Stargazer

The SLC Visitors Center now includes a replica temple interior that visitors can tour! This is pretty cool!

You write well enough that you really ought to publish some of it. Or do you, under a pen name? I searched on Amazon to see if Ken K. Gourdin was the author of anything, but there wasn't. There are self-publishing options available out there. I have used Kindle Direct Publishing, not so much because it's the best, as I started with it as CreateSpace before it was bought and rebranded by Amazon.

Finally got around to watching "Greyhound" the other day. If you're unfamiliar, it is a "2020 American war film directed by Aaron Schneider and starring Tom Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay.[5] The film is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester, and follows a US Navy commander on his first assignment commanding a multi-national escort destroyer group of four, defending an Allied convoy from U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic." Text from Wikipedia. I really enjoyed the film. It was supposed to have had a theatrical release in 2020, but due to Covid and all the disruptions the theatrical release was cancelled and it was released digitally. It was Oscar-nominated for "Best Sound."

There were a lot of Russian and Ukrainian young men who left their countries as the war started, in order to avoid being called into military service. These two might be such.

In our Sunday school the discussion is the Come Follow Me theme for the week. That seems to be the usual practice everywhere, or am I assuming too much?

I was once called to be a counselor in a Sunday school presidency (this was over 25 years ago), and was really pumped to be able to serve therein, but then found that the only reason I was in there was to be a roving substitute teacher, as needed. I had thought that we were supposed to monitor how teachers were doing, make suggestions, organize teacher training, and when necessary advise the bishopric about Sunday school matters. I suppose the president did some of that, but I never heard about it, nor did we ever have a presidency meeting. I was very disappointed. But me being me, I was definitely on board being a substitute teacher.

In our bishopric WhatsApp group our bishop today commented that he wished this had come out a couple of months back when we were considering whom to call as SS president. That's because our candidate pool was rather constrained, being that our ward is one of the smaller ones. I'm not surprised. I also don't see it as shocking as some might paint it. In my opinion, there was never any real reason for women not to serve in Sunday School presidencies. A more radical change would be women preparing and passing the Sacrament. There's no scriptural or doctrinal reason why women cannot do either of these. In fact, many many years ago, as I understand it anyway, women regularly prepared the Sacrament. And even now, females and unordained males pass the sacrament in the pews. I think that particular change might get a bit more pushback, however.

I've updated the original table as of 17 March 2026 so it should be fairly accurate at that point. Adding this post to move the thread to the top.

Something I ran into that I wanted to share:

Why are you trying so hard to minimize things? "Unlawful presence" is overstaying a visa. You had permission to cross the border, but your permission has expired. You need to go home. And if you overstay your visa, parking ticket or not, you need to be deported. According to Pew, between 4 and 5.5 million foreigners entered the United States with a legal visa, accounting for between 33 and 48% of the total unauthorized migrant population. They need to go home, or be sent back home. There are over 14 million illegals in the US (or was, before Trump started paying for them to self-deport), and you think the ones who "merely" overstayed their visa should be ignored? Or be given a free pass?

Scouting America holds one of the comparatively rare congressional charters under Title 36 of the United States Code. This was given in 1916, I believe. The honorary chair of the Scouts has always been the sitting US President, meaning Donald Trump currently. Scout troops are typically sponsored through public organizations, such as churches, government schools, private clubs, and the like. When I was in the Army in Europe there were American scout troops sponsored by DoD organizations, with scouts whose parents were military and other DoD personnel. "The purposes of the corporation are to promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916." 36 U.S.C. § 30902

Of course those aid organizations are completely unbiased.

In most cases it is not actually a crime? When does it become a crime? No, you seem to have listened to something Don Lemon said in one of his attempts at "journalism." Crossing the U.S. border without authorization is a federal crime, specifically a misdemeanor for first-time offenders under 8 U.S.C. § 1325, punishable by fines and up to six months in jail. Subsequent unlawful entries or re-entry after deportation can be charged as a felony (8 U.S.C. § 1326), with penalties of up to 2 years in prison or more depending on prior criminal history. Sounds like a crime to me. And ICE's first priority is illegals who have committed additional crimes, but if they happen to find the other sorts in the process, then it is still not "catch and release."

I live there. The propaganda is being told by the Labour government and the BBC. I'm sure you've heard how the BBC likes to manipulate video to tell falsehoods? But I'm sure you still believe their fairy tales. Cheap or expensive? Doesn't matter. I live in England, and I know that cheap hotels are NOT cheap. Though they have been talking about putting these people up on military bases, too. Since they are running out of room. More come because the "asylum seekers" know the UK will treat them like honored guests. You know, when I first applied to immigrate to the UK, they required that I prove I could support myself, and my visa was very specific that I was not permitted to receive public funds or benefits. But these people come over illegally and the government houses and feeds them. They know this. So they come. They aren't seeking asylum, even if they say they are. Asylum seekers stop in the first safe country, they don't keep going into country after country, finally undertaking the dangerous crossing of the English Channel. Are you saying that France is too dangerous for them? That they need asylum from France? Don't be ridiculous. There were 89,509 asylum applications (relating to 110,051 people) in the UK in the year to September 2025, a 13% increase from the previous 12 months. The top five countries of origin of people seeking asylum were Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. <-- are you going to tell me that Bangladeshis have to travel all the way to England to get asylum? That's what? 4,000 miles? They can't stop anywhere in between? Are you delusional? Ah yes, Lucy Connolly. She tweeted something in haste because of the Southport mass stabbing in which four little girls were murdered and several others badly wounded. A tweet she deleted three hours later and apologized for. So they sentenced her to 42 months in prison. Meanwhile, in 2023 over 12,000 people were arrested for alleged violations of the UK law that makes it illegal to send “grossly offensive” or false/misleading stuff over public comms (tweets, WhatsApp, etc). This covers offensive/obscene/menacing posts + knowingly false messages. Of the 12k arrests in 2023 only 1,119 led to convictions. This suggests that the police are being used to scare citizens from expressing their opinions. Or did 12k people issue direct threats against asylum seekers? You mean the sources you believe without question? No thanks. I see the kinds of things you credit as truthful. And the stands you like to take.

Yes, there is overcrowding. It's because they keep coming because the British government encourages it by not discouraging it. And the current government refuses to do anything constructive about it. The previous government came up with the brilliant idea of sending the illegals to a country willing to accept them, in this case Rwanda. Of course that was widely derided by the left. The current government seems to have no idea what to do. And I can ask chat about this, too: "The Labour government is focusing on tackling illegal immigration by establishing a new Border Security Command to "smash the gangs" behind small boat crossings, utilizing counter-terror style tactics. Key actions include scrapping the Rwanda plan, increasing deportations of failed asylum seekers, and aiming to end the use of hotels for asylum accommodation by 2029." In other words, they claim they'll get around to stop housing illegals in hotels in about three years. But whatever they are saying they will do is most likely not going to be done.