Month: August 2019

Elders,

Happy Wednesday! I missed seeing all of you on Sunday in quorum. I’m sure that David led a great discussion around Elder Bednar’s conference talk. I enjoy being with you and learning from you all.

Sorry about the back and forth on the Cannery service project. Ultimately the farmers decided it wasn’t quite the right time to bring in the corn. Thank you for being willing to serve.

This coming Sunday we’ll be talking about Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. It is full of great points and insights. It isn’t totally straightforward (at least for me), but there are some gems in there. One of the comparisons that Paul uses a couple of times is about running a race, persevering and finishing the race. Just a couple of weeks ago my family participated in a fun-run. I’m no marathon runner, but I can handle a 5k pretty easily. I was a little frustrated at the start of the run because I had to go at a real slow pace, take breaks, and walk a good chunk of the race because my daughter was with me and I didn’t want to leave her behind. All of my frustration changed however, as we neared the finish line and my daughter lit up like the sun. She was so happy to have “made it”. She stuck it out and found a way to finish. Nobody was happier to receive a finisher medal than her. Seeing her happiness totally changed my mood as well. Suddenly our pace, heart rate, time, etc all faded away in the joy of finishing.

Paul is saying the something similar. Everyone that “endures to the end” and finishes the race in this life fixed on the Savior will receive the crown – the love and acceptance and joy from our Heavenly Father. He wants us to finish and to endure. Our speed and pace aren’t nearly as important as our endurance and direction. I can only imagine the magnitude of the joy that Heavenly Father has for each of us that “finish”. I want to see my family and each of you at the finish line having done our best and finished strong in the Savior. 

We have an EQ/RS social coming up on 9/26 at the club house at 7:00pm. It will be a potluck dinner arranged by our activities committee. More information will come, but get it on your calendar.

Elders – keep fighting the good fight and enduring to the end. I know that it is going to be worth it and I know that we all can do it. Let’s help each other be successful.

God bless each of you. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks,

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828

Elders,

Good afternoon! For many of us school is back in session – maybe not for you personally, but for your children / grandchildren. It is always an exciting time for everyone. Gone are the lazy days of summer where schedules don’t matter and time is fluid. It is back to distinct patterns and routines. It is also a time for renewal, change, hope, and excitement. 

What about you? What are you doing as things change around you? Are you taking the opportunity to make changes for the better for yourself and your family? Are you restarting or strengthening practices that will help you and your family increase your faith in Jesus Christ? Are you taking the opportunity to exercise your priesthood and bless your children / grandchildren as they begin a new school year? There are many opportunities to change, grow, and help others. Let me know if I can help you in any way.

This week’s Come Follow Me study is the start of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 1-7). It has some great wisdom as we hear Paul deal with all of the problems happening in Corinth.

Our quorum lesson will be led by Dave Oka. He will be discussing Elder Bednar’s talk from the last conference titled: “Prepared to Obtain Every Needful Thing” https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2019/04/54bednar?lang=eng . Come prepared to discuss what you have learned.

The ward campout was fun last weekend. Thank you to everyone that participated and helped – especially Bro. Duvall for organizing a great breakfast Saturday morning.

Have a wonderful rest of the week. I appreciate all of the good things you do. Keep it up.

Best wishes,

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828

Hi,

Good evening everyone! This week I’m going to break from our normal weekly message and invite you to our ward campout. We are going to gather at the Wasatch Recreational Camp (Girl’s Camp) out by East Canyon. It is about a 30 minute drive from our neighborhood and accessible by car.

We will start gathering as early as 4:30 pm on Friday. Feel free to come up whenever it is convenient for you. Bring your own dinner and campfire snacks. The ward will provide breakfast Saturday morning.

If sleeping out in a tent doesn’t sound all that appealing, just come up for the evening and enjoy time around the campfire and/or playing board games at the pavilion.

The camp sites are for tent camping, but the main pavilion has electricity, lights, a fridge, and flushing toilets. There really isn’t a good spot for camp trailers – sorry. For the campfire, you may want to bring camp chairs as seating may be limited.

We hope that you will all come out and spend some time up and away from the city. If you have any questions, please contact me (Dave Oldroyd – 801-573-6828) and I’ll do what I can do to help.

Here are the directions to the camp:

Directions to Wasatch Recreational Camp from the Salt Lake Valley.

1. Go East from Salt Lake on I-80 up Parley’s Canyon.
2. Exit the freeway at the East Canyon (Mountain Dell Recreation Area) off ramp, Exit 134. This is the start of State Road 65.
3. Turn left at the stop sign and go under the freeway, northbound.
4. Stay on this road. It will curve around and run along Little Dell Reservoir.
5. You will pass a turn off to the left to Emigration Canyon. DO NOT TAKE IT. Continue straight.
6. Continue on this road. It will start to climb as it winds up the mountain.
7. Keep going until you come to the summit. You will enter Morgan County.
8. After the summit, the road begins to wind downhill toward East Canyon.
9. From the summit go about 1 1⁄2 miles to mile marker 10.
10. Right at mile marker 10 you will see a large pull off/dirt parking area to the right.
11. At the east end of the parking area there is a red gate with a lock in the metal casing.
12. This is the gate to the East Canyon Camp property.
13. The gate is locked using a combination lock. The camp manager will give you the code.
14. Once you have entered the property, the road goes left and runs down along the outside of the property then curves to the right. See the map below of the property.
15. Always keep the gate closed to discourage people from entering the camp. Vehicles must be kept on roads. Do not park vehicles in tall grass as it may start a fire.

And here are some maps:

Elders,
How has the week been? I left right after Sacrament meeting to fly to Louisiana for work. Hopefully not many more trips remain. These trips get old real fast. Now I’m on my way back home and am excited to be back with the Kris and the kids.
This weekend will be a change up for us. We wont have our regular ward services. Instead, we have a special stake conference with Elder Ulysses Soares. The meeting starts at 10:00 am on Sunday (note that there is NO Saturday session). You can see him in person at the Stake Center and it will be broadcast to our ward house as well. It is a great opportunity to learn directly from an apostle of the Lord. He will have a message tailored for the needs of our stake and I am excited to hear from him. I encourage you to prepare to be taught. President Barlow has suggested that we prepare by studying the talks that Elder Soares has given in the past. Our ward newsletter on Facebook has a great list of resources that you can search and study.
Saturday, Aug 10 (in two days) we will have a ward gathering over at the Taylorsville City hall. The food truck league will be there and you can purchase dinner from the trucks and then enjoy time with friends and neighbors. We’ll have lemonade to drink and some canopies for shade. The Sharps are providing some group games for everyone to play as well. Last year was a ton of fun. Hope you have a great evening. We are going to plan on gathering about 6:30. Once it gets dark, they will be playing a movie – LEGO Movie 2 if you want to stick around.
Next Friday evening we will be doing our annual ward campout at the Wasatch recreation camp near East Canyon (the same place we went last year). It is a quick getaway and will be fun for the family. Come up for the evening or tent camp overnight and the ward will provide breakfast in the morning. There are flush toilets, electrical outlets, and running potable water. There is a fridge available as well. It really isn’t a hardcore camping experience. Come on up – you’ll have a fun time. We can get in the campsite Friday starting at 5pm. 
Directions to the Wasatch Recreational Camp

1. Head east on I-80 up Parley’s canyon
2. Exit the freeway at exit 134 (Mountain Dell Recreational Area)
3. Turn left at the stop sign and go north under the freeway
4. Stay on the road. It will wind around Little Dell Reservoir
5. DO NOT TAKE THE EMIGRATION CANYON EXIT – continue straight
6. The road begins to climb up the mountain and you will eventually hit the summit and descend into Morgan County towards east canyon
7. From the summit – go about 1.5 miles to mile marker 10 
8. As soon as you see mile marker 10 pull off into parking area on the right side of the road.
9. Go through the red gate at the end of the parking area (keep driving – don’t park)
10. Shut the gate behind you to discourage people from entering, but don’t lock it.
11. Follow the dirt road down to the left and then it will curve around to the right. You will see the campground on your right.
12. Find a place to park and walk up to the dining pavilion. Choose your campsite, bring out your camp chairs and have a great time.

Men, continue to live up to the potential within you. You are fantastic men, husbands, fathers, and sons. Thank you for your great examples.
Don’t hesitate to call or text if there is anything I can do to help you and your family.
God bless you,

President Oldroyd

801-573-6828

Elders,

I love summer storms. I like the smell and the cool humidity in the air. It is great. I hope that you are all having a great week. Tomorrow is August and thus we descend towards the end of summer and towards the start of football. I really enjoy college football… 

This past Sunday we shared together with Ken about Elder Uchtdorf’s talk “Missionary Work: Sharing What Is in Your Heart”. We had a great discussion around the simple “guilt-free” ways to share the gospel. They are simply:

1. Draw close to God
2. Love others
3. Be a disciple of Jesus Christ
4. Share what is in your heart
5. Trust the Lord

From this we see that much of missionary work isn’t about being a religious freak. It is about becoming what God wants you to be and that your example will spark interest in others and give rise to natural conversations from the heart. Then it is up to the individual to act and for God to persuade.
A couple of quotes that I loved from the talk are: 

• Ask yourself, “Do I really believe in Heavenly Father?” – What do you think? When was the last time you did an introspection and reached out in faith to ask this question of yourself? It may be scary or terrifying to reach deep and ask yourself, but it is at the root of everything we believe. Finding Him and believing in Him are one of the great challenges of our day.
• Walking the path of discipleship takes practice—each day, little by little, “grace for grace,” “line upon line.”Sometimes two steps forward and one step back. – I like this because it is reality. Life isn’t an Ensign article. It is tough and we shouldn’t beat ourselves up because of our imperfections. Work and improve. Accept setbacks and don’t let a setback turn into a funk that you can’t escape. You were built to succeed – especially through hard times and failures. It is all about your perspective.

Our quorum member Aric Muhlestein posted this on Facebook a couple of days ago. It struck a chord in me and I asked him for permission to share it with you:

Three years before I got injured I had the opportunity to listen to Chad speak at the Cottonwood high school baseball auction. A year before I got injured I had another opportunity to listen to him at the Taylorsville baseball auction. I started following him after the Cottonwood high school baseball auction. Two months after I returned home from therapy my stake had him over to speak to the youth at a youth conference. I didn’t realize that he would make such a great impression on me. Over the last 19 months it is been one of the hardest challenges of my life.I have had many ups and downs and Side to side. However it is also changed my perspective as Chad has indicated in this video. I love the way he says that heavenly father is looking for hands that are dirty and not hands that are clean. What do your hands look like? What are you doing in your life to change your perspective? I would’ve never been a person to say that challenges are fine. I think in life we need to make sure we grow. The way we grow is the changing of our perspective in life. I look at the news and everything that is going on around us. I wonder why can’t we all just get along. Life is already hard enough.Each of us does have different perspectives and if we sit back and listen to each other I think we would be amazed at what we would learn. There is good happening all around us. Have you done any good in the world today? If not, find something good And put your hands to work. Thanks Chad for Sharing this video.
https://www.facebook.com/chad.hymas/videos/10216357724476641/


There are a couple of calendar items this week:

• Thank you for those helping to clean the temple. If you want to go, let me know and we still have slots available on Thursday and Friday. It is a cool experience – one that only comes around every 15 months or so. Mac – our newest Elder – what do you think? Want to come help clean?
• Saturday August 10th – Food truck night over at the Taylorsville City Hall. Come around 6:30pm and buy some dinner, bring a lawn chair, play some games, and socialize with friends and neighbors. We had a great time last year.
• Sunday August 11th. A special Stake Conference will be held at 10 am at the Stake Center. It will also be broadcast at the North and West buildings. Elder Ulisses Soares will be presiding. No ward services will be that day. We are responsible for cleaning up the chairs in our building.
• Friday / Saturday August 16th-17th. Ward Family Campout. We’ll provide breakfast and you bring your dinner and family for a fun night up the canyon near East Canyon reservoir. We’ll be in the same place as last year. I’ll send out more information next week.

Have a fantastic week. Ponder some of the things Aric mentioned and think about your faith in God. Love all you guys. I appreciate the good men that you are.

Keep it up!

President Oldroyd
801-573-6828