At long last, vacation! Elaine and I are ecstatic to be away from work and able to just relax. She'll do some shopping, I'll be playing exactly four rounds of golf. Ian is a bit out of whack, but overall handles things pretty well, I think. Ah! How we love him!

At church, our bishop was released from his calling as bishop and a new person was called. He is a close friend of ours, and we are excited that we don't have to go through the ordeal of explaining the ins and outs of Ian's liver disease and how that affects us... Jack already knows (perhaps better than most) pretty much everything there is to know. He and his wife, Jaime, ran the campaign to raise funds for Ian's transplant.

So, I realize I should probably explain that we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly referred to as "the Mormons". Our church has a lay ministry, meaning no one gets paid for the work they do for the church. Members attend a specific unit, usually defined by geographic location. Out of the congregation, various people are called to fill different positions within the ward or branch. Hopefully, this helps provide a little light on how Jack, a friend of ours, became the bishop of our ward. Callings are given through revelation, meaning there are not applications or campaigns or anything of the sort. One day, for example, Jack would have received a call from the Stake President (wards and branches are organized into larger units called stakes), and the Stake President would issue that call to Jack.

That pretty well sums things up in a few brief sentences. If you want to know why we do things the way we do them, feel free to visit the church website for information on organization, or feel free to submit a question to me via comment, or just ask your Mormon neighbor.