Miscellaneous Church and Temple News Provided

Hello again, everyone! Within the last hour or so, I have become aware of several significant temple developments and additional Church News. This post will serve to share all of those developments. We start with the temple developments. First and foremost, the Facebook page from which I have continued to pull recent temple updates shared here has shared an article in Spanish which indicates that President Nelson will preside at the dedication of the Concepcion Chile Temple, the first new temple dedicated during his prophetic administration. I had thought that would be the case.

While I am not definitively sure who else might be in attendance from general Church leadership, since Elder Jeffrey R. Holland served for two years (from August 2002-August 2004) as president of what was then the Chile Area, it would not surprise me if he is the one accompanying President Nelson to this dedication. But since the country of Chile also falls under the South America South Area, over which Elder Ronald A. Rasband currently has a supervisory role, he could be the accompanying apostle as well. I will share more information on all of this as I find out more.

In the meantime, while the open house for the Concepcion Chile Temple continues, the open house for the Barranquilla Colombia Temple will begin in roughly 5.5 weeks. And new information received about the Lisbon Portugal Temple indicates that trees and plants are being added to the grounds of that temple.

I also have found an update on the Raleigh North Carolina Temple, where the process of cladding the exterior in stone continues. I should interject here that I have made yet another change to the section of my temple construction progress report which lists the temples currently undergoing renovation. Although the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple has seemed to make more consistent progress, the process of stone cladding for that temple has not yet begun. Given the fact that stone cladding has not only begun but is making significant progress on the Raleigh Temple, I have switched the two back to the original anticipated completion order.

That concludes the temple updates portion of this post. Let's move on now to the general Church news I wanted to pass along. Many of you may recall from Church history accounts that one of the first black members of the Church after its' restoration was Jane Manning (who later married and had the last name James). When she first joined the Church and sought refuge with the Saints, Emma Smith, the wife of the Prophet Joseph, not only took her in, but befriended her. The friendship of the two women would continue to last through the aftermath of the Prophet's martyrdom. As her husband's death shook her to the core, Emma found comfort in the quiet reassurance of her friend, Jane Manning James. The unlikely friendship of these two women is highlighted and underscored in a new movie, entitled "Jane and Emma". The article about the movie is well worthy of your attention.

The Church has released a new website that is designed to help individuals and families affected by the use of pornography. More details on that site are provided by the Newsroom on lds.org. And the Church continues to announce new members of the auxiliary boards, reporting that 2 men have been called to the Young Men General Board.

Also from the Newsroom was another article I may or may not have previously shared, describing how members of the Church (Latter-day Saints) in North Carolina are serving their neighbors in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. And, a final story, from the "News & Events" page on the Church website, shares how Elder Dale G. Renlund (who has responsibilities for the South America Northwest Area) visited Peru and Bolivia recently. He made stops in Iquitos and Lima (where he may have stopped off to see how work was progressing towards getting work started on the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple) and in El Alto, La Paz, and Santa Cruz Bolivia.

Quick interjection here: I have previously referenced the fact that a second temple for Bolivia seems likely, and Santa Cruz and La Paz seem like the most likely candidates for such a temple. Of the two, Santa Cruz may have somewhat of an "edge" or stronger case, but I would anticipate temples in both places within the next 15-30 years or less, depending on the extent of President Nelson's temple plans. And, from what I understand, a temple in La Paz would serve the El Alto region, since the two are close.

That said, Elder Renlund and his wife, Ruth, were accompanied by Elder Jose A. Teixeira of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife Filomena, and also by the members of the South America Northwest Area Presidency (Elders Enrique R. Falabella, Hugo Montoya, and Mathias Held). The News & Events page has provided a full summary of what occurred during this visit.

All of these articles are well worthy of your attention. I continue to monitor any and all Church news and temple developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it. Since tomorrow is Thursday, and since we have seen other major news come from the Church on Thursdays in recent weeks, I would anticipate that, if confirmation is going to be provided soon about the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple groundbreaking, that will occur tomorrow. I will be sure to pass along such news whenever it might come, along with any other breaking developments ASAP.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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! While I hope the conversation and main focus will continue to center on the predictions I put together for the upcoming General Conference (for which I will, as noted, be continuing to accept feedback for the next week or so) and on the game-changing temple developments reported today, I wanted to pass along some of the latest Church news stories which have come to my attention. We begin by talking about newly-reported developments on the Newsroom of the Church's official website, and then move to stories from the LDS Church News website. But I will also be noting stories posted on both websites where applicable. Let's get right into all of that.

While official confirmation of those latest temple developments is pending, both the Newsroom and Church News reported a new video series in support of those feeling suicidal, entitled: "Choose to Stay". The Church has recently taken greater steps to emphasize how precious and fleeting life is, and to urge those struggling with negative thoughts that lead to suicidal feelings to seek help, and to talk to those they love about how they are feeling. Given that none of us knows what is going through the heads of others unless they choose to share such information, anyone in tune with the Spirit can help minister to those who may feel lost, worthless, hopeless, or that life is no longer worth living.

But there has also been an increased emphasis by the Church about the fact that we don't know the exact situation of those who do take their own lives, and that's why it is important for all of us to leave the judgement of such people and their situations in the hands of the Lord.. That said, there seems to have been a greater emphasis by the Church that preventing anyone from getting to the point where they are determined to go through with taking their own lives is always the best option. I hope we will heed the counsel of these leaders and look out for those who may be troubled to that degree.

And the reports of Church members ministering in their communities and elsewhere to individuals and locations devastated by recent storms continues with a report highlighting ongoing relief efforts, with accounts of how both those devastated by the storms and those in neighboring regions have come together to help clean up and repair the devastated regions, and the hearts of those affected by such disasters.

Turning now to the Church News, roughly 1.5 years since the scripture mastery program was replaced by doctrinal mastery for seminary students around the world, the Church News provides a look at how the initiative has had a positive influence on the lives of the youth and seminary teachers around the world.

The Church News continued their "From the Vault" series highlighting classic addresses given by Church leaders and their spouses over the years. There have been many summaries of amazing addresses shared recently, and I encourage each of you to peruse that section as time allows. It is well worth your time.

Speaking at the weekly devotional for LDS Business College at the Assembly Hall in Salt Lake City, Presiding Bishop Gerald Causse unexpectedly surprised those in a attendance by briefly performing a piano duet with one of the faculty members. The Church News provides these details about that impromptu performance and the counsel he provided to those students during that time.

And finally, during a visit to the South America South Area (over which he has a supervisory role), Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles reflected on how he was able to pass on a lesson he had learned from another Church leader.

Elder Rasband, as most or all of you may recall, has served as a General Authority since April 2000, becoming a member of the Presidency of the Seventy in August 2005, and going on to become the Senior President of the Seventy less than four years later, in April 2009. He would still be serving in that capacity at the time of his call to the apostleship in October 2015.

Anyways, he recalled traveling on one occasion with Elder Richard G. Scott to Argentina (where the latter had served as a mission president years before, and where, as some of you may recall, one of his missionaries was a future apostolic colleague, Elder D. Todd Christofferson). On that occasion, when Elders Scott and Rasband found they were on a tight schedule, Elder Rasband suggested to Elder Scott that they forgo sharing handshakes with the members in consideration of the time limit. Elder Scott grabbed him by the lapel of his suit and explained that part of his role as an apostle was to greet the members, look into their eyes, and shake their hands. He went on to say that if time was truly an issue, he would keep his remarks brief to allow time to greet the members, and that's exactly what occurred.

During Elder Rasband's visit to the South America South Area, his General Authority companion, Elder Carlos A. Godoy, who, as a new member of the Presidency of the Seventy, now assists Elder Rasband with the supervision of that area, noticed a similar time constraint and essentially made the same suggestion. Remembering Elder Scott's words and example to him from years earlier, Elder Rasband did the same thing, gently grabbing Elder Godoy by the lapel, while explaining that part of his role was to greet the Saints, shake their hands, and look into their eyes, and that he would, if need be, cut his remarks short to allow that to occur.

I love accounts like this, where the memory of instruction from an apostle who has since passed away blesses not only a newer apostle who takes it to heart, but also blesses the future leaders of the Church, particularly members of the Presidency of the Seventy, many of whom have been "apostles-in-training" (by which I mean that 8 of our 15 current apostles were serving in the Presidency of the Seventy at the time of their calls, so that Presidency is a prime place from which apostolic candidates are selected).

And even for those members of the Presidency of the Seventy that do not go on to serve as apostles, their divinely appointed roles, along with their General Authority Seventy counter-parts, is that they "instead of any others", should be called upon to "assist the Twelve" as the need arises and as the work requires. Therefore, in a very real sense, the ministry of all men ordained to the office of seventy, either as a general authority or area seventy, is an extension of the ministry of the apostles worldwide.

It has been my honor to bring summaries of these developments to you all at this time. I do continue to monitor any and all Church news stories, in addition to temple developments, and am committed to bringing word of those to you as I receive it.

As a quick closing note, I am working as I can on updating my previously-provided estimates for known future temple-related events. Based on the newest milestones and updates that I have heard of and which I have found, I will be hoping to post that here hopefully before the end of this month. I also continue to accept any and all comments on my predictions for next General Conference until Monday October 1, so continued feedback is welcome specifically on that.

That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.

Temple Updates Provided

Hello again, everyone! There have been a few more temple updates reported in the last several hours. I think I can pass them along without having to post my entire report again. So let's get right into all of them. We start with an update on the Kinshasa DR Congo Temple, which will, if all goes well, be the next to have a dedication scheduled. On the grounds of that temple, the installation of pavers and plants continues at a steady rate. The general time-frame for that temple's completion remains early-to-mid 2019, and I have ventured my opinion that a dedication is possible in mid-April.

At the Raleigh North Carolina Temple, stone cladding continues at a steady pace. As some of you may recall, a while ago, based on the progress I saw with the Baton Rouge Louisiana Temple, which has seemed to progress more consistently than the Raleigh Temple, I switched the two. Given the fact that we have seen an increased number of updates on the Raleigh renovation recently, I may be rethinking that.

Now to the big news: According to a report from a Church member in the Abidjan Ivory Coast, a groundbreaking for that temple is anticipated to be held on November 8 of this year. I hope that turns out to be the case. However, I looked for verification of this on the Church News website, and on the Church's official website (on both the News & Events page and the Newsroom), and I even consulted the Newsroom page for the Ivory Coast, which I had Google translate from French to English. The long and the short of it is that I have not yet found confirmation that this report is accurate. And there has been no release of an artist's rendering or an official site announcement.

I hope that this report does turn out to be true. That would give me hope that the Abidjan temple will have a groundbreaking this year in addition to the one in Bangkok. However, until this is officially confirmed in some way through official Church sources, I am taking this information with a grain of salt.

I continue to monitor all Church news and temple developments and will do my level best to pass word of those along to you all as I receive it. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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--Updated Ages & Other Important Information

Hello again, everyone! Having set the stage in the first part of this apostolic age update (posted just a few moments ago), we now move on to talk specifics regarding the long-form and decimal ages of our current apostles, which will also include updated information on the average ages of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the 15 apostles as a group, and current and future nonagenarians. So let’s get right into all of that. Again, all data is current as of today (Sunday September 23, 2018).

First, I thought it might be appropriate to share an overview of the apostolic birthdays that are coming up in the near future, particularly those which will be observed before I post the next such update, which I will try to do in 6-weeks’ time (around November 4). We have two apostolic birthdays coming up before then. The first will be the 60^th birthday of our youngest apostle, Elder Ulisses Soares, which he will be observing on October 2. Then, as noted towards the end of my last post, President M. Russell Ballard’s 90^th birthday will be observed 6 days later, on October 8. Just by way of reminder, we have two apostles each observing their birthdays in November (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s 78^th on the 6^th, and Elder Dale G. Renlund’s 66^th exactly one week later), while Elders Jeffrey R. Holland and Gerrit W. Gong will observe their respective 78^th and 65^th birthdays on the 3^rd and 23^rd of December respectively.

With that noted, we now move on to some exact figures about the ages (and average ages) of the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and all 15 apostles as a group. For the First Presidency, President Russell M. Nelson’s long-form age is now 94 years, 0 months, and 14 days, which works out to 94.04 decimal years. President Dallin H. Oaks has reached the age of 86 years, 1 month, and 11 days, which is 86.12 years. President Henry B. Eyring, who, as previously noted, is almost always 0.8 years younger than President Oaks, is now 85 years, 3 months, and 23 days old, which puts him at a decimal age of 85.32 years.

The three Presiding High Priests now have a combined 265.48 years of life experience, which puts their average age at 88.49 years as of today. President Oaks remains closest to that average, still being 2.37 years below it. Obviously, Presidents Nelson and Eyring are still respectively above and below the average.

We move on now to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. First, President Ballard, whose 90^th birthday is, as noted, 15 days away, has a long-form age of 89 years, 11 months, and 15 days old, with a decimal age of 89.96 years. Elder Holland is now 77 years, 9 months, and 20 days old, which puts his decimal age at 77.81 years. Elder Uchtdorf, at just under a month older than Elder Holland, is now 77 years, 10 months, and 17 days old, making him 77.88 in decimal years.

Elder Bednar has a long-form age of 66 years, 3 months, and 8 days, with a decimal age of 66.27 years.  Elder Cook, who also observed a birthday since my last update, is 78 years, 0 months, and 15 days old, making his decimal age 78.04 years. Elder Christofferson is now 73 years, 7 months, and 30 days old, which works out to 73.66 years.

Elder Andersen is now 67 years, 1 month, and 14 days old, which puts his decimal age at 67.12 years. Elder Rasband’s long-form age is 67 years, 7 months, and 17 days, with a decimal age of 67.63 years. Elder Gary E. Stevenson, who was the youngest apostle currently serving until last April, is now 63 years, 1 month, and 17 days old, which is 63.13 in decimal years.

We now come to the final three apostles. Elder Renlund now has a long-form age of 65 years, 10 months, and 10 days old, which is 65.86 years. Elder Gong is now exactly 64 years and 9 months old, with a resulting decimal age of 64.75 years.  Elder Soares, whose 60^th birthday is coming up, as noted earlier, on October 2, is now 59 years, 11 months, and 21 days old, with a resulting decimal age of 59.98 years.

The current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have a combined life experience of 852.09 years, which averages out to 71.01 years for each of those 12 Brethren. As I noted previously, the ages of Elders Christofferson and Rasband put them above and below that average respectively, with Elder Christofferson now being 2.65 years older and Elder Rasband remaining roughly 3.38 years younger.

Based on the information I provided earlier about the members of the First Presidency, the 15 apostles have a combined 1117.57 years of life experience, which averages out to 74.5 years. Elders Holland and Christofferson stand closest to that average, with the former being 3.31 years older, and the latter remaining 0.84 years younger.

We now move on to the nonagenarians. President Nelson remains the 7^th oldest apostle in Church history, and now has just over 9 months before he will move up on that list. President Ballard will join that list in just 15 days. This means that by the time I post these statistics again, not only will President Ballard have joined the list of nonagenarians, but he will be 10 days away from when he will first move up on it.  While 12 other apostles will join the list at various intervals, Elder Soares now has 30 years and 9 days until his 90^th birthday.

I continue to track all of this information, and will do my level best to pass updates on to you regularly, with my hope being to post the next such update roughly 6 weeks from now, which I hope to continue to do for the foreseeable future. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated on any post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time.

If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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 Data for President Oaks, President Nelson, and Longest-Serving Apostolic Groups

Hello again, everyone! While I hope any or all of you would feel free to continue to comment on any previous posts published on this blog, another 6 weeks have come and gone since I last posted updated information on the latest apostolic statistics (with that last update occurring on Sunday August 12, 2018). Since there have been an impressive number of changes in that information in the 1.5 months which have come and gone, it seems appropriate to focus on it again now.

As always, before we begin the discussion of that updated data, I wanted to recognize that there may be many of you who are not interested in the information I will be providing. So I will not in any way be offended or bothered if any of you prefer to bypass this information (which will, as always, be covered over the course of two posts).

As usual, all data is current as of today (Sunday September 23, 2018). This update will again feature the data in the same order as previous updates. We will start with some data about the Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, then turn our attention to the Presidents of the Church. After discussing those things, the first post will end, and the second (to be published shortly after the first) will then highlight the latest data about all 15 of our apostles, including information on those who have had a birthday recently and those whose birthdays are getting closer.

So let’s begin with some information on President Oaks’ current tenure length as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which will include exploring how soon he will move up on this list. The length of his service has currently spanned 8 months and 9 days. As I noted in a post done on Friday September 14, last Sunday (September 16), the length of President Oaks’ tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve surpassed that of President David O. McKay, so President Oaks then became the 26^th longest-serving Quorum President.

Just less than one month from today (on October 22), he will become the 25^th longest-serving Quorum President, having served longer in that capacity than President Gordon B. Hinckley. Then, as previously noted, in 2019, he will mark 5 milestones, one in April, two others in July (which will be observed two days apart), and the remaining two in November, and December. I will mention the specifics of those milestones closer to that time.

Insofar as I have been able to determine, President Oaks does not appear to have any significant health issues, and if that continues to be the case, he is almost certain to be around for at least the next 5-7 years, if not longer. And of course, the length of his tenure as President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will depend on both the length of President Oaks’ life and that of President Nelson. But by all appearances, President Nelson could be around for the next decade or two.

And speaking of President Nelson, since he was ordained and set apart as Church president on the same day he set apart President Oaks as Quorum President, his tenure has spanned 8 months and 9 days as well. He is now 94 years, 0 months, and 14 days old.

He will observe the first tenure length milestone of his presidency roughly 2.5 weeks from today, on Thursday October 11 (when he will have served longer than President Howard W. Hunter). He will observe both another tenure-related and his first age-related milestone two days apart in July of 2019, with subsequent milestones more spread out in the years following that. And again, I will be detailing those more specifically closer to the time when they will be reached.

As I have also noted before, by all accounts, President Nelson remains healthy, vigorous, and fully involved in the day-to-day work of moving the Church forward. And as far as I know, neither of his counselors (who are both 7-8 years younger than he is) are suffering from any major health issues either, which means that these Brethren will likely be serving together for at least the next several years, and I could easily see them at least making the list of the longest-serving First Presidencies in the Church, which will, as previous noted, occur on Sunday April 1, 2024.

And by the end of that same year, not only will the current First Presidency reach a couple of other milestones, but President Nelson will also become the first centenarian apostle and Church president. I know that, as recently as last year, I had offered my opinion that, if President Nelson became president of the Church, he would likely not serve for very long, given his age. But by all reports, when meeting with Church members and other leaders, people have observed he seems 20-30 years younger than he actually is. As a former heart surgeon, it has been very rightly pointed out that President Nelson would know how to take care of himself, and that, due to his testimony of gospel principles (particularly those relating to health), he is one of the few heart surgeons self-disciplined enough to actually do those things. With that in mind, I would not be surprised if, as Elder Andersen expressed his hope last conference, he will be around for the next decade or two.

As for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, except for President Ballard (who will be 90 on October 8, which is 15 days away), and who appears to be in fairly good health as well, though he may not be as healthy as President Nelson), all other apostles are younger than 80, though within the next 2 years and 3 months, we will have 3 other octogenarians in the Quorum. With that in mind, the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who have served together since March 31 of this year, will most likely easily make the list of the longest-serving apostles on March 31, 2021. By the end of that same year, they will have moved up 3 spots on the list. I will give more specific data in this regard closer to that time.

By the end of 2021, the current group of apostles in the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will have made and moved up on the list of other groups of ordained apostles to become the 12th longest-serving such group in Church history, and other milestones will be reached in the years following. All of those milestones will depend on how long each of our apostles live and serve, and on how much they (or anyone else) are affected by health issues. I continue to track the health and ministry of these Brethren and will keep you posted.

With that said, I want to conclude this portion of the update. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on this or any other post at any time. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly-added content, please feel free to subscribe.

Until my next post (which should be the second one on this subject and will be published here within the next few minutes), I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.