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.

List of participants in the Ogden Utah Temple Rededication

In the Church News this weekend, there was an article featuring the names of those who participated in the Ogden Utah Temple Rededication. Since that is of historical importance to the Church, I thought that I would post a link to it and also reproduce that list here. Here's the link:

Participants in the Ogden Utah Temple Rededication

10 a.m. session
President Thomas S. Monson presided, spoke and offered the dedicatory prayer.
President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency, conducted.
Elder David A. Bednar, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder L. Whitney Clayton, Presidency of the Seventy
Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, Primary general president
President Frederick Froerer III, Ogden Utah Temple president
Sister Kathleen Froerer, Ogden Utah Temple matron
Prayers offered by Elder Craig Fisher, an Area Seventy, and President W. Richards Cluny of the Evanston Wyoming South Stake.

1 p.m. session
President Eyring presided, conducted, spoke and offered the dedicatory prayer.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, Presidency of the Seventy
Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, Young Women general president
President Parley R. Baldwin, first counselor in the Ogden Utah Temple presidency
Sister Cathy Baldwin, Ogden Utah Temple, assistant to the matron
Prayers offered by Brother David L. Beck, Young Men general president, and President G. Doyle Obray of the North Ogden Utah Ben Lomond Stake.

4 p.m. session
President Eyring presided, conducted and offered the dedicatory prayer.
Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder M. Russell Ballard, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Presidency of the Seventy
Sister Linda K. Burton, Relief Society general president
President Reed M. Richards, second counselor in the Ogden Utah Temple presidency
Sister Marsha R. Richards, Ogden Utah Temple, assistant to the matron
Prayers offered by President Adams J. Love of the Layton Utah Layton Hills Stake, and Brother Tad R. Callister, Sunday School general president.

 The only bad thing is that I was not able to ascertain any information I might be missing. Oh, well. I will be content to know what I have. Each session was wonderful, I'm sure. I can't wait for the next temple dedication!

American Fork Police are Awesome!/Pre-Authorization Granted for Needed Medication/Prize from Publisher's Clearing House/Under the Weather and (Possibly) Dragging My Feet

Had an experience today that I just had to blog about. When my wife and I went out shopping, we were extremely bothered to discover that several people were parking illegally (without permit or license plate) in handicapped parking. This bothers me because I need that kind of parking when I go shopping. It bothers Amy because for the last 10+ years of her mother's life, she was wheelchair bound and often had to park elsewhere when someone thoughtlessly parked illegally in handicapped parking. Within the period of half an hour, we saw five people illegally parking. So as we left the last store we needed to go to, I phoned the American Fork Police. I spoke to the dispatcher. She patiently listened to my concerns and promised she'd have an officer contact me soon. Within 5 minutes of that phone call, I got a call from one of the American Fork Police Officers. I explained the situation to him, told him we had left the location but had wanted to make them aware so this problem could be resolved in the future, and that we had little tolerance for these types of people. The man couldn't have been nicer. He responded that he understood my frustrations fully and shared them, that he had no tolerance for people who break the law by parking illegally. He promised me that he would talk to his officers in the near future and have them patrol the business district of American Fork and look for violators a lot more consistently in the future. He also said that if I ever ran into this problem again, I shouldn't hesitate to call the police so they could cite the violators next time. He concluded by adding that it would help if next time we called from the location the violation was taking place and could somehow keep the offending car there until the police arrived to cite them. He then wished me a good day and ended the call. I couldn't have been more pleased with how that interaction turned out. The only thing that would have made it better is if Amy & I had thought to jot down the license plate numbers for the violating cars so they could be issued a citation. We will for sure do that in the future. My admiration for the American Fork Police Department knows no bounds!

In other news, I received a letter on Wednesday from my insurance company granting me the prior authorization I needed to get started taking the new medication my neurologist wants me to try. We are currently trying to iron out how to get the prescription for it (she is located in Salt Lake, and hopefully they can FedEx it to me tomorrow which means I could pick it up and start using it on Saturday) and find out the information I need to be aware of before starting this new medication. But the most important thing is that we got the necessary authorization! The hope is that we might be able to eliminate or back down the dosage on some of the other medications I am taking with this new medication. So I will be anxious to see how it works for me. I almost forgot to mention that no one seems to know what is causing my increased nausea, so we may be making an appointment for me to see my neurosurgeon or his nurse in Salt Lake, just in case my shunt setting got altered somehow. I don't want to, because there's always a chance that seeing them may result in surgery, which we have neither the time nor the money nor the desire to get put through. But we will do whatever we have to.

I almost forgot to mention something kind of exciting. I have signed up with Publisher's Clearing House to win prizes from them. I keep responding to the correspondence they request and doing whatever they tell me to make me eligible for those prizes, but I haven't won anything. Or at least I hadn't won anything until late last night. I was using their search engine, PCH Search, and apparently I came at a time when they were awarding hourly prizes to winners. I don't know how I managed it, but I won a $5 Amazon.com gift card. At first I didn't know what to  use it for. Then I remembered I had a Kindle on my computer and that Kindle books would be far less expensive than regular books. After looking around, I was able to purchase two Kindle books with the gift card, both by Chris Heimerdinger. The first was Muckwhip's Guide to Capturing the Latter-day Soul and is kind of an LDS version of C. S. Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters", though Chris's devil, Muckwhip, apparently uses the faith and practices of a faithful LDS member against him in an effort to bring him down. I look forward to reading that. The second book I bought was one I'd read years ago and wasn't sure I'd ever buy a paperback copy of. It's "Eddie Fantastic" and tells of a boy who one day finds himself endowed with supernatural abilities.  I'm sure I will treasure having both books being part of my Kindle library, and I can recommend both as very good reads, though admittedly I am only basing my recommendation for Muckwhip on other people's reviews and not personal experience. It was good to win something from Publisher's Clearing House. I just wish I'd win one of their more substantially sized prizes. Then all our troubles would be over. I guess I'll keep responding as directed to the messages I'm sent and hope for the best.

Amy and I have been feeling under the weather again and have only felt like doing what absolutely has to be done. I feel kind of bad. We went shopping yesterday, and it was only late last night when I realized I was running low on some of the over the counter medication I have been taking for nausea. If I had known or remembered about that at the store, we could have just gotten it yesterday. As it was, we had to make a special trip today. Amy wasn't happy about that at first, and I don't blame her for that. I felt horrible asking her as sick as she was feeling to take me somewhere when all she wanted to do was use today as a day for complete rest. I will have to make it up to her somehow. Maybe buy her flowers or something. She will protest and say that's not necessary, but I owe her big time for what she did for me today.

And not just today. Amy has been an absolute sweetheart in loving and serving me our entire marriage, but especially lately. In the last two  weeks while I have been at Physical Therapy, she has sneakily used my absence to edit the Sacrament Meeting recording for me. She has watched me stumble through doing that week after week, and so while I was gone, she decided to do it for me. I don't know what I did or how I managed to deserve to get such a wonderful, selfless spouse. In so many ways, I am her complete opposite. And this is no difference. She often has to ask me, sometimes several times, to do things for her, and she does things for me all the time without me asking or saying a word. I feel like the luckiest man alive to have such a woman. At the same time, I am deeply ashamed that I am not responding in kind. As with most things in my life, I need to work on that.

Because of the way I've been feeling, I haven't felt much like applying for jobs or writing. I haven't even taken the initiative to try and go to the Deseret Industries with the recommendation our Bishop wrote for me and see if they have a paid position for me that would allow me to work as much as I can handle, bring in some money, and give me some job experience and on the job training. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet on this one. Every time I think about it, I freeze up, and I get an unsettling feeling. It's hard to tell whether this is the "stupor of thought" signifying a wrong choice or whether it is just my own fear keeping me from doing something the Lord would want me to do. I can't trust my own feelings. Amy's advice is to give the DI a try. She says the worst that can happen is that they turn me away saying they don't have anything that would fit my skills or that they could train me for. I've promised her that as soon as I apply for all the jobs Irwin (my employment counselor) has sent me, I will look into the DI, and I still intend to do so, in spite of my fears and misgivings. But I am still very worried about what my feelings mean and whether I can trust them or not. It's something I definitely need to work through, but I don't have the luxury of lots of time to do so. The longer I drag my feet, the longer we remain in our difficult situation. And Amy makes a valid point: I can't expect the Lord to bless me if I don't act on things for myself. Your prayers would be appreciated as I try to work through this jumble of thoughts. Thanks, friends!

Well, that's about it for this update. I hope you, my readers, are well, and that you are enjoying reading these updates as much as I enjoy writing them. Best wishes until I post again!

A Vacation, a Temple Rededication, and Temple and Writing Progress

It has been a bit of a crazy week. On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment scheduled in Provo @ 3 pm. Last year, we had the opportunity (since we had a little extra money to work with) to stay overnight at a motel in Park City. We've been hoping for an opportunity to do something like that again. When we were the recipients of some extra funds, Amy said she wanted to use some of it for another overnight getaway. It didn't take much to convince me. So we found a motel in Orem and booked it for Tuesday night. I also had an appointment scheduled with my new employment counselor in Provo @ 1:30. (It's ordinarily at 1, but since we didn't want to have to kill an hour doing nothing in Provo, my employment counselor graciously moved my appointment time.) Anyways, we got a late start and thus missed our chance to meet with Irwin (my employment counselor). He said he'd send me links to jobs. So we instead went to Deseret Industries and found me three new pairs of corduroy pants and a new blue suit and then went to my doctor's appointment. The news there was very good. We then backtracked to the motel.

We had the opportunity to get two great meals from Del Taco or Taco Bell (can't remember which) and Noodles and Company. We went swimming three times (twice on the night we arrived and once the next morning) and had the pool to ourselves all three times. The one thing that was kind of a bummer was that the hot tub was kind of lukewarm in the morning. We had brought my laptop along just in case, but only used it to figure out what we wanted to order from Noodles and Company for Tuesday night. We went home very happy about our overnight stay. I had a physical therapy appointment later on that day, which may have been a mistake, but I went anyways.

Then today was the rededication date for the Ogden Utah temple. I had wanted to go to the first session so we could witness the cornerstone ceremony, but we were abnormally tired and not feeling well when we woke up, so we opted to go later. We tried to make it to the 1 pm session, but again were feeling tired and unwell and needed more rest. When it came time for us to either get up and go to the 4 pm session or else miss the dedication altogether, we finally felt up to going. I will freely admit that I was still a bit out of sorts and may have zoned in and out during the services, but I think the important thing is that I was there. I remember hearing from Elders Dallin H. Oaks and M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, Sister Linda K. Burton (General Relief Society President), and I remember hearing from the second counselor in the temple presidency and his wife. Elder Ronald A. Rasband led us in the Hosanna Shout and President Henry B. Eyring read the beautiful dedicatory prayer. I later learned that President Thomas S. Monson had only been in attendance at the 10 am session. I hope he's doing all right.

Anyways, the temple rededication is now in the past. The next temple dedications Utah can look forward to are for the Payson and Provo City Center temples. The Payson temple is anticipated to be completed early next year, while the Provo City Center temple is anticipated to be completed late in 2015, all going well. There's a great site I use to keep track of temple progress: ldschurchtemples.com. According to that, 2 temples under renovation will be completed next year; the Phoenix Arizona Temple will be dedicated on Sunday November 16, 2014; seven temples are predicted to be completed in 2015; five in 2016; and two in 2017 (so far). Of the twelve announced temples, eight may have their groundbreaking between now and 2017, depending on how quickly the Church can get the necessary approvals (sites already having been announced for those eight); and the final four have yet to have a site announced. I will keep my eye on the progress of temples, and you can be sure I will post them here on my blog.

For now, it's very late, and I should probably be thinking about bed. Just wanted to blog about these things while they were on my mind. Tomorrow, I will be applying for the jobs that Irwin sent me and hopefully going through my physical therapy exercises and doing a bit of writing. Many of those who have read the interview Aaron Miller did with me have asked when my first published book will be out. The answer to that is short and sweet: I don't know. One thing I do know: some authors I know have posted excerpts of their projects on their blogs, and that's something I may look into in the near future, especially if there is enough interest in it. So, what do you say, my readers? Would you be interested in that? If so, I may consider it. Until I write again, all the best.