Fulness of Times

--updated 7 October 2019-- Almost a month ago [from the original post date of May 24, 2019] , the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that the Salt Lake Temple will be closing December 29, 2019 for major structural and seismic renovation. The renovations will be completed sometime in 2024 when there will be a public open house, and then the temple will be rededicated. https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/plans-unveiled-salt-lake-temple-renovation 2024... If you've read my blog, you've seen that year come up before. I'm going to guess the Church will want to have the temple rededicated before the April General Conference, which would should be on April 6 and 7 of that year. Part of the renovations will be adding a seismic base isolation system, and strengthening the walls and towers. The maximum-strength earthquake expected in the Salt Lake City area is a 7.3. With the isolation system, that temple will only be feeling the equivalent of a 5....

In the last six months my wife and I have attended four funerals. Her grandfather, one of my uncles, an elderly neighbor, and one of my wife's uncles are those who have passed on. The differences and similarities have been intriguing, and humbling. My wife's father was an only child, and he passed away when my wife was a young child. My wife's grandmother passed away long before our marriage, and her mother passed on to the next life a few years ago. At her grandfather's funeral (he was in his mid-90's) the only family descendants were my wife and her siblings. There were some friends and a few extended family, but overall the funeral had few in attendance. The other notable difference was her grandfather was not a member of the Church, and so the funeral had a different feel to it. I had the impression the minister was a very good man, who was doing all he could, as well as he could, with the limited light and knowledge he had in his life. In stark contrast, th...

The Democrat controlled House of Representatives passed the Equality Act last week. It will be close in the Senate. I suspect it will likely not pass. If it does, hopefully President Trump will veto it. I've read a few articles about it. One of the more interesting ones is an opinion piece in USA Today, whose author is a gay conservative https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/05/20/lgbtq-equality-act-fails-fair-religious-freedom-provisions-accommodation-column/3731197002/ The article states: The bill purports to protect LGBT Americans like me by prohibiting discrimination “based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit and the jury system.” On the surface, this sounds unobjectionable — after all, no one deserves to face discrimination. Yet the bill defined “public accommodations” so loosely and called for regulations so sweeping that it would crush rel...

I read this article a few weeks ago, but I was too busy finishing my last semester of a masters program to comment on it. "Warren unveils $640 billion college debt forgiveness plan" https://www.ksl.com/article/46536747/warren-unveils-640-billion-college-debt-forgiveness-plan On the surface it sounds great. 42 million Americans would have college debt up to $50,000 cancelled for those whose annual household income is less than $100,000. But, there is no mention (either because of ignorance or intent) of how that debt forgiveness will come back to bite those individuals when tax filing is due. To the IRS, debt forgiveness is seen as income. That means it's taxable. There are some ways to minimize or possibly eliminate having to pay taxes on the debt forgiveness, but a tax advisor would need to guide the person as to what should be done. And, it would likely need to happen BEFORE the debt was forgiven. Most of those who would have their debts forgi...

I saw this article on KSL.com today and wanted to get a post. https://www.ksl.com/article/46546766/latter-day-saint-couples-can-now-be-sealed-in-the-temple-immediately-after-civil-marriage I've had a few posts where I've mentioned how in other countries around the world couples needed to be married civilly first, before being sealed in the temple. At first couples would have to wait a year, but then the policy was changed where they could be sealed in the temple immediately following a civil marriage. In countries where it was not legally required to be civilly married first, the policy has been (as far as I know) to still wait for a year after being married. This announcement sets the policy for the Church around the world, that couples can be sealed in the temple immediately after a civil marriage. If you've read those other posts, you will know I think the time is coming that if church clergy are going to perform a civil marriage, they will be required to perform ...