Jon Schmidt!

Alright everyone, I know it has been SO long since I posted anything. Sorry. But now I have decided on a couple of things that I want to post about.

Ok, first of all, how many of you have heard of Jon Schmidt? If you haven't then now you have. He is AMAZING! Last night I went to a concert of his. And it was so much fun! My friend Jordon knew I would love it, so one day he called me and said- "guess what!? I Got some Jon Schmidt tickets!" (it would have been sad if I'd had something important to do that day. Luckily I did not). So I went!

Anyway, it was amazing. Well, it was in my opinion. That is just the sort of thing I LOVE. The fact that I play piano probably has something to do with it. Jordon also plays. He's pretty good. But Jon Schmidt is brilliant! He makes me feel very inspired and inferior at the same time. Although he told all of the young piano players in the audience that even if you think you only have half a talent you should never give up.

We sat in the third row, so we were close. In my tiny town of course it was not a huge concert, but for here there were a lot of people. And I liked it small. At one point Jordan (another guy from my school.That one is spelled with an 'A' instead of an 'O') yelled "I love you!!!" Jon Schmidt sat there for a minute and then answered "Well I love you too, but I hope you don't mind if I see other audiences." Everyone laughed. It was hilarious.

It was a long concert, but I was sad when it was over. Jordon (not the one who yelled.) went and talked to Jon Schmidt afterward (he was standing out near the doors at the end). He says he's met him many times and he still doesn't know his name. He is Jordon's idol. I understand why.

So, the above video is one that I liked. Although it is nice to watch the ones where he plays only one song. Especially 'Waterfall', 'All of Me' and 'Tribute'. He played all of those at the concert and it was amazing. I can't decide which is my favorite. (if you decide to look any up on Youtube make sure you watch the ones where he is playing, and not some other person.).

Also the other day I was thinking about how much the church has been increasing and it fascinates me. Here are some statistics that I found as of 2002. There are much more now, but I could not find them.

Total membership at year end 11,721,548

Number of Full-time Missionaries 61,638

Converts baptized during 2002 283,138

Temples in operation 114 (i don't remember exactly, but aren't there 126 now? and more being built, including one in Rome Italy!)

In 2001 there were 11,394,522 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here's the breakdown: (now I think it's around 13,000,000)

United States-5,208,827

South America-2,548,979

Mexico-884,071

Asia-750,478

Central America-472,038

Europe-412,907

South Pacific-363,875

Canada-158,511

Africa-153,565

Caribbean-115,610

So there's my blog post!