Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish–and in effect save their lives.

Source: Ensign, November 2009, Page 95.

Related posts:

1. President Hinckley quote about love Gordon B Hinckley has taught: Love is like the Polar...
2. Gordon B Hinckley quote about education President Gordon B. Hinckley has repeatedly stressed the importance of...
3. Otter Pop Quote Everytime I eat an otter pop, I think: man, this...

We’re just giving you a call we saw that you signed up for feeding us today and so we’re just wondering what time would work for you so give us a call back and let us know and we’ll talk to you soon thanks bye.

So I look at my schedule and came up with a plan to make some home made pizza out of some leftovers in my fridge.  I was about to give them a call back and let them know that they should come over at 6, when they called me.

In their phone call, they explained that they had a very packed schedule and asked if I could bring some food over to the institute building for them.  Pretty much they said, “Can you deliver our dinner to us”?  I figured that I had signed up to feed them and if they were really busy, then I could probably help them out.

I left work early, stopping by Warmart to buy a take-and-bake pizza.  I then drove like 15 minutes to the institute building on the other side of Fort Collins, and threw the pizza in the oven.

I started looking around the institute building for the Elders, but I couldn’t find them.  Eventually, I found their shoes on a shelf, and inside their shoes, their schedule.  So I looked through their schedule to discover that they were away playing frisby.

So pretty much, I spent extra money and about 45 minutes of time to buy and take them a pizza because their schedule was too busy playing ultimate frisby.

I won’t be volunteering to feed them again.

Related posts:

1. Wells Fargo, stop calling me Dear Wells Fargo, I really want a bank that just...
2. Missionaries in Florida I recently found this article online from Herald Tribune in...
3. Fall Fest Fall fest was a failure and flop...

Conference Center

The October 2009 conference will be the 179th semi-annual conference, held on Saturday October 3, and Sunday October 4. Saturday will consist of three sessions: 2 general sessions at 10am and 2pm (MDT), and a priesthood session at 6pm. Male members of the Church ages 12 and older attend the priesthood session, which is only broadcast to Church meetinghouses via closed circuit satellite. Sunday consists of two additional general sessions at 10am and 2pm (MDT).

General sessions of the conference are broadcast in many languages on many TV, radio, cable, and satellite systems. Additionally, they can be viewed or heard over the Internet.

The textual transcripts of conference will be made available on the Church’s website on October 8.

For more information about General Conference, including how to watch conference, visit the conference broadcast page on LDS.org.

(image source)

Updated 13 Sept 2009 for Fall Conference

Related posts:

1. LDS General Conference 2008 Update: To see information about October conference, see the Conference...
2. General conference talk texts online General conference was last weekend, and it was a great...
3. Podcast LDS General Conference Recently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had...

Bell in Romanian Fortress

On my LDS mission in Romania, I visited a little fortress on top of a hill in a small town. In the fortress is this bell which has had several uses.

A few hundred years ago, the bell was rang to warn of attack. During the world wars, it rang for an air raid attack. Now it is used for more general emergencies such as a fire in the town.

When wandering through the fortress, there was a sign next to the bell indicating that it was only to be rung in emergencies, but other than that, there was nothing stopping me from pulling the cord and ringing the bell.

But I think the bell should be rung for other types of attacks and emergencies too. Perhaps it should ring for the economy, or perhaps it should ring to warn of attacks on the traditional family.

Related posts:

1. Me on a mission in Romania I thought I would share this picture of me as...
2. Transylvania is so misunderstood I spent about a year of my life in a...
3. Tickets to Romanian castles As I was digging through some of my old stuff,...

Those who think this might find themselves in a very long line when crisis strikes.  The problem likely is, there are not yet enough Mormons in your neighborhood to feed the neighborhood.

Everyone should have some sort of food storage beyond the week supply that might be in  your cupboards.  It is easy to get started, simply buy a few extra packages of food every time you go to the grocery store.  Slowly you will buy more food than you eat and you will find yourself with a few extra weeks or months of food to help in food shortage situations.

When thinking about food storage, you may want to think of these scenarios:

• You can save money on food by stocking up on items that are on-sale.
• There could be a problem, such as strikes or storms, that prevent you from obtaining food from your grocery store for a few days or weeks.
• In a bad economy, there could come a situation where you have less-stable income, and you could use your food storage as a type of savings, to allow yourself to eat even without income.
• And then there is the apocalyptic scenario where society and economy fails.

There are many strategies about what foods you should buy and how much.  There are many stores on the Internet which sell home storage food kits which may or may not be worth it.  I recommend starting with a couple months of food storage of things that you commonly eat.  After you see how you use that, then you can think about medium and long term storage.

For more guidelines on storing food, I recommend the Family Home Storage webpages from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Related posts:

1. Essential food Today I was looking through a Safeway (grocery store) ad,...
2. Break a fast with macaroni and cheese There is this even amoung student/ysa wards called break the...
3. Homemade ice cream Since Sandy got me an ice cream maker for Christmas,...

Related posts:

1. Cluj-Napoca as a missionary Here is another mission photo.  I was with James Nickerson...
2. Missionary mail bounces Just before Christmas, I wrote my favorite sister missionary a...
3. Me on a mission in Romania I thought I would share this picture of me as...

Related posts:

1. Rainy missionary day in Cluj I thought I would continue with posting various photos from...
2. Missionary mail bounces Just before Christmas, I wrote my favorite sister missionary a...
3. Me on a mission in Romania I thought I would share this picture of me as...

View Larger Map

Update: Oct 8:Jared made me aware of the LDS Newsroom Article which gives more definitive locations to the locations of all the new temples. I’ve updated the map accordingly, although some locations may still not be exact.

Related posts:

1. LDS General Conference 2009 Twice a year, members of The Church of Jesus Christ...
2. Church CIO has a blog Joel Dehlin, the Chief Information Officer of the Church of...
3. LDS General Conference 2008 Update: To see information about October conference, see the Conference...

• Elder Wirthlin – Learn to laugh.  Leason learned from his mother: “Come what may, and love it.”
• Elder Holland -Angles are dispatched to help us in times of need.  But not all angles are from the other side of the veil.
• Gerald Causse – Little children have a great ability to learn and trust… the same qualities help open the door to the holy spirit.
• Lawrence E Corbridge – Christ offers a well of living water… He is the bread of life.  He is the only way.
• Elder Christofferson – Building a Zion. Zion is zion because of the attributes and character of its citizens.
• Elder Bednar – Council in all that we do. Prayer becomes more meaningful as you express heartfelt gratitude.

Related posts:

1. Podcast LDS General Conference Recently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had...
2. LDS General Conference 2009 Twice a year, members of The Church of Jesus Christ...
3. LDS General Conference 2008 Update: To see information about October conference, see the Conference...

I probably would not have been successful with out a site I created called ScriptureCast.net. This site allows anyone to create a custom-rate podcast of general conference. Last April, I created a ScriptureCast podcast which would feed out general conference talks at just the right rate so I would finish by the end of September.

For those who are not familiar with what a podcast is, you should educate yourself by reading “What is Podcasting? ” over on the LDS Media Talk blog. Be sure to watch the short three minute video, Podcasting in Plain English, posted there, but also available on YouTube.

I subscribe to my ScriptureCast podcast through Google Reader. Every few days, a new general conference talk comes up in my unread list, along with an embedded audio player. When I have time, I listen to the talk right from Google Reader.

Because this has been so successful for me personally, I plan to add the October conference to ScriptureCast.net, just as soon as the individual talk audio files and texts are available on the LDS.org website.

Related posts:

1. Podcast LDS General Conference Recently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had...
2. Podcasting General Conference I spent a little time tonight getting the audio and...
3. General conference talk texts online General conference was last weekend, and it was a great...