Conference Talks

[Carborendum]

I really liked Elder Gong's talk using Bro. Welch's finding on the Good Samaritan.

We had some guests at our home who had never heard it before.  So I took the opportunity to discuss it with them between sessions.  They really liked it.

Also: One of my son's friends spoke up and declared

F:"Elder Mutumbo!  He was my mission president!"

C:Really?  Where did you serve?

F: Maryland

Elder Mutumbo: ... where we served in the leadership of the Maryland, Baltimore Mission.

Duh.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Carborendum

[Vort]

Funny how we are inspired by different talks at different times, and how different people affect us. I was really touched by Elder Mutombo's talk, much more so than I was expecting.

[Carborendum]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

Funny how we are inspired by different talks at different times, and how different people affect us. I was really touched by Elder Mutombo's talk, much more so than I was expecting.

Yes, all of us also commented on his talk as well.

I tended to focus on "being captained" by Jesus.

[Carborendum]

For a minute there, I thought Pres Nelson was going to announce the ability to perform endowments in our homes.

[mirkwood]

36 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

For a minute there, I thought Pres Nelson was going to announce the ability to perform endowments in our homes.

That's tomorrow's announcement, along with declaring Glock the official pistol of the church.

[Highlander]

I thought the Saturday morning talk by Henry B Eyring about temples was great. I thought the story about his sudden need to move was interesting, he testified of the Prophets' power of being a seer and the need to heed his counsel. 

[JohnsonJones]

I really enjoyed Elder Hollands and Elder Renlunds talks. Having personally had this affect me on these forums and other areas, though not half as harshly as these Apostles of the Lord have been attacked (especially when Elder Renlund spoke out explicitly stating what had been discreetly already stated previously, blatantly stating he was saying it as an apostle of the Lord that if we love others we should wear masks and social distance, and then was attacked by MANY members of the Church openly about their various reasons why they did not want to follow an apostle or tearing down others who advocated following his counsel...those were attacks much harsher than any I have experienced)I see how great these apostles of the Lord truly are in their calling for civility and love for others. 

Elder Renlund has especially been savaged these past few months taking the brunt of the blame from those who were against wearing masks, and the tide that was against ALL those who advocated wearing masks (and thus, ironically, even those in the apostles of the church).

It has caused very harsh feelings among many and even lost several members of the forum over this very issue (who ironically, were those who would be seen as actually advocating what the Prophet had indicated we should do early on, and then blatantly stated by Elder Renlund later...and when he was that blunt I don't know how much more blunt one could be, it shows the dangers of following or worshipping any political dialogue to closely over that of the Prophet and Apostles and the anguish and grief it can bring about when persecuting those who are actually following the counsel given by the Prophet or Apostles).  No other apostle was probably singled out and dealt with more unjustly than Elder Renlund was though, and that for merely voicing in a very blatant manner what had already been indicated before and saying this was an Apostle of the Lord speaking now, not just anyone. 

That he and Elder Holland could then turn around and express these messages with such great love is a boon to us all and shows us how we should all be willing to forgive and trust in the Lord and his judgement and ability to overcome. 

I think then that these two talks are addressing these types of things that have driven such wedges in the Latter-day Saint Community this past little while.  I think they have a great balm of healing within them.  I wish that all those who were driven from the forums could hear these talks and have it touch their souls.  I wish all those who have been driven from the church by petty politics these past few months could have these two talks delivered to them and they could understand the greatness of them. 

I can't give it to all of those, but when they become available to print from online, I can print them out and hopefully get family members that have been hurt very badly recently to read these talks, and hopefully it can heal a great deal of pain that has occurred among them.  I loved these two talks, and they have given me hope where there was little before.

Edited April 4, 2021 by JohnsonJones

[Carborendum]

17 hours ago, mirkwood said:

That's tomorrow's announcement, along with declaring Glock the official pistol of the church.

Glock is Telestial.  Ruger is Terrestrial.  Browning is Celestial.  

1911.

[Just_A_Guy]

17 hours ago, mirkwood said:

That's tomorrow's announcement, along with declaring Glock the official pistol of the church.

. . . to be announced by a resurrected Porter Rockwell, I presume?

[Carborendum]

First time, I've heard such discussion about the Constitution in GC. (cf Pres Oaks)

Edited April 4, 2021 by Carborendum

[Just_A_Guy]

19 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

First time, I've heard such discussion about the Constitution in GC. (cf Pres Oaks)

Smackdowns to both the hard left and the hard right; and comeuppance to me over my doom-and-gloomism regarding this country’s future . . .

[raven2]

1 hour ago, Just_A_Guy said:

Smackdowns to both the hard left and the hard right; and comeuppance to me over my doom-and-gloomism regarding this country’s future . . .

I posted this in another thread but felt it fit here as well. Please forgive me for a double post.

Presidents Oaks talk was loaded with knowledge and direction for these last days. From political affiliation (or the lack of it), being willing to change our political positions as needed, don’t follow a single political leader, and members can vote in different ways at different times and still be faithful Saints.

Most of all no politics at church and make the gospel teachings the center of life, not politics.

If my Facebook feed and Deseret News comment section over the last few years is any indication, this talk just hit a lot of nerves.

Edited April 4, 2021 by raven2

[jdf135]

So, President Nelson's talk this morning: 

If I have faith the size of a mustard seed, I can move mountains.  So, if I have the faith of a sub-atomic particle - say a lepton - what can I do?

[Carborendum]

10 minutes ago, jdf135 said:

So, President Nelson's talk this morning: 

If I have faith the size of a mustard seed, I can move mountains.  So, if I have the faith of a sub-atomic particle - say a lepton - what can I do?

do the math.

10 to the 23rd power vs mass of a mountain.

What can you do?  Not much.  less than a particle of dust.

Edited April 4, 2021 by Carborendum

[jdf135]

This might explain the lack of visible movement in my life.

 

[SpiritDragon]

On 4/3/2021 at 7:29 PM, Carborendum said:

For a minute there, I thought Pres Nelson was going to announce the ability to perform endowments in our homes.

I  had that same thought!

 

[mirkwood]

8 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Glock is Telestial.  Ruger is Terrestrial.  Browning is Celestial.  

1911.

Looks for the ban button...

[JohnsonJones]

11 hours ago, raven2 said:

I posted this in another thread but felt it fit here as well. Please forgive me for a double post.

Presidents Oaks talk was loaded with knowledge and direction for these last days. From political affiliation (or the lack of it), being willing to change our political positions as needed, don’t follow a single political leader, and members can vote in different ways at different times and still be faithful Saints.

Most of all no politics at church and make the gospel teachings the center of life, not politics.

If my Facebook feed and Deseret News comment section over the last few years is any indication, this talk just hit a lot of nerves.

I really enjoyed President Oaks Talk as well.  I thought it is advice that should is sorely needed in our world today and especially the US where it seems many are married more to the worship of politics than the worship of the Lord.

11 hours ago, jdf135 said:

So, President Nelson's talk this morning: 

If I have faith the size of a mustard seed, I can move mountains.  So, if I have the faith of a sub-atomic particle - say a lepton - what can I do?

Not really related to your talk, but an interesting thing happened in relation to President Nelson's talk today.

This evening I sat down and talked to my grandson.  He has run into some things on the internet that are disparaging about the church.  It instantly brought to mind the words of our Prophet's talk today and I shared with him my notes on the matter. 

I found it interesting how quickly that came about where the things the Prophet talked about in conference were almost immediately relevant to something that literally occurred hours later and how I could utilize the talk in that conversation.

[Vort]

On 4/4/2021 at 3:07 PM, Carborendum said:

10 to the 23rd power vs mass of a mountain.

vs the mass of a mustard seed, you mean.

A mustard seed has a mass on the order of one microgram (10^-6 kg). An electron has a mass of 9.109x10^-31 kg, or about 10^-30 kg. So there's a gap there of about 24 orders of magnitude. Therefore, if you have the faith of an electron, you could move 10^-24 of a mountain. A typical smallish mountain like the inhabitants of ancient Palestine might have been acquainted with would have been around maybe 10⁹ kg, the largest mountains might be many times this size.

Therefore, if you have the faith of an electron, the lower limit on your substance-moving abilities would appear to be around 10^-15 kg. This would encompass things approaching a trillion nucleons (protons and neutrons) in mass, or a cube around 10,000 nucleons on a side. If we assume the "average atom" has a diameter of 140 pm and contains, let's just say, 10 nucleons per atom, then we would have

(10^-15 kg) / (1.6 x 10^-24 kg/nucleon) = something under 10¹² nucleons (pretty much a minimum possibility)

(10¹² nucleons) / (10 nucleons/atom) = 10¹¹ atoms

The cube root of is 1000 times the cube root of 100, which is about 4642. So this is a cube of about 4600 atoms on a side. Since our putative "atom" is 140 pm in diameter, this makes the cube (140 pm/atom) x (4600 atoms) = around 650 nm per side.

The smallest thing visible to the adult human eye with good vision is around 30 µm. Children might improve on this down to maybe 5 µm at best, which is still nearly ten times larger (per dimension) than our faith-of-an-electron cube of matter.

But the point is, it's something! Build on that!

 

[Carborendum]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

vs the mass of a mustard seed, you mean.

No, I meant mountain.  When dealing with proportionalities, it is a circle of one item proportional to another which is then proportional to another...  You can go about the problem either way.  It's almost like a circle of fifths in music.

[Vort]

4 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

No, I meant mountain.  When dealing with proportionalities, it is a circle of one item proportional to another which is then proportional to another...  You can go about the problem either way.  It's almost like a circle of fifths in music.

Mustard seed is to mountain as

electron is to ___________.

• mustard seed→electron
• mountain→__________

Edited April 13, 2021 by Vort

[Carborendum]

8 minutes ago, Vort said:

Mustard seed is to mountain as

electron is to ___________.

• mustard seed→electron
• mountain→__________dust speck

I had learned that a mustard seed was so many hundredths of a gram.  So, to make a hundredth of a gram.  Then figuring Avagadro's number for protons.  And an electron is about 1/1000th of a proton mass...

Edited April 13, 2021 by Carborendum

[Vort]

29 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

I had learned that a mustard seed was so many hundredths of a gram.  So, to make a hundredth of a gram.  Then figuring Avagadro's number for protons.  And an electron is about 1/1000th of a proton mass...

Right. The point is, the electron is being compared to the mustard seed, not to the mountain. Unless I misunderstood what your "10 to the 23rd power vs mass of a mountain" meant. I assumed you were referencing Avogadro's Number, possibly misremembering it for the mass of an electron, and comparing it to the mountain. Apologies if I misunderstood.

[Carborendum]

Just now, Vort said:

Right. The point is, the electron is being compared to the mustard seed, not to the mountain. Unless I misunderstood what your "10 to the 23rd power vs mass of a mountain" meant. I assumed you were referencing Avogadro's Number, possibly misremembering it for the mass of an electron, and comparing it to the mountain. Apologies if I misunderstood.

Ratio of mustard seed to a lepton (it is on the order of Avagadro's number).

Ratio of a mountain to a speck of dust (it is on the order of Avagadro's number).

[Vort]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

Ratio of mustard seed to a lepton (it is on the order of Avagadro's number).

Ratio of a mountain to a speck of dust (it is on the order of Avagadro's number).

Gotcha. Makes sense.