Today we had a special Stake Conference. President Erickson and his wife spoke about trusting in God. Elder Taylor and Sister Ye also spoke. The main points I noted are:
On Friday, 3 May 2024, Abby was awarded a Masters degree in Data Analytics from the Huntsman School of Business at Utah State.
Jimmer and I left Saratoga Springs at approximately 5:40a to make it to the 8a ceremony at the Spectrum. We headed to Logan while Paula and the other kids attended Molly’s graduation later that morning at Salt Lake Community College.
The ceremony was nice and just under an hour. Then we spent some time just outside of the building taking pictures and visiting with some individuals involved with Abby’s program.
We met Dr. Chris Corcoran. He is the Head of the Data Analytics and Information Systems Department. He was extremely complementary of Abby and grateful she joined the program as it was conceived and is one of the first to completed the masters. He seemed like a great person and tremendously influential mentor to Abby.
I couldn’t be more proud of and pleased with Abby. She has worked incredibly hard to have a meaningful academic experience at USU and has now graduated with a masters degree and no debt. All while being one of the most accomplished cross county and track & field female athletes of all time at USU. What incredible accomplishments.
At work, I’ve been working on InMoment’s Salesforce managed package. In particular, I’ve been working to resolve security issues that have been identified be a static code analyzer.
The people we have on the team, me include, just aren’t skilled and experienced enough to solve these issues. It’s been really frustrating to try to resolve things way out of my league.
I’d been praying for help for days and on 7 March 2024, Ryan Milyard reached out to me on Slack. Ryan is a Salesforce admin & developer that works in the revenue operations group of the InMoment Review Trackers business; he is not part of Engineering. Ryan had been given my name from someone and was reaching out to see if I knew anything about a new user he was working with.
I didn’t know anything about the new user Ryan was asking about, and when it was clear I couldn’t help, I asked Ryan if he knew anything about the particular error I was looking at. Within 6 minutes, Ryan came back with a brief explanation and 5 bulleted ideas of the root cause. I was super impressed and asked if Ryan would be open to helping me more formally. He agreed.
The next day we met and brainstormed some more solution ideas. None of them worked, but it got Ryan involved.
I’ve spent the last couple weeks working with Ryan and a couple days ago we cracked the code on the last remaining big security issue. It was a miracle. On Monday evening, I was ready to give up. I was so frustrated. Before I went to bed, I left Ryan a note with my most recent findings and struggles. Tuesday, mid-morning, Ryan replied. At that point, I had already decided I was moving to other things. Something about the reply inspired me to try one more time. Ryan’s thoughts spurred some ideas. We chatted back and forth a bit, and within a few hours we had a solution that maintained functionality and produced a clean security scan.
Heavenly Father answered my prayers. He orchestrated whatever he needed to to have Ryan reach out to me. Without Ryan’s help, my team would still be stuck.
The truck engine needed to be delivered to the machine shop so it could be rebuilt. So, I borrow Richard Spiker’s trailer and loaded up the engine this afternoon. I thought I did a good job to get it level and securely strapped down. Right before I left, Joey and Livy asked to come along. I was reluctant at first, but agreed to let them come along. I’m so glad they did.
We decided to avoid the freeway just in case we had any issue. That proved to be wise. As we drove along the bumpy road by the American Fork park ‘n ride, Joey called out, “Dad, I think you should stop and look at the engine.” We had bounced enough on that bumpy road that the engine had shifted, some of the wood supports had moved, and half the straps had come loose. I went to secure it all again, but couldn’t lift the engine and move the wood at the same time. I quickly recruited Joey to move the wood as I heaved the engine. After clamping down the straps once more, we were on our way.
After Livy asked many times, “are we there yet”, we finally arrived at Cleggs in Orem. It was 5p and we had an hour to spare. I texted Bob Cosier and he helped us back the trailer in the receiving bay. We unloaded the engine pretty quickly and I went to the front desk to do a little paper work.
It was at the front desk that I was informed that the shop was very backed up and I was only able to leave the engine at that time because Bob has basically called in a favor. I was told that they should have asked me to come back at the end of March. What a miracle. I was also told that the cost of the engine would be at least $3500. That is $1000 more than Bob originally quoted me. I’m a little disappointed by that, but Bob said he’d revisit it in the morning. I’m hoping that the cost will end up a lot closer to the original estimate.
While at the shop, I also met Roger. It turns out he’s been working there for 21 years and is the specialist that will rebuild my engine. While the front desk guy was telling me it would take weeks before they could get to the engine, Roger was yelling from the back that he had nothing to do and he’d tare it down tomorrow. It was fun to hear the banter back and forth. I think this was another miracle that the timing was such that Roger has time. We’ll have to wait and see; will the engine be ready in 1 or 4 weeks, or more. Regardless, I spoke with Roger for a few minutes as he mounted the engine and returned my chain. His words were comforting and he assured me that the engine would be so well rebuilt and clean that I wouldn’t even recognize it. It turns out also that I had left a lot of extra things on it; to which, Roger assured me wasn’t an issue and that he’d have them all cleaned up. It was a blessing the meet Roger.
I’m grateful for the hand of the Lord in my life. It was really evident today. I look forward to the miracles that the Lord will work in the coming days.
The impression I had this morning is that there will be a time in the future where a government issued aid will be required to enter the temple. I saw a large sign stating as much as I entered the temple.
I woke up this morning with the impression that air travel will soon be suspended.
“And they saw that they had become weak, like unto their brethren, the Lamanites, and that the Spirit of the Lord did no more preserve them; yea, it had withdrawn from them because the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples—
“Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous and matchless power, for they had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness…” Helman 4:24-25
Had to start work early today with a client meeting at 7:30a. It went well; we’re about to kick off another client project.
At about 8:05a, my boss reached out for help on an escalation. About 6hrs later, we were still at it without having found the issue. We did, however, find a work around. That’s better than nothing.
I finished work about 3:30p and was able to workout and visit the high school. I got permission to use a projector screen in the main gym and play a highlight video and music for the basketball games. It should be awesome.