And in about 45 minutes, I’ll be heading back to the SLC airport for the flight to Chicago, which connects me to my flight to São Paulo. It’s going to be a busy weekend and week, as we upgrade this large airline to a newer version of their core reservations system — a project on which I have been engaged for almost two years.

Hmmm. Another two-year mission in Brazil. This one certainly pays better.

Reuters has just published a special report called “Mormonism besieged by the modern age”

Here’s a quote:

A religious studies class late last year at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, was unusual for two reasons. The small group of students, faculty and faithful there to hear Mormon Elder Marlin Jensen were openly troubled about the future of their church, asking hard questions. And Jensen was uncharacteristically frank in acknowledging their concerns.

Did the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints know that members are “leaving in droves?” a woman asked.

“We are aware,” said Jensen, according to a tape recording of his unscripted remarks. “And I’m speaking of the 15 men that are above me in the hierarchy of the church. They really do know and they really care,” he said.

“My own daughter,” he then added, “has come to me and said, ‘Dad, why didn’t you ever tell me that Joseph Smith was a polygamist?’” For the younger generation, Jensen acknowledged, “Everything’s out there for them to consume if they want to Google it.” The manuals used to teach the young church doctrine, meanwhile, are “severely outdated.”

These are tumultuous times for the faith founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, and the rumbling began even before church member Mitt Romney’s presidential bid put the Latter-Day Saints in the spotlight.

LINK

And on February 2nd, I leave again for Brazil. Can’t seem to to get enough of that place — or they can’t get enough of me.

Flying from Chicago to Salt Lake yesterday, I had a nice conversation during the 4-hour heavy snow delay and subsequent 3-hour flight with my seat mate, who I later found out was Daniel Karslake, director of the Sundance-nominated documentary, For The Bible Tells Me So.

He was very unpretentious and simply mentioned that he was a filmmaker and that he lived in Newark, New Jersey, after having moved there a year ago from the city.

He had said early on that he was meeting a friend for dinner in Salt Lake last night and during the course of the conversation mentioned that his friend had a house in Orem, which he pondered aloud after I grimaced, “I wonder why he lives there…”. He then said that his friend was a philanthropist and I said, “Oh, Bruce Bastian?”.

He laughed and asked how I would know that and I said that there are only two philanthropists that I am aware of in Utah and only from Utah County. The other is Jon Huntsman, Sr.

Good guy and a nice conversation.

And so here I sit in the Chicago O’Hare Airport again, waiting for my connecting flight to São Paulo in a couple of hours. This is my fifth trip to Brazil in the last year and I have certainly enjoyed my time there, albeit it 99% being work-related.

I did book a trip from São Paulo to Navegantes for this coming weekend, so that I could visit Blumenau once again. It seems like I was just there, but in reality, it’s been almost a year and a half. I’m sure not much has changed since my two visits in 2010, which is just as well, considering how freaked out I was after seeing it for the first time since 1985.

I spent the first eight months of my mission in Brazil in this city and it has lots of special memories for me. I was assustado to see how much had changed — to the point where I felt disoriented the whole weekend I was there.

When people ask me if I see anyone there, I say, “They’re all dead”. And they gasp, but it’s probably close to the truth. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only soul alive in the city when I’m wandering the streets, even though there are thousands of other people living, shopping, sleeping and walking about. It’s like a ‘memory ghost town’ for me. Really strange — but I keep going back.

Fred Karger, the outspoken anti-Prop 8 proponent from California has created the “Top 10 Craziest Mormon Beliefs” site that entertains just that.

I suspect that this is being done to enlighten the electorate during this, “The Mormon moment“.

Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, 2011.

My two-week vacation is coming to a close after the ‘official’ holiday on Monday and I’m not sure I’m ready to go back. I could sure get used to being home all of the time.

One good thing is that I am leaving for Brazil for work again on the 8th and will be there for almost two weeks — including a side trip to Blumenau once again.

As always, I anticipate seeing no one that I knew from my mission, so it feels a bit like going to a ghost town, albeit filled with strangers. There is just something about re-visiting the first city of my mission and re-living the almost 8 months I spent there 1978-79 that makes me feel like I’m “home” and in a much simpler version of my life.

Last time I was there, I located Betty Clements’ grave and that was a major thing on my checklist. This time, I have no agenda other than to passear a bit.

Penn Jillette, in his book, God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist:

There is no god and that’s the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.