Columbus Ohio Temple Office Hours

I received an email from the temple on 23 May 2011 that provided the office hours of the Columbus Ohio Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I could not find this information anywhere on the web yet so I thought it might be helpful to have it posted. Here are current hours "when telephones are staffed:"

Monday: 9:30AM - 3:30PM
Tuesday: 10:30AM - 2:30PM; 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Wednesday: 10:30AM - 2:30PM; 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Thursday: 10:30AM - 2:30PM; 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Friday: 10:30AM - 2:30PM; 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Saturday: 8:30AM - 7:00PM

The telephone number to call to reach the office is 614-351-5001. There is also the option to send an email for proxy ordinances. The email is colum-off@ldschurch.org. However, this email is only to be used for proxy ordinances. To make an appointment for live ordinances or to submit names for the prayer roll, the temple asks that you call during the above office hours or leave a message on the answering machine and an office worker will return your call during normal office hours.

I was also informed that names for the prayer roll are limited to 5 per call or fax and must be individual names for each person and not for a group such as a family. The fax number is 614-351-5099.

High Energy Win For Rootstown

LIBERTY, Ohio - Ryan's 38 points led the young men team from Rootstown (2-0) over Warren (0-2) in a 70- 22 win. Rootstown had a balanced scoring effort with two other players again scoring in double figures. Brad, in addition to leading the team in rebounds, scored 14 points while Brandon had 10 points. All of Rootstown's players scored, with Jacob and Aaron each scoring four.

Warren kept the game close in the first half, but early in the second half, fatigue started to set in. Warren had just finished playing a close game to New Castle right before the start of their second game against Rootstown. Seth, who scored eight points for Warren, said after the game "I just tried to get everyone on my team the ball." He was able to get his teammates Shane and Donnie the ball for eight and four points, respectively. However, Rootstown was able to push the ball up the court and score repeatedly in transition.

Fouls were kept to a minimum and everyone enjoyed the game. Rootstown only committed two team fouls and Warren just four. "I played a lot better than I thought I would. I had a really good time," said Aaron.

See the uploaded files section of this website for the unofficial scoring totals.

Balanced Attack Gives Rootstown Win

LIBERTY, Ohio - In the first game of the new season, the young men from the Rootstown Ward (1-0) defeated a strong team from New Castle (0-1) by a score of 90 - 57. With new faces leading the team, the young men presented a balanced scoring attack. Ryan led Rootstown in scoring with 28 points. Anthony, Brad and Brandon also scored in double figures with 22, 18 and 16 points, respectively. Brandon said after the game, "I think this year, once we got going with a few baskets, we gained confidence and were able to do a lot better than we thought."

Josh, from New Castle, led all scorers with an incredible 45 points. He connected for an astounding 21 field goals and was 3 for 5 from the free throw line, despite getting in foul trouble by committing 3 fouls before the first half ended. Josh avoided any further infractions in the second half and was able to involve his teammates in the second half to cut the Rootstown lead late in the game. Still, Rootstown prevailed in the end as Jacob added 6 points in what he called "his best game ever."

See uploaded files section of this website for unofficial scoring totals.

Rootstown Young Men Basketball Season Concludes

NEW WILMINGTON, Pennsylvania - The Rootstown Young Men concluded their season by placing 2nd in the tournament held Saturday, May 15 at Westminster College. The young men lost in their first game against a strong team from Lisbon, but then rallied to defeat Warren in the second game.

Earlier in the season, Rootstown defeated Alliance 49-19 on February 20 and Warren 49-41 on March 6. The team finished the season with a final record of 5-1.

Rootstown 51, New Castle 49

LIBERTY, Ohio - With only 5 seconds remaining in the second half, Rootstown's Jeremy made a short jumper to give Rootstown (2-0) the win, 51-49 over New Castle (0-1). At 3:09 remaining in the second half and Rootstown leading 49-47, neither team scored for almost three minutes until Adam, playing for New Castle, tied the game at 49. Then, 33 seconds later Jeremy made his last second field goal to put Rootstown over the top. Josh Snyder, coach for Rootstown commented, "It's so nice to see these guys play the way they are coached in practice."

Free-throw shooting was key in the game as Rootstown was given 18 attempts from the foul line. Rootstown shot 50% as a team from the charity stripe helping them maintain the lead down the stretch. Jeremy led Rootstown with 19 points. Two other players scored in double figures as Matt had 12 points and Andrew added 10 more.

Rootstown took an early lead in the game 9-0 after the first 4:46 of play and didn't look back. New Castle never led in the game, but kept the score close the entire way. New Castle only trailed by 4 at the half, 30-26. New Castle's high percentage shooting was enough to tie the game at 49-49 with only 38 seconds remaining. But Rootstown's last second scoring kept them alive and gave the team their second victory of the season.

New Castle's Josh led all scorers with 21 points and shot 75% from the foul line. Adam, also playing for New Castle, added 20 points and Nick scored the remaining 8 points for the PA team. All Rootstown players scored in the game as Brandon scored 8 points and Jacob hit a field goal in the first half for his 2 points.

Snyder added, "This was a good win for our team. It gave Adam time to lead a team." Adam, Rootstown's leading scorer last week, played for New Castle, but his added experience will definitely be needed for Rootstown in future games. All starters were in the game for the full 40 minutes of play.

As Rootstown will have a bye next week, February 6, and where there are no games February 13, Rootstown will resume play on Saturday, February 20 against Youngstown at 9:00am.

See the uploaded files section on lower right of this blog for abbreviated box score.

Rootstown 51, All-Lis 29

LIBERTY, Ohio - The Rootstown Ward young men basketball team opened the season earlier today with a 51-29 win over the combined team from Alliance and Lisbon. Three players from Rootstown (1-0) scored in double figures. Adam led all scorers from Rootstown with 16 total points and was a perfect 2 for 2 from the charity stripe. Jason and Jeremy also added 10 points apiece. The All-Lis team (0-1) was assisted by a few of the Youngstown ward players. "Knee-brace" led the All-Lis team with 17 points and "Angry mob" scored 8 points.

After the All-Lis team took an early lead 7-2 with 15:38 remaining in the first half, Rootstown rallied back to take the lead and go into the locker room at the half with a lead of 19-9. In the second half, Rootstown added to their lead by outscoring All-Lis 32-20.

Rootstown will look for their second win as they face the young men from New Castle at 9:00am at the Youngstown stake center on Saturday, January 30.

For abbreviated box score, see the uploaded files section of this blog on lower right.

Family Mission Plan

Sister Purcell and Sister Matheson (full-time missionaries currently assigned to the Rootstown Ward) asked us to make a Family Mission Plan. I had never heard of it before they asked us to do it. I put one together and I have posted a text only version of it in the uploaded files section of this blog. I thought it might be useful for others wanting an example of one.

Website for LDSSA at Kent State University

LDSSA now has a website where we can post information related to happenings on campus at Kent State. It is amazing how quickly things can be added to the web. The website is ksuldssa.weebly.com - I have added a link to this blog. Happy surfing!

LDSSA/Institute of Religion at Kent State University

The student group LDSSA at Kent State University has organized an Institute of Religion class on campus for Fall 2008! Classes are being held weekly in the Student Center on the main KSU campus in Kent on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm. We are meeting in room 307 for most weeks of the semester (Oct 15 room 304 and Dec 3 room 314). The course of study is Religion 324 - the first half of Doctrine & Covenants. Student manuals are available online at http://www.ldsces.org/ or bound copies will be available at class meetings.

Jon Ridinger is our instructor for the class. He is a long time resident of Portage County, a graduate student at Kent State and he has great insights into the Doctrine & Covenants because of his knowledge of Kirtland and the John Johnson Farm where so much of the history of the Doctrine & Covenants took place (See his blog link on this page). We also have the CES missionaries Elder and Sister Hollingsworth attending with us as well as our LDSSA president Caitlin Vanderground. All are welcome to attend! You don't have to be Mormon!

Joseph Smith Baptized Twice?

Ok, this question came up during Institute at Kent State this week. Was Joseph Smith baptized twice? The answer is yes! Joseph Fielding Smith said, "Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized on 15 May 1829... that baptism was for the remission of sins. When the church was organized, each of the brethren who organized the church and the others who had been baptized were baptized again. They had to be in order to come into the church by the door." The same thing happened in the Book of Mormon. When Christ came, as recorded in 3 Nephi 11, one of the first things he taught was baptism. This was because he was organizing the church again under the new law, not the law of Moses and the people needed to be baptized into this newly organized church. In fact, from the time of Joseph Smith, until about the 1890's, rebaptism was a very common thing in the church - people were getting rebaptized for all kinds of reasons like marriage, entering the United Order or to try to receive better health (see Church History Institute manual). However, the First Presidency put a stop to the practice of rebaptism in 1897. Hey, I'm ok with that - adding a baptism to the beginning of the day when someone gets married would make for a busy, complicated day!

Adults can't get the Duty to God Award

Ok, that may be true (I really don't know), but either way, at the request of the Young Men General Presidency and the Young Men General Board at a General Conference workshop a couple of years ago I started working on completing the requirements of the Duty to God award. I chose to do the Priest award. I gave a couple of talks in the Sugar House ward (Salt Lake Sugar House Stake) about me doing it and I invited anyone interested to do it along with me, but I especially invited the other Young Men leaders and of course the young men to work on it. I don't think that, at least at the time I gave the talk, that any young man in the Sugar House ward had earned any of the Duty to God awards. I would be interested to know who the first young man is!

So I am writing to report that on Sunday, earlier this week, I finished the requirements for the Priest Duty to God award. I started in January 2007 and I just finished, so it took me about a year and a half, but I did do it. It was kind of fun actually. Susan signed off all the stuff for me so that I couldn't get away with not doing all that I was supposed to. I went on an overnight 15 mile hiking trip in the mountains, ran 6 miles in <60 minutes, went visiting people with the full-time missionaries and gave a few talks and lessons at church and at home. It really wasn't that hard. A lot of the stuff you do without even noticing so all I had to do was just keep track.

Anyway, to the General Young Men Leaders of the church and to the young men in the Sugar House ward (and the Rootstown ward) I finished the Duty to God Priest award. You can do it too!

Translating without the plates!

There are a lot of things about Mormons that I just classify as weird. Not all bad really, just weird. I mean I look at what is going on with the FLDS church, I think that it is just weird. But, I guess it all depends on your perspective.

Here is something weird that I have wondered about for a long time. How did Joseph Smith translate the plates? I mean, I know that he didn't have much education and that it was done by the gift and power of god, but what does that mean? He did translate them, so what was really happening? What did he do? How did Oliver "try" to translate?

My first wondering came from the PBS documentary entitled "The Mormons" where I heard that he "looked into a hat". I had never heard that before. I started asking people... they said that the documentary was bad, that stuff was wrong in it. That surprised me because I loved the documentary, I thought it was great. While I was watching it, I wished it wouldn't end, I was riveted.

Well, I read a book by Terryl Givens called "By the Hand of Mormon" where he talked about the translation process and he confirmed a lot of the stuff that was in the documentary. And then just this last week a professor from BYU made it very clear. He said, and I have to say this has got to be a surprise to many members of the church:

"Smith never went through the golden pages of the ancient record, but instead put the seer stone in a hat, then buried his head in the hat to shut out ambient light. The stone lit up a line of text, about 30 words at a time, which Smith then dictated to his scribe."

Now tell me that isn't weird! Now I know this isn't the kind of stuff that you bring up in Sunday School, but at some time you do wonder -- what really happened? Anyway you can read the full article at the following Deseret News link:

http://mormontimes.com/DB_index.php?id=927

On a related note, I just have to say, there are a lot of extremely kind and thoughtful people out there. I don't know what I (or my kids) have done to deserve all the kindnesses that we have received. We probably haven't done anything. The only thing I can do is just say thank you to everyone that has been so nice to us. Serena had her third birthday today. Thank you to all who went out of their way to make the day fun for her. She loved all of the letters, gifts and nice things that everyone did for her. So many people in our family, at church and even her own mom were very thoughtful and Serena had a wonderful birthday! Thank you again!

Stop the Supposing!

After reading some of the media coverage of the death of President Hinckley and how the succession in the First Presidency works, I thought I would add my two cents. Everything in the media is for the most part correct, but in some cases the whole story is not being told.

First things first, President Hinckley was a wonderful prophet. He did all that he was asked to do and more. We are all very indebted to him and his family. We couldn't have had a better person to guide the church during the last 12+ years.

Now, the media reports have been saying that the new President of the church has not yet been chosen. Allow me to show that this may not be 100% accurate:

1. The principle of succession has been established and clearly explained to the Saints. There should be no speculation or controversy over who will become the next President of the Church. (Religion 333 Manual)

2. Succession in the prophetic office is automatic and proceeds according to apostolic seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve. (Religion 333 Manual)

3. The leadership change is automatic and instantaneous. A special revelation is not necessary. (Religion 333 Manual)

4. That the senior Apostle of God has outlived all the other Apostles is a clear indication of the Lord’s choice in the matter. (Religion 333 Manual)

5. As the last heartbeat of President Lee ceased, the mantle of leadership passed to President Kimball, whose next heartbeat was that of the living oracle and presiding authority of God on earth. (Bruce R. McConkie)

6. When the President of the Church dies, who then is the Presiding Authority of the Church? It is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (ordained and organized by the revelations of God and none else). Then while these Twelve Apostles preside over the Church, who is the President of the Church[?] It is the President of the Twelve Apostles. And he is virtually as much the President of the Church while presiding over Twelve men as he is when organized as the Presidency of the Church, and presiding over two men. And this principle has been carried out now for 140 years—ever since the organization of the Church. (Harold B. Lee)

The above comments, especially number 6, leave no doubt as to who is the president of the church right now. It is President Monson. He is at this time the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, it is possible that he may nominate someone else when the First Presidency is organized, but that has never happened and in my mind that would be akin to him heading to Joppa to buy a ticket to Tarshish. Not gonna happen!

God bless President Monson and more importantly, God bless us to listen to him and hearken to his counsel!

Rootstown Religion

Teacher's quorum today was taught by a young man. Again the lesson was high quality. John had cut and pasted from the lesson manual online into a word processor, added his own notes and commentary, and printed it out for quorum meeting. He was well prepared and gave a lesson that any parent would be very proud of. Oh yeah, and he is only 15! Wait until his is 19 and is on a mission!

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting today in the Rootstown Ward. To lead into my subject "Its not where you serve but how" from President Boyd Packer's most recent general conference talk, I went over my Summary Fact Sheet (see the uploaded files section of this website). As an aside, now that I have started reading scholarly articles in school, I cant help but notice the similarity between academic articles and General Authority conference talks. I think we should start referring to them like academic articles ...."Packer 2007B"....when we quote them....now that would be interesting!

Anyway, when I said the part about the fact that there are 16 members of the US Congress who are members of the church and that Harry Reid is a Mormon, everyone started laughing. I don't know why? I mean, I didn't say anything about him.

Rootstown Ward is now growing in more than one way! Of course the most obvious way for the ward to grow is from people being baptized and joining the church as an adult. There have been a few of those lately. But in addition, I found out today that there are 5 families in the ward that are expecting a new baby this year. If they all come to church that would be a 5% increase in Sacrament Meeting attendance! We may have to divide the ward!!!

I am debating running a marathon. I don't know why. I guess just so that I can say I have done it. There are a few I know from here in Portage County that are thinking about it. Dan Mars, Herman Jara and I are all thinking about running in the Akron marathon in September. The early signup period ends this week so I guess I will have to commit now. The Akron marathon is on a Saturday and the weather here in September seems good so it should be a good one! I hope I can finish!

Congratulations Matt!

I got a call from a good friend of mine Matt DeYoung. Was great to hear from him. Its nice to talk to our friends from the Sugar House Ward. Matt told me that earlier today he received a letter saying that he is to be assigned as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Pittsburgh Pennslyvania. The best part is that we are not very far from there!

I think that being assigned as a missionary here in the Ohio-Pennslyvania area is a really good spot. There is a lot of activity right now in this area. People seem to be interested in learning more about religion and are very friendly. We have really enjoyed the short time that we have lived here in Ohio because the people we have met have been so kind to us.

Found out a few months ago that about 1 in every 200 people in Ohio are Mormon. I find it really strange since much of the early beginnings of the church actually occurred in this state. By contrast, in countries like Chile where proselyting has only been going on for less than 75 years the ratio is 1 in 20. Not to mention Tonga where the ratio is more than 1 in 3! Incredible...not every state or country is the same...not by any means!

There is no time for reading....

With all the great TV that is out there, who has time for reading? Usually when I read it is some non-fiction thing...scriptures, doctrinal books, textbooks, academic articles (I am sure I will do a lot of that next semester) or whatever. Rarely do I read fiction because I can't usually concentrate on something that is fake anyway with so much that there is to do. Thankfully, I have had the last week and a half to slow down a bit. Had some extra time today and picked up my mom's gift to Susan. Read the book Christmas Jars by Jason Wright. Good book. Very inspiring. Sure it is fake (it is a novel), but even if I never give away a "Christmas Jar" there is much that can be learned (and applied!) from the book. Good book Mr. Wright!

Had a very good Christmas. Of course we wished we could have been with more of our families but it is nice to be able to talk with them on the phone and not have to spend a bunch of the holidays driving from here to there.

Was exciting to hear Roger and Karen "open" their long-time-coming Christmas gift from their children. John and (name removed) (the co-chairmen of the Olson Children board) deserve the recognition for making the gift happen. I know that Roger and Karen will be great missionaries wherever or however they serve (even if it somehow involves music!). Susan and I are hoping that it will be in Kirtland or somewhere nearby! I think that senior missionaries make a big difference in full-time missionary work, how else does 1 mission president and his wife (or vice-versa) control 100-200 nineteen year old guys!

Prophecy pop quiz?

See how well you do with my nacimiento pop quiz:

1. Did the people in Jerusalem know that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem?

2. Did the people in the Americas, the Nephites and Lamanites, know that Jesus would be born in Palestine (not in the Americas)?

3. Did the Nephites know that Jesus would be visit them after his death and resurrection in Palestine?

Here are my initial answers, you are welcome to add or correct me where needed!

1. Yes, at least the people that were familiar with the scriptures and understood them knew. Micah 5:2 says "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel."

2. Yes, Alma 7:10 even more clearly states "And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem." Additionally, I guess it is possible that they had the writings of Micah above since he lived in 722BC and Lehi didn't leave Jerusalem until 600BC (see Bible Dictionary p.638).

3. I don't know, so far I have not been able to find any scripture that supports the idea that they did.

Tonight Susan prepared a great "loaves and fishes" dinner (inspired by my favorite mother in law Karen). We talked about Jesus feeding 5,000. When I finished recounting that story, Tony wanted to know more - another story. So we talked about the feeding of the 4,000. Still, he wanted another story. So we talked about the birth of the Savior and Nephi praying for the believers so that they would not be killed. Still he wanted the rest of the story. So we talked about the three days of darkness after his death and the voice the Nephites heard.

I never realized before how anxious children are to learn. I mean sometimes they are more interested in playing, giggling or fighting, but every once in a while Tony will be just begging to learn about what is in the scriptures. It is both exciting and terrifying to be able to teach a child!

We went outside tonight before the kids went to bed to put out Karen's magic reindeer food and we spotted a rabbit. That, for some reason, got Susan really excited and she chased the lightning quick bunny all over the grass courtyard. It was quite entertaining!!!

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Our family celebrated December 23, Joseph Smith's birthday, by reading some of Joseph Smith-History in the Pearl of Great Price and talking about the pictures that are in the back of the new editions of the triple combination. I like to point out that 3 of the pictures in the back of the triple combination are of locations in Ohio! And there is only one of Utah! Yes, Utah is a great state - but I think Ohio is closer to heaven! For further proof look at page -2 and -3 of the Doctrine and Covenants where is lists the locations where each section of the Doctrine and Covenants was received! 65 of the 140 revelations were received in Ohio - more than any other state!

Today at church Brother Herman Jara, a counselor in the bishopric of the Rootstown Ward, while conducting sacrament meeting very graciously complimented Tony for helping put up the number cards on hymnal number marquee each Sunday morning. That made Tony's day! Brother Jara even mentioned that Tony is only 5 years old which Tony loved!

In Teacher's Quorum today Jason C. taught the lesson on Honesty and Integrity in Aaronic Priesthood Manual 2. He did a great job. His teachings skills are good enough at 14 that he could be effective in teaching as a missionary today if he was called on a mission. He did a great job at promoting discussion, making the lesson interesting and keeping the doctrine simple and pure by sticking to the manual. I think we will have more and more lessons by young men as this one was so successful!

Susan was indispensable today at church. She was a part of every musical number during Sacrament meeting! With it being the Sunday before Christmas there was a lot of music as part of the meeting - as there should be. Of course she played the organ for the regular hymns, but she also accompanied 2 musical numbers and led the Primary in singing "Who is the Child?"

Was Jesus married?

I know that these kinds of things "don't really matter" and that I am supposed to stay in the main stream. The only problem is that if you attend gospel principles during Sunday School on a regular basis, as I do, these kinds of questions come up often. And the worst part is, if you have been a member your whole life and you have a leadership position, people (especially visitors and new members) expect you to have an answer. So I really wanted to know whatever there was to know about the subject.


As it turns out, as you might expect, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not have an official position. Church spokesman Dale Bills said, as printed in the Deseret News on 5/18/06, "The belief that Christ was married has never been official Church doctrine. It is neither sanctioned nor taught by the Church. While it is true that a few Church leaders in the mid-1800s expressed their opinions on the matter, it was not then, and is not now, Church doctrine."


And yes those "opinions" were the idea that He was married. So there you go, if someone asks, the church has no official position, but some leaders in the past have suggested the possibility.


Participated in a discussion with Alan and his two daughters, Cheyenne and Felicia. They attended church for the first time ever last Sunday. It was great to have them there - the two girls were a great addition to the children's Primary group! We have about 20 children in the Primary group so 2 more is great! The sister missionaries taught the 10 commandments from Exodus chapter 20 (basically most of Lesson 4 from Preach My Gospel). Sister Norton and Stephen are great sister missionaries. So far all of the missionaries here in the Cleveland mission are very good. I think part of it is that missionaries the world over are better than the were 10 years ago when I was a missionary. The other part is that I think that some of the best sister missionaries are sent here to work at the Kirtland visitors center! Sister missionaries here that are assigned to the Cleveland Ohio Mission to be "Kirtland Sisters" spend some time in Kirtland but also spend a large part of their mission in regular proselyting areas.

We had the discussion at the Kent Free Library. It is very nice and relatively new. The sister's apartment is right next to the library so it is a great place to have discussions with few distractions and in a public place so you don't have to worry about violating any mission rules. Susan even found two books written by Gerald Lund at the Library! Unbelievable!

My fight against global warming....

In moving to Ohio, I was somehow able to select (move into) one of the few counties in Ohio that has a vehicle emissions testing requirement. And seeing as how both of our cars let out a big plume of smoke each time you start them, I always dread taking our cars for testing. Thankfully, here in Ohio we have passed on the first try with both cars! Luckily there is no safety check here - that is the part that the cars always failed in Utah. So... I am doing my part to fight global warming! I love Ohio!

Went home teaching to the Ridinger family and the Dan and Mariah Desatoff family tonight. My hometeaching companion a few months ago was Steven D. However, his family moved to Utah so now I am companion-less. I am ok with that. So usually I just take along whoever will come. Tonight the whole family came. Tony helped with the lesson by quoting the scripture from Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." I don't really know if that holds in every case (although Orson Whitney might argue -- see James E. Faust, "Dear Are the Sheep That Have Wandered," Ensign, May 2003, quoting Orson F. Whitney) because it seems like there are some good parents whose children end up a little "different". But overall, I whole-heartedly agree. Usually if the children have big problems, the parents probably have some things they could improve upon as well. I guess I have that same theory in marriage and in any other relationship, if you want to improve your spouse (or whoever), improve yourself first.

Whew...got the win versus IPFW!

I have to admit, I had no idea who IPFW was until about one week ago. IPFW (Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne) is in the Summit League. The same conference that Southern Utah is in. Kent State played a home game against IPFW in basketball tonight. Tony and I went to the game, it was pretty exciting! Came down to the final shot, but IPFW missed a 3 pointer at the buzzer so Kent State won 72-70. We saw Jon Ridinger and the rest of the family at the game too! Ashley Rather was there cheering as part of the dance team/drill team (She is in the picture above - just can't tell which one she is!)

Ben M. put on a nerf war at the church tonight. Jason C. and a bunch of Ben's other friends from the cross country team were there. A nerf war is where you set up a bunch of cardboard boxes on the floor of the gym and then use Nerf gun and try to hit someone from the other team before you get hit! It's pretty fun! I played for 2 hours. That was enough for me!

Spent most of the day cleaning again today! Susan is really going to wonder when school starts again. Allerton apartments is pretty quiet during the winter break so we had a heyday going through clothes that we hadnt worn for awhile and washing, drying and folding since no one else here is using the laundry room!

Found a good website that will tell you if there are things in a movie that you dont want to see. Kids in Mind.com - Here is the link http://www.kids-in-mind.com/. I like knowing exactly what is in a movie so that I dont have to "walk out" because I am offended. I mean there is often what to me is objectional in PG movies and sometimes in G movies. This website lets you know ahead of time what you are getting yourself into.

You know you are a nerd when....

You know that you have reached super nerd status when you think it is exciting when the FASB issues a new pronouncement. It's even more exciting when they issue two of them! Yes the Financial Accounting Standards Board set two new rules for accountants. You can check out the interesting details at http://www.fasb.org/ (If you are as bored as the people at right... congratulations you are not a nerd!)

Read a little bit of the chapter in Preach My Gospel (the handbook for Mormon missionaries) about Christlike attributes. There really isn't much difference between the way that faith is described and the way that Hope is described. I guess there is not much difference. Maybe I will study those topics a little more.

I think Susan is already sick of me being home during the winter break. I have turned it into winter cleaning. I went through all my clothes to see which were worn out, which needed washing, ironing, etc. Susan went through all of the kids clothes. There was a time today when the house was nearly turned upside down!

Tonight at the Rootstown Ward youth activity night, the Scouts played Scout Jeopardy. The "flags" team (Andrew L., Chris C., William F. and Robert L.) beat the "ships" team (Jason C., Ben M., Nathan B. and Aaron W.) by a score of 1200 to 800. There was a time during the game when both teams were quite a way in the hole, but they ended up answering quite a bit of the questions - they did well! Also, Andrew L. passed his Eagle palm board of review.

Tonight on PBS the concert "Sissel and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir" was on at 9pm EST. That was one of the best concerts that the Tabernacle Choir has had. Sissel has a really unique "ethereal" voice that I don't think anyone else can replicate. There is probably a reason why the Titanic people used her even though they could have had Celine Dion sing any of the tracks for the film. She is really good!

First this, first that....

There is always a first time for things... I conducted my first Scoutmaster interview....if you could call it that. Andrew L. knew how to do it better than me, and he was the one being interviewed! Andrew passed with flying colors! He will have his board of review tomorrow for his second eagle palm in Boy Scouts. You get a palm for each 5 merit badges you earn after you reach the rank of Eagle. Andrew now has 33 merit badges. Way to go Andrew!

Fixed the vacuum this morning, it was smoking after being on for about 30 seconds. Had to replace the belt and clean out all of the hair and other gunk so that the brush would turn. Susan thinks that I am very domestic because I like to vacuum and do the dishes. What can I say, I actually like cleaning! On summer vacations when I was in grade school I would make lists of the things I wanted to do each day... one of the things I had on my list was to vacuum my room every day....not that I actually did it everyday, but I just liked cleaning!

Was up on campus today in the afternoon; I am surprised how many people are on a university campus even during the breaks. Half of the accounting professors were in today and nearly all of the PhD accounting students were there today... admittedly they (the PhD students) were there because they had a test to take...but still!

This is all too complicated....

Ok... I added a picture to the blog. I know pictures are what make the blog fun, but we always forget to take them. I noticed that blogger.com is the #12 webpage on the Internet so I am sure that I will find more people that I know that have webpages, but I have only found the few links that are on the right.

Today we went out to the hill on the north side of Allerton apartments to go sledding. Yea we did actually remember to bring the camera, but the batteries were dead...so no pictures. We built a snowman...it was a whole 1.5 feet tall. We had a lot of fun though. One time all four of us got on the sled and went down the hill together. Serena was in the front so when we got to the bottom of the hill her face was completely covered with snow. There was about 6"-12" of snow and it was sunny today so the weather was perfect for sledding.

For family night, we used a creche as a visual piece and read from Luke 2 and Matthew 2 about the birth of Jesus, the shepherds and the wise men. It went well except there was more giggling than learning at the end of the lesson. Then we drew silly pictures where we each drew one-third of a body of a person. We had some really strange looking creatures by the time it was all done! We named the pictures the dancing hyenia, the octupus man, the pencilhead and the donkey man!

The time has come....

After reading Elder Ballard's speech given at BYU-Hawaii I guess I will finally give in and start a blog. I don't really see the point yet, but oh well maybe it will be fun to do anyway. (See full text of speech http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/using-new-media-to-support-the-work-of-the-church),

Even though I am on the Internet often and I like technology, I don't have a cell phone yet. I am sure that one day I will give in and get one, but with the huge amount of money I get paid (I am on a stipend from school which is wonderful, but it isn't something that you can get rich on) I don't want to spend frivolously (no (name removed) my frivolous side it not poking out right now - maybe in four (or five) years it will again)!

Yesterday, I took four of the young men from the Rootstown Ward to the Cuyahoga Falls Natatorium. We had a great time! It was snowing like crazy and some wondered if we would cancel, but we went anyway. Why cancel something fun? Jason C. was the first to swim the length of the pool underwater. I think William F. went down the tube slide more than anyone else! After we finished swimming, we played basketball. Aaron W. was the MVP of our final 5 min game. Still, Andrew L. scored the most points overall. (See more about the Natatorium at the following link http://cfo.cityofcf.com/website/web2/view.do?dir=parksandrec/nat).

I finished my first semester at Kent State University in the PhD Accounting program. It is different being back in school, but I really like it. I especially like the one month off that you get during the winter! (See http://www.kent.edu/). I don't know exactly what I am going to to with all the extra time, but I am sure that I will figure out something!