The Greatest Gift

As we get excited to tear open the gifts under the tree on Christmas day, may we take a moment to reflect on the most precious gift of all that was given to us by our Savior, the gift of Eternal life, Forever Families, and redemption from our sins. This is a gift that we can never fully repay, but we can show our gratitude for this gift by the way we live our lives and our dedication to the Savior by following His example. May we carry the spirit of Christ with us into the new year and keep it with us always.

Sister Fiona Seeley

Smithfield 18th Ward

Merry Christmas everyone.  I love this time of year. I love all of the family get-togethers that my family and my in-laws have throughout the holiday season.  What a wonderful time to be with friends and family.

I also love the story of the Saviors birth.  I love hearing it and reading the passages in Luke 2.  But for this post I would like to focus on the other scripture story of the Saviors Birth found in 3 Nephi.

As you may recall Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied of the Savior's birth five years before Jesus was born.  During that five years those who were against the Church grew stronger as did their persecution of those who believed in the Savior.  Those who were against the Church said that the time for Samuel's prophecy had past and that the Savior would not come.  I will let Nephi tell the story from here (3 Nephi 1: 9 - 21).

9 Now it came to pass that there was a day set apart by the unbelievers, that all those who believed in those traditions should be put to death except the sign should come to pass, which had been given by Samuel the prophet.

 10 Now it came to pass that when Nephi, the son of Nephi, saw this wickedness of his people, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.

 11 And it came to pass that he went out and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers.

 12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:

 13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.

 14 Behold, I come unto my own, to fulfil all things which I have made known unto the children of men from the foundation of the world, and to do the will, both of the Father and of the Son—of the Father because of me, and of the Son because of my flesh. And behold, the time is at hand, and this night shall the sign be given.

 15 And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came.

 16 And there were many, who had not believed the words of the prophets, who fell to the earth and became as if they were dead, for they knew that the great plan of destruction which they had laid for those who believed in the words of the prophets had been frustrated; for the sign which had been given was already at hand.

 17 And they began to know that the Son of God must shortly appear; yea, in fine, all the people upon the face of the whole earth from the west to the east, both in the land north and in the land south, were so exceedingly astonished that they fell to the earth.

 18 For they knew that the prophets had testified of these things for many years, and that the sign which had been given was already at hand; and they began to fear because of their iniquity and their unbelief.

 19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given.

 20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.

 21 And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word.

What a wonderful account of faith.  Faith in the Lord, faith in the Lord's servants, and faith in prayer.  Also what a wonderful account of the Lord keeping all of His promises. I hope that those who read this will have the same faith in the Lord when in need.  I hope that my faith is never tested to the extent that Nephi's faith was tested.  But I hope and pray that when my faith is tested, I can pass the test as Nephi did.

I ask that all of you will take the time this holiday season to read and share the account of the Savior's birth found in Luke.  Then right after read and share the other account of the Savior's birth shown above and found in 3 Nephi.

I have a testimony that both accounts are true. I have a testimony that the Savior was born and did teach and minister and perform miracles on this earth.  Then He willingly died for each and every one of us that we may repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father.

Again, merry Christmas. Please keep the Savior in your hearts and minds throughout all you do this holiday season.

In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Stake High Councilor Andy Archibald

Friends Make All the Difference

I love this time of year, as it provides more opportunities to be together with my family.

The other night we were having dinner with my son and his new wife. He was sharing stories about high school years and how he got to know one of his very close friends. They got to know each other in the back of math class where neither of them paid attention (not what a Dad wants to hear) but they found that they had similar interests and a friendship formed.

They both took their own paths to get through high school but, they did share other classes. Then after graduating from school they even worked at the same company for a time. Then it was time to really consider a mission; my son was able to make the commitment and go but, his friend was not sure.

Two years came and went. My son had a great mission experience then came home and began again working with this great friend. It made coming home so much easier to have him there. They began to do things together, as they did his friend's attitude changed about going on a mission. He could see the benefit and felt the Lord's call and he knew it was what he was to do. His time to serve had now come. It was now my son's turn to have a hard time seeing his friend leave.

His friend is now serving the Lord, he is older and wiser. We read his letters every week, pray for him each day, and it has become very obvious that he is a powerful and obedient missionary. While math will likely not be either of their focuses in later life, it appears that it was more than a coincidence that they got together there.

The Lord has called all young men to serve a mission, but not all need to go at 18. Sometimes the right time is a little later. I thank the Lord for the opportunity that I have had to watch the change in these two boys' lives and testify that missionary service can make all the difference.

-Karl Reid, Sunday School President, Smithfield 6th Ward

What do you see?

I see many things in this painting by Doc Christensen.

1. Who the Deacons represent while they pass the Sacrament.  

2. A man wanting to touch the Savior’s hand. 

3. A child wanting a hug from someone he recognizes. 

What do you see?

-Brother Kelly Luthi, High Councilor

O Come, O Come Emmanuel - A Christmas Message from the 5th Ward

To help bring the Spirit of Christ into our lives. That should be our focus for Christmas each year:

"Our testimony is that He lives and is the gift we should both give and receive this holiday season. "

A Short Message For The Holiday Season (And Hopefully For The Rest Of The Year Too)

As many of you know, my oldest son is serving a mission in Mexico. Most of the people in the area that he is serving in right now are very poor.

This week Elder Archibald sent us pictures of a man that he and his companion had the awesome opportunity to baptize. This man is an 83 year old farmer. His name is Pedro. He is very poor and he is a nobody in the eyes of the world. But in the eyes of the Lord, this poor humble farmer, is just as precious, just as valuable, and just as important, maybe even more so, than the richest person on the earth.

In Doctrine & Covenants 18:10 we read: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God".

I pray that we will all remember the worth of all souls in the eyes of God. I pray that we will treat all of our brothers and sisters the way our Savior would throughout this Holiday Season, and hopefully throughout the entire year. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Brother Archibald, High Councilor

Temple Work and Sharing Stories of Honorable People

I would like to express gratitude to those involved in Indexing at FamilySearch. Your quiet service often goes unrecognized, but it makes such a difference!

Recently I was working to identify the members of a devout Catholic family. The family had 10 children, but not much was known about what became of most of them. I ran across a newspaper photo of the mother with all six of her daughters. All of the daughters had become nuns and were assigned to fields of labor all around the Midwest. Part of the process of becoming a nun involves choosing a new religious name and so this is why they seemed to vanish from records. The caption under the photo identified the daughters only as Sister Laura or Sister Madeline, but it also noted the hospital, orphanage or care center where they were assigned. The new challenge became trying to match each daughters’ birth name with their Sister name. With the help of an index to social security claims, and using the parents’ names as my search criteria, I was able to see a list of the daughters’ religious names with their respective birth dates and then match the birth dates to the birth names to make the connection. Having that index was such a timesaver! It paved the way for me to go on and find the daughters in census records, also because of indexing. It’s a happy thought to know that the legacy of these devoted Sisters, who spent their lives in service to the poor and needy, can now be shared in the Family Tree and their temple work completed.

--Diane Demars
Stake Family History Consultant

Get Involved in Hastening the Work of The Lord

I remember that it was not that long ago that the Church really started to embrace technology. We have a great opportunity through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, lds.org and other means to spread the Word of God to the whole world. It’s amazing to see what we have and how we can use technology to help hasten the work of the Lord. 

As some of you may know I have a son serving a mission in the Australia Sydney South Mission. He has been out for 3 months now and it is so wonderful to see how he is growing. A few months before he left I was thinking to myself, “What can I do to be more involved with the experience of his mission?” Of course as a parent as soon as you find out where your son or daughter is going to serve you start to learn all about the area, and as I did I found some missionary blogs of missionaries in his mission. As I read their blogs and really started to ponder how I could be more involved, a blog was a great answer. 

We have some inactive and non-members in our family and I thought, “Wow, what a great way to share Dalton’s mission experience with them and others.” So from day 1 we have posted a weekly blog of his emails that we receive. We get his emails Sunday evening and we ponder his letter that night and the next day, and then Monday night for our family home evening we post his letter. At first I thought we would get the typical “not much going on, knocking doors stuff like that”, but I have been amazed at the letters that we receive. They are so in depth of his feelings and how the Lord is helping him grow I can just feel the spirit flow from his letters. It makes me want to be a better person. 

He challenges us each week to do something different like, go to the temple, pray, read the scriptures, have a good attitude and accept what happens. So as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we have a great opportunity to flood the Earth with good, uplifting messages and thoughts through the technology that we have at our finger tips. It will make a difference. Just think, if each of us relates a good uplifting post on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, people will read it, and it just may open that door to their heart to let a little bit of the Spirit in. That was my hope with Dalton’s blog that it may touch a family member or others, that they may feel the spirit and that it may lead to something more. 

My challenge to us as a stake is, when we think we have some idle time, let’s use technology to hasten the work of the Lord, post an uplifting story, do family history on line, we can even do indexing on our phones while we wait in a line at the store or the drive thru. This is my hope and prayer, that we will do all we can to further the work of the Lord.

-Brother Ryan Stott, High Councilor

The Power of Service

In the late 1970's a wise Bishop and Elders Quorum President in Davis County had an idea that ultimately changed the fate of generations for a particular inactive family in their ward. There was a needy, elderly couple also in the ward that lived in a home literally falling down around them. After one particular visit by the home teachers where birds had found their way into the house and were flying across the living room, the decision was made to work as a ward and build this family a new home.

To lead the project, the Bishop reached out to an inactive young building contractor that lived in the ward along with his young family. He was asked to lead the group of volunteers in building a new home on an adjacent piece of property for this family in need. After countless hours working long into the night with other members of the ward and quorum, this good man eventually had his heart softened as he began to recognize something of the Saviors example by serving others. Not long after the completion of the new home, the contractor took his wife and small boys and were sealed as an eternal family in the Ogden, UT temple.

I was one of those boys that went to the temple, my dad was the contractor spoken about. When I first saw the above video, Lift, my thoughts went to my dad and the example he set for me in serving others.

Despite the noise and confusion the world seems to constantly put in our face and news stream, serving others with love will always soften our hearts and bring peace to our souls. The Savior did it for us, and like Him, we can do it for others. Matthew 25:40 ...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

-Mason Niederhauser, Elders Quorum President in the 6th Ward

Stories from Sister Marielle Larsen's Mission

Sister Marielle Larsen from the 5th Ward has been serving in the France Lyon Mission for a little over 15 months. Her mother Anne shares some of her stories.

"Her mission covers the southern part of France and all of the French-speaking part of Switzerland, which is where I grew up. She served for 6 months in CH (short for Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland) where she got to see her relatives, and is now in Lyon, France.

"While in Switzerland, she taught a lady from India named S. S. had passed by the chapel and asked the sisters if they could tell her more about Jesus. They started teaching her and became close. One day she confided in them that she felt very lonely and depressed because she was far away from home, her husband worked a lot and she didn’t know anyone in CH or speak any French. Marielle said:

      Most days that we meet with her, she is bubbly and full of light and curiosity to learn more about Jesus Christ. This week, however, we had a really serious meeting with her. She was talking about how she has been full of anxiety recently and her head aches and she just can't stop feeling stressed. I testified of the power of prayer and of the comfort of the Holy Spirit. She said she has tried and she prays all the time, but she can't stop the anxiety. She expressed her despair because she has no one to share these things with but us, and she doesn't want to burden us. My companion and I were pretty lost. We had a rendezvous with a potential investigator so we had to leave, but we said we would come back. 

      Earlier that morning, before the meeting with S., we had missed our train. So I told my companion that we would take the bus, even though it would take longer. We got on the bus and a girl named T. sat down next to us with a beautiful scarf. I complimented her on it, but she didn't understand and replied in English. I excitedly started a conversation with her and it turned out she was from India and was looking for an apartment in town. We got off the bus before getting her number and I hoped we would see her again. 

       WELL, guess who we saw on our way back to S.’s house? T.! I practically ran after her and we got her number. As we were walking to S.'s home, a thought clicked in my head that Heavenly Father had totally put T. on our path so she could be friends with S.! We put them in contact with each other and T. is going to move into their apartment. Miracle! God loves S. and He loves us!

"Another experience that I want to share is the story of M. who is a 45-year-old man from Togo, Africa. I quote Marielle:

       M. has gone through some really tough things that he does not tell us about. He has no family left. One day he passed by the chapel and saw the sign saying The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The phrase Latter-Day Saints just kept running through his head, so he went to church one Sunday. This was the beginning of him learning about the Gospel.  

       He seemed to be very enthusiastic at first, but did not make any progress for a while. So one day, we taught one lesson where we really focused on the fact that God has commanded us to read the scriptures and that it's only in reading each day that we can come to understand them and gain a testimony. He committed to do it each day. We met with him 3 times this week and on Friday. He said that something had happened to him that had brought him a lot of joy. The night before, he had dreamed that he was dressed all in white. Then he woke up, got on his knees, and prayed to know what his dream meant. Immediately after he fell asleep and had another dream. It was a man telling him 'to leave the darkness.' He said that when he woke up, he wasn't sure what to think, so he opened the Book of Mormon and read a scripture that filled him with joy and he had been feeling joy all day. The change in him was so clear. He understands things we haven't even taught him or discussed. The Spirit is definitely a better teacher than I am. It's so cool to see the change that comes about in us when we apply the Gospel and follow the commandments of Christ in our lives.

"Marielle was transferred and M. was baptized shortly after.

"In her emails, Marielle often describes how grateful she is for her mission. She says:

       The best part of my mission is just being really close to Heavenly Father and the Spirit and feeling Him really near. 

       One thing that I feel like I am really learning on my mission is how the Lord truly does refine us in ways that we might not understand fully in the moment, but that in the process, he heals us above and beyond our expectations. It really fascinated me to learn about the skeletal system in my anatomy and physiology class at school. We learned about how our bones' cells are constantly breaking themselves down and building new bone behind. Thus, our bones continually renew the material there and we grow bigger and stronger. That's how conversion is. God doesn't just build over the old material and hope that the good things stick. That wouldn't work. He breaks us down and lets us feel around in the dark for a bit until we realize that we need His help. Then, with His help, we become 'new creatures' and our hearts are changed. He fills us in abundance. It's astounding and miraculous. He's so merciful and I can feel how my love for my Saviour has changed and deepened as I have had to lean on Him and put everything in His hands because I just. can't. do. it. alone. It's not possible. I can't do it without His love and His wisdom and I definitely can't do it without the Spirit. 

       The mission is really nothing at all like I imagined. I think I imagined us going door to door and being rejected all of the time and then finally one day having a huge miracle. It's not at all like that. Really, the thing we do the most is just serve people while testifying of Jesus Christ and of His Gospel. We try to show people Heavenly Father's love at all times, and I adore that. There's nothing as fulfilling as seeing the light in someone's eyes when they realize they're not alone with their problems, that they're not alone in this world. I love it. I love being a missionary and I love being here.

"I will just add that I have personally felt an added portion of the Spirit enter our home after Marielle was set apart as a missionary and I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings peace, comfort and joy into our life and I am thankful that Marielle can share it with others, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen"

The Fountain of Living Waters

I am truly saddened by the loss of a 10-year old boy in our stake and even more pained at the agony that others are feeling at this time over this tragic accident.

Several weeks ago my girls and I shot photos and a video sequence in Smithfield Canyon. The creek was clear and pure, and the air was fresh and filling. I had been pondering for a few weeks on our Savior Jesus Christ and how he is truly the fountain of living waters. In the book of Revelations in the New Testament, John the Revelator is given a great vision and in the vision one of the elders speaks to him and says: 

“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelations 7:17 - https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/rev/7.17?lang=eng#16)

This photo resulted from the outing with my daughters and now hangs in my office. To me it represents our Savior Jesus Christ, the Fountain of Living Waters and reminds me daily of Him.

I too have lost very close friends and family. Six of these people all died before their time. Sorrowfully I have shed many tears. I have waded in deep agony through the dregs of grief and sadness for many months at a time. In each case I pleaded daily with my Father in Heaven for mercy and comfort. It was in answer to these diligent prayers that I finally felt the “living fountains of waters” rush over me to bring fresh relief and take away my grief.

I know that our Savior is the Fountain of Living Waters. He will bring cool relief to our hearts and minds heated in anguish and pain if we will diligently and consistently pray to our Father in Heaven for peace.

He will answer.

-Brother Travis Hilton