Wednesday's are typically our P-day here in the Nauvoo Mission. However, we were able to make a wonderful trade where we worked today and will then have Saturday off for Conference. How sweet is that? This will be an historic conference where three new apostles will be named and sustained. The last time this happened was back around 1906, if I remember my reading correctly. We love seeing conference in the first opportunity rather than re broadcast. Although we do get to review and enjoy the re broadcasts as well. Here is an article about the process of replacing and filling these Apostolic positions;
Will the LDS Church name three new apostles at fall conference?
First Published Sep 22 2015 05:57PM
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Last Updated Sep 24 2015 10:59 am
Now there are three vacancies.
The death Tuesday of high-ranking LDS leader
Richard G. Scott, 86, left a quarter of the positions open in the
Utah-based faith's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a void not seen since
1906.
Scott's passing follows the deaths of
90-year-old Boyd K. Packer on July 3, just five weeks after his
92-year-old apostolic colleague, L. Tom Perry, lost a battle with
cancer.
Most members in The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints expected their top leaders to name two new apostles at
the 185th Semiannual LDS General Conference, which begins Saturday with
a women's session and continues Oct. 3 and 4. But there is no
requirement to do so.
Now, with Scott's death, it is unclear
whether they will name a third man to the all-male quorum at the fall
conference, just the previous two, or none at all.
Noted Mormon sociologist Armand Mauss said it
is entirely possible that the LDS Church will name three apostles at
next week's gathering.
"If they have made a decision about first two
openings, almost certainly there are two or three others who were highly
ranked in these deliberations," Mauss said from his home in Irvine,
Calif. "It seems likely to me that it would be fairly easy— even in a
short time — to come to closure on one of those."
Such replacements might alter the quorum's
makeup, Mauss said, given that two of the three late apostles — Packer
and Scott — were religious conservatives.
This could "restore the balance that was there
before," he said, "and open the way for some kind of reconfiguration of
idealogical temperament."
The last time the church's Quorum of the Twelve
Apostles had a two-man vacancy came in July 2004, with the deaths of
apostles David B. Haight and Neal A. Maxwell. Dieter F. Uchtdorf and
David A. Bednar were named in October that year as replacements.
But three openings among the Twelve haven't been seen since 1906.
Two apostles, John W. Taylor and Matthias F.
Cowley, resigned from the faith's second-highest quorum for continuing
to officiate at Mormon polygamous "sealings," or weddings, after the
church had discontinued the practice. Apostle Marriner Merrill then died
in February 1906.
The three were replaced at the April Conference
that year, according to the LDS Church Almanac, by George F. Richards,
Orson F. Whitney and David O. McKay. The latter became the church's
ninth president in April 1951.
Whenever the new men are chosen, they will take
their places at the bottom of the quorum, right after Neil L. Andersen,
who became an apostle in 2009 after Joseph B. Wirthlin died the
previous December.
The new apostles don't have to come from within
the current top LDS leadership. Russell M. Nelson, now the president of
the Twelve, was a heart surgeon, and Dallin H. Oaks, who was ordained
an apostle just weeks after Nelson, was a Utah Supreme Court justice.
"Apostles are chosen through inspiration by the
president of the church," the faith's website explains, "sustained by
the general membership of the church, and ordained by the First
Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles."
All Mormon apostles are seen by members as
"prophets, seers and revelators" and serve for life. The man who
outlives the apostles named before him ascends to the LDS Church's
highest office. Right now, that man is Thomas S. Monson, who, at age 88,
the church has said, is "feeling the effects of advancing age."
Though they have no say in the process of
selecting apostles, some Mormons hope a non-American joins Uchtdorf, a
German who now serves as second counselor in the governing, three-member
First Presidency.
We were able to make our training meeting this morning at 7:30am and then the 9:00am temple session. We served as the witness couple this morning. Then we served at the Nauvoo Visitors center from 1:00pm to 6:00pm and then it was off to Rendezvous. Tonight, I did a few smaller parts, and then Saturday is my turn to do the Editor.
Going along with the senior couples ending their missions, the Speirs gave their finale tonight. They are such a wonderful couple who have served 3 full time missions here in Nauvoo. All of those missions were for 18 months. They estimated that they have been in over 600 Rendezvous! Well, we sang a farewell song to them at our pre show gathering and, as a side note, mom and Sister Speirs did Sunset together. One of the songs we sing to the departing missionaries is "Oh be Joyful", and mom and Sister Speirs did this all summer long together. So, you might guess, she asked mom to come up front and do the final dance together.....
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| Oh Be Joyful, together! |
We will miss this wonderful couple! They are the best example of what kind people do each and every day! It has been such a good day and we will sleep good tonight! Also, we are so grateful for the Brown's safe and happy vacation!!! Welcome back home precious family! Here is a thought that Elder Speirs left with us tonight:
"I wept in the night, for the shortness of sight, that to somebodies need, made me blind. But I never have yet, felt a tinge of regret, for being a little too kind."
