rickety – Page 43

U.S., U.K. and Canadian LDS Church Membership

December 3, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

The complete updated membership statistics are available at United States LDS Membership.

Three days ago I updated the World LDS Membership Statistics using the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac.

The membership numbers are interesting in tabular form where one can make comparisons. So to the world’s LDS membership’s sortable table I have added U.S. LDS Membership, U.K. LDS Membership Statistics, and Canadian LDS Membership sortable tables. As a bonus I include the change in membership from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2009 that is not present in the Almanac.

By sorting on the U.S. Membership “Change” column I found that only one state, South Carolina, had a decrease in membership (-173). The three biggest increases came from Utah (34,054), Texas (8,822), and Idaho (7,337).

The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Utah (68%), Idaho (27%), and Wyoming (11.5%). The states with the most members are Utah (1,857,667), California (755,747), and Idaho (406,764). The District of Columbia has the least members (2,200), followed by Rhode Island (3,661), and Vermont (4,323). The most temples are in Utah (14), California (7), and Arizona (5). There are 18 states (including the District of Columbia) without temples.

Canada is interesting in that eight provinces lost members, led by British Columbia at -572. In the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland lost five members but the Kingdom as a whole gained 1,916.

There are many more permutations to be found. How many states do not have a mission? Which state has no stake? Where are the least number of wards? Which state has no branch? Try it.
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New Home In Layton

December 2, 2009 by rickety 3 Comments

Steven, Adelaide and Aurora's new home.

If you are a friend of Steven and wonder why he has not been online much in the last two days here is the explanation. Steven and Adelaide have purchased a home in Layton. Jill and I helped them move in today a few hours after closing. Two of Steven’s brothers and two of his cousins were also heavily involved in the move. To unload the refrigerator two of Steven’s friends kindly assisted.

Steven and Adelaide are very deserving home owners having worked and saved hard for this day. We are all very happy for them.
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Updated LDS Church Membership Statistics

November 30, 2009 by rickety 6 Comments

2010 LDS Church Almanac

The 2011 Church Almanac has arrived. See this post for the latest statistics.

Today I purchased the Deseret News 2010 Church Almanac. I like to browse through the membership statistics country by country. Sometimes I come across a country I have never heard of like Benin (east of Nigeria), Mayotte (NW of Madagascar), Palau (east of the Philippines). They sound like Disney characters to me. I don’t look at much else in the Almanac except maybe the occasional temple trivia.

All these membership numbers are all very fine but they would be a lot more useful if they were in tabular form. It’s the comparison that is really useful — well maybe not useful but entertaining. So I put the world’s LDS membership in a sortable table. I added the change in membership from 1 January 2008 to 1 January 2009. By sorting on the “Change” column I found that 16 countries out of 166 had a decrease in membership. The three biggest increases came from the United States (100,633), Brazil (41,403), and Mexico (36,343). Canada had the biggest loss with -502.

The largest LDS populations by percentage are in Tonga (45%), Samoa (31%), and American Samoa (22.5%). The United States comes in at 13th with 2%, tied with Palau — there’s that Disney character again.

The countries with the most members are the United States (5,974,041), Mexico (1,158,236), and Brazil (1,060,556). The Falkland Islands has the least members (5) of any country that has members. The most temples are in the United States (72), Mexico (12), and Canada (7).

There are many more permutations to be found. Try it.
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Mongolian Moments #4

November 30, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Uuz

Uuz is Mutton Back that is stewed in one piece. A well fed sheep will collect substantial fat in the lower back and in the tail as an energy reserve. This fat is the main component of Uuz.

Khuushuur

Large filled pockets that are deep fried in mutton fat or Khuushuur.

Buuz

Buuz are small filled pockets, cooked under steam, and usually have an opening at the top.

Daniel got quite sick eating Byyz, which sounds like it is Buuz, but who knows?

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.

Missionary Dan Email #5 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

November 30, 2009 by rickety 1 Comment

Daniel (fifth left) at a couple missionary's home for Thanksgiving

This week was full of adventures. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. All the missionaries went to Elder and Sister Anderson’s house to the dinner. They are the couple that is assigned to our area. We had chicken instead of turkey. The stuffing was really good. That is always my favorite and we had some great pumpkin pie.

The house looks way awesome! Congratulations I hope all goes well. It is exciting that Steven and Ada are having another kid. They could have a third one on the way before I get home :). Congratulations a second time.

The sisters apartment lock broke and they weren’t able to get in their house. So they had to take over our apartment while we slept at the district leader’s house. We fixed their lock today so we get to be at home again. It was really strange to find a long black hair on my sheets.

Daniel with a member called Purvee

The church was closed again so we took the sacrament to the members again. We did it 9 times to 58 people. Hopefully the church will be open next week. The Branch President returned from his temple trip so we got to meet him. He is young and really cool. The members are still very thankful to receive the sacrament.

I mistook the words “work cow” for “husband” at one of the member’s houses. She was asking if we could give the left over blessed bread to her husband. She said, “He eats vegetables, fruit, paper, meat, just about anything. I thought for a moment and it really didn’t make sense to me. So I asked her, “Your husband?” That was funny, we laughed very hard.

I got the Primary letters last week. The package will be coming with President when he makes his trip out here for zone conference on December 11. So I’ll get it then. Also that is when my companion leaves. When I get my new companion I’ll be to a total of 11. That is quite a few for only being half way. Maybe soon I’ll have a companion for more than one half transfer. Anyway thanks for the all letters. They are way fun to read.

Love Elder Willoughby.

Presented have been portions of an email from Elder Daniel Willoughby serving in the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission. If anyone wishes to send Daniel a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

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Giving Thanks The Pilgrims Left

November 26, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

The Embarkation of the Pilgrims

I was born in England and emigrated to the United States while in my twenties. I am thankful to be living here and the people have been very welcoming and kind.

My two brothers were also able to emigrate and they and their families will join me and my family for Thanksgiving today.

Occasionally I am asked if we have Thanksgiving in England. My stock answer is always is the same:

We do have Thanksgiving in England. We give thanks those annoying pilgrims left.

About the Painting

Protestant pilgrims are shown on the deck of the ship Speedwell before their departure for the New World from Delft Haven, Holland, on July 22, 1620. William Brewster, holding the Bible, and pastor John Robinson lead Governor Carver, William Bradford, Miles Standish, and their families in prayer. Painted by Robert Weir (1803-1889).

When Speedwell reached Southampton they met with Mayflower and additional colonists. The two vessels set out on August 5 (old calendar) / August 15 (new calendar). Soon after, Speedwell began taking in water, so both were diverted to Dartmouth. There Speedwell was inspected for leaks and sealed, but a second attempt to depart also failed, bringing them only so far as Plymouth.

It was decided that Speedwell was untrustworthy, and it was sold. It would later be learned that crew members had deliberately caused the ship to leak, allowing them to abandon their year-long commitments. The ship’s master and some of the crew transferred to Mayflower for the trip. (Wikipedia)

High-resolution version (3.5Mb)
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Mongolian Moments #3

November 25, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Daniel and the other missionaries destined for Mongolia stayed longer in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) while waiting for visas. Then Daniel and a few others were sent to the Georgia Atlanta Mission to tract and wait for visas. He actually went straight to Alabama. Three weeks later the coveted visas arrived and he was on his way to Mongolia.

Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
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Driving On The Cheap

November 24, 2009 by rickety 4 Comments

Take a look at the car in my driveway. It appears to be just a plain 2005 Honda Civic. I purchased it last Friday to help me drive down the cost of transportation. With only V6 engines in my other vehicles I decided to make a change, ready for higher gas prices next summer.

How much cheaper is this Civic for me to drive? Well this is Utah and this Civic is a Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV). With Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) at a subsidized 93 cents GGE throughout the state I really am driving on the cheap.

CNG Advantages

Natural Gas Vehicle

These advantages potentially affect me directly or indirectly economically:

Park for free at Salt Lake City parking meters with a Salt Lake City “Green Vehicle” parking permit.
Use the Express/HOV Lanes for free while driving alone.
Subsidized fuel at less than a dollar GGE.
$2,500 tax credit on a first time registration in Utah.
CNG is free from adulteration and theft.
Less maintenance costs as compared with other fuel-powered vehicles.
Fuel system is sealed, preventing any spill or evaporation losses.
Increased life of lubricating oils.
Mixes easily and evenly in air.
Less likely to auto-ignite on hot surfaces.

These advantages affect the community directly or indirectly:

Non-toxic and free from benzene.
Produces significantly less emissions of pollutants as compared to gasoline.
Produced in Utah.
Delivered to the service station by pipeline.

I test drove and filled a Cavalier.

CNG Drawbacks

Fuel storage needs a greater amount of space.
Limited availability of refueling stations.
Reduced driving range.
Higher vehicle cost.
Less choice of vehicles.
Converted vehicles have 5% — 10% reduced power.
For CNG only vehicles running out of fuel can be very inconvenient.

Summary

Me by a CNG pump,

I filled up for the first time last night. It was straight-forward though a little different. The pump was the old style non-digital readout type (not the one pictured). The car gas gauge (interesting that it is still called a gas gauge) was reading 1/4 left. It cost $4.56 to fill and took about the same time as filling a gasoline tank with the same amount of fuel. That is probably enough for about 150 miles. I expect to get 200 miles out of a tank. If there is interest I will post my mileage and CNG use in a future post. I’m used to larger cars but this Civic surprised me with quite some zip. It was a gas to drive.

If you are interested in a used CNG car yourself, check out the CNG Utah website where I purchased my Honda. The folks there were low pressure and friendly. Perhaps you already own a CNG powered vehicle. How do you like it? What have been your savings? Would you purchase another CNG?

By now you may have figured out that my purchase of this CNG Civic was purely economic. As far as the environment is concerned I am against Cap and Trade. The threat from CO2 (plant food) has been greatly overstated. The earth has enough and to spare. Just relax and use the resources God has given you and go out into the world with a little less fear and trembling. You will do just fine in your stewardship despite what Al Gore says.

Updates

14 Dec 2011 — There is now a CNG station right in my hometown.
1 Jan 2012 — Without the 50 cent a gallon federal subsidy the price has risen to $1.50/gge in Utah.

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Missionary Dan Email #4 from Choibalsan, Mongolia

November 23, 2009 by rickety 1 Comment

Daniel ready for snow.

The new car looks really fancy. What happened to the other two cars? Good job on your talk too Mom. Happy Thanksgiving this week! Eat lots of stuffing etc. We are going to the senior couple’s house for dinner. It should be really fun.

The church is closed for another two weeks. So yesterday we took the sacrament around to all the members. We basically followed the same route as last week. It went by really fast and was still a good opportunity. Seminary and institute is allowed, as well as all the schools started up again today. The mission got the all time high for lessons taught per companionships in one week. We are doing what we can to keep the members and progressing investigators strong and faithful. The Lord has greatly blessed us in that outstanding achievement.

Other than that, every day seemed to be much the same. Time goes by really fast but at the same time goes by really slow. My companion only has 23 days left I think, so before I know it I’ll have a new companion. There isn’t much more to write about this week. This next week will have plenty of excitement so I’ll write about that more.

To Steven

Happy Birthday Steven! Sorry… I remembered on the day it was your birthday — I just kept forgetting to say happy birthday.

Thanks for all the support, Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Elder Willoughby.

Daniel by the river in Choibalsan

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