After further contemplation, I have added the following cities as likely locations for temple announcements in the near future:
- Querétaro, Mexico
- Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
I added Querétaro because of distance to the nearest temples in Mexico City and Guadalajara and recent growth. The Church has been experiencing steady congregational growth (unlike most major cities in Mexico over the past five years) and there are three stakes in the metropolitan area. Additionally, the Church organized a separate mission headquartered in Querétaro in 2013.
I added Ulaanbaatar because the Asia Area has appeared to make some good progress towards preparing for the organization of additional stakes in Mongolia. The Asia Area has made some great progress in other nations such as Taiwan and Thailand in recent years. Mongolian members have also been faithful at attending the Hong Kong China Temple for many years.
48 comments:
I agree. Queretaro would serve a lot of people in central Mexico, and Ulaanbaator would probably also serve most of Siberia, and probably East Asia.
I felt that Ronald A Rasband and Gary E Stevenson would be apostles. I am not familiar with the 3rd one.
I have to admit I was hoping at least one of the new apostles would be from outside the US. As it is, all 3 of the apostles were born in Utah, and have lived much of their lives there. I have to admit I included Elder Rasband in some of my predictions. He both served his mission and was mission president in New York City. He spent his career working with Huntsman Chemical Company.
Elder Renlund was born in Utah. His parents had immigrated from Sweden so they could marry in the temple. For part of his teenaged years Elder Renlund lived in Sweden while his father was a consturction missionary there. Elder Rendlund served his mission in Sweden. He is a medical doctor with a degree from the University of Utah. He was area president in the Africa Southeast Area.
Elder Stevenson was raised in Utah and has a business background running a health equitment company in Logan as the Chief Operating Officer. He served his mission in Japan and was mission president there.
I am a bit surprised they did not release Elder Stevenson as presiding bishop. Also it seemed they did not call a new member of the Presidency of the 70.
I guess I should start paying more attention to Elder Hales talk.
Anyone surprised all three apostles are from Utah? I obviously support them as being called by God; however, this does not reflect the present day make up of church membership. Could the lack of diversity be reflective of the strength of the church and church members in places outside of Utah?
I just found that I created the Wikipedia articles on all 3 new apostles. Elder Rasband for example back in July 2007. Back to General Conference.
Mormon Newsroom says Elder Stevenson will continue to serve as Presiding Bishop until a replacement is called. No new member of the Presidency of the Seventy was called. Also it sounds like the two members of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy were given emeritus status, something only done with the 1st quorum until now.
I love Elder Montoya's talk about the stake (I believe in Mexico) where they went to a temple (it may well have been Hermosillo). With the faith of those members, and especially the brother who gave up his chance to go to the temple so that another brother could get sealed to his wife. The church is moving forward in faith in Mexico.
Scott, I two was surprised about emeritus status for the seventies from the 2nd quorum.
I admit that I had hoped for at least one apostle to be from outside the US. That said, Elder Stevenson and Elder Renland are former presidents of the Asia North and Africa Southeast Areas. Not exactly the same thing, but these two know the Church quite well in Asia and Africa.
I also note that for the first time since 1835 when the Twelve first met and decided to rank by age (despite the fact that Joseph called them and ordained them in a different order over a 2 week period), that newly called apostles on the same day haven't been ranked by age on entry into the quorum. The may be another case in the 19th century, but that seems to have been normal.
I was looking over things, and some of the names I have thrown out for the new apostles, such as Elder Wong (born 1962), Elder Dube (born 1962) and Elder Teh (born 1965) will be in the 1st Quorum for many more years. I can see one or more of these brethren being called to be apostles. I think the one I like the most is Joseph W. Sitati. Elder Sitati was born in 1952, so he is the same age as Elder Bednar and Elder Renlund and a year younger than Elder Andersen and Elder Rasband.
I don't really expect Elder Hales to live much longer, but that has been my view since October 1999 so who knows.
President Monson actually seemed to be doing better last night than he was in the past, so he may well be with us a while longer. I would be surprised if he lives to be as old as President Hinckley did.
President Nelson on the other hand I expect to be with us a lot longer. Still last April I would not have predicted Elder Perry's death. Elder Ballard seems in good health, but he is
Since President Monson announced the new temples in April in his Sunday morning talk I am guessing he will do the same this time around. My guesses are Quito, Ecuador, Lehi Utah and Singapore. Singapore is a bit out there, but I don't think Bangkock is close enough to rule Singapore out. Although I would be more certain of Singapore if Malaysia had gotten stakes already.
The Detroit Temple (dedicated 1999) is having work done to fix the wood in the steeple while the temple is operational.
How are Michigan missions baptizing since the age change of 2012?
President Monson seemed to struggle towards the end of his talk this morning
Yeah, I noticed he was having problems towards the end. I hope he will stick around for quite a while. It would seem difficult to have more transition after transitions were recently made (I'm not saying he's dying).
I have noticed a few people complain that the 3 new apostles were all white.
It looks like no new temple this conference, unless some are announced in the afternoon session.
In the World Report they interviewed a bishop of Mozambique who expressed the hope of having LDS chapels in every province in Mozambique. This is at least an indication that there are those who want to reach out to more places. Hopefully with the creation of 2 stakes there mission resources can in part be used to expand the Church to additional parts of the country.
Did any of you catch that they are building a new MTC in Ghana as reported in the World Report? Does anybody have any info on that? Rick is that on the Accra Ghana "Temple Square"?
According to the Church's website the Ghana MTC is in Tema, Ghana; not Accra, Ghana. Although the two cities are next to each other, they are not on the same property for sure. This MTC will serve the areas of West Africa, DR Congo and Madagascar, English and French languages.
lds.org/callings/missionary/missionary-training-centers/ghana?lang=eng
I just got back from the Michigan Lansing Mission. Baptism rates have gone up slightly but are still around 300/ year. There was one new ward opened in 2013, and a new group opened in 2015. Other than that, not much congregational growth.
It seems each new apostle has special insight into different global regions: East Asia, Eurpoe and Africa. While we wait for a few new leaders from foreign lands, priesthood continues to mature and progress across the world.
Yes, the new MTC being built in Accra is located at the Ghana Temple Complex. The current Ghana MTC is located east of Accra in Tema, as Kenny indicated, but the new facility will be much larger and won't be completed for another two years. You will find some great renderings, photographs, and information here:
http://ghanamtc.blogspot.com/search/label/new%20MTC
Mike Johnson,
I came up with 1906 and 1934 as the only previous times the new apostles were not ranked in order of age other than the original apostles at ordination in 1835 before they were sorted by age- for example Thomas B. Marsh was ordained 11th and Lyman E. Johnson, the youngest, was 1st (I wasn't sure if I should count 1934). (In 1906, Orson F. Whitney was the eldest of the three but ranked after George F. Richards, and in 1934 J. Reuben Clark, already serving in the First Presidency, was made an apostle just before Alonzo A. Hinckley, who was elder. In the latter case the rank never actually made a difference in anything, as Elder Hinckley died 2 years later and so the 2 men never sat side by side.)
As far as the new apostles being from Utah and white, yeah it might be in part to leave the experienced leaders to lead in their own countries (and also perhaps in other states?)- but also I believe it is scriptural that the work of missionary work to the world in the latter days is to be led by the tribe of Ephraim- and the apostleship should certainly count as being part of that leadership. So while I wouldn't mind seeing a Hispanic or some other race as an apostle either, I do not find their race shocking at all- I was surprised, however, by the fact that none of the new apostles was someone I had privately predicted- as well as the fact that replacements were not called for Bishop (now Elder) Stevenson and Elder Rasband. (Elder Renlund did not fit my theory that new apostles would be from the Presidency of the Seventy, the Presiding Bishopric or have been a church college president- all of the previous apostles called since Elder Haight, except for Pres. Nelson, have fit one of those 3 descriptions.)
I guess it just goes to show that you can't predict revelation or turn it into something mathematical.
A temple in Queretaro will be great, Queretaro is one of the most developed cities in Mexico, it will also serve the stakes from San Luis Potosi and some stakes in Michoacan.
The First and the Second Quorum of the Seventies just got merged. Look up the official chart in LDS.org
I noticed the change on the LDS.org chart as well. With the new chart and Elders Aoyagi and Carlson being granted Emeritus status I wonder what changes with the Seventy are coming.
It looks like there is a new district in Simperfol, and the Church decided to name it the Simperfol Russia District.
Given that Krym is for all intents and purposes Russian and belonging to the Rostov Russia District, it isn't surprising.
It is nice to see the new growth in Russia. That's five districts in the past year.
twinnumerouno, thank you for looking up the ages of apostles. I was going to do it and you saved me the effort.
I had been hoping for an apostle from outside the US. In fact, I was thinking that maybe a page could be taken from the Young Women and have one or more apostle living in his native land and meeting with the 12 remotely.
When Elder Rasband and Bishop Stevenson, I thought, both made sense--the senior president of the 70 and the presiding bishop. Then I thought, now for the foreign apostle and was surprised to hear Elder Renlund named. I did not know who he was. I said a silent prayer asking why not. I felt the thought that it would happen soon and also that in time I would come to see why.
Now, probably not the why from above, but when I was later watching the Church's news feed between sessions and hearing about how the fastest growth is in Africa, I thought wouldn't it be wonderful if an apostle, say Elder Sitate were to visit people in Africa. The acceleration of growth could be faster. But, then I thought about my earlier experiences with people in NATO. I had several European officers explain to me that they were just fine with Americans in key leadership positions, better than somebody from another European country, where they would have to worry about the balance of power in Europe shifting. Africa probably isn't like that, but I would hate for the people of Ghana or Nigeria or South Africa to feel slightly because a Kenyan became an apostle. Probably, not an issue, but the thought did strike me.
Sappa: you need to meet with the missionaries, take the discussions, read the Book of Mormon and find out it is true, and get baptized and be a great member of the restored gospel and bring this faith to Nepal. God bless.
The description further down is that General Authority Seventies are members of the First and Second Quorums of the Seventy and have authority to serve anywhere in the world. I am wondering this to clarify the difference from Area seventies and GA Seventies. I also wonder if the 5 year service rule is going away even though there still appears two distinct quorums. It is interesting nevertheless.
Unit Update
20 Sept
Simferopol Russia District (4 Branches)
Bahate Branch
Sevastopol Branch
Simferopol's'ka Branch
Yevpatoriis'ka Branch
4 Oct
Breman Ward, Kumasi Ghana Bantama Stake (5 Branches, 11 Wards) - Likely to split soon
Chungho 2nd Ward, Taipei Taiwan South Stake (7 Wards)
YTD 460(11.5/week 40)
Africa 137, 29.8%
Asia 115, 2.5%
Europe 117, 2.5%
North America (w/ Caribbean) 125, 27.2%
Pacific 39, 8.5%
South and Central America 49, 10.7%
Utah & Idaho 78, 17.0%
Totals no-sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 24 148 418 3,151 544 22,468 7,346 34,099
Us/Can 10 81 131 1,589 10 12,538 2,065 16,424
US n/a 73 124 1,542 7 12,202 1,915 15,863
Utah n/a 15 10 576 1 4,678 327 5,607
Canada n/a 8 7 47 3 336 150 551
Out 14 67 287 1,562 534 9,930 5,281 17,675
With Sensitive
Areas Temples Miss Stakes Dist Wards Branch Totals
Global 25 148 418 3,151 555 22,472 7,437 34,206
What were the different responsibilities of the first and second quorum I'd the seventies? Did they have a different function? How has the merge changed things?
http://www.mormonobserver.com/2015/10/05/want-a-new-apostle-with-a-diverse-background-hes-already-there/
Article about Dale G Renlund, written by his neice.
If you follow the actual time of service for the 2nd quorum, it appears it has been a while since they eliminated the 5 year service rule. Elder Aoyagi had been there since April 2009, so for 6 and a half years. The same is true of Elder Carlson. Wilfrod W. Andersen was called as a member of the 2nd Quorum at that time. Nor is this new. Donald L. Staheli was a member of the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy from 1997-2006, so for 9 years. I have not done enough research to figure out when the move was from the 5 year terms to unfixed. I do know that when the area seventy were first called President Hinckley gave the impression they would only serve about 5 years. A few, such as J. Willard Marriott Sr served more on the order of 10 years. On the other hand when small temples, like Detroit, were first started the temple presidents served 5 years, they now only serve 3 years.
My general sense is that since the creation of the Area Seventies, the 1st and 2nd Quorum have been moving closer to being similar. A few members of the 2nd Quorum back in the early 1990s actually served on a part-time basis, retaining their employment as sort of a test to see if such would work.
Elder Gong is the new member of the Presidency of the Seventy. In the Deseret News article they call his parents "Chinese immigrants". This is incorrect. His father was born in Merced, California, and I am pretty sure both of Walter Gong's parents were born in the US. Elder Gong's mother was born in Hawaii, I am less sure that her parents were both born in the US. Elder Gong's ancestry is all Chinese, but his parents were not by any definition immigrants. I personally knew Elder Gong's oldest son and once asked him if his father, or his mother (whose father was a general authority, Elder Lindsey), had ancestors who came to the US most recently. He had to think about it to be sure it was his father. Some of the Gongs came to the US in the 1890s.
To the person who served in the Michigan Lansing Mission, where is the new group in that mission? That is good news. Here in The Detroit Mission we have only seen wards and branches discontinued over the last 4 years, so seeing any new unit would cause us to celebrate.
If our most recent round of investigators at my ward all get baptized we might well be on the way to seeing our ward split. There were I believe either 8 or 9 people of other faiths at Church the Sunday before conference. One group was 4 of 5 sibblings, the 5th had come the week before, ranging in age from 7 to 16. The oldest was not here the 2nd Sunday because he had just had surgery. On the 1st Sunday they came they were the only African-Americans at our ward besides one of our missionaries and an adopted 2 year old in a family. The next Sunday 2 of the other investigators were African-Americans, women in their 20s or so. One lives in our area, the other is her sister that lives in one of the adjacent wards boundaries.
There was one other person who is a non-member who is engaged to a member he has been living with for several years. She only started coming out to church again in the last few weeks. There is another family that just moved in that I have heard described as recent convert/part member. However I am not sure if that means the wife was just baptized and the husband is not a member, or if the wife has been a member awhile and the husband was just baptized. The whole family comes each week so I am not sure exactly.
I hope if they do split our ward they take the bold move of renting a meeting fracility in the split off north part of the ward until a new building can be built. The other option would be having the two new wards meet in our chapel and the other ward at our chapel meet at the stake center. The stake center has a ward and the singles branch meeting there. However it has a parkling lot big enough to also accomadate the temple, and is a large building, so much that the singles branch feels overwhelemed by the chapel. So it would be very easy to have 2 wards and a branch meet there. On the other hand, our chapel only has a parking lot big enough for one ward to be meeting there at a time. The problem with that is that the chapel is actually in the other wards boundaries. However there are ways that the boundaries could be adjusted. The Bloomfield Hills Ward, meeting at the stake center, has a good number of members, and maybe some of them could be shifted to Troy Ward, and they would shift the Troy Ward boundaries to put some of it in the Sterling Heights Ward or the new Shelby Ward. As it is there are members in the Troy Ward who are significantly closer to the stake center than the Troy Chapel, although it is probably the ward in our stake with the 2nd lowest travel time to church.
Reading about Elder Renlund and realizing that his wife was a significant attorney points me to some interesting facts. Wile President Nelson's wife had a very significant career, that was before they got married. Sister Oaks has a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. However both of these women had their careers before they got married. Is there any other wife of an apostle who was a career women as was Sister Renlund? I have to admit I know very little about the wives of the aposltes. In fact I am not sure if I could name all of them. The one whose name I recall best was Janine, wife of Richard G. Scott, and she died back in 1995.
Let me see. I believe Elder Andersen's wife's name is Kathy. I just looked it up, and I was right. President Monson's wife was named Frances. I know that President Faust's wife was Ruth like Sister Renlund. Both President Faust and Elder Renlund were Ruthless in their early life. Horrible pun alert.
I know Sister Uchtdorf is named Harriet, and she joined the Church as a teenager. Sister Eyring's maiden name was Kathleen Johnson. She is 10 years or more younger than President Eyring. They met when she came to study in Massachusetts (maybe at Harvard, I am not sure where) one summer. He was a member of the District Presidency at the time. Sister Eyring grew up in California. Sister Holland is Patricia T. Holland. She was for a time a member of the General Young Women's Presidency. I created an article in Wikipedia on her a few years ago, and it narrowly survived an attempt to delete. Sister Holland has written at least one book on her own and co-written at least one with her husband.
I believe Sister Ballard is named Barbara. I was right.
I do know that Kathy Andersen grew up in the Tampa Area of Florida, and her first ancestors to join the Church were her great-grandparents joining in Florida. I do have to say I know more about Flora Benson than any living wife of an apostle. Of course the story of Flora Benson, whose father was so old that Heber J Grant would not believe it was her Dad because "he was an old man when I was a child", coming from one of the wealthiest families in Logan and marrying a farmer just makes for memorable stories.
I think we need to tell more of the families of the apostles.
Back to the comments about Elder Gong. His parents could be described as ethnic Chinese converts to the Church, but not Chinese immigrants.
Elder Hales' wife is Mary Elene Crandall, my father's cousin. Elder Hales was born and raised in the New York City area where his father was employed as an artist. He began attending the University of Utah and met his future wife when he returned home for a summer. Her father, Gordon Crandall, had just began serving as mission president in the New York City Mission.
Elder Bednar's wife is named Susan Robinson, I believe she is from Afton, Wyoming so I have wondered if she is related to a Hal Robinson who lives there and is married to my dad's cousin, Laraine. (Apparently my dad, now deceased, was also a second cousin to Lynn Robbins' wife and to Elder Andrew Peterson who served in the seventy in the 90's and then had a horrible motorcycle accident and died a couple years later- not that being related really matters of course but it does generate some personal interest in the person). Also I seem to remember that Elder Cook's wife is named Mary but that she is not the Mary Cook who was in one of the auxiliary presidencies a few years ago.
I looked up Elder Aoyagi and Elder Carlson to see if they were both 70- the usual age at which emeritus status has been given- apparently Brother Aoyagi is 70 but Brother Carlson is only 66.
The Church have bought a 10 acre plot of land in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. they have already built a new chapel on it and created a new Ward. Church membership in the Okanagan valley is growing with the Kelowna Stake to be created from the existing Vernon Stake over next 2-3 years. There is scope for a small Temple to be built as Kelowna is the warmest town in Canada and more LDS will move once Temple is announced.
According to gapages.com, Elder Ronald Rasband: "met Melanie Twitchell through a fraternity for returned missionaries. The initial meeting blossomed into a friendship, then a courtship. They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 4, 1973. Their marriage was solemnized by Elder LeGrand Richards of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a great-uncle of Melanie's. They had five children."
Of Elder Gary E Stevenson and his wife, gapages.com states:
"After returning from his mission, he enrolled at Utah State University. He met Lesa Jean Higley in an LDS institute class. The young returned missionary was immediately smitten. His future wife, he joked, took some convincing.
Sister Stevenson smiled at her husband's memory of their courtship, adding: "He was a lot of fun. He made me smile, he made me laugh. He was very kind, honest, a hard worker, and he had a strong testimony of the gospel."
The couple married on April 20, 1979, in Sister Stevenson's hometown in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple. The Stevensons are the parents of four sons and have one grandson.
While still in college, Bishop Stevenson co-founded a business. His work would take him around the world and away from his home in Utah's Cache Valley. He learned the importance of finding balance in life and becoming a parenting partner with his wife.
"We had to learn to work together," said Sister Stevenson. "If Gary was in Asia, we would talk every night on the phone and try to figure out what was best for the boys and which ways to direct them - even if it was (from) long distance.""
The Mary Cook who was in the General Young Women Presidency is the wife of Richard E. Cook, who was the first mission president in Mongolia (although the Cooks largely took over from another couple that got the work started there), was a member of the 2nd quorum of the seventy and later served for several years as CFO of the PEF. That Elder Cook was also in the stake presidency here in the Bloomfield Hills Michigan Stake in the 1980s. I am too young to remember that, but my parents do. Mary Nielsen Cook is Richard E. Cook's second wife, his first wife died, I think from cancer.
Quentin L. Cook's wife is named Mary as well. Her maiden name was Mary Gaddie. She and Elder Cook dated while in high school. I have to admit I feel more kinship with Elder Rasband and Elder Stevenson (and for that matter President Monson) who met their wives in college as opposed to Elder Cook. I met my ex-wife in college, and my girlfriend I did not meet until I was 33. Interestingly me and my girlfriend were in the same stake when I was a teenager. Since she is a year and a half older than me I probably would have ignored her as a teenager. She was baptized at age 14, but not very active back then. I am not sure she ever went to any stake youth activities.
On another note, if Legrand Richards is Melanie Twitchell's great-uncle, she may be a relative. Legrand Richards is my grandfather's 2nd cousin. In theory if he is her great-uncle that would make her grandfather or grandmother LeGrand Richard's brother or sister, making her my 4th cousin, and also making here a 2nd cousin of Tad R. Callister, who is a grandson of LeGrand Richards. Of course she might actually be the great-niece of Sister Richards, which I believe would also make her related to the Ashton's and still leave her as Elder Callister's 2nd cousin, just not as my 4th cousin. I think LeGrand Richard's wife was an aunt of Marvin J. Ashton, but I might be remembering that wrong.
I looked it up and I remembered rightly. Marvin J. Ashton's father, Marvin O. Ashton, was the half sister to I. Jane Ashton, the wife of LeGrand Richards. Marvin O. Ashton was also a counselor to LeGrand Richards in the presiding bishopric.
the route of Trekking area annpurna Region as
Ghorepani Poon Hill trek,
Annapurna Base Camp Trek and
Annapurna Circuit Trek in Nepal
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