October 2020 General Conference Predictions Results

Hello again, everyone! With almost 3 full weeks having passed since the October 2020 General Conference took place, I am pleased to now provide the resultp s of my predictions for it. First, I felt that it might be helpful for many of you if I provided more specific information and examples on what I score, how it is scored, and how that leads to the overall point total and accuracy percentage for them. That new section sets the backdrop for the results of the predicted speaking order, those of the projected changes in general Church leadership and a look at how my list of prospective temple lcations compared to the locations in which a temple was officially announced.

The information largely speaks for itself, but if any of you have questions about any of that, I'd welcome the chance to address them. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

UPDATED: Observations About Temple Groundbreakings in 2020

Hello again, everyone! While I continue to get the results of my October 2020 General Conference predictions ready to present here, and am also making updates as I can to the temple documents I want to share here as well, something else has come up that warranted a new post.  Aside from the Church News updates I provided in the threads of my previous post, one other article was published on the subject of the 21 temple groundbreakings that the Church has scheduled to take place this year. 

The article in question sheds some light on why 18 temple groundbreakings were originally planned, how that number increased to 21, and why President Nelson referenced only 20 in his remarks opening the October 2020 General Conference. It appears that 21 are indeed scheduled to occur, but that the logistics related to the arrangements of 1 of those may result in that groundbreaking being pushed back on the schedule. 

Although the article did not specify which temple might be delayed, I had a few thoughts in that respect.  When the Deseret News published an article on the 2020 groundbreakings, the Mendoza Argentina Temple had not been on that list. So it’s possible that, logistically, there are or may be issues with that temple. We also know that the Salta Argentina Temple’s groundbreaking has been pushed back twice, so any additional delay relative to that temple might push it back into next year. 

Similarly, we know that there are some political, environmental, or systemic issues going on in Zimbabwe’s capital city, which might delay that one. And it appears that Bengaluru India is somewhat of a hot spot for COVID-19 at the moment, so that temple could have its groundbreaking pushed back. While I don’t know if any of these thoughts are correct in defining which temple might not have a groundbreaking, I am personally hoping that all goes well and that the full 21 will be able to occur. 

I’ve previously mentioned a personal theory I have: Since each of the three members of the South America South Area will preside at the groundbreakings for the Salta and Mendoza Argentina and Antofagasta Chile Temples, it seems possible that the three temples could all have groundbreakings on the same day. 

As I’ve also mentioned, with no exact dates specified for any of the remaining 12 temples in the queue for this year, it may be hard to know when each might occur.  That being said, with only a handful of exceptions, most of the temple groundbreakings that have occurred since the beginning of 2017 have taken place on a Saturday. With that in mind, I am fairly certain that Elder Gong will break ground for the Taylorsville Utah Temple this Saturday, October 24. 

I will be interested to see what happens next month with temple groundbreakings. 8 of the remaining 12 groundbreakings are set to take place in November, and there are 4 Saturdays in that month. As a result, even if the Salta, Mendoza, and Antofagasta temples have their groundbreakings on the same day, that still leaves 5 that would need to take place over the other 3 weeks in that month. And for those parts of the world that observe Thanksgiving Day on the final Thursday of this month, that holiday may impact the timing on those groundbreakings as well. 

Similarly, for December, where 3 groundbreakings have been scheduled, the final 2-2.5 weeks of the year focus on Christmas and New Years’ celebrations through most of the world. Even with COVID-19 impacting the customary large-scale public celebrations, the Church likely will not want to detract from the focus particularly on Christmas. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how the Church handles the remaining 12 groundbreakings. I will keep my eyes open for any such updates, in addition to all Church news and other temple construction developments, and remain committed to passing word of those along to you all as I become aware of that information. 

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

UPDATED: Current Apostolic Statistics

Hello again, everyone! Recently on this blog, it has become traditional for me to publish updated apostolic statistics relating to both the age and tenures of our current apostles roughly every 7 weeks. Since I last did so on Sunday August 30, it is now time to do so again today. Those updates, as has also been customary, will be featured in two parts: the first, and the second. The information speaks for itself. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to pass word of those developments along to you all as I become aware of any such reports.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Elder and Sister Gong Complete Quarantine; Elder Gong to Resume Apostolic Responsibilities Next Week

Hello again, everyone! A breaking news update on the health of Elder and Sister Gong was provided a short while ago by the Church's official Newsroom. As some of you may recall, during General Conference weekend, Elder Gong was excused and had prerecorded his talk due to the fact that he and his wife had been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. As later confirmed by the Newsroom on October 6, both Elder and Sister Gong tested positive for COVID-19. Two days after that, that same news release was updated to note that all other apostles had been tested, and that all tests were negative.

That brings us around to today's update. In a Facebook post within the last hour or so, Elder Gong shared tconfirmation from his and his wife's doctors that they had successfully completed quarantine, and that he has been given the all-clear to resume his apostolic responsibilities in full, while, of course, observing mask wearing and social distancing in public apperances. He also expressed gratitude to Church members worldwide for the prayers offered in behalf of himself and his wife.

This is very good news. With Elder Gong being able to resume his apostolic assignments early next week, it seems highly likely that no adustments whatsoever will need to be made to the arrangements for the Taylorsville Utah Temple groundbreaking ceremony.  The only question is when that ceremony might occur. My best guess at this point would be one week from tomorrow, which would be Saturday October 24, but it could happen any other day during the remainder of this month once Elder Gong resumes his responsibilities.

I was grateful to have been able to learn of this update and to be able to pass it along to you all here. Parenthetically, I would like to note as a personal update that, due to ongoing issues with back-to-back infections recently, my wife and I have been wodering if either or both of us had COVID-19. I was tested for that earlier this week, and the test results were negative. I was relieved for that result personally because I've had more than my fair share of pulmonary problems over the last couple of decades.

That aside, I continue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of any such news. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreaking Held for the Moses Lake Washington Temple Today

Hello again, everyone! As some of you may recall, for the groundbreakings scheduled to be held the final three months of this year, the official announcements did not specify exact dates, but said that media resources would be available to acknowledge their occurrence after the fact. I am pleased, therefore, to report that, less than a week after General Conference concluded, the first of those groundbreakings has taken place. Earlier today, ground was broken for the Moses Lake Washington Temple.

As arranged, Elder David L. Stapleton, an area seventy, presided over that ceremony. The small-scale event, held in accordance with proper COVID-19 protocols in place, marked the commencement of construction for the fourth temple in Washington state. Given its' relatively smaller size, I anticipate that, once construction gets underway, the process of completion may only take 18-21 months or so. Time will tell in that respect. Either way, it is good to have confirmation that this has occurred as planned.

The one other temple that was set to have a groundbreaking later this month was the Taylorsville Utah Temple. I am not sure at the present time if, how, or to what extent the positive COVID-19 diagnosis for Elder and Sister Gong may delay, alter, or change the plans for that temple's groundbreaking. I imagine if worst came to worst, the Church might either send someone else to do that, allow Elder Gong to do so remotely, or push that back a little, and perhaps move forward one or two of the 8 temple groundbreakings planned for next month.

Whatever might occur in that regard, you can count on my bringing word of that to you all here as I become aware of such news. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

UPDATED: COVID-19 Status Report on the Senior Brethren of the Church

Hello again, everyone! Although this is no longer breaking news (since the report was provided a few hours ago), I wanted to provide an update (as reported by Newsroom and confirmed in the Church News) on the health of our apostles during this COVID-19 period. According to longtime Church spokesman Eric Hawkins, Elder and Sislter Gong, who tested positive for COVID-19 two days ago, continue to experience very mild symptoms, and are both taking proper precautions and remaining actively involved in contact-tracing as a result of their diagnosis.

Additionally, based on the positive diagnosis of Elder and Sister Gong (and, I'm sure, under the watchful eye of President Nelson, who continues to do what he can as a former physician and surgeon to provide a medically-supportive role to his fellow apostles), each of the other apostles (perhaps with their spouses) have been teted for COVID-19. With the exception of Elder and Sister Gong, all other tests taken returned negative results.

This news is both welcome and not surprising, since the Brethren have been foremost in encouraging COVID-19 precautions on the part of Church members and leaders. And hopefully, the confirmation that the Gongs continue to do well and that no other senior leaders have tested positive will be a comfort to any who may have been worried about that over the past several days. I am grateful to have been able to learn about this report and to pass it along to you all here.

I continue to monitor  all Church news reports and updated temple developments, and will be sure to bring you all word of those as I become aware of them. In the meantime, I wanted to mention that, due to the many other Church news reports which have been provided today, some of which relate to prior content posted on this blog, I may be sharing some of those updates across the threads of a few of the most recent posts, so be on the lookout for those.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

In Honor of President M. Russell Ballard, Who Celebrates His 92nd Birthday Today

Hello again, everyone! With the wonderful spirit of the October 2020 General Conference still strongly impacting all of us, I wanted to post now a tribute to President M. Russell Ballard, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who is observing his 92nd birthday today. Among the total of 19 nonagenarian apostles, President Ballard is currently the twelfth-oldest and he will next move up on that list in March of next year. That said, let's get to some biographical details. Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. was born in Salt Lake City Utah to Melvin Russell Sr. & Geraldine Smith Ballard, on this day in 1928. Both his paternal and maternal grandfathers (Melvin J. Ballard and Hyrum M. Smith) were apostles, and Elder Ballard is thus a direct descendant of the early leaders of the Church (Hyrum M. was the son of Joseph F., who was the son of Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph).

As I previously mentioned, the Church has, by tradition, had at least one apostle currently serving who has ancestral ties to the Smith family. It is further interesting to note that Bruce R. McConkie, who was the last apostle indirectly related to the Smith family (being the son-in-law of Joseph Fielding Smith, who was the son of Joseph F. who was the son of Hyrum, who was the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith), was the apostle whose death resulted in the apostolic vacancy that necessitated Elder Ballard's call. As a young man, now-President Ballard served as a missionary in England, as has been noted in previous blog posts. Upon his return, he served in the US Army Reserves, where he rose to the rank of First Lieutenant. As a result of obtaining his secondary education from the University of Utah, he met a young lady named Barbara Bowen, whom he married on August 8, 1951 in the Salt Lake Temple. Sister Ballard passed away roughly two years ago.

They became the parents of 7 children, and one of their daughters, Brynn, married Peter Huntsman, whose mother, Karen Haight Huntsman, is the daughter of Elder David B. Haight, one of Elder Ballard's apostolic colleagues. It is interesting to see that additional relationship Elder Ballard has to other LDS apostles. Brother Ballard worked professionally in auto sales. His Church service included serving as a counselor to his mission president, as a bishop twice, and as president of the Canada Toronto Mission. He completed the final year of that assignment as a General Authority Seventy, having received that call in April 1976.

Less than four years later, on February 20, 1980, he was called to the Presidency of the Seventy. Both before and as a result of that assignment, he served in a wide variety of capacities. Particularly, the Church had established an International Mission in the late 1970s, and in 1985 then-Elder M. Russsell Ballard ws called to serve as president of that mission, overseeing the isolated congregations within it from Church headquarters. During his roughly 5 years and 7 months or so in the Presidency of the Seventy, he had moved up in that Presidency from being the junior member thereof to the third most senior member.

A few short weeks after rising from his sickbed to give a his powerful final testimony, Elder Bruce R. McConkie passed away, and Elder Ballard was then called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Now-President Ballard is known and respected for the emphasis he has placed on missionary work in his apostolic ministry. Since October 1985, he has moved from the position of the junior apostle to now being the third in apostolic seniority. In his 43 years as a general authority (shich has seen his apostolic ministry span exactly 3.5 decades as of this month), he has given a grand total of  80 addresses in General Conference, including the one he gave just this last weekend. Of those 80, 7 were given prior to his apostolic call.

And, as we know, the death of President Thomas S. Monson on January 2 of last year resulted in the First Presidency being reorganized on January 14, with President Russell M. Nelson choosing his apostolic seatmate and the new President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Dallin H. Oaks, as his First Counselor. Consequently, President M. Russell Ballard was set apart as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve. He thus is tasked, with the approval of the First Presidency, with giving the other 11 members of that Quorum their various assignments around the world and at Church headquarters.  I am grateful for the life and apostolic ministry of President M. Russell Ballard, and on this, his 91st birthday, testify of the divine inspiration that attended both his apostolic call and the way and timing by which he has moved up in ranks of apostolic seniority and among all apostolic nonagenarians.

I gladly sustain him and the other apostles in their foreordanied roles. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will bring word of all such developments to you all here as i learn about them. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: English Transcripts of October 2020 General Conference Now Availaable; A Look at Updated Documents Relevant to General Conference

Hello again, everyone! I am pleased to report more breaking news on this Tuesday night: the English version of transcripts from last weekend's General Conference are now available online. I have again been impressed by how quickly the Church has been able to get those published every six months following General Conference. Since those are now available, I was also able to update a few personal documents as a result. Those documents include a comparative look at the length of each address given by our apostles last weekend, an updated breakdown in the number of addresses given by our current apostles, both prior to and during their apostolic ministries, and, based on the released transcripts (which note the title of each address), what the table of contents for the November 2020 Ensign might potentially look like.

With reference to the latter document, I do not have any inside information whatsoever about what determines the layout of each General Conference magazine, but in similarity to the predictions I provide for each General Conference, they are based solely on using patterns of the past, which are subject to change, in order to predict the potential future. As a result of that, I will be providing a revised version of that table of contents once I have compared it to the actual page in that Ensign. And as far as my predictions for last General Coference are concerned, I am still in the process of analyzing them to determine the scoring and accuracy I will assign thereunto. So stay tuned for those.

In the meantime, I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will be sure to provide all such updates as I become aware of them. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING NEWS: Elder and Sister Gong Test Positive for COVID-19; First Presidency Encourages Latter-day Saints in the United States to Vote

 Hello again, everyone! Breaking news on two fronts unrelated to temples has been reported by the Church within the last hour or so. The Newsroom, with additional context provided by the Church News has confirmed that Elder and Sister Gong have both tested posititive for COVID-19. As some of you may recall, due to having had contact with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, Elder Gong had prerecorded his remarks for the recent General Conference, and neither he nor his wife attended conference in person.

What we do know at this point is that the Gongs are only experiencing very mild symptoms, and are actively involved in the process of contact tracing and self-isolation. This is the first time that a positive COVID-19 diagnosis has been provided for any of the Church's top leaders. That being said, with at least two former physicians as fellow apostles, and with Elder and Sister Gong adhering to the proper guidelines for self-isolation and contact tracing, I have no doubt they will both pull through. I urge all my readers in light of this news to join me in praying for the welfare and healing of Elder and Sister Gong.

In the meantime, it has been a time-honored tradition for the First Presidency to also urge Latter-day Saints in the United States to vote in the general elections each year. Usually, those invitiations and reminders come down the pike in mid-to-late October, so to have that earlier than usual underscores how impartant it may be for members of the Church and their friends of other faiths to participate in the political process. You can find more information on this year's invitation from the leading Quorum of the Church in the Newsroom and the Church News. 

Although the Church as an institiution, and its' top leaders, of necessity, maintain the practice of political neutraility when it comes to all political candidates and most political or civil issues, with the exception to the latter occurrinlg when there is a solid doctrinally-based reason to oppose a meaure (fas we saw years ago when the Church mobilized some resources and issued a statement against California Proposition 8, which legalized same-sex marriage in that state), or where issues of human life are at stake (the subject of abortion comes to mind), or where any measure would trample on the rights of any religious organization (issues relating to religious freedom). 

Those are the main exceptions of which I am presently aware in the recent past. Having shared the First Presidency statement and some relevant thoughts on that, I will just observe on a personal note that I urge any of my readers to prayerfully approach the process of voting especially this year. Pray about issues of concern, the candidates who have taken stands one way or another on those issues, and the character of the candidates themselves. If any of you find anything lacking in your current local or national leaders, it is a duty all Church members and friends of other faiths should hold dear to vote them out appropriately, and to seek to appoint leaders that will do the right thing for the right reasons in all important  matters.

I hope that that statement was sufficiently politically neutral on my personal part here. As a citizen of the United States, I have my own thoughts about the upcoming election, but I have vowed to keep this place as a safe haven for my readers where all can express their opinions on the news shared and can share ideas as guided by the Spirit, and I am determined to personally hold myself to that standard. The one thing I will say is that, for so many in the United States, we are at a critical juncture where, in many cases, the leaders we select will shape the future of our nation and localities as we currently know them. 

So I hope with that in mind that all of us will approach the privilege of voting  as the solenm and sacred duty that it truly is. When we can do so, we will know we have discharged our obligation as citizens in accordance with the counsel given yearly and renenewed today by the First Presidency. For my part, I will continue to monitor all Church and temple news, and be sure to pass word of the latest developments on to you all here. I have no doubt that, coming out of the recent General Conference weekend, the best is yet to come prior to the end of the year. 

I am also more than slightly surprised that the Church has not yet released the calendar of Churchwide events for next year, as that has typically happened during or just prior to Semptembe every year. Perhaps there are a few other details to iron out with that, since COVID-19 and a few other factors are definitiely unknown. I will keep my eyes open in that respect as well, and bring you all word of that here as I become aware of it.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.

BREAKING TEMPLE NEWS: President Nelson Announces 6 New Temples As the October 2020 General Conference Concludes

Hello again, everyone! I have breaking news to share from the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference that has just concluded. During his remarks that served as the capstone to this conference, President Nelson announced 6 new temples, which will be built in the following locations: Tarawa Kiribati; Port Villa Vanuatu; Lindon Utah; Greater Guatemala City Guatemala; East Sao Paulo Brazil; and Santa Cruz Bolivia. Along with covering this announcement, I wanted to share some preliminary information based on what is known about each of these new temples. First, the Church News also covered this announcement. Secondly, when Church Growth expert Matthew Martinich last updated his list of the top ten natons with the strongest Church presence without a temple last April, Kiribati and Vanuatu were on that list in the first and eighth positions.

Additionally, some have offered the opinion in the past that the forecasted sinking of both Kiribati and Vanuatu within the next hundred years or so might deter the Church from building a temple in either or both places. I am grateful that the Lord moved upon His prophet to announce temples for both island nations, and I look forward to seeing how the construction of both temples may lead to a change in those mortal opinions.

Lindon may or may not have been on my list, given that two temples are operating in Provo, with one more currently under construction in Orem, but it's clearly needed in this part of Utah County. Bolivia's second temple being announced for Santa Cruz was expected, as were additional temples in Guatemala and Brazil, but I didn't anticipate the announcement of general rather than specific locations for those. Overall, without conducting a more thorough analysis of the locations announced vs. what I predicted, I probably came close to my 60-80% accuracy rate for that part of my predictions.

I am grateful to have been able to learn of this development and pass word of it along to you all. I am confident the remainder of this year will see several other breaking Church news updates and temple developments, and I will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of such news in the future.

That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. 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.