I Like President Uchtdorf

I like Relief Society. I don't like sleeping through most of the RS broadcast though... and I did that anyway. :/ On the plus side, I was conscious and alert for President Uchtdorf's talk based on the five-petaled flower forget-me-not... He listed five things to forget not:

So yeah. Powerful talk, as can be expected from Sir Dieter. Sister Julie B. Beck's talk also seemed to be pretty good... before I feel asleep anyway. It was about the things she would like her granddaughters to know about Relief Society... And to be honest, I think I slept through the sisters' talks because they were based on the new RS manual "Daughters in My Kingdom"... which I have already read in entirety. Heh.

Tomorrow we've decided to try and make burek, a common food in Serbia. James has often related to me the tastiness which is burek: ground pork (probably with some onions and garlic) in a phyllo dough pastry. What could possibly go wrong? We'll let you know how it turns out. If it's good I might be able to get James to translate the recipe he found into English.

Tomorrow I am also in charge of the gospel principles class for investigators and new members. I've decided to teach about prophets in preparation for general conference. If you'd like to read up on such things, I really like the following: Ezra Taft Benson's 1980 speech "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet", President Hugh B. Brown's 1955 speech "The Profile of a Prophet", and the 2009 Mormon Message video "God's Words Never Cease" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Most of my lesson will of course be from Chapter 9 on the Gospel Principles manual.

As far as an update on the cat goes... we've been trying to come up with a name. I called him Measles at first because he looked rather diseased... But after today's Doctor Who episode, Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All seems to fit the best. That, or Alfie. James was formally introduced to Stormy (we will call him this until further notice). That cat is SUPER affectionate. In fact, it's kind of ridiculous. He wanted inside... but we can't have cats in our apartments, and also, we're pretty sure he would sleep in our bed with us. (Good? Bad?)

James and I are beginning to dream in ponies. Last night I dreamed that Allison Ridley was a unicorn pony and was making a musical gingerbread house for Christmas. The music? "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. There was also an associated light show. ... James is picturing Book of Mormon characters as ponies when he reads.

Today I started out my day by doing problems out of a physics textbook. And then I read more in Anna Karenina... I'm halfway through! Only 400 pages left!

We decided to have garlic bread for dinner tonight. Here's why:

1. Garlic bread is tastier than alfredo pasta.

2. Garlic bread is faster to make than alfredo pasta.

3. Garlic bread is nutritionally about the same as alfredo pasta.

4. James doesn't like alfredo pasta.

5. James lurves garlic bread.

6. I lurf garlic bread.

As you can see, this was an easy choice.