Many of you may have recently received an email which I have pasted in part below. The question is: Is this legitimate or not? Read the email and then read the results of our investigation as to its legitimacy.

BEGINNING OF EMAIL

President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Speaking at the Forest Bend Ward, Salt Lake City UT
Sunday, October 12, 2008

“Even though I regularly have the opportunity to attend Fast and Testimony meeting, I don’t usually stand to speak. But today, I feel moved upon by the Spirit to share a message…

END OF EMAIL

One of our employees called the Church public affairs department to check on the legitimacy of this email. He was told that the Church is getting calls from all over the world inquiring as to the legitimacy of this email. Our employee was told:

“Elder Packer was at the meeting, he was inspired to stand and speak and did so. He did give a talk, but that the notes that are being sent around on the Internet are an attending member’s interpretation of the talk Elder Packer gave and that the notes should not be considered an official church notice or statement of any kind.”

This talk has been posted in its entirety on several “family blogs.” Initially, we had posted all of the email, but upon further consideration decided not to continue the furtherance of a non official church notice.

So the “Men on a Mission” calendar dude Chad Hardey got the attention he wanted and got ex-communicated from the Church today. He obviously has no care for his own soul at this point so I really hope the (almost) 150k in sales he has made so far with the calendar sales will be worth his spending the eternities in a place a little more south of the Celestial kingdom.

Come on? Seriously? Do you even have to have a brain to know that his goes against the Church? HERES YOUR SIGN - All it was everyone, was a publicity stunt from a person who already has no feelings for the Church.

I feel bad for the returned missionaries who were tricked into throwing away their standards and everything they believe to pose for this morons calendar. I don’t hate you Chad, I had the sin that you did against the Church. I really will be praying for you.

Anybody else have thoughts about this idiot and his calendar? I am sorry because I know he’s got family still in the Church, but I got to call it as I see it! So if you are a friend or family member of Chad - again I am sorry, but you should go to him and smack him across the back of the head and ask him what happened between the years he served a full time mission and now…

Not this is news to anyone, or that it surprises anyone, but the top 3 from American Idol are here, and David Archuleta is one of them!  I really wished that Brooke White could have made it to the top 3, but I do think the best 3 still remain.  I still to this day have no clue how Jason Castro made it so far.  He is such a goof ball that can’t even sing that well (American Idol styles that is) and I am glad he is out.

I was listening to the local radio station here in Phoenix Arizona this morning (which I love) called the Johnjay and Rich show, and Rich was bagging on David Archuleta and the way he sings, and the songs he picks.  I don’t know what kind of beef he has with David Archuleta (maybe because he’s Mormon?) but its stupid to say that he’s not as good as Kelly Clarkson her first year because he blows her away hands down with his voice.  David Archuleta is the only American Idol that has performed perfectly every single song that he has performed.  I am not just saying that because he’s Mormon and I’m Mormon, I am saying that because its the truth.

I think David Cook is more of the “American Idol” style I will admit to that, and I will be happy if either of the Davids win, but as far as pure talent and ability to sing - David Archuleta has it!  I still think that David Archuleta is going to win American Idol.  There is no way with his kind of singing and fan base that he can lose in my opinion.  Getting second place may be a better thing for David Cook, as he may have more freedom to do what he wants with his music.  Who knows?  I have no idea how the whole process works if you don’t win.

I am pretty proud of David Archuleta and how humble he is, and I think he is going to go far in life and make things happen with a music career.  Watching American Idol has turned into an obsession for me this year, and its cool that we have had some members of the Church make it so far!  Way to go David!

The official name of the Temple that is coming to the Gila Valley (including Pima, Thatcher and Safford) is going to be Gila Valley Arizona Temple. That is a mouthful, but it is wonderful that all the saints in the Gila Valley are getting a Temple non-the-less!

I am really excited to see what the Temple is going to look like. I got sent a picture of the new Gilbert Arizona Temple from my Mom, but still nothing official. I am not sure when we will be seeing new “official” pictures released from the Church. I think a Temple is going to do wonders for the Gila Valley, and give it more beauty the you can imagine.

The Gila Valley Arizona Temple is the biggest news the faithful LDS members have had to talk about lately, at least since President Kimball growing up in Thatcher (which is still pretty cool news)!

Once again, I would just like to share how happy I am that the Gila Valley Arizona Temple is going to be constructed. It is such an amazing time to be a member of this Church, and I appreciate President Monson for all he has done, and is doing for us members of the Church!

If you find pictures, or artist renderings of The Gila Valley Arizona Temple, then please post the links to them in the comments!

Safford Arizona Temple Announcement in the next Church News issue!

Yes, thats right all you Gila Valley-ers I said Safford Arizona Temple! As a person who lived in Safford for almost 10 years, attended EA, worked at Kat Kountry, Safford Unified School District, and held other various positions of service for the Church and valley I, (Matt Siltala) am so proud to be announcing on this blog that Safford Arizona is finally getting a Temple!

I am pretty dang excited to be able to blog about this, as most people probably don’t even know about it inside the Church right now. Over the weekend I attended a baptism for a niece of mine down in Safford Arizona and was told about it then! I was with my Mom who makes the dedicated trip to the Mesa Arizona temple 2 sometimes 3 times a month. I think she enjoys seeing her grandkids as well, but she is an avid Temple attender whose life will be fully benefited from this new Safford Arizona Temple!

I have never heard my Mom so excited about something in my life (since my mission call to Fiji) and she comes running in the room pretty much singing praises and jumping and exclaimed “Safford Is Getting A Temple, We Are Finally Getting A Temple!”

My heart is pretty full right now, and I am so excited for the people of the Gila Valley. I also received some good Temple news about where I live too! I live in the Queen Creek area of Phoenix Arizona and heard that Gilbert is going to be getting a Temple too. I am excited that there will be a Gilbert Arizona Temple that will be closer for my family to be able to attend! It will be nice to trade off baby sitting with my family, and have my parents watch the kids when I am visiting them (or when they are visiting us) to be able to attend the Temple!

Anyway this is pretty cool news, and gives all of us in Arizona reason to be joyful - especially for those in the Safford/Thatcher/Pima and Gilbert areas! I can’t wait to see pictures of what the Temples are going to look like!!

Last week I was preparing for family home evening on my monthly host/topic night, the topic being our goals, finances, calendar, etc.; basically our monthly planning meeting and while preparing the nights lesson I visited LDS.org to find a conference talk to go along with my lesson. Once there I found that the site had been totally redesigned and was now much more user friendly and attractive…to my personal likes. I thought the old site was a little difficult to navigate and I also didn’t like how when you were viewing an article the page would split into frames showing the outline on top and the article on bottom. The made it very difficult to navigate back to the list of search results shown to you.

One thing I especially like about the new site is the navigation located toward the bottom left of the homepage. Now you can search the site based on needs such as: Prepare a Lesson, Prepare a Talk, etc. This shows that the LDS Church has taken steps to cater the official church site to church member needs.

I clicked on the Prepare a Talk link and was able to then simply and quickly locate a conference talk dealing with preparing your finances…and more importantly was able to have a well prepared lesson for family home evening so I didn’t upset my wife.

If you haven’t visited the new LDS.org I suggest you do so soon.