LDS Church: Women's Meeting now an official General Conference Session

Posting today with some game-changing news that impacts Church history. I have mentioned on this blog before the disagreement I had with fellow Wikipedia editors about whether the General Women's Meeting for women, young women and girls aged 8 and older was an official session of general conference. Well, I found out that yesterday (Thursday), a spokeswoman for the Church officially stated that it is a session of general conference, just as President Uchtdorf had said it was. The First Presidency has announced that from now on, that gathering will be referred to as the "Women's Session" of General Conference. The heading on the general conference website has been changed to reflect this. I was gratified to read of this news. It confirmed what I had been maintaining all along. I was highly tempted to rub this in the face of those editors who moved heaven and earth trying to convince me that I was wrong in so thinking and stating, but thankfully Amy persuaded me to take the higher road. The Church has officially spoken, and the issue is resolved now. So there are and will be six sessions of general conference from here on out. I did feel kind of bad about one thing. Before the news articles came out announcing this change in terminology, the PDF version of the November Ensign had made mention of this "Women's Session" of General Conference in three places: in the table of contents, in the conference summary section, and on the page where the talks from that gathering are reported. I had looked through that PDF file several times and never noticed that. This will not come as a surprise to anyone who knows that my powers of observation are severely lacking and that sometimes I fail to see things that are right in front of my face. For more on this issue, I refer you to two great articles, one from the Salt Lake Tribune and the other from the Deseret News.

Salt Lake Tribune: Women's Meeting now part of General Conference

Deseret News: Women's Meeting now part of General Conference

I will admit, my first inclination was to gloat and rub this in the faces of those who refused to believe me. But my sweet wife, Amy, helped me to realize that I needed to take a more Christlike approach and that the important issue was not that I was right, but that the issue was resolved, especially after so much contention about it, where I could not convince anyone else I was right, and no one else could convince me I was wrong. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the way the other sessions of General Conference are referred to. Sorry if I bored any of you with this post. I just had to blog about this exciting new development in Church history.

In other news, I was able to find out the name and address of the company I will be working for today. It is ROI Solutions, located at 792 East 280 South in American Fork. I also found out that on Monday the company will be starting the day at 7:30 instead of 8:00 am to allow for a half hour meet and greet and for the necessary paperwork to be filled out. So I will have to wake up at 5:30 on Monday to get to work on time, which I am not thrilled about. And it may be that the stuff they have will not be gluten free, which is a double bummer. But I will make sure to have a good breakfast before I go and will then be prepared either way.

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I will be unable to continue seeing my physiatrist ( Dr. Judy Gooch) because the type of Medicaid I have won't allow me to see her at her new clinic in Murray. Someone from her office recommended that I find someone new to see ASAP, but they didn't offer any recommendations. So I e-mailed Dr. Gooch and asked her who she would recommend. She said that Katia Waters, a nurse at the University of Utah Hospital Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, was the best person she could recommend for me. So I made an appointment, and we will be seeing her next Monday. That will be excellent, because it has been too long since I last saw anyone about my spasticity issues. While I have managed on my own okay with physical therapy and Baclofen, it's still nice to have the support of a go-to person in case of questions or emergencies. And since Dr. Gooch couldn't continue to prescribe my Baclofen without seeing me in clinic anyways, it will be good to get in to see Nurse Waters. She comes very highly recommended. If she's even half as good as her reviews say, I'll be in excellent hands. If I can't be seen by Dr. Gooch, it sounds like Nurse Waters is the next best person.

Still no luck on the neurosurgeon search. I will be calling Kathy, the nurse of Dr. Walker, my pediatric neurosurgeon, to explain my situation and see if there is anyone other than the jerk that she would recommend. Mom found a clinic in Murray that I could potentially go to as well. But the only problem with that is that the address for one of the neurosurgeons in Murray that accepts Medicaid Healthy U is different from the one of the clinic in Murray that Mom found. The difference is subtle, which means it might be in the same building, just a different section. I will be trying to sort this all out tomorrow.

In addition, I went to physical therapy today. I thought it would be wise to get in one more weekday visit while I could, because starting on Monday, I'm restricted to Saturday visits once a week and will have to try and be disciplined with my home program (doing it at least once but preferably twice a week). Yesterday, I called my Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor to let her know that I had a job. Had to leave a message, though. Hope to hear back from her soon. I also took time yesterday to call Vanessa Howell, my SSI Benefits Specialist, to find out what, if any, impact my working full time at $10 per hour wages would do to my SSI. I also asked her (in a message because of course I can never speak in person to her when I call) what impact, if any, Amy's inheritance (her dad paying for a modest home for us) would have on my SSI if the money never actually came into our hands. She told me at one point that if Amy's dad gave us the money to buy a house that I would lose my SSI, but I don't know if it's a different situation if the money never actually comes into our hands. I also don't know if I would lose my SSI only temporarily or permanently. So hopefully I hear back from both Annemarie Smith and Vanessa tomorrow.

I see Dr. Weinstein on Tuesday. It would be my luck to have made an unbreakable appointment that can't be rescheduled for a later time on the same day during the very week I have training for a job. But I look forward to that visit. I will be glad and grateful to report the good news to Dr. Weinstein that I am feeling better.

I don't know what all will happen with the three days remaining before I start working. I do know that I have Physical Therapy on Saturday morning and Stokes Family pictures and the monthly dinner that night. It will be fantastic to go to Church on Sunday and have the opportunity to fast and listen to testimony meeting and the lessons. Then in the evening there's a CES fireside for Young Adults. The featured speaker will be Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy. Directly after that, I will be going with Amy to my parents' house to get a father's blessing from my dad prior to starting work the next day. Hopefully we don't stay up too late on Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights.  I don't know why it happened, but something woke me up at around 6:15 this morning. I got up and took my first set of pills and tried to go back to sleep. It worked for a couple of hours, but by around 8, I was done for the night. Which is probably just as well, since I will have to get up at 5:30 on Monday and 6 every weekday morning after that to get ready for work on time. It wasn't bad to be restless, though. I had a wonderful morning prayer (which practice I had sadly been neglecting for far too long of late) and had some cereal and read some of the talks from General Conference. It was such a good experience. I wouldn't mind if that happened again tomorrow. But I will be okay if it doesn't. Tomorrow will be my last day to sleep in for a good long while, so if I can make the most of that, all the better.

Well, I've rambled on longer than I meant to. I hope you all are well and that you all are enjoying these updates as much as I enjoy writing them. With the acquisition of a full-time job, some have speculated that my blogging will be more sporadic. But I am determined to make it as regular as I possibly can. Please bear with me if large intervals of time pass between posts. I will write as often as time and circumstances allow. I haven't forgotten my promise to consider posting excerpts from my book, but I will look at doing that when it is closer to the publishing stage. Until I write again, all the best!

I Have a Job!

I wanted to write and reveal the good news now that I can. I have a job! Here's what happened: On Friday I got a call from Kelly Services in Provo, one of the employment agencies Scenic View Academy had me working with. We played telephone tag for a while, but when I was finally able to reach Matt, the man who called me, he told me that there was a call center position open in American Fork that he thought I would be eligible to fill. He said that he wanted me to come down to Kelly Services the next day (Saturday) to discuss this prospect and see if I would be a good fit. So on Saturday when he called to let me know he was at the agency (he was commuting from Salt Lake City), we headed down to Provo. I met with Matt for about 20 minutes. He and I visited about my qualifications for the job, and he told me there were two open positions I could potentially fill. One started Monday (yesterday), the other one a week later. He said the job paid $10 an hour and aske about my availability. I told him I was looking for an 8-5 or 9-5 job as I was taking medication in the evening that might make me drowsy and thus render me unable to work. He said he was sure the company would be willing to work with me on that. After we had visited, he said he was satisfied that I could do the job. He promised to call me with further details Sunday evening once he heard back from the company.

On Sunday, Amy was sick and stayed home from Church. I went to fulfill my responsibilities as the Ward Media Specialist and, at her insistence, stayed for the whole block. I greatly enjoyed passing the news of my job on to many of the friends I've made in this ward. Each expressed their elation that things were finally starting to work out for Amy and me. I had the opportunity to be home taught and to go home teaching. The rest of Sunday passed uneventfully. I was more than a little concerned when I didn't hear from Matt.

On Monday, I tried to start getting into the daily routine I will need to follow once I start work next week. Because we went to bed too late, I was unable to follow through with that. I had an appointment with my dentist to get the worst two of my four fillings taken care of. That went well. We visited Amy's dad so Amy could pick up some stuff she needed and get some branches and acorns to make a Thanksgiving wreath to hang on our door. We also got more details about how his buying a house for us would work. It would be Amy's inheritance from her parents. I also received word from the office of my muscle doctor, Judith Gooch, that since Medicaid Healthy U wouldn't allow me to see Dr. Gooch at her new clinic in Murray that I would have to find someone else to manage the medical side of my spasticity issues. So I dashed off an e-mail to her late last night asking for her recommendation as to whom I should see at the University of Utah Hospital to replace her. Haven't heard back yet, but hope to soon. It pains me to have to stop seeing Dr. Gooch. She's been taking care of my spasticity issues since I was a little guy, and I couldn't have asked for a better, more caring doctor to help me manage that. However, my hands are tied, so I will have to make the best of a bad situation.

Last night, we got to bed really late. I had trouble sleeping and tossed and turned for a while before I gave up at 6 and got up. Several hours later, I called Kelly Services and got more details about the job from a different man who was also named Matt. I will be working from 8 am-4:30 pm and will have a half hour lunch. Since I won't be too far away, Amy and I have talked about the possibility of us having lunch together every day, though we haven't worked out the logistics of it yet. The way my job will work is this: The first week (next week) will be training. When the company is satisfied that I have been sufficiently trained, they will refer me to another call center, where I will work from that point on. That was slightly different from what I'd previously been told, so it'll be interesting to see what the truth is. Once I am established with the company, I am to make sure that I present them regularly with a list of my upcoming appointments. Matt (the one I talked to today) assured me that it was not a problem to get time off for my medical appointments. He also said that the company uses electronic time cards so that I don't have to worry about lousing up a physical time card with my awful handwriting. That was  a big relief to me. So, I now have a job and will start on Monday. Hallelujah!

There are a couple of downsides to finally having a job First is the reality that I will no longer be spending as much time with Amy. I will miss her terribly. But if I can see her at lunch every day, that will be great! The other is the fact that I have never worked full time or at all, so I don't know how it will work out for me or how my body, mind and spirit will handle it, but I am just glad that the Lord has finally answered our prayers and let a job fall in my lap after all our blood, sweat and tears about the issue. Best of all, Amy won't ever have to bear the burden of supporting us and earning our living anymore.

With the rest of my day, I contacted Irwin, my employment counselor at Scenic View and let him know about the job. He was ecstatic for me. I left a message for Vanessa Howell, the woman who handles my SSI case, to see first how my earning $10 an hour and working full-time would affect my SSI and what effect, if any, Amy's dad buying us a house would have on my SSI if the money never came into our hands. II attempted to call Annemarie Smith, my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor, but just got an automated voice that directed me to dial one of several extensions that I knew for a fact were out of date. So I will have to try again tomorrow to reach Annemarie. I was able to nap for a couple of hours in the afternoon and felt much improved for the rest I got. We went to Fresh Market to pick up my prescriptions and some Halloween candy. Once again, I made Amy a promise. If she would let us buy enough candy to allow for a generous amount of trick or treaters and none came as in years past, I would buy her dinner somewhere. If we do get trick or treaters, I don't get anything out of the deal except the good feeling of knowing I was right.

The rest of this week will be spent getting myself ready for work. On Saturday evening, we have the monthly Stokes family dinner and we are doing family pictures. I may or may not try to get in to Physical Therapy one other time this week before I go Saturday. I imagine I will stop by my parents' house on Sunday night and ask my dad to give me a father's blessing prior to my beginning work. And I will work and hope and pray for the opportunity to one day stop working at the call center in favor of devoting my full time to writing. But in the meantime, it gives me great relief to know that we will be taken care of. I admit to not knowing what the future holds. But, as ever, I am optimistic that the answers to all of our problems are just around the corner. The Lord is in control of our lives, and we couldn't be in better hands. I will continue to update this blog regularly as time and circumstances allow. Until I write again, all the best!

New Developments in Our Lives

I realized today in looking at my blog that I had not posted for a while, so I am posting now, though there is not much to report on. I am still in search of a new neurosurgeon. The new medication I am taking for my head seems to be working, but it makes me super tired, so I've been sleeping a lot. I finally was able to read Chris Heimerdinger's great new book "Drums of Desolation." Another rip-roaring success, but it left so many questions unanswered. Chris has stated he will try to wrap up the current adventure (and possibly the series) in the next book, "Thorns of Glory," which he hopes to have out by next year. I will be anxious to see if that will happen.

I had a wonderful visit with Brandon Sanderson on Sunday. He and I talked about major life events that had happened since we last got together. He then helped me set up the "Store" section of this blog (see the preceding post) and helped me add page numbers to my book. My task before we meet again next month is to try and finish the book. I haven't made any progress there yet, but I did take the opportunity to "map out" the remaining scenes. Now it's just a matter of making them work. But that wasn't the most impressive thing about Brandon's visit. He told me that he thought that my taking one computer class online per school semester would quickly enough allow me to be certified in something that would help improve my job prospects, whether I am able to find work in the meantime or not. When I told him money was a bit of a problem, he said it wasn't for him. He mentioned that he had a foundation that awards scholarships to those the foundation overseers see as needing them and that he, as the head of the foundation wouldn't have a problem with awarding me a scholarship for the purpose of taking some online classes that would allow me to get certified in something computer-related and improve my job prospects, now and in the future. I was overwhelmed by this generous offer. When I was awarded a scholarship at BYU, I took my education very seriously, knowing that it was someone else's money that was making furthering my education possible. And so, with Amy and Brandon's encouragement, I will be taking one class online per semester until I am certified. I won't take this opportunity lightly. I just hope I have the stamina to do work and one class per semester. I'm sure it will work out. As soon as Brandon mentioned the scholarship, I felt like this was the Lord providing an answer to some of our prayers. While it doesn't solve the immediate problem of needing a job, it will help me increase my prospects for the future. I'm glad about that.

Amy's dad recently also gave us a very generous offer. He said if we could find a reasonably priced house in an area we'd like to live, he'd pay for it in our behalf. I had administered to Amy in the past and told her that the Lord would open the way for us to move from this place to a house of our own, but neither of us knew how it would be possible. With this very generous offer, we are looking for a place within the American Fork East Stake. We will see what we can find.

I noticed last week that there was a mistake in the prescribed dosage for one of my medications that I need to get filled tomorrow, so we will be making a trip up to Salt Lake at some point tomorrow to pick up the amended prescription. It's a bit of a hassle, but what can you do? I'm just grateful the problem can be fixed so easily.

My current neurosurgeon (Richard Schmidt, the one I won't go back to) recently e-mailed me with a survey, asking me to describe my latest experience in his clinic. And so I did. I was as honest as the day is long, sometimes brutally so, but he did ask for honesty. I submitted the survey anonymously after commenting on my negative experience with his office and saying that I wouldn't be coming back to his clinic as a result of his staff's lack of serious concern for my concerns. It has been said by some that I've never been known to say anything bad about anyone. Those who know me best will no doubt contradict that statement. I am only human, after all. I can only hope that my anonymous honest criticism of his and his staff's treatment of me will give him pause the next time he thinks to disregard a patient or not take their concerns seriously. But based on his attitude during our last visit, I hold out little hope for an improvement in his bedside manner. That's why I won't be going back there and will instead be taking my neurosurgery needs elsewhere. So, if you know of any good ones closer to American Fork, I'm open to recommendations.

That, in a nutshell, is what has been going on with us. Amy was sick yesterday and missed Church. I went to fulfill my obligations as Media Specialist, and, at her insistence, stayed for the whole block. I was glad to be there, but grateful to return home and take care of Amy. We have been doing a lot of reading lately and watching things on Amazon Instant Video (I signed up for a one-month free trial). While life could be better, I know it could also be a lot worse, and I am grateful for the blessings in my life, most especially my sweetheart Amy. I don't know what I'd do without her. I hope I never have to find out. I long for the day when we will have children join our family. Yet I know that I don't understand the purposes and timing of the Lord, so I do my best to trust Him and leave the rest in His hands. I hope you all are doing well. I wish you all the best until I write again.