Conference on TV in Utah is an interesting exercise in contrasts. As the session ends, you go from spirituality to crass consumerism about 'spirituality.' Buying commercial time immediately before or after GC seems like such a hideously tacky thing to do that perhaps someone should organize a boycott of all LDS retailers who have the bad taste to do so.
President Hinckley's Saturday morning talks are getting awfully predictable. Good thing they're still true, and uplifting.
The Primary counselor who spoke is the odds-on favorite to win the 'Most Frightening Eyebrows' award. Her talk turned out to be pretty good, though (of course, after the bar set by the "Exclamation Points" talk, almost anything seems good).
'The recent decision to not have 70s in SS and YM presidencies' was said like he expected us to have heard about it, which I hadn't. An interesting change.
Elders Haight (understandably) and Maxwell weren't on the stand during the sustainings camera-pan. I was therefore surprised to see Elder Maxwell speak in the PS, and am now entertaining bizarre theories about an 'apostle in reserve' in case of terrorist attacks, or something.
The stats, as I caught them (roommate talking may have glitched one or two, so caveat emptor):
As of 31Dec2003:
Stakes: 2624
Missions: 337
Districts: 644
Wards & Branches: 26,237
Members: 11,985,254
Increase in Children of Record: 99,457 (this is the most likely candidate for a glitch)
Convert Confirmations: 242,923
FT Missionaries: 56,237
Temples dedicated in 2K3: 2
Temples Operational: 116
I spent a good portion of President Faust's PS talk working out the following: If my recollections of basic kinematics are correct, the kid would have hit the water at a velocity of approximately 40 meters/second, assuming a starting height of 80 meters, except that it was probably 80 feet, which I just realized, to my embarrassment (the perils of doing physics during Conference). So the corrected figure would be approximately 27 m height for an entrance velocity of around 20-25 meters per second. Some days I'm less theologically drenched than others.
President Hinckley's stats:
563,000 days of labor donated to welfare projects
$98 million in cash and in-kind donated to humanitarian projects last year, for $643 million [?] over the last 18 years.
PEF operating in 23 countries.
Over 10,000 individuals now being assisted by the PEF.
Early returns indicate an increase in potential income by a factor of 3-4.
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