UPDATED: April 2021 General Conference Predictions

Hello again, everyone! Just before 1:00 AM this morning, I published some analysis on the announced Easter devotional which will take place on Sunday April 4 during the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference. I mentioned in the course of that post that I would likely need to revise my General Conference predictions. I am posting now to confirm that I have those updates nearly completed. I have made changes to the projected speaking line-up,

Since the entire First Presidency spoke in reverse seniority order to conclude the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2018 General Conference, I determined that would likely also be true for that session this go-round. The Sunday Morning Session in April 2018 also marked the only General Conference Session in which President Nelson personally opted to conduct, so I accounted for that to likely be repeated. 

Then all that remained was to figure out which other leaders might also speak during that session. Based on my calculations, it seems likely that 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will also speak (since the aforementioned webpage that announced the upcoming devotional mentioned "apostles" as a plural rather than singular term), which left room for two other general Church leaders.

Additionally, if the entire First Presidency does speak in reverse seniority order to conlcude both the Preisthood and Sunday Morning Sessions, then Presidents Oaks and Eyring wouldn't be speaking in their customary other places (which, in a standard April General Conference, would see President Eyring be the final speaker in the Saturday Morning Session, and President Oaks speaking first in the Sunday Afternoon Session), so I needed to make alterations in those sessions as well.

Other than that, the changes should speak for themselves. I may not add footnotes to that section this go-round, unless there are any questions any of you have that would need to be addressed through notes or references. Next, given the recent announcements of new temple and mission presidents, I've also updated my document showing the likely changes in general Church leadership and have tweaked some of the information in the figures I'm projecting for the statistical report.

In relation to the changes in general Church leadership, with the Church having announced that the new mission leaders will begin serving in July and that most of the new temple leaders will begin serving in August or September, I'm anticipating that all current area seventies called to serve as mission or temple presidents will be released this time around, rather than waiting to do that until October, months after their new assignments will become effective. So those have been updated, and I'm anticipating that the newest temple leader biographies will be published either later today, tomorrow, or Saturday.

Also, there has been a need to revisit my list of locations in which a temple could be announced in April, which has invovled reprioritizing some locations and adding those which, due to recent developments, seem to have a better chance of being announced now than they did 6.5 weeks or so ago, when I first published those on my blog on February 1. As I mentioned previously, based on all that has been done to clear the queue since the October 2020 General Conference, and on all the groundbreakings that seem likely to be coming down the pike later this spring and summer, I think there is a high likelihood that a double-digit number of new temples could be announced in a couple of weeks here.

So, those are the updates I have made to these predictions. The open commenting period on them will remain in effect for the next 2 weeks, and that will wrap up on Thursday April 1, at 10:00 PM MDT, which will then give me roughly 36 hours to finalize those predictions before General Conference begins on Saturday April 3 at 10:00 AM MDT. I welcome any and all feedback any of you may have on these revisions.

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: April 2021 General Conference Sunday Morning Session Will Constitute a "Special Worship Service" for Easter Sunday

Hello again, everyone! In the comment threads on content I posted on Sunday, I had mentioned how, in reference to a First Presidency letter about the upcoming April 2021 General Conference, a mention had been made of special programming in conjunction with General Conference. When I subsequently received a request asking me to verify where the information to which I referred could be found, I wasn't able to produce such evidence, and in fact felt impressed to admit that I could have been mistaken, that I might have misundestood what had been said, and that the information itself might thus be in error.

Fast forward to just now. I was in the process of performing a final check on the various Church websites for the day, and in the course of doing so, the homepage of the Church's official website led to information about the upcoming Easter General Conference. It was specifically noted that the Sunday Morning Session would consist of a worship service that will include talks from apostles and other Church leaders specifically focused on Easter and on the Savior.

And although that is specifically going to be true for the Sunday Morning Session, other Easter-themed addresses may be given in both the Sunday Afternoon Session and also any of the three Saturday Sessions. I will do some research on my end to confirm or correct this, but I have a feeling we may only see 1 or 2 members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speak, in addition to all 3 members of the First Presidency giving their second addresses in reverse seniority order at the end of the session. That would leave just enough room for 1 or 2 other Church leaders.

Of course, that kind of scenario also means making other adjustments, including accommodating other speakers in the usual slots that would otherwise be taken by First Presidency cousnelors. Under the current rotation for standard April General Conferences, President Eyring would be the final speaker in the Saturday Morning Session, and President Oaks would be the first speaker in the Sunday Afternoon Session. This official confirmation of the Sunday Morning Session details might change that.

I will endeavor to figure that out and post any alterations to my predictions as I am able to make them. I also continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates, and will bring you all the latest on those developments as I receive word 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 TEMPLE NEWS: Groundbreakings Announced for Syracuse and Deseret Peak Utah Temples

Hello again, everyone! Breaking news was reported by the Church roughly 3 or so hours ago. Although that technically no longer classifies that as breaking news, I just found out about it a few minutes ago, so I'm styling the information as such anyways. The first two temple groundbreakings to be announced this year have been scheduled to occur here in Utah. Before I provide some analysis on the details, let me clarify something.

I emphasized in the previous paragraph that these are the first two temple groundbreakings.to be announced. I don't necessarily think that means they will also be the first two temple groundbreakingsto be held this year, though they will be among the first. I say that because, as we have seen the Church do last year, smaller temples with a general groundbreaking window for certain months were able to have their groundbreakings last year in general and specific windows that sometimes occurred prior to the windows for those that had been previously announced but occurred after those that were announced later.

And I've mentioned in the past that I am anticipating that at least 3 temples in the Pacific (Pago Pago American Samoa, Neiafu Tonga, and Port Moresby Papua New Guinea) could soon have groundbreakings announced, especially since the former two are in the government approval phase. It is entirely possible that one, two, or three of the Pacific Island Temples I just mentioned could have their groundbreakings prior to the two announced today. That being said, let's break down the details.

I had mentioned that the Syracuse Utah Temple, which had a rendering released a short while ago, was almost certain to have a groundbreaking announced in the near term, because the site had been made ready for that prospect as of a report from yesterday. So the Syracuse Temple is the first one mentioned in today's announcement. The groundbreaking for that temple is set to occur in June of this year (note the general rather than specific window, as has been typical for all temple groundbreakings held during COVID-19).

Elder Kevin R. Duncan, a General Authority Seventy who currently serves as the Executive Director of the Church's Temple Department, who grew up in the proverbial stone's throw away from Syracuse in Ogden Utah, will preside at that groundbreaking, likely in view of his personal connections to the surrounding area. Based on the temple's anticipated size, I'd put a completion window of late 2023-early 2024 for it.

Meanwhile although the Syracuse Temple is mentioned first in today's release, the groundbreaking window for the other temple will actually be first chronologically. I mentioned in the past that the relocationof the newly-renamed Deseret Peak Utah Temple (and the fact that no residential development is included in the new location) would likely speed up the approvals process for that project, and so it is.

The groundbreaking for the Deseret Peak Utah Temple is anticipated to occur sometime in May, roughly a month prior to that of the Syracuse Utah Temple. The renderings for that temple, which were released in April of last year, remain unchanged. As a result of that temple’s established size and design, and since it is anticipated to be built on an accelerated schedule (which has not changed, insofar as I am aware), I anticipate the completion of that temple will occur sometime in mid-to-late 2023 or so.

Elder Brook P. Hales, another General Authority Seventy, who at last public mention was still serving as the Secretary to the First Presidency, will preside at the groundbreaking for that temple, At an initial glance, it appears that Elder Hales, who also grew up in Ogden, has some equally-strong personal and/or familial connections to the Tooele Valley area, so his assignment to preside at the groundbreaking for this temple is in recognition of that fact.

I am grateful to see the Church distributing opportunities to preside over groundbreakings for Utah temples to those with a personal connection, in addition to the area presidency members and apostles to whom that has applied in the past.

I look forward to seeing what will occur in terms of other temple groundbreakings later this year. In the meantime, I also continue to monitor all other Church news updates and temple developments and will be sure to bring word of those to you all as I receive 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: New Reopning Phase Announced for Several Temples

Hello again, everyone! Breaking temple news has been reported at this hour. As the First Presidency continues to evaluate temple reopenings worldwide, there has been a renewed desire to allow as much proxy work as possible to continue. As a result, a new phase of reopening has been announced this morning. Some temples already in phases 1 or 2 will transition to phase 2-B. This new phase allows temple baptistries to reopen for small groups where it is safe to do so, while also allowing the performance of all living ordinances in the priority order spelled out previously.

The new phase will go into effect as soon as 2 weeks from now, and will apply to the following temples: 7 in North America (Calgary Alberta, Edmonton Alberta, Kansas City Missouri, Medford Oregon, Portland Oregon, Seattle Washington, and Twin Falls Idaho); 3 in Europe (Bern Switzerland, Copenhagen Denmark, Frankfurt Germany); 3 in South America (Asunción Paraguay, Córdoba Argentina, and Guayaquil Ecuador); and 1 in the Philippines (Manila),

Additionally, 3 temples which had been in phase 2 of reopening, will now be "paused" in the reopening status due to local COVID-19 conditions and regulations. The three are all in South America, with 2 in Brazil (Campinas and São Paulo) and 1 more in Chile (Santiago). But additionally, on the good news side of things, due to the easing of local restrictions, the Curitiba Brazil Temple will now resume phase 2 of reopening.

As of March 22, when all changes except the 2-B reopenings, will go into effect, the Church will have 19 temples in phase 3, allowing all living ordinances and proxy ordinances in priority order by appointment. 122 others will be operating under phase 2, with a total of 10 remaining in phase 1. 8 other temples will be paused in their reopening status, and the Kyiv Ukraine Temple remains the only operating temple of the Church that has not yet reopened in any phase. The Church also has the 8 temples currently closed for renovation (with 2 that have been completed) and 1 other renovation currently planned.

The Church's area-by-area status tracker has also been updated to reflect these changes. I am grateful to have been able to learn about these updates and pass them along to you all here. I continue to monitor all other temple updates and Church news reports of any kind and will also bring you the latest on those as I become aware of such developments.

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 Data

Hello again, everyone! As most of you are almost certainly aware, I have provided updates on the latest apostolic data (specifically relating to lifespan or tenure length milestones) roughly every seven weeks. Having last done so on January 24 (through utilizing two consolidated documents), it is time to publish the second update for this year. 

As with that last update, the first part contains updated data about the age and tenure length records for all 17 Church Presidents, information on the tenure length records for each of the 28 Presidents of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and information on the longest-serving First Presidencies (which will not be updated with the First Presidency as presently constituted until 2024), in addition to the longestg-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and groups of all ordained apostles (the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles). Since my last u4pdate, it is worth noting thas of at the current Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, as constituted beginning on March 31, 2018 (when Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares were sustained), have officially become the 14th group listed among the longest continuously-serving groups of members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They will move up on that list 3 times throughout the rest of the year.

In a similar manner, the current members of the First Presidency, together with the current members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with that group of 15 apostles as it has been constituted as of the last day in March of 2018, have not only served long enough to make the list of longest, continuously-serving apostolic groups, but they have already moved up from the 14th to the 12th position on that list, and are set to move up 3 more times by the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the second part  of today's update shows the long-form and decimal ages for the members of the current First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the apostolic groups overall, in addition to the average ages of each group and apostolic nonagenarians (with 2 of the current 15 apostles being on that list, and the timing noted for when each of the other 13 apostles will join that list).

Hopefully this shared data will be of interest to you all, and again, I offer an open invitation to anyone who has any questions about those documents to ask them here. I will, of course, conFitinue to monitor all Church news updates and temple developments, and will do my level best to bring word of those to you all as I become aware of all 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.