Change in Advisers to the Church Magazines Noted in May 2018 Ensign

Hello again, everyone! In my previous post, I shared some information about the May 2018 Ensign. This post, in somewhat of a continuation of that theme, will highlight some changes that the Church has made to the advisers of its' magazines.

There have not been any changes noted in either the editor (Elder Hugo E. Martinez continues in that assignment) or assistant editors (Randall K. Bennett and Carol F. McConkie are still listed, though obviously Sister McConkie's release will necessitate a change, which will likely be noted in the June magazines).

And while Brian K. Ashton, LeGrand R. Curtis Jr., Edward Dube, Sharon Eubank, Donald L. Hallstrom, and Douglas D. Holmes continue as advisers to the Church magazines, Bonnie H. Cordon's call as Young Women General President means she will no longer serve as an adviser, since she now has other responsibilities, and it appears that the Church has also released Elder Erich W. Kopischke from his responsibility as an adviser. Additionally, Cristina B. Franco, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency, has been added as an adviser.

No word yet on any other changes. It is likely there will be a new assistant editor, who will likely be one of Sister Cordon's counselors, and that that will be determined by the time the June magazines are published. Any other changes may not be identified until the August 2018 issue, since August 1 marks the beginning of new assignments for each General Authority Seventy.

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.

PDF Version of May 2018 Ensign is Now Available; Results of My Predictions for Its' Table of Contents

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to report that the PDF version of the May 2018 Ensign is now available to download, which can be done here. Those who have a subscription to the Ensign should receive their paper copies within the first or second week of May.

With the PDF version now available, we now know what its' actual table of contents looks like. As many of you might recall, in a post about a week or so ago, I shared my thoughts on how it might look. You will find below another copy of that, with the differing content in parentheses. I should mention that in my version of it, I did not allow space for the statistical report, which appears on the first page following the concluding address from President Nelson, and I had also forgotten that the Church is devoting several pages at the back of the conference Ensign to the new curriculum for Elders' Quorums and Relief Societies.

In an interesting move, the layout of this Ensign will include the Church Auditing Department Report in a two-column spread on a page that is the middle of The Sustaining of Church Officers which was led by President Oaks during the Saturday Afternoon Session.

The copy of the table of contents I put together follows, with differences between my version and the actual one in parentheses. 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.

Possible Table of Contents for the May 2018 Ensign

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 (12)	Am I a Child of God?	Elder Brian K. Taylor
	16 (15)	Even As Christ Forgives You, So Also Do Ye	Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk
	19 (17)	The Heart of a Prophet	Elder Gary E. Stevenson
	23 (21)	Until Seventy Times Seven	Elder Lynn G. Robbins
	26 (24)	The Prophet of God	Elder Neil L. Andersen
SAA	30 (28)	The Sustaining of Church Officers	President Dallin H. Oaks
	32 (29)	Church Auditing Department Report, 2017	Robert W. Cantwell
	33 (30)	Meek and Lowly of Heart	Elder David A. Bednar
	37 (34)	One More Day	Elder Taylor G. Godoy
	39 (36)	Young Women in the Work	Bonnie L. Oscarson
	42 (39)	Saving Ordinances Will Bring Us Marvelous Light	Elder Taniela B. Wakolo
	45 (42)	Teaching in the Home—a Joyful and Sacred Responsibility	Devin G. Durrant
	48 (46)	Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing	Elder Dale G. Renlund
SPH	52 (50)	What Every Aaronic Priesthood Holder Needs to Understand	Douglas D. Holmes
	55 (54)	Introductory Remarks	President Russell M. Nelson
	56 (55)	The Elders’ Quorum	Elder D. Todd Christofferson
	59 (58)	Behold! A Royal Army	Elder Ronald A. Rasband
	62 (61)	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 (75)	Take the Holy Spirit As Your Guide	Elder Larry Y. Wilson
	79 (78)	With One Accord	Reyna I. Aburto
	82 (81)	Pure Love: the Sign of Every True Disciple	Elder Massimo De Feo
	85 (83)	He That Shall Endure unto the End, the Same Shall Be Saved	Elder Claudio D. Zivic
	88 (86)	His Spirit to Be with You	President Henry B. Eyring
	92 (89)	Small and Simple Things	President Dallin H. Oaks
	96 (93)	Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives	President Russell M. Nelson
SUA	101 (97)	Christ the Lord is Risen Today	Elder Gerrit W. Gong
	103 (98)	Prophets Speak by the Power of the Holy Spirit	Elder Ulisses Soares
	105 (100)	Ministering	President Russell M. Nelson
	106 (101)	“Be With and Strengthen Them”	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
	110 (104)	Ministering as the Savior Does	Jean B. Bingham
	113	Behold the Man!	Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf
	117 (111)	It Is All about People	Bishop Gerald Causse
	120 (114)	Prepare to Meet God	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	124 (118)	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
	(119)	(Statistical Report)
	126	They Spoke to Us: Making Conference Part of Our Lives	(Not included in this Ensign)
	128 (120)	Conference Story Index
	129 (121)	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
	(137)	(Come Follow Me—For Elders’ Quorum and Relief Society)
	144	Last Page of Conference Ensign

Houston Texas Temple Will Be Privately Rededicated Tomorrow

Hello again, everyone! This will just be a quick post to note that the Houston Texas Temple will be privately rededicated in a single session tomorrow. President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is set to preside at that event. If this is any indication, then we will likely see President Nelson share responsibilities for dedications and rededications with his counselors and senior members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It will be interesting to see how all of that unfolds for however long President Nelson's prophetic administration lasts.

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 Visits Bangkok Thailand

Hello again, everyone! I am grateful to be able to pass on to you all this report from Mormon Newsroom that summarizes President Nelson's visit to Bangkok Thailand, which included a stop at the site for the Bangkok Thailand Temple. As long-time readers of this blog may recall, the Church released the official artist's rendering for that temple just over a month ago today. As you may also remember, construction of the temple is anticipated to take 3-4 years once it begins, which I hope will occur later this year with a groundbreaking.

Just within the last three weeks, there have been so many temple-related developments, most of which have been a direct result of either the temples announced in General Conference or President Nelson's worldwide ministry tour. I cannot say for sure, but I believe that we may be a lot closer to the groundbreaking for the Bangkok Thailand Temple and a site confirmation and groundbreaking for the Nairobi Kenya and Harare Zimbabwe Temples than we now realize.

And if, as I have been led to conclude, several other temples (especially the one in Urdaneta Philippines) winds up having a groundbreaking soon, then the next 3-5 years may be far more full of temple events than we now realize, which includes likely future temple announcements.

The one other thing that I wanted to note is that, in regards to potential future temple locations, I am in the finishing stages of getting my thoughts together regarding the changes I wanted to make to my list of temples that might potentially be announced in the next General Conference, and I will post all preliminary predictions for that conference ASAP.

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.

Yet Another Revision To My Thoughts About Announced Temples

Hello again, everyone! Just yesterday, I posted my updated thoughts about the order in which the currently announced temples might have a groundbreaking. Within the last 24 hours or less, with the additional background information of how the Bengaluru India Temple was unexpectedly announced during General Conference, and knowing that President Nelson spent some of his time in that city looking at potential future locations, when we add to that the fact that he also expressed his hope to be able to come back to India to dedicate that temple, there was enough reason for me to once again reorder many of the announced temples.

With all of that in mind, the latest revision of that order follows below. While only the Lord knows how soon any of these announced temples might have a groundbreaking, in addition to (where applicable) having a site officially confirmed, the current order again reflects my best efforts to anticipate how soon we might see such groundbreakings occur.

So as not to disturb the flow of information in that list, I will end now as I always do. 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.

Announced temples:

171. Bangkok Thailand Temple: Planning and approvals; artist’s rendering released on March 19, 2018.

Note: With the site identified and the release of the artist’s rendering, a groundbreaking for this temple may just be a matter of time.

172. Urdaneta Philippines Temple: Awaiting government approvals.

Note: The biggest barriers preventing progress on this temple were getting government approval and having an official site announced. With the recent confirmation of the site location, it may simply be a matter of time before government approval goes through, at which point a groundbreaking can be held.

173. Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple: Planning and preliminary construction phase; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: The contractor assigned to oversee design and construction for this temple indicated in March 2017 that a year of pre-planning would be needed before a groundbreaking was held. If that year has come and gone, we may see a groundbreaking set soon.

174. Saratoga Springs Utah Temple: Planning and approval; designs underway; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Having received notification that the design process is underway for this temple, since it is a Utah temple, it seems relatively safe to assume that a groundbreaking could be held sooner rather than later.

175. Harare Zimbabwe Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement

Note: Although a site confirmation has not yet occurred, President Nelson and his traveling companions visited a probable location during their time in Zimbabwe. If the location is verified in the near future, a groundbreaking might occur sooner rather than later. And since Elder Kevin S. Hamilton, who is the president of the Church’s Africa Southeast Area, stated in 2016 that a site confirmation and groundbreaking for the temple might occur at some point during 2017, it is not hard to believe that that could occur at some point during this year, and might take place before Elder Hamilton’s release as area president on August 1 of this year.

176. Brasilia Brazil Temple: Planning and approval; site inspected by Church engineers on June 21, 2017.

Note: With the site having been confirmed and inspected almost a year ago, a groundbreaking for this temple may just be a matter of time.

177. Greater Manila Philippines Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official name announcement.

Note: The site for this temple was confirmed not long after it was announced. Whether or not an official name is announced anytime soon, it may just be a matter of time until the groundbreaking is held.

178. Nairobi Kenya Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement; media event held June 14, 2017.

Note: In an article published on April 18, 2018 by a Kenyan newspaper covering President Nelson’s visit to that nation, two tidbits were shared: the Church has selected a site for that temple, although its’ location has yet to be officially announced, and that this temple will, by comparison, be one of the Church’s smaller temples, which, depending on how quickly things happen for this temple, might be dedicated sometime during 2021. For that reason, I have felt impressed to move this temple up on this list.

179. Pocatello Idaho Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Although the citizens of Pocatello have speculated about two or more potential locations for this temple, one of those locations has emerged as being the most likely to be chosen. Depending on how quickly that is confirmed, a groundbreaking could follow shortly thereafter.

180. Layton Utah Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: The Church reportedly acquired land in Layton two days before this temple was announced. Based on that acquisition, members have speculated that will be the most likely location for this temple. If that is confirmed in the near future, since this is a Utah temple, a groundbreaking could occur sooner rather than later.

181. Richmond Virginia Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: In mid-April 2018, a Virginia newspaper disclosed that the Church had purchased an 8-acre site in 2015. If the Church confirms that the site in question will be the official location for the temple, a potential groundbreaking could follow shortly thereafter, especially since temples in the US generally have their construction start a lot sooner than their international counterparts.

182. Bengaluru India Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: In the late night hours of April 19, 2018, I became aware of a report that President Nelson had not planned to announce this temple during the April 2018 General Conference, but was impressed on the night before the conference that he should do so. And, as anticipated, his world tour, which included a stop in Bengaluru, involved looking at potential locations that could be used for that purpose. Given that he also expressed to the Saints in India his desire to return for the dedication of this temple, if the specific location he looked at is used for that purpose, I fully believe work could begin on this temple within the next 3-5 years, if not sooner.

183. Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Although this is the last of the three temples announced in April 2015 that might have a groundbreaking, Church growth in the Ivory Coast seems significant enough to believe that a second (and perhaps even a third) temple could be announced in this nation within the next 15-30 years. With that in mind, the Church may opt to have a site announcement and groundbreaking sooner rather than later.

184. Quito Ecuador Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Although the first Ecuadoran temple (which is located in Guayaquil) had a 14-year wait between its announcement and subsequent groundbreaking, the Church will likely not wait even half that long for this temple’s groundbreaking. I would anticipate a groundbreaking could occur sometime between now and the end of 2020.

185. Belem Brazil Temple: Planning and approval; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Although this temple was announced in 2016, its’ counterpart in Brasilia, which was announced a year later, has had a site confirmed and inspected already, which makes it likely that that temple will have a groundbreaking before this one does. That said, I would anticipate that we could see a groundbreaking for this temple within the next two or three years.

186. Salta Argentina Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: While many people (myself included) had shared our feelings that the next Argentine temple would be built in Neuquen, the Lord’s higher thinking resulted in a temple being announced in Salta. Although it has been just over two weeks since that announcement, I believe we might see a groundbreaking for this temple within the next 3 years or so.

187. Managua Nicaragua Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: President Nelson had publicly proposed a temple for Managua while an apostle, and he fulfilled that proposal himself. As noted elsewhere, Elder Juan A. Uceda is being assigned as president of the Central America Area, and one reason may be so he can work with the Nicaraguan government to get quick approval for this temple. If that occurs, a groundbreaking could happen within the next 3 years or less.

188. Cagayan de Oro Philippines Temple: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official site announcement.

Note: Although this temple is the second to be announced for the Philippines since the beginning of last year, I would anticipate that this temple will likely not have a site announcement or groundbreaking until both the Urdaneta temple and the second temple in Manila are at least under construction. That said, I believe this temple could potentially have a groundbreaking within the next 3-4 years.

189. Russia: Announced April 1, 2018; awaiting official location and site announcement.

Note: Although Russia may have problems that could potentially create a barrier to getting this temple built, President Nelson had supervisory responsibility for the Europe East Area of the Church for several years, including during his tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. For that reason, he may be able to effect an expedited start for this temple. That area is now overseen by Elder Uchtdorf, who, as a European-born apostle, may have unique connections to help that process as well. Being conservative, I could see a groundbreaking for this temple in 7-10 years, but certainly sooner if the Lord opens doors for that to occur.