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Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Update on the Number of Current Area Seventies

Hello again, everyone! Having noted previously that, with the recently-announced call of Elder Brook P. Hales as a general authority seventy, there are now 116 general authorities of the Church, as President Oaks indicated, I thought that additional information might be helpful to some of you. As I also have previously mentioned, I also track the number of area authorities of the Church after each general conference.

The way I track that data is first by quorum, then by the areas of the Church that fall under the 3rd-8th Quorums. And I then take the number of men serving within each area, add those to get a total for each quorum, and keep a running track of the grand total. The results of that process, as reflected by the changes announced at the last general conference, follow below, and will in turn be followed by some general comments on that data.

Quorum
Totals within each Area
Quorum Total
Grand Total
3rd
14+14+18+4+2
52
52
4th
4+14+23+18
59
111
5th
8+6+9+7+11+15
56
167
6th
10+11+11+17
49
216
7th
20+19
39
255
8th
9+8+15+14
46
301

The first observation I wanted to make is that there are currently three of the six Quorums (the first three) that are very close to the limit of 70, when previous Quorums have been split. That said, if I have correctly counted, we have a number of area seventies within these six Quorums that may be released in October, including those who have served as such for the last 7-10 years and have not yet been released and those who have been called to be temple or mission presidents. The number of those falling within those parameters is as follows, again listed by Quorum:

Quorum
Number of area seventies that may be released
3rd
2
4th
1
5th
3
6th
3
7th
3
8th
2


And again, these numbers are merely my preliminary thoughts on the subject. I may be incorrect, but it has seemed somewhat standard for area seventies to have a preliminary call length of 5-6 years. With that in mind, some area seventies called in 2012 and 2013 might also be released. Again, these are just very preliminary thoughts. An updated version of my list of the relevant individuals follows below:

Area Seventies: Some area seventies released, others called.
Note: The following area seventies may or may not be released: Elders Tasara Makasi, Fred A. Parker, and Miguel A. Reyes, who have been called as mission presidents and will begin their service in July; and Elders B. Sergio Antunes, Joao R. Grahl, Todd B. Hansen, Daniel W. Jones, Steven O. Laing, and Katsuyuki Otahara, who have been called as temple presidents and will begin their service in November; and Elders Sergio L. Krasnoselsky (who has served since April 2009), Kevin J. Worthen (who has served since April 2010), R. Randall Bluth, Hans T. Boom & David J. Thomson (who have served since April 2011).
Additional note: In recent years, it has been customary to see most changes in Area Seventies in April, and only a handful in October. Although mission presidents serve full-time, in recent years, several area seventies called as mission presidents have continued to serve as area seventies for one or two conferences after beginning their new assignments to preside over missions. By contrast, the assignment to serve as temple president generally precludes any area seventies from continuing in both callings.
Result:

I also recognize that these are just my own thoughts and observations, which I share, for what they may be worth to some of you. Any insights any of you have in terms of what I might have overlooked in my analysis on this topic are 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.

List of Temples That Will Close for an Extended Period of Time in 2018

Hello again, everyone! As some of you may be aware, an earlier report on this blog provided confirmation of the extended closure of the Edmonton Alberta Temple later this year. Then late last week, as I intended to start my second series of posts on potential future temples, my research led me to several temples that would also have an extended closure period at various points during 2018.

Note that I am only including those temples that will be closed for five weeks or longer. While 3- or 4-week closures are somewhat uncommon and therefore significant, a period of 5+ weeks indicates major work is being done that cannot occur during typical maintenance closures, which are generally only 2-3 weeks in duration.

The complete list of those extended periods of closure follows below. 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.


Edmonton Alberta Temple will close for 19 weeks (from Monday June 25-Monday November 5)
Salt Lake Temple will close for 5 weeks (from Monday July 2-Monday August 6)
Accra Ghana Temple will close for 11 weeks (from Monday July 23-Monday October 8)
St. Louis Missouri Temple will close for 10 weeks (from Monday July 30-Monday October 8)
Johannesburg South Africa Temple will close for 8 weeks (from Monday July 30-Monday September 24)
Bountiful Utah Temple will close for 6 weeks (from Monday August 6-Monday September 17)
Hermosillo Sonora Mexico Temple will close for 5 weeks (from Monday August 13-Monday September 17)
Seattle Washington Temple will close for roughly 12.5 weeks (from Sunday August 26-Thursday November 22)
Nauvoo Illinois Temple will close for 13 weeks (from Monday September 17-Monday December 17)
Aba Nigeria Temple will close for 10 weeks (from Monday October 22-Monday December 31)
Recife Brazil Temple will close for 12 weeks (from Monday September 3-Monday November 26)
San Antonio Texas Temple will close for 6 weeks (from Monday September 24-Monday November 5)
Billings Montana Temple will close for 10 weeks (from Monday November 5, 2018-Monday January 14, 2019)


Monday, June 4, 2018

Positing a Theory Regarding the Likely Groundbreaking Time-frame for the Bangkok Thailand Temple

Hello again, everyone! As I am currently working on a handful of projects for this blog (at least one of which I hope to be able to post later this evening), I have also, as time has allowed, looked into some other things I have been considering. One of those paid off in a big way yesterday. As some of you may be aware, once an artist's rendering and site information are released for a temple, a groundbreaking generally follows within the next few months.

As you may also recall, the artist's rendering and site location was released for the Bangkok Thailand Temple on March 19 of this year. This indicates to me that a groundbreaking is just a matter of time. With that in mind, I have looked into the history of the Church in Thailand. In doing so, I was reminded that then-Elder Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated Thailand for the preaching of the gospel in November 1966. So that leads me to believe that the Church may hold the groundbreaking ceremony for that temple in November of this year. The exact date of Elder Hinckley's prayer of dedication was November 2, but I am sure that it could happen anytime during the month of November, if not sooner.

I would love to hear from any of you that might have thoughts on this theory. Whatever might occur in that regard, you can count on my posting about it here as soon as I can after learning of 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 everytihng you do.

BREAKING NEWS: Church Pulls All Remaining Missionaries Out of Nicaragua

Hello again, everyone! Less than an hour ago, KSL's website reported that the Church has, in further consideration of the political unrest in Nicaragua, pulled all remaining missionaries out of that nation. While one mission president (who has young children in his family) has been sent home, the other mission president and his wife will stay and oversee remaining ecclesiastical duties for Nicaragua.

The Church noted in Mormon Newsroom's official release on this subject that the Church continues to make the safety and well-being of its' missionaries and Saints worldwide a high priority, and that evaluations will be made on an ongoing basis as far as when and how soon missionaries might be able to return.

In the meantime, those missionaries that have been removed will either be sent home (for those nearing the end of their service periods) or reassigned to other Central or South American countries, North America, Africa, or elsewhere.

I appreciate this move on the part of Church leadership, to recognize a potentially dangerous situation and take steps to ensure that those who are giving of their time to share the gospel will be safe wherever they serve.

My heart also goes out to the Nicaraguan Saints, who rejoiced so greatly when a temple was announced for that nation two months ago. My hope is that all of us will unite in prayer for all those affected by the current political unrest in Nicaragua. I will continue to monitor the developments in this regard and will do my level best to pass those along as I receive word 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.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

New Blog Layout

Hello again, everyone! This is a personal post to share some news and to pass along plans for content that will be coming over the next four months. Over the last couple of months, I have been toying with the idea of tweaking the layout of this blog to try and make it more user-friendly, and to make particularly relevant content easier to find. Today I was able to make those adjustments. To me personally, those tweaks do make the sidebars easier to follow, and this new arrangement should allow all of my readers to more easily find content that is of interest to them. But that is just my opinion. I am inviting your feedback on these changes, and look forward to your thoughts, which are always welcome and appreciated.

I also wanted to just put this out there as well: Because I am still looking for ways to expand this blog's readership and audience (though I am continually impressed with how quickly the numbers of those reading these posts has gone up lately), there may be individuals who are newcomers to this blog. For that reason, I wanted to reiterate something I have said previously: Because of current health challenges that prevent me from working at the moment (which I hope will change in the next few months, or possibly sooner), blogging is one of many ways I fill my time.

So I do keep fairly close tabs on developments here on my blog, with particular attention to those comments that are being made. Since I have previously had experience moderating online discussions, my general practice has been to personally reply to every comment made on this blog. But I do worry that my doing so may be misunderstood. With that in mind, I wanted to just again let all of you know that I do appreciate any comments made on this blog.

Since I do personally reply to most comments made here, I hope that everyone understands that I do not mean to cut off future comments on these posts. If someone has provided insightful feedback here, I want to show my appreciation for those thoughts, and I also want to take time to address questions and corrections, and to clarify anything I have said that I have worried may be misunderstood.

So if any of you see one (or more) comments from me personally on these threads, I hope you all know that I am not trying to end feedback on the posts. If there are things I need to clarify, amend, or correct, I want to make sure that takes place. If anyone has felt that one or more comments from me in response to other comments made on the posts here are meant to either end the dialogue on these posts, or are meant to discourage future comments on them, that was never my intention, and if that is the case for any one of you, I sincerely apologize.

My hope is that, as people read the posts here and the conversations that take place in the comments (both by me and by others here), that "all may be edified and rejoice together." I also wanted to announce that, within the next month or two, as time, circumstances, and available information allows me to do so, I will likely be gathering data to begin a second round of posts on the most likely near-future temple prospects for each of the Church's geographical areas.

While I welcome any comments on any post at any time from anyone, for the posts about temple prospects, the intent will be to have an open commenting period for the next 3.5 months or so, which I hope will allow ample time for discussion of my thoughts (and your comments in response) on the most likely prospects for temples that may be announced in the October General Conference.

That is the intent, but if I am unable to track down information on the sizes of current temple districts, or other pertinent information that may factor into those discussions, that will be a challenge to work around when the timing is right. Stay tuned for more on that as I figure all of that out. I cannot say for certain, but if all goes well, I will hope to start on that series within the next couple of weeks or so.

That does it for this post. As mentioned above, and as always, any and all comments are 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.