Last week, while I was enjoying the world-wide celebration of my 52nd birthday, I missed a few things. Specifically, I only remembered to acknowledge 1 of the other 3 important birthdays last week:
September 8th – Elder Quentin L. Cook
Call Me Mr. Belated – Apostle’s Birthdays
September 9th – Elder Russell M. Nelson (I remembered this one)
September 10th – President Boyd K. Packer
I missed President Packer’s birthday? Are you kidding me? He is one of my all-time favorite Apostles. And I blew it. I am a shallow, weak man.
My only saving grace was that I remembered Elder Nelson’s birthday and managed to re-run a post about him. (link)
In all fairness, the Brethren all have Facebook pages – you would think the people running them could use the birthday thingy. (Even though I doubt the Brethren would be interested in the Starbucks gift cards Facebook tries to get you to buy.)
After realizing that I missed their birthdays, I decided to put all 15 in my calendar this morning. As I was doing so, I noticed a few curious things:
1) Elders Cook, Nelson & Packer’s birthdays are on consecutive days 8-9-10, which would make make it easier to consolidate the celebrations at the weekly meeting. Fewer cakes, etc.
2) 5 of the 15 Apostles have August birthdays. that is a full 33% in the same month. Statistically, that is weird. (And I say weird because I am too lazy to do the calculations.)
Those 5 include Elders Perry, Anderson, Oaks, Monson, and Hales.
3) I missed all of their birthdays too. Except President Monson – and the only reason I even knew about his was because it was all over Facebook.
4) It gets even more curious…If you look at the 36 days between August 5, and September 10, you will see that 8 of the 15 Apostles celebrate their birthdays. That is more than half in a little more than a month. Over 50% of the birthdays in less that 10% of the year.
Now all of you August and September birthdays are probably be thinking the same thing I am: We must be extra special. Why would God send more than half of these men to earth in the same 2 months? The very same two months we were born in? Apparently the caliber of people coming to earth in August and September is something special.
(I categorically reject the idea that it was to balance things out.)
No matter what the reason, I feel bad for not being more on top of things. From here on out, I will do a better job of keeping you up to date.
Why? Because I love these men. They are my role models, and deserve as many birthday shout-outs as we can muster.
I look forward to hearing from all of them 19 days from now at General Conference.
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Can’t Wait! Thanks for the reminder!
Maybe you can make it up to the Elders by sending them an autograph copy of “Failed Family Mottos.” Just a though…
Ahum, pardon me, the Prophet Joseph Smith was born in
December which is the happiest month to be born which I know to be factualy true since there is nothing better than being a Christmas baby.
As a September birthday, I humbly accept the greatness that I was (evidently) born to. All adoration and gifts may be forwarded to….. lol
Who knew that their birthdays were so, together? Hm, wonder who planned that?!
Keeping with the stats, of my 6 kids, 4 girls- June and July; My 2 sons- August. My girls were all June with the boys in August until our last baby broke the pattern being born in July. Might I add wonderful young men.
Happy Birthday! I turned 52 this year too, ’61 was a great year.
President Packer is my favourite! 🙂
Also, myself, my father, and 2/3 of my kidlets were born in August, as well as my husband’s grandmother. She and I share a birthday. My father and son share a birthday.
The DH, my sister, and her two kids were born in sept. the kids were born on the same day two years apart.
Christmas and Thanksgiving – my favourite times of the year. 🙂
The same holds true for my little family. Of our 5 children, 3 are August birthdays. And my husband is July 30th, so pretty much August. It’s a busy 30 days for us. We can’t get away with one cake for all 4…
The same holds true for my little family. Of our 5 children, 3 are August birthdays. And my husband is July 30th, so pretty much August. It’s a busy 30 days for us. We can’t get away with one cake for all 4…
‘twould be interesting to extend the research back over all latter-day apostles (adjusting to exclude the apostate samples in early church history, of course) to see if the percentages hold true. Wasn’t President Benson born in August?
I just looked this up the other day and there are more births in the US in general in August (and September is the 2nd biggest). So it isn’t odd at all- more babies are conceived in November/December.
The difference between the highest month (August) and the lowest month (February) is the difference between 9& and 7.5% of total birth. That is hardly enough of a difference to explain the frequency of the apostles birth dates.
I remember giving a Sharing Time in Primary and we were talking about the apostles before General Conference. I mentioned that I know them by their voices and that they are FRIENDS to me. Isn’t it great having men like them as friends?? We are blessed.
I’m also a September birthday, so I will joy in having so many birthday celebrations close to mine.
I am sad and lonely in November. 🙁
Us November birthdays can console ourselves that we were conceived out of love (Valentine’s Day) rather than the boredom of winter. 🙂
Interesting. I have never considered it to be boring in the least. Maybe you’re doing it wrong.
That was not only hilarious but you replied in 28 minutes. My husband is an August birthday but he squeaked in by a very small margin August 1st 2AM.
Being an August Birthday – I concur that the great ones were sent during these months!
I second the motion. August birthday-ers are especially awesome. 🙂