Houston Texas Temple Rededicated in a Simple Ceremony; Minor Update Noted on the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple

Hello again, everyone! Mormon Newsroom published this release regarding the rededication of the Houston Texas Temple that was held earlier today. In addition to President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the service was attended by Elders Larry Y. Wilson (who serves as Executive Director of the Temple Department, unless the recent assignments that were given have changed), Elder S. Gifford Nielsen (who, while he has no direct role in the Temple Department, was there as a resident of Houston prior to his call as a General Authority), and Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, who particularly commeted on the remarkable way in which the temple repairs were finished ahead of schedule and under budget, which, for a project of this sort, is nothing short of remarkable.

This temple will, of course, reopen to patrons on Tuesday. The one other temple development which I wanted to note in this post is that the status of the Winnipeg Manitoba Temple was updated recently to show that, rather than having full-scale construction begin within the last 7 or 8 days of this month, it is likely that that process will commence at some point in the second quarter of 2018. It appears that the report from someone in Canada in this regard may have been in error. I had hoped it was not, but clearly, there is more to what's delaying this process than originally thought.

That said, I fully believe that we will be seeing this temple start the construction process sooner rather than later. One of many unknown factors that I am still waiting to hear about is whether the plan modification for this temple was sufficient to change the estimate of the length of its' construction process. As I previously noted, round about the time the Church annouonced this temple's groundbreaking, I had heard an estimate of 20 months (1 year and 8 months) mentioned for that process. If that information still applies, and if the Church gets construction underway within the next month or two, then the temple could complete the construction process either around the end of next year or the beginning of 2020, which would allow its' dedication sometime during early-to-mid 2020.

I continue to do my level best to stay on top of all such developments, and will be sure to pass such news along to you all 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.

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.