Mostly about Utah
Aurora, my granddaughter, endures her grandparents taking photograph after photograph and the occasional video. Aurora finally got sick of me videoing her. She took out my camera faster than her grandpaparazzi could say, “Smile!”
If you cannot see the video click here.
Gil Miller presents Neka Roundy with a plaque sporting a gavel and citation
Two of my sons, Paul and Jake, were headed out the door for the Kaysville City Council Meeting. They invited me to come along, so I did. I asked Paul why he was going to a council meeting. He said he always goes to council meetings — when he doesn’t go to Institute. Which would be once, maybe twice a year when class is not held.
The agenda, item one, simply said “Opening”. That turned out to be an opening prayer by Councilman Lynn Galbraith. I always wonder if a prayer will be said as the practice seems to have been driven out of public gatherings over the years. After the pledge of allegiance the spotlight was on Dr. Clark B. Rampton who presented his Orthodontics Practice at the invitation of the council. This is the same business that straightened out all five of my children’s teeth.
One thing I like to do at meetings is to pay close attention to what is said. I learn a lot that way. At the same time, I am observing human behavior. Who gets angry, who is persuasive, what agenda items take up the most time, who is helpful, which people put off decisions, and so on. I find it all very interesting.
Next up was a citizen who was quite irate about his cul-de-sac not being plowed after the last snow storm. He wanted the council to have a snow policy. They said they responded to each storm depending on several factors. So the citizen became more irate. But with some carefully worded and empathetic responses by councilmen and the mayor-elect, he calmed somewhat. He didn’t get what he wanted — a very specific list of streets and the order in which they would be ploughed, but he did get a commitment for the city to look at his situation.
There were other items of business but no more irate Kaysvillians. Near the end of the meeting, under item 8, “Council Member reports”, gifts of appreciation were given to outgoing Councilman Lynn Galbraith and Mayor Neka Roundy. Neka’s plaque read:
Neka F. Roundy
Kaysville City Mayor
2006 – 2010
Kaysville City Councilmember
2000 – 2006
NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will build a new climate studies supercomputer. NCAR is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado but a new $66 million facility that will house the supercomputer will be built in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The primary reason is cheap electricity. In Wyoming for an industrial user the price is 5.16 cents per kilowatt hour. In Colorado it is 6.89 cents per kilowatt hour. This makes a big difference when you will be running one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, consisting of more than 100,000 processors. It will be 20 times more powerful than the current NCAR computer.
The overall project is called the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC), encompassing the design and construction of a world class center for high performance scientific computing in the atmospheric and related geosciences. Says NWSC:
Our goal is to build a world class scientific supercomputing facility that does not compromise on energy efficiency or sustainability, and that is adaptable to the ever-changing landscape of high-performance computing.
In 2007, Wyoming’s electricity generation was 45,633,000 megawatt hours. 43,127,000 megawatt hours came from coal and 1,484,000 megawatt hours from renewables. Coal generates 94.5% of Wyoming’s electricity and renewables 3.25%.
I wonder how much of Wyoming’s cheap coal will power the new climate studies supercomputer?
This cartoon was made from a suggestion by Daniel. It is interesting that the names all look the same too. At least to one not acquainted with the language. I wonder what our English names look like to Mongolians. What with all those named Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, and Brown. And what about the multitudes called James, John, Robert, Michael, and William. And the girls are no better with Mary, Patricia, Linda, Barbara, and Elizabeth.
Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
Missionaries and branch missionaries at Choibalsan sign
Thanks Mom for reminding me to answer your questions. I totally forgot that there was any. There is no need to feel like you’re rambling because I really like reading what’s going on.
I got my package on December 10th. So my companion and I opened the first ten days together. We had lots of fun guessing with the scriptures. I got the tuna fish right. I even guessed it was Starkist brand or whatever its called, I can’t remember now. Thanks again.
I know that we will be calling on Christmas day for y‘all, so for me it will be the day after. It is ridiculously cheap to call from here to America. It is $2.50 for about a 3 hour phone card. Speaking of cheap the yellow jacket I modeled in the pictures was about $2.50 too. Tell me next week what time you’d like me to call and that’s when I will. Probably in the evening is best from 6 to 9 pm your time. Of course the phone call is limited to about 30 minutes so have some good questions ready.
The weather is getting colder. The thermometer I got is way cool. There is one slight problem though. It only goes to 0 degrees F. The other day it was 2 degrees. I haven’t needed to wear my big coat yet so it really isn’t that cold. As I was talking to my investigator yesterday he said right now it’s warm outside and later it will get much colder. He laughed at me when I asked if he was serious. So my thermometer won’t be able to measure the temperature here in a bit but that’s OK, it is cool to see when it is below -20 degrees C.
President Andersen wasn’t able to come here. The night before he was going to leave some problems came up. With some missionaries running away (which happens a lot so it wasn’t the main reason) and the visa problems he had to stay to attend some meetings. I’ll say a little about that later or when I call. I was able to have a phone interview with him. He said I will be staying here in Choibalsan and will most likely get a Mongolian companion. So that was exciting to hear, I really like being here.
Baptism of Munkhtushig (center)
The assistants, Sister Andersen, and the new couple that will be staying in Choibalsan came. The old couple left with my companion really early Saturday morning. We had zone conference which was way different as there are only 8 missionaries out here. We cooked up some chili for all of us to eat and it turned out way good. In the picture I’m frying up the meat.
Right now I have a mini missionary for my companion. He is actually my new member who was baptized last summer. He is 21 and preparing to go on a mission when he reaches his member year mark. I really like doing work with him and he could almost be a missionary right now. Mongolian missionaries have tons of opportunities to prepare for their missions so they come out really prepared and ready. I’ll get my new companion next week at transfers.
The 12 year old is my recent baptism and the other is the one baptized Friday. It was Elder Armstrong’s very last day of doing missionary work and he was able to see Munkhtushig get baptized. Surprisingly to me he asked me to baptize him. It was great. On Sunday he received the Holy Ghost and as he was receiving it I felt a warm burning feeling. It was neat to recognize that was him receiving the Holy Ghost to help and guide him in his life. I know there is great power that comes from the priesthood and it greatly blesses our lives.
Anyway I’m out of time for today. Thanks for all the emails.
Love Elder Willoughby.
Daniel wearing his new yellow jacket
Elder Armstrong and Daniel
Daniel preparing chili for zone conference
Elder Armstrong (left) and Daniel (right) at the baptism of Jargal Caikan
Daniel opening his Christmas packages
Elder Armstrong opening days one to ten
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.
Merry Christmas from Rick and Jill
Hi Friends and Family,
Here is our second Christmas blog post. We will send to friends and family the URL to this page with their Christmas cards. It has been a very busy year and here are a few highlights:
Steven and Adelaide had a baby girl, Aurora, born in February. They just bought their first home in Layton. It was good timing as they announced the arrival of baby number two due June 26th.
Jill, Kent, Susan, Melissa, Shauna, Scott, Connor and Ashley took our dad on a trip to Nevada’s Virginia City to ride the historic steam-engine on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Some of us went on a river raft trip while the others rode across Lake Tahoe on the Emerald Bay Sightseeing Cruise.
Sarah and Derek moved to Keller, Texas. Rick, Paul and Jill drove down to visit in March. We enjoyed the sights in Dallas and Fort Worth and Rick published a book about the historic water park there. Jill flew down in October to help Bryson celebrate his first birthday. We enjoyed a mini vacation visiting the Alamo in San Antonio.
Adelaide graduated in May with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She managed to finish school while being pregnant and having a baby so they graduated together.
Daniel is serving in the Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia mission and has helped construct a ger, taught English, and helped baptize the good people there.
Aurora starred in “All Things Bright And Beautiful”
Paul is graduating this month in Computer Engineering from the University of Utah. He hopes to work at Hill Air Force Base or maybe stay where he is, working for Avalon Care Centers. Jake is studying in the same field and will graduate in May.
And Jake went skydiving.
We hope you have a very Merry Christmas,
Rick and Jill
Rick, Jill, Steven, Adelaide, Aurora, Paul, Sarah, Bryson, Jake, and Derek at Alexandra's wedding.
The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings
With China and India acquiring gold it is interesting to see that the United States still holds almost eight times the gold that China does and more than fourteen times India’s reserves.
Of note is that the United States has 78% of its foreign reserves in gold. Of the countries listed below only Greece (91.6%), Portugal (90.3%), and the Slovak Republic (83.3) have higher rates. However, China has only 1.8% of its foreign reserves in gold. India is looking a little better at 6%.
Only the top 50 countries by gold reserves are listed below. Of course the IMF and a few others are not countries but they do own substantial holdings.
Click on the column headers to sort.
| Country | Tons1 | Percent2 | $ Billion3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 8,966 | 78.3 | 313.80 |
| Germany | 3,762 | 69.5 | 131.66 |
| IMF | 3,546 | N/A | 124.13 |
| Italy | 2,703 | 66.1 | 94.59 |
| France | 2,701 | 73.0 | 94.55 |
| China | 1,162 | 1.8 | 40.66 |
| Switzerland | 1,147 | 37.1 | 40.13 |
| Japan | 843 | 2.1 | 29.52 |
| Netherlands | 675 | 61.4 | 23.63 |
| Russia | 592 | 4.0 | 20.71 |
| India | 615 | 6.0 | 21.52 |
| ECB | 553 | 18.3 | 19.34 |
| Taiwan | 467 | 3.8 | 16.34 |
| Portugal | 422 | 90.3 | 14.76 |
| Venezuela | 393 | 36.5 | 13.75 |
| United Kingdom | 342 | 17.9 | 11.97 |
| Lebanon | 316 | 26.8 | 11.07 |
| Spain | 310 | 39.0 | 10.86 |
| Austria | 309 | 56.3 | 10.80 |
| Belgium | 251 | 40.4 | 8.78 |
| Algeria | 191 | 3.4 | 6.70 |
| Philippines | 170 | 11.2 | 5.94 |
| Libya | 159 | 4.3 | 5.55 |
| Saudi Arabia | 158 | 11.9 | 5.52 |
| Sweden | 146 | 13.5 | 5.10 |
| Singapore | 140 | 2.1 | 4.92 |
| South Africa | 137 | 10.4 | 4.81 |
| BIS | 132 | N/A | 4.63 |
| Turkey | 128 | 4.9 | 4.48 |
| Greece | 124 | 91.6 | 4.34 |
| Romania | 114 | 8.1 | 4.00 |
| Poland | 114 | 4.8 | 3.97 |
| Thailand | 93 | 2.0 | 3.24 |
| Australia | 88 | 7.0 | 3.08 |
| Kuwait | 87 | 18.6 | 3.05 |
| Egypt | 83 | 6.3 | 2.92 |
| Indonesia | 81 | 3.8 | 2.82 |
| Kazakhstan | 80 | 10.6 | 2.80 |
| Denmark | 73 | 4.0 | 2.57 |
| Pakistan | 72 | 17.5 | 2.52 |
| Argentina | 60 | 3.4 | 2.11 |
| Finland | 54 | 17.7 | 1.89 |
| Bulgaria | 44 | 7.2 | 1.54 |
| WAEMU | 40 | 10.6 | 1.41 |
| Malaysia | 40 | 1.2 | 1.40 |
| Peru | 38 | 3.2 | 1.34 |
| Brazil | 37 | 0.5 | 1.30 |
| Slovak Republic | 35 | 83.3 | 1.23 |
| Bolivia | 31 | 10.4 | 1.09 |
| Ukraine | 29 | 3.1 | 1.03 |
Not all countries are listed.
1. 1 tonne = 1.10231131 short tons.
2. Percentage share in gold of total foreign reserves.
3. 1 short ton = 29,167 troy ounces. Worth is calculated at $1,200 per troy ounce.
“International Financial Statistics,” International Monetary Fund, 2009.
“Gold reserve“, Wikipedia.
I was raised in socialist England and Santa Claus was mostly referred to as Father Christmas. Father Christmas is used in many other English speaking countries. A similar figure with the same name (in other languages) exists in several other countries, including France (Père Noël), Spain (Papá Noel), Portugal (Pai Natal), Italy (Babbo Natale), and Romania (Moş Crăciun). In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas.
Since emigrating to the United States all I hear is Santa and I find most people unfamiliar with Father Christmas.
Click on comic strip for larger image. Created using Strip Generator. See all the comics on the Comics Page.
The house looks really comfortable. Thanks for sending pictures. I liked the comics too. Good job Dad :). Congratulations on losing weight too. That graph looks really fancy. I think I have gained a few pounds since I’ve been here, but there is really no way to tell.
Daniel wearing someone else's glasses.
Jargal Caikhan got baptized this Saturday. It was really good. He has been an investigator for quite some time. He is 12 years old and his aunt who he lives with is a returned missionary.
The church opened this week so we got to have church. The branch president forgot his paper when he went to announce newly arrived missionaries, so he didn’t even get close to saying my name right. It was funny. Later as I bore my testimony I said a little joke how Mongolians can’t say Willoughby at all. That made them laugh. I need to remember to record them trying to say it, it is funny. I have already met a lot of church members, so it didn’t seem like I was a new missionary in the branch. Church was really great; my other new member who is 60 years old received the Priesthood. That was a really good thing that happened and it made me happy.
We worked hard to find new investigators this week. We didn’t have much success until Sunday. I met a really nice person on the street earlier and he said we could come by. He talked to us for quite a while. He lives in the countryside though so we may not get to teach him that much. It is always exciting to find new investigators.
It’s not hard to deal with the cold really. You wear a coat and its fine. Later this month is when it really gets cold as the 9 nines starts. That will be fun, I’ll probably wear my bigger coat.
Well that’s all I have for this week. The computer’s USB isn’t working so I’ll send some pictures next week.
Love Elder Willoughby.
Daniel by the river in Choibalsan
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.
