Store

Visitors to my blog will notice a new section to the right entitled "Store." It is a section I am just barely getting up and running. In the store, I will advertise products from Amazon. When anyone buys any products from the store, I will get a certain percentage. Brandon Sanderson suggested this as a way to make some money while I yet remain jobless. So that's what purpose the store section will serve.

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!