Elders,
Good evening. I hope that you are all doing well this evening. Today is Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. While the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn’t directly celebrate this religious holiday, we certainly eagerly anticipate the Easter season, celebrating the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The season of Lent is designated as a period of 40 days before Easter. It is a time for believers to prepare their hearts, minds, and bodies for Easter. Traditionally, believers prepare through prayer, doing penance, repentance, charity, and self-denial. The 40 days is significant because that is how long Jesus fasted in the wilderness. It is also the number of years that the Israelite children wandered in the wilderness. It is a good opportunity for each of us as well, to reflect and rededicate ourselves to increased worship of the Savior. The Come Follow Me curriculum is a great way to ease in to increased gospel knowledge and scholarship.
This coming Sunday in quorum we will study Sister Michelle Craig’s talk from conference titled “Divine Discontent” https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/10/divine-discontent?lang=eng . It is a great talk and I’m excited to have Ken teach us and lead a discussion around the talk.
We want to congratulate Val and Wendy Christofferson on their calling to serve in an inner city mission in Salt Lake. They are going to do a fantastic job and we wish them all the best.
We have a couple of calendar items to remind you of:
- Friday March 22 – 6:30pm Ward temple trip to the Jordan River Temple for a sealing session.
- Monday March 25 – 12:30-4:00pm Service opportunity at the soap factory. We have been asked to fill 2 slots. Bruce Haws has volunteered to fill one spot and we could use another volunteer. The soap factory is located at: 3602 S 7200 W, Magna, UT 84044
- Tuesday March 26 – 7:00pm – Axe Throwing at the Axe Arena – 6212 State St. The cost is $15/person. Bring a brother, neighbor, son or daughter and come get some first-class stress relief with members of the quorum. Everyone is invited. It should be a lot of fun. We’ll have a signup sheet on Sunday.
- Sunday March 31 – 2:00pm (right after the church block) we are asking everyone to bring a snack to share (healthy or otherwise) and spend 30 – 60 extra minutes just talking and socializing with other members of the ward. We’ll start off easy with snacks and see where it goes.
Elders, thank you for all that you do. I encourage you to reach out to and continue ministering to your companion and to your families. We are going to wrap up our formal ministering interviews this month. Thanks for being flexible and generous with your time.
Love you guys. Have a wonderful week,
President Oldroyd
801-573-6828