[Editors–we hope that this unusual account of a Church-run focus group, along with the ensuing discussion, will be of general interest]

The church was mostly quiet last night. Brother and Sister Markoff were in the cultural hall with their two younger children planning the stage arrangement for the Christmas program Sister Markoff has been rehearsing with Primary children for the past month. There was no sign of anyone downstairs around the bishop’s and clerks’ offices. Back upstairs, outside the Relief Society room, a few middle-aged parents sat waiting and talking. More arrived. Brother Fletcher joked that we were going to find we had came for a half hour presentation encouraging us to prepare for senior missions. Some continued along that theme that we had actually been summoned to discuss lowering the age for senior missionaries. A quarter before eight, the Relief Society door opened, and four priests and six laurels walked out. In we went, where a man in his young thirties sat dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt and tie.

(more…)

Tomorrow evening an internal research group from the LDS Church is coming to interview some of my ward’s members. The topic is the youthening of missionary age eligibility, and groups of eight of us at a time will spend a half hour with the researchers. They want to meet with: priests and laurels; parents of priests and laurels; parents of soon-to-be, currently serving, or recently returned missionaries; ward mission leaders, ward missionaries, and members of the ward council to round out a group of eight. I am a father of two priests, and we have been asked to be on hand.

(more…)

Russia is having about as much fun as a nation can with a yard-long metal stick. The Olympic torch sans flame launched aboard a Soyuz to the International Space Station, and on Saturday a couple Russians will spacewalk with it. But that’s not all:

“Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world’s deepest lake, Lake Baikal, and in February it will reach the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.” (link)