13-Mar-2019

Elders,

Well, that was a nice little snap of winter. Hopefully that is the last snow of significance this season. It certainly messed with the morning commute.
One thing you probably don’t know about me is that I am a steam room junkie. Some day I will get a steam room installed in my home (ok – probably not) but there are few things that I enjoy more than sitting in a eucalyptus steam room after a good workout. If I’m lucky, I’ll bring an orange to enjoy while steaming. Ah – heaven. As I came out of the steam room earlier this week there was a guy sitting in the hot tub just outside the steam room. He had a large tattoo on his back running from one shoulder to another. The tattoo script boldly said Philippians 4:13.

I’m not a proponent of getting inked, but I do admire the guy for his bold testimony. Phillipians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” It is a beautiful statement of faith and power. Do you believe it? Do you have faith that you can “do all things” through our Savior? It isn’t likely tattooed on you skin, but how about in your heart? Have you stepped outside of your comfort zone and put it to the test? I probably should have stopped and asked the guy about his faith and the impetus for getting his tattoo but unfortunately I didn’t. It would be good to hear his story.

This past Sunday we had a discussion around Sister Craig’s talk “Divine Discontent”. Ken led the discussion and we talked about the difference between divine discontent and paralyzing discouragement. There isn’t a clean line between the two and it is easy to slip into discouragement. Three things that can help keep Divine Discontent from turning into Paralyzing Discouragement are: 1) Act with faith – step out of our comfort zone and act, believing that God will help make us better. 2) Follow promptings to do good – whether it is our thoughts or promptings of the spirit, “Never suppress a generous thought” and 3) Let the discontentment lead us to Christ. We realize that God wants to transform us into something magnificent. We ended with the story told by CS Lewis about God remodeling a house and that he isn’t happy with just a few changes – he wants to create a castle.

Ken challenged us to look for the divine discontent in our lives and lean into it and let it work miracles in our lives. It was a great group discussion. Thanks to all of you for participating.

A couple of announcements:

We talked briefly about the Utah Area Plan (http://utah.lds.org) and passed out the family goal-setting cards to be given out by the ministers to their ministering families. The card encourages us to set some simple goals in four key areas of our life. We have asked the ministers to follow up on the cards and the goals and help to implement the plan in each of our houses. We ran out of cards so we’ll get some more ASAP. In the meanwhile, you can go to the website above for more information.

A week from Friday (3/22) we will go and do temple sealings as a ward. We encourage everyone with a recommend to come participate in the 6:30 session at the Jordan River Temple.

3/26 (Tuesday), the elders will be going to Axe Arena (6212 State St, Murray, UT 84107) at 7:00pm to try our hand at throwing axes into bulls-eye targets. The cost is $15/person. We will have a signup sheet go around on Sunday to gauge about how many people to plan on. It should be a ton of fun. If you have doubts, just ask the Haws’ family. Bring a son or a daughter, or even *Gasp* your neighbor.

3/31 (Sunday) – 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, you are all fine men and I am proud to get to know all of you. You can, as the tattoo said, do anything through faith in the Savior. Have a wonderful end to your week.

Best wishes,

President Oldroyd 801-573-6828