Listen to a Living Prophet

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  I've been busy with school, trying desperately to balance schoolwork with my numerous site visits to potential graduate schools.

Life is still busy, but should be getting easier (I know that it never really does, but I'll pretend) at the end of April when I graduate.

I just wanted to take the time today to invite all my friends to listen to a modern-day, living prophet.  Just as God called prophets in the Old Testament, like Moses, Abraham, and Noah, He continues to do so in our day.  And just as Christ ordained apostles in the New Testament, like Peter, James, and John, He continues to do so in our day.  This Saturday, those men will speak to the world.  What an amazing opportunity!  The video below explains what the meeting, which we call General Conference, is all about.

Click on this link to watch it live on YouTube (in English, Spanish, Portuguese), or on LDS.org (in 19 languages).

Announcing the G. Thurston Shop

If you click on the "Shop" tab above, you will be taken to the G. Thurston shop.  This shop is a Cafepress.com shop and you can buy just about anything imaginable with our family crest on it, for cheaper than the marketplace price. Additionally, I get to make just a little bit of cash. Of course, you could always just donate straight to me, if you're buying for the benefit to me.

I'll try to put more designs up as I can/create them. Let me know if you're looking for something but can't find it.

Temples, Grad School, and Revelation

Provo Utah Temple

My wife and I recently attended the temple for the first since Sam (Baby Thor) came into the world and began demanding a large portion of our attention.  I didn't realize how much I missed being able to feel absolute peace.  In the temple, the Spirit is present so tangibly.  It was wonderful to be there with my wife and remember that God has welded us together for eternity, as long as we are obedient and faithful in keeping the commandments.

In other news, we have been accepted to four different PhD programs to continue my studies in chemistry.  I am grateful for a wife that is willing to follow me wherever I end up going to grad school.

Henry B. Eyring's biography

The prospect of making this decision has caused me to reflect, ponder, and ask for God's help in making this decision.  The process of receiving God's will for you, or the process of receiving revelation, is very interesting.  I was reading in Elder Henry B. Eyring's biography about how he received revelation and remembered a prerequisite to the revelatory process: you have to do your homework.  Part of the reason we are here on earth is to learn how to make decisions and to see if we will make the right choices. If God told us everything we should do, we wouldn't learn anything.  So, God instead confirms decisions that we've already made.  That's why I don't think I'll know where to go for grad school until I've visited all of them and made a decision for myself.

And who knows, this might be a decision God wants me to make on my own. I just know he won't let me get too far without warning me before a big mistake. That gives me the same feeling of peace that I can feel in the temple.

RVU System

After observing that the prefixes used in the SI system are derived from variations of the word "small" in various Greek, Latin, and other languages, we wondered what the prefixes would be if scientists were only allowed to use English words. We present the Really Very Ultra (RVU) System

We will begin with larger powers of units. The word "big" comes to mind first. We will demonstrate this using meters. Kilometers would be "big meters". Due to the scarcity of the synonyms in English, the next level, megameters would become "really big meters." This is followed by "very big meters" and "ultra big meters."

The next level going up is "large meters," because large is bigger than big. This can be remembered by thinking that telling a kid he is a big kid is nice, but telling him he is a large kid means he is probably bigger than a big kid. After "large meters," are "really large meters," "very large meters," and "ultra large meters."

For smaller units, we begin with "small meters," which are equivalent to millimeters. Then there are "really small meters," "very small meters," "ultra small meters," "tiny meters," "really tiny meters," "very tiny meters," and "ultra tiny meters."

Like the SI system, the RVU system does not forsee any smaller or larger prefixes needed. Clearly, the RVU system is useable by all those who feel English should be the universal language, ignoring the origins of the English language, or who disagree with the ubiquity of Greek and Latin in the sciences.