Steven Zahm@ Becky
re: Am I to understand that this problem will occure anytime there is a theme update? I certainly hope not!
No, this was a setting in the theme options. I disabled the option for you so Connections will work.
re: I noticed that the Category drop down bar is missing. I used to have them both and they worked fine together. Is there a conflict there?
I threw a lot of info at you so you might have missed it. You should choose to use either the widget or the category drop down. Do not use both. Since you are using the widget, I disable the drop down in the template.
If you choose to use the drop down instead of the widget, first remove the widget. Then enable the drop down in the template (Go to the Connections : Templates admin page, click the Customize button. You can enable the category select drop down in the Template Customizer options.
Hope that helps!