General Conference Talk Transcripts/My take on the Supreme Court's Decision/Latest Health Developments

Hello, all! I am posting again today for a couple of reasons. First of all, the transcripts of the General Conference talks are now available online. It's so thrilling that nowadays the Church gets them online within two days of General Conference ending. I remember in the past having to wait until the Thursday after Conference (sometimes longer) to get those. I post a link for all who are interested:

General Conference Talk Transcripts

I encourage all of us to review these talks often. We have been told in scripture that, as lds.org observes, "When holy men of God write or speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, their words 'shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation' (D&C 68:4)." and that "whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." (D&C 1:38) General conference was wonderful. I hope we won't let the messages we heard die, but that they will become a part of who we are and how and why we do things.

In general conference, Elder Oaks reiterated the Church's stance on the issue of same-sex marriage, that the Church favors traditional marriage. He said, "Prominent among these today is the strong tide that is legalizing same-sex marriage in many states and provinces in the United States and Canada and many other countries in the world . . . we should teach the truth and the commandments plainly and thoroughly as we understand them . . .On the subject of public discourse, we should all follow the gospel teachings to love our neighbor and avoid contention. Followers of Christ should be examples of civility. We should love all people, be good listeners, and show concern for their sincere beliefs. Though we may disagree, we should not be disagreeable. Our stands and communications on controversial topics should not be contentious. We should be wise in explaining and pursuing our positions and in exercising our influence. In doing so, we ask that others not be offended by our sincere religious beliefs and the free exercise of our religion . . .When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries. In any event, we should be persons of goodwill toward all, rejecting persecution of any kind, including persecution based on race, ethnicity, religious belief or nonbelief, and differences in sexual orientation."

His words were prophetic in a way in light of the Supreme Court's refusal on Monday to hear any cases about the legality of same sex marriage, effectively making such marriages legal in 30 states. Having appealed to "the court of last resort" and come away empty handed, those who favor traditional marriage, like me, were no doubt disappointed. I was very pleased to see the Church's official statement on the matter. I post a link to it below.

Church Statement on Supreme Court Announcement

I love belonging to a Church that holds firm on its position on moral issues. I agree with the Church statement wholeheartedly. While the outcome was contrary to what I and many others of my faith desired, we should be respectful towards those whose values differ. As with everything, I believe that diversity even on issues of morality provides for interesting public discourse and discussion. I also firmly believe what Elder Oaks said, that we can disagree without being disagreeable. I am now and always will be in favor only of marriage between a man and a woman, but I understand that not everyone else feels the same way. And since "we believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law" (Twelfth Article of Faith), we recognize that this is the law now, even if we disagree with it for moral and ethical reasons. The Church will continue to hold firm in its position, which I am eternally grateful for.

In other news, I saw my neurosurgeon and neurologist yesterday (Tuesday). My neurosurgeon turned up my shunt setting after seeing that I was over draining, and I hope it helps. But he acted as if I should be honored that he would grace me, a lowly patient, with the honor of seeing him, an exalted neurosurgeon and behaved as if he were God's gift to the neurosurgery field. When I suggested that I should be scheduled for more regular visits if I had to move heaven and earth to get an appointment when I needed one and offered a word of criticism about how I had to get tough with his staff before they would schedule an appointment for me to see him, he abruptly and rudely reminded me that I had been on his nurse's schedule and he was only seeing me himself because she was sick today, and that he had to rearrange his schedule to accommodate a visit with me. He then mentioned that since my blood pressure had been very high the last several times I've had it taken, I should probably get it seen to, and he left. Amy was very angry about his attitude, and it bugged me too, but not to the same level. The result being I am now looking for a new neurosurgeon. I wouldn't go back to that guy if he paid me to do it. So we are checking into who is covered by my plan and what our options might be there. If any of you are aware of any good neurosurgeons not associated with the University of Utah that are covered under Medicaid Healthy U, please let me know.

On a much better note, I also saw my neurologist. She said that as far as my headaches and nausea were concerned, we will have to wait and see what the shunt pressure adjustment does before we adjust any medications. She also gave me the scoop on the new medication she wanted me to start. I was happy to hear that this medication would be a replacement for one of the ones I'm currently using. Ultimately the goal is to see if we can get me taking less medication possibly, but it all depends upon how well I do. She also shared with me some news I hadn't been aware of but Amy had. Apparently now because of federal regulations changing, I will have to get some of my prescriptions month-to-month, a fresh script each month, rather than one script with several refills. That's going to be a bit of a bother, but we can make it work.

Well, I've droned on long enough I've probably put some of you to sleep. That's the latest on us. I will keep you informed on developments as they happen. As always, thanks for reading, friends.

General Conference Review and Predictions Results/Elder Ballard's Birthday/General Update

Wow! What an uplifting weekend of general conference it has been! I greatly appreciated all the talks. If I had to pick a favorite one, though, one that I felt I really related to, it was President Uchtdorf's talk from the Priesthood Session. He talked about how during the Savior's final night, He told His disciples that one of them would betray him. He observed how interesting it was that instead of pointing fingers and saying, "I'll bet it's that guy!" His disciples responded with the self-evaluating question, "Lord, is it I?" He talked about how if something is not going right in our lives, rather than blame our circumstances or someone else, we should look inside and ask, "Lord, is it I?" This talk meant a lot to me. It helped me to realize that perhaps I'm not doing as much as I should be doing in several important areas of my life. I will be forever grateful for this wonderful message and that President Uchtdorf chose to give it at this time. I was also really touched by the talks about the Sacrament and following the Prophet. So many good messages. And now it's over. *sigh* And the real fun begins. Trying to implement into my life the counsel I've received this weekend. I'll work on it.

In the meantime, it's time to report on the success of my predictions. My predictions for changes in Church Leadership were dead-on, as you can see by my re-posting them below.

October 2014 Predictions for Changes in General Church Leadership

First Quorum of the Seventy: Elders Carlos H. Amado and William R. Walker released and granted Emeritus Status. NOTE: These brethren were released and granted emeritus status.

Area Seventies: Releases and sustainings. NOTE: Two area seventies were released: Arayik V. Minasyan and Gvido Senkans

Now, before posting the results of my predictions for speaking order, I should explain something. Wherever a name appears on this table, I allow for a possible 3 points. I award myself 3 points if I got the right person in the right spot in the right session. I award myself 2 points if I got the right person in the right session, just in the wrong spot. I award myself 1 point if I was correct that a certain individual spoke at any point during the conference, regardless of what session or spot within the session he/she was in. If someone speaks that I didn't predict, I don't give any points to myself. I have calculated the accuracy of my predictions versus what actually happened, and the result is 72% accuracy for this conference, excluding the women's conference. I will post my chart with the results and then add a further explanation.

October 2014 Conference Predictions [Text in brackets indicates what actually happened.]

Session	Conducting	Speaker
Saturday Morning	President Henry B. Eyring	President Thomas S. Monson
	[President Boyd K. Packer]	Elder L. Tom Perry
		Elder Lynn G. Robbins
	[Cheryl A. Esplin]	Carol F. McConkie
	[Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong]	Elder Jörg Klebingat
		Elder D. Todd Christofferson
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Saturday Afternoon	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Henry B. Eyring (Sustaining of Church Officers)
	[Elder Dallin H. Oaks]	President Boyd K. Packer
	[Elder Neil L. Andersen]	Elder Dallin H. Oaks
	[Tad R. Callister]	Elder Chi Hong (Sam) Wong
	[Elder Jörg Klebingat]	Elder Larry S. Kacher
	[Elder Eduardo Gavarret]	Elder Hugo E. Martinez
	[Elder Jeffrey R. Holland]	Elder Neil L. Andersen
	[Elder L. Tom Perry]	Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Saturday Priesthood	President Henry B. Eyring	Elder Quentin L. Cook
	[Elder Craig C. Christensen]	Bishop Dean M. Davies
	[Bishop Dean M. Davies]	Elder Craig C. Christensen
		President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
		President Henry B. Eyring
		President Thomas S. Monson
Sunday Morning	President Dieter F. Uchtdorf	President Henry B. Eyring
		Elder Russell M. Nelson
	[Carol F. McConkie]	Cheryl A. Esplin
	[Elder Robert D. Hales]	Elder Eduardo Gavarret
	[Elder James J. Hamula]	Elder Robert D. Hales
		President Thomas S. Monson
Sunday Afternoon	President Henry B. Eyring	Elder M. Russell Ballard
	[Elder Richard G. Scott]	Elder David A. Bednar
	[Elder Carlos A. Godoy]	Tad R. Callister
	[Elder Allan F. Packer]	Elder Carlos A. Godoy
	[Elder Hugo E. Martinez]	Elder James J. Hamula
	[Elder Larry S. Kacher]	Elder Allan F. Packer
	[Elder David A. Bednar]	Elder Richard G. Scott
		President Thomas S. Monson

 I will use the Priesthood Session to illustrate what I mean by points. I gave myself 3 points each for correctly predicting that President Eyring would conduct and for getting Elder Cook and Presidents Uchtdorf, Eyring, and Monson in the right speaking order. I awarded myself only two points each for Elder Christensen and Bishop Davies because they spoke in the reverse order of what I had predicted. If Elder Allan F. Packer had by chance spoken at the Priesthood Session, I would have given myself 1 point for correctly predicting that he would speak at all, even though I would have had him in the wrong session. And if, say, Elder Edward Dube had been asked to speak in the Priesthood Session this go round, I would have given myself no points for that because I didn't predict anywhere that he would speak. I hope that clarifies how I "score" myself and determine the accuracy percentage for each conference.

I guess I should also note that Elder M. Russell Ballard will be marking his 86th birthday on October 8. I don't know if I mentioned this, but I have the birthdays of the apostles listed in calendar order in a file on my computer. In another file, I have all the Presidents of the LDS Church, listed first by chronology of presidency, then by service tenure length, then by birth chronology, then by age. And I have calculated when President Thomas S. Monson will pass all the Church Presidents currently ranked ahead of him in tenure length and age. He is currently the Church President with the 11th longest tenure (will become the 10th on 11/19/14) and the 10th oldest (will become the 9th oldest on 12/9/14). And in another file I have the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, first listed separately, then together as 15 apostles, listed by apostolic rank and then age. I update these files every time there is an apostolic birthday (though when there are multiple birthdays in the month, I only update them once all the birthdays for that month have passed). I also update them on General Conference Sundays, the Sunday that falls on or after February 3 (marking the anniversary of President Monson becoming the prophet), and anytime President Monson breaks a record. I imagine I will speak more of this in future posts.

In other news, I never was able to get the prescription for my new medication, but we see my neurologist on Tuesday and will hopefully get it then. I also have repeatedly called my neurosurgeon's nurse to try and see if we could get am X-ray and/or CAT scan set up, but they haven't gotten back to me. I'm a little frustrated that they don't seem to be taking me seriously enough. My neurosurgeon said during our last visit that he didn't want to see me again unless and until there was a problem. But the only way to tell if there is a problem is to see him and get X-rays and a CAT scan.

I got my autographed copy of Chris Heimerdinger's wonderful new book, "Drums of Desolation". Though I haven't really had much time to read it, I have skimmed it and it looks like another great book. I can't wait to get into it more deeply! Already read the Prologue and it has me by the throat.

Wrote a review of "Muckwhip's Guide to Capturing the Latter-day Soul" for Amazon.com the other day. But I don't know if that and Eddie Fantastic and Drums are going to be items I might advertize here on my blog. I want to see how Chris feels about it first. So I e-mailed him about it the other day. Unless he's responded while I've not been checking my e-nail the last couple of days.

Still feeling extremely nauseated and in pain. Hoping these issues can be dealt with this week by visiting with Dr. Weinstein and Nancy Duncan (Dr. Richard Schmidt's nurse) otherwise I will have to give Physical Therapy a miss this week again. As always, prayers are appreciated.

We found out this week that if I do end up going to the Deseret Industries to see what, if anything, they can do to help me find work, it would make me ineligible for the services of Vocational Rehabilitation and Scenic View Academy, so at some point very soon, I will have to decide what to do about that. On the one hand, I don't want to lose the services I'm currently getting in case I need their services in the future for any reason. But Amy really seems to think going through the DI will help me. It's tearing me apart worrying about what choice to make, and I'm deathly afraid of choosing the wrong option here, so if any of you have any insight into the matter, please let me know.

There I go, sounding negative again. I don't mean to. It's just the situation and its never-ending, dreary sameness. Just when we think we've got one hole in the dyke plugged up, KA-BLAM! Another pipe bursts and makes a mess out of what's left of our lives.It would help greatly if we knew what the end result would be. This not knowing where we're going is driving us nuts. But don't be unduly concerned about us, friends! With the Lord on our side, victory is just around the corner. I'm sure of it. At any rate, thanks for letting me vent. Hope you are all well and looking forward to my next blog post. Don't know when or what that will be about, but I'm sure to come up with something. Until I write again, all the best!

General Women's Meeting/General Conference Preparation/Health Update

Hello, all! Just wanted to post today and let all of you know that the transcripts of the talks from the General Women's Meeting (all of which I absolutely loved) are available online now. I post the address below for all who are interested:

Talk Transcripts: General Women's Meeting


It should be noted that my predictions for the General Women's Meeting bombed big-time. As some of you may recall, since we heard from the presidents of each of the female auxiliary organizations (Primary, Young Women, and Relief Society) and from President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, I predicted that for the September 2014 Women's Conference, we would hear from each first counselor in the female auxiliary organizations (Jean A. Stevens, Carol F. McConkie, and Carole M. Stephens) and from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency. We did hear from Sister Stevens and President Uchtdorf, but the other two speakers were Linda K. Burton, Relief Society General President, and Neill F. Marriott, Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency. Since I was only 50% accurate with the Women's Conference Predictions this go-round,  it's going to be extremely difficult to predict who will speak in subsequent Women's Conferences. I will always have the First Presidency member right, I'm sure, but the others will be so unpredictable. Oh, well. That should make it all the more interesting, right?

One of the interesting things that struck me about this meeting is that President Uchtdorf said of it: "I am honored to have this opportunity to be with you as we open another general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the coming week the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles will meet with all the General Authorities and general auxiliary leaders, and the remaining sessions of our worldwide general conference will follow on the coming Saturday and Sunday." This is the first time that I'm aware of that anyone has referred to a meeting outside of the traditional five sessions of general conference as being part of general conference. So it'll be interesting to me to see if they refer to the Saturday Morning Session as "the second general session of the 184th Semiannual General Conference." As a matter of fact, that is an interesting point of discussion that is under debate on Wikipedia currently. I have been trying to convince my fellow editors that the General Women's Meeting is part of general conference. More people are convinced on that point now in light of President Uchtdorf's statement, but some still are stubbornly contending that it would take an official statement during the traditional general conference weekend for the Women's Meeting to be considered a session of general conference. I'm like...um, hello? Isn't President Uchtdorf's statement official enough? After all, he is one of the Church's three "presiding high priests" whose words are considered "scripture, the word of the Lord, the will of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation." So it is a tricky issue. We'll have to see what, if anything, is said about it during the traditional general conference weekend.

In the meantime, I am preparing for General Conference a little differently this year. I usually try and read all the conference talks from the previous conference in the week before general conference weekend. But this year I figured, since I have auditory recall and buy each set of General Conference DVDs when it becomes available, I would rewatch the sessions. I watched the Saturday Morning and Afternoon Sessions on Sunday evening. I didn't get a chance to watch any conference on Monday. But on Tuesday night, I watched the Priesthood and Sunday Morning Sessions. I will try to get the Sunday Afternoon and General Women's Meeting (for both April and October) rewatched before General Conference starts on Saturday Morning. An ambitious project, to be sure, but I have felt an added measure of the spirit of the Lord as I have enjoyed these sessions and sermons and songs anew.

In the meantime, I have not yet been able to acquire my prescription for the new medication. I have been attempting to get hold of my neurologist's assistant with no luck, until this afternoon. He told me he would be seeing my doctor tomorrow to get some issues with her computer resolved and that he would ask her the questions I had asked him about the new medication and get the prescription for the new medication and get it sent to me ASAP. Amy and I have both been severely under the weather lately, so we have just been laying low and doing what absolutely has to be done. My headaches have been been worse lately, so I called my neurosurgeon's nurse's number in the hopes of being able to meet with her soon about whether my shunt needs to be adjusted or possibly (gulp with fear!) replaced. She wasn't available, and I had to leave a message for the lady who was filling in for her. So I don't know when or if we will get these issues resolved. But we forge ahead in faith knowing that the Lord is in control and that His hand is over all things.

I missed my appointment with Irwin today because of how I was feeling, and because of a schedule conflict, he won't be able to meet with me next week, which is just as well, because I see my neurologist that day in Salt Lake, which would have meant we would have gone down to Provo at 1, been there for a little less than an hour, then would have had to make our way to Salt Lake. It's much better this way. I have plenty of jobs to apply for before I see him again. And I will be swallowing my fear and buckling down and going to the Deseret Industries once I apply for all the jobs Irwin has sent me. Hopefully by Monday next week. We'll have to see. It all depends on how I'm feeling and what I'm able to accomplish between now and then.

Sometimes, I can't help being discouraged about our situation when I look around and it seems like no one else has it quite as hard as we do. But then I remember the reality that everyone is dealing with something and that each of us is tailor-made to the loads we are called upon to bear. I also draw strength from the knowledge that "God is faithful: who will not suffer you to be [tested] above that [which] ye are able to bear, but will, with the [trial] also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." I also take comfort in knowing that my situation will never reach the magnitude or intensity of the Savior's suffering, which He willing did not only for my sins, but for my trials and sorrows as well. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that suffering endures for but a "small moment" and that after it all, joy "cometh in the morning." As Joseph B. Wirthlin put it, "No matter how dark our Fridays, Sunday will come." It is my hope and prayer that our Sunday comes soon, but it is my fervent testimony that even if it doesn't come in this life, whatever we have to endure will be infinitely worth it when we look into the Savior's eyes and (hopefully) hear Him say: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful in a few things. I will make thee a ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. That each of us may merit this salutation from the Savior, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.