Month: January 2020

Elders,

Happy Thursday! Can you believe that we are transitioning from January to February already? I must be getting old(er). This past Sunday we had a great Quorum discussion. Aric talked about Elder Andersen’s conference message about “Fruit”. The discussion centered around Lehi’s dream. It is such an important part of the gospel and has meanings on so many different levels that it is good to get to talk about it and rehash it often. It was a great tie-in to our Come Follow Me lessons as well. Thank you Aric and each of you for the messages, comments, and contributions.

Just when I think that things are going to smooth out at work and get to a semblance of normal we fell into a trap of over-confidence. All was well at work. Life is good… The “fun” started with a developer doing something – ostensibly running unit tests. Something went terribly awry with the tests and started truncating database tables in our production system. Soon our internal system was totally non-functional and the alarms from the production teams were rolling in. We were able to stop the damage before it got too bad, but it was already bad enough. Truncate commands (as opposed to deletes) are irreversible. Delete commands log what they are doing and can be painfully rolled back. Truncates are far more evil – the data is just gone forever.

As the various teams assembled and the protocols went into action, we immediately went to our back-ups. Maybe we could restore quickly and only lose a few hours or maybe a day’s worth of work. It wasn’t to be. The backup script was reporting success, but wasn’t actually doing anything. The only backup copy that we could find was from mid-December. We set our sights on recovering a month’s worth of data and asked for the restore to take place into a separate database. Meanwhile, we schemed about what our next steps were. Several hours later we asked for a status update and the delayed response served as a harbinger of what was to come.

Evidently, someone decided to fix the backup scripts in the middle of the outage. They did and when the UTC time rolled over to midnight the backup did it’s magic. Part of the script was to delete any old backups… Yep, the one backup we had was suddenly deleted as well. We searched in vain to find any backup anywhere. We finally realized that we were on our own with no backup at all…

Fast forward a week. We are back up and running in only a slightly degraded state. There are still problems and there is about a week’s worth of data that we’ll never be able to recover. Many teams have spent many sleepless nights and performed heroic acts to get us to where we are today. I appreciate all the hard work.

It could have been avoided. Sure, problems happen. Any one or more of the failures could have happened but the sequence and timing brought the whole world crumbling down.

How does this relate to you and to me? We “thought” that everything was well and that we were safe and well-protected. We thought there were safeguards and processes in place to defend ourselves against human foibles. What we found is that we were sitting on a house of cards. This is the state that the adversary wants us to be in too. He wants us to believe that “all is well” and that “everything is fine”. He wants us to stop doing the little things, stop checking in on our friends and neighbors, stop evaluating our actions and decisions – until we get to a place where we think we are so safe that “it cannot happen to me”. At that point, one small thing can topple our whole house of cards.

I hope and pray that we can all examine ourselves and not just make a cursory look at where we are or assume everything is good. If we can really look and fortify ourselves and our families, we can put ourselves into a much stronger and safer position in our lives. Don’t wait for disaster to happen. Prepare and review, fix and strengthen, become better and improve in all the facets of your life. Then, when disaster strikes (and it will) we will be in a position to overcome. God will help you. He loves you and will magnify all of your efforts to improve.

One of our quorum members could use some help. Brother Von Gunten is in recovery at the Legacy Rehab Center 3200 W 5400 S. He would really enjoy some visitors. If you get a chance to swing by and talk with him, he would love it. He is in room 210.

We have a great quorum of men and I enjoy being together and learning from each of you. We have many perspectives and insights that come out that I had never before considered. Thanks for putting up with me and my ramblings. I love being a part of our quorum. 

Please reach out if I can be of any assistance.

Thanks,

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828

Elders,

Hopefully you are driving safely through the big storm Friday morning – or better yet, you are still at home waiting it out. We had a great lesson on Sunday. Brother Barlow did a great job of leading our discussion. We talked through Elder Renland’s talk from last conference and spent a fair amount of time discussing missions and the great opportunities to share the gospel. I really appreciate Farrell’s wisdom, insight, and advice.

This coming Sunday in gospel doctrine we’ll be focusing on the first 10 chapters in 1 Nephi. There are so many learnings over the past two weeks. Lehi and his family are amazing and in so many ways they are real. Tired, frustrated parents, fighting siblings, reluctant obedience, murmuring, complaining, and general familial struggles. There also is faith, patience, long-suffering, obedience, prayers, thanks, and dreams. How will the discussion go? How has your personal and family study progressed?

This Sunday is ward conference, and in preparation we are inviting you to attend the 6:30 pm session at the Jordan River Temple on Friday. I will not be able to attend, but I hope that many of you can meet up and enjoy the blessings of the temple. 

The following Sunday (25-Jan) we’ll be holding one of our meet-and-eat activities. Marshall Rudd is organizing the activity. If you would like to host a dinner, or participate at someone’s house, please contact Marshall.

As always, please look out for your friends and neighbors, especially as we have some severe winter weather.

We have a wonderful quorum and neighborhood. Thank you for everything you do.

Have a great weekend!

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828

Elders,

Happy Thursday evening! I hope that your week is going well. It was nice to really get back to a routine this past Monday. Kids in school, Kris and I at work, lessons starting up, etc. There is something about getting back to a regular schedule that is comforting after a fun couple of weeks of chaos. One of our traditions over Christmas break is to go up to Crystal Hot Springs to soak and relax in the dense mineral water. Fun fact, it has the most mineral content of any spring in the U.S.. We love to go up there and just relax and talk. Some of it is just silly but some is serious and thoughtful. I love getting time with my family or at least the ones that could or would come.

As we are studying the first few chapters of 1 Nephi, take a look and liken it to your family. Where do you see yourself? What are your tendencies in difficult situations? What do you do with inspiration? How do you react to things that are hard? Look deeply into Lehi and his family. See where we can grow and be better. One scripture that caught my eye this time through is: 1 Nephi 2:7 where Lehi is talking to his ofttimes rebellious son Laman. He compares Laman to a river running into the Red Sea. He says “O that thou lightest be like unto this river, continually running into the fountain of all righteousness!” I’m not sure how Lehi meant it or how Laman interpreted it, but one of the names for Jesus Christ is “the fountain of all righteousness”. Make that find/replace and suddenly Lehi is counseling Laman to always be running into Jesus Christ.

Always running into Jesus Christ. That is a noble goal for each of us. If we try to find a way everyday to run into the Savior, our testimonies will grow, and as we start having these experiences we can bring faith into our conversations with family and friends.

Elders – thank you for being the example you are to me and my family.

This week we’ll get to hear from Brother Barlow – He’ll be discussing  Elder Renlund’s talk “Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/10/16renlund?lang=eng
 I suspect he’ll be telling us more about the saints in the Congo.

A week from Friday on January 17th we will have a ward temple day in preparation for our ward conference on the  19th. We encourage you to come to the temple and enjoy the peace it brings. We are going to target the X:XX session (don’t know which one for certain just yet, but we’ll let you know on Sunday).

Look for the signup sheet for our winter “Meet and Eat”. It will be on January 25. Marshall Rudd is spearheading the organization for this. It has always been a fun activity – a time to get to know other friends and neighbors from the area. I hope that you’ll participate.

See you bright and early on Sunday for 9:00 Sacrament Meeting! Let me know how we can be of service to you.

Thanks,

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828

Elders,

Happy New Year! January is always an interesting month. It is the start of a new year and this year it is even a new decade. What were you like 10 years ago? How has your family / life changed over the past 10 years? Are you in a better position physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, or financially? We talked last Sunday about perfectionism and not being too critical of ourselves. I do think it is important to check in from time to time to see how we are doing. The start of the new year is a great time for that little bit of introspection.

It has been a wonderful year for me and my family. There certainly have been ups and downs with challenges and successes along the way. I have enjoyed serving with each of you and seeing our quorum grow together. I don’t know what the new decade has in store, but I am optimistic about the future and what it can be.

One thing I know for sure is that our church block time has changed. We now meet from 9:00-11:00 each week. That makes it a little more difficult with the kids and teens, but it does give you more time after church to spend with your family and focus on improving your relationship with our Heavenly Father. The new curriculum for 2020 is the Book of Mormon. I really loved going through the New Testament this previous year. I learned more about him and his character. I learned about the early disciples and their struggle to implement Christianity. I learned about the great love that God has for me. My testimony grew and I’m better for the experience. I look forward to studying the Book of Mormon as the primary course of study. It is a powerful book that is another testament of Jesus Christ. It contains the truths of the Gospel and points us to Christ at every turn. I encourage you to join together and re-experience or just experience the Book of Mormon in 2020.

Keep doing the great things that you do. God loves you and is watching over you and your families.

The lesson in Sunday school this week is all of the introductory pages of the Book of Mormon – everything up to “I Nephi, having been born…”

Have a wonderful start to the New Year. See you at 9:00 this Sunday. Contact me if I can help in any way.

Thanks,

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828