, which is why it was difficult for myself (and likely many of you as well) to believe until it was confirmed by sources that are in the public domain.

I should also note that the schedule for this temple on the official Church website has not yet been updated to reflect this closure, but that will likely occur in the coming days. For my part, I continue to monitor all temple-related developments and will do my best to bring you word of them as I receive it.

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.

Report on April 2018 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! It took me a while to do so, but yesterday, I finally had a chance to run some numbers and figure out how I did with my predictions for the April 2018 General Conference. Because of all of the unexpected things that occurred during that conference, even though I allowed myself a margin of error, as I indicated I would do, my calculations showed 54% accuracy this go-round.

That is only slightly less than the 60-80% range within which those usually fall, which, given all the unexpected things that occurred (such as President Nelson giving 5 total addresses during the last 3 sessions of the conference, the calling of the new apostles, 5 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaking in the last session, the entire First Presidency speaking during the Sunday Morning Session, etc.) is not too bad.

It will be interesting, to be sure, to see what unfolds with the next few conferences. I have begun the preliminary work of putting my predictions together for the October 2018 General Conference, which I may post within the next 3 months or so. In the meantime, I have a bunch of other projects underway, some of which will be posted here at some point.

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.

Update Noted on the Memphis Tennessee Temple Renovation Process

Hello again, everyone! With the many temple updates I provided yesterday, I did not anticipate having additional news in that regard to post today. I was therefore pleased a short while ago to discover that many sources I have available for temple news have shared an update on the Memphis Tennessee Temple renovation process.

As some of you might recall, the last update I posted for that temple showed that structural framing had been completed for the steeple. The new information of which I became aware today notes that sheathing plywood has been attached to the temple's exterior, while additional framing is being added to the steeple of this temple.

It was good to hear of the progress that has been made on that temple. I have previously noted that many of the sources I use for the reports I share here moved the Oklahoma City Oklahoma Temple ahead of this one in terms of its' likely future completion time-frame. As I have also observed, we have 3 temples being renovated (the two mentioned in this paragraph and the Frankfurt Germany Temple) and 2 new temples currently under construction (in Kinshasa DR Congo and Fortaleza Brazil) that are all anticipated to be completed in the early-to-middle part of next year.

At the moment, the 5 temples mentioned above could be considered as interchangeable in terms of their likely order of completion. What will certainly be interesting to see is if the Church will opt to schedule any of these for dedication or rededication prior to the already-scheduled dedication for the Rome Italy Temple in mid-March. I haven't done the research yet to verify this, but I seem to recall the Church scheduling the dedication of one temple prior to the previously-announced dedication of another temple.

If it turns out that all of these 5 temples have dedications or rededications set after the Rome dedication concludes, then some of those 5 events may occur more towards the latter half of the year than the first half of it. It will be interesting to see how the Church handles all of that, since 2019 is, by all accounts, shaping up to be full of temple events.

Whatever might occur in that regard, you can count on my monitoring these developments as they occur, and that I will be passing those along to you all as I am able to do 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.

President Nelson's Tour Continues Slightly Ahead of Schedule; Temple Updates Provided

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to pass along to you all in this post a report of President Nelson's ministry efforts in Jerusalem as well as several temple updates. Let's get right into all of that.

First of all, Mormon Newsroom has shared this report of President Nelson's ministry in the Holy Land, including remarks he and Elder Holland shared with Church members there, among whom were those currently studying at BYU's Jerusalem Center. It was a homecoming of sorts for Elder Holland, who, as BYU-Provo president years ago, was one of many leaders who were able to help establish that Center.

The historic nature of the prophet's visit was not lost on anyone. An article I read earlier indicates that President Nelson is only the fourth Church president to visit Jerusalem. For all who are interested, this is Mormon Newsroom's official release on the time spent there.

One interesting thing I took away from that report was that the Nelsons and the Hollands wound up leaving Jerusalem slightly ahead of schedule. That was due to both tension in the region and concerns about available airspace. So they are now on their way to Africa. Their early departure should not affect their announced itinerary, but it is interesting that this has occurred. Reports of the tour will continue in the days ahead, which I will bring to you all as soon as I hear of them.

That said, we move on to the temple updates. After a couple of weeks in which not many updates have been provided regarding temple construction, we now have a lot of new information and changes of status for many temples. So let's talk about what those updates are.

We start first in Rome Italy, where, as we know, a visitor's information center recently opened, and where the process of landscaping and interior work continues. A new update to that temple shows that the plaza water feature is currently being tested. Although this temple's dedication is still 11 months or so away, it was good to hear of this development.

Moving on now to Fortaleza Brazil, the temple in that city is still having its' cladding being put up around its' exterior. In the meantime, trees are being planted and walkways and staircases are being poured on the temple grounds. As I mentioned a while ago, following the Rome Italy Temple dedication, there is reason to believe that this temple could be one of the next three dedicated next year. It will be interesting indeed to see exactly when that will occur.

Staying in Brazil, we turn our attention to the temple in Rio de Janeiro. The update I have found indicates that the steeple walls have been poured, and that work on the interior of the temple is now underway. Some of you may recall that, for a while last year, this temple was anticipated to be completed sometime during 2019, but in view of the fact that we have since learned this temple is going to be larger than originally thought, it makes sense that it will likely only be dedicated in the early part of 2020.

While there has been no report as of yet that would indicate full-scale efforts are underway for the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple, since we are not quite halfway through April, there is still time for that to occur. It is also worth noting that the private rededication for the Houston Texas Temple will occur one week from tomorrow, and that open house tours for the Jordan River Utah Temple are set to continue for the next two weeks, concluding on Saturday April 28.

There has not been any change to the status of any of the temples undergoing renovation, with one exception. It would appear that the temple in Asuncion Paraguay has run into further difficulties that have hindered its' renovation process from commencing. Whatever the extent of those difficulties might be, most sources from which I gather the information I share here have moved that temple to the bottom of the list of those undergoing renovation. In the days ahead, more might be made known about the extent of the delays, and any adjustments to the general or more specific completion estimates offered by myself and others can be altered as that becomes necessary.

I continue to monitor all Church and temple-related news and developments, and will do my level best to pass updates along to you all as I become aware of new information. 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.