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

Youth Perspective on The Importance of Family, Journals and Recording Your History

All growing up, I remember going to visit my Great Grandma Lewis. We would usually go to her house at least every other week and when we walked in, my brother Carson and I would walk towards a huge cookie tin she had on her counter.  We’d grab our regular box of animal crackers and sit down by her coffee table while she talked to us and our mom.  

Even after her being gone for a little over six years, I still remember laughing at all of her stories and opinions that she told. She was a very outspoken woman and was not afraid to share embarrassing stories about herself or others and I often benefited from that. When my grandmother died, the thing that made me the most sad was the fact that I couldn’t remember all of the stories she told me. I was lucky enough to remember her smile and the way we laughed together but those stories were a part of her memory and I had already forgotten them.  I told my mom why I was so upset and she lit up knowing that she could fix it.  She went and got my grandma’s autobiography that I hadn’t known about.  Her book is about 900 pages long and she died at the age of 90. 

As I began reading it, I started recognizing some stories she had told me as well as ones I had never heard about. I got to know my grandmother on a more personal level as I read about how her ancestors arrived in Utah and some stories from their lives and her testimony about them. I felt a deeper connection to her as I read about her childhood and her years in the young women’s program that I had recently become a part of. Soon, I started reading about her mission that she served with her second husband who died while they were serving in London.  

She spoke about how she felt encouraged by the Spirit to begin recording her and her late husband’s history as well as doing much of their genealogy work. Reading about the warmth and peace she felt while doing this work inspired me to begin working on genealogy and start keeping a journal.  

Although I’m not as persistent, detailed, and well spoken as she is, I have set a goal for myself to write about my week each Sunday night.  This goal has helped me to remember the Lord every Sabbath as I see how he touched my life every week.  I am so grateful for the example my grandmother set for me and often ponder about the differences in my life had she not followed her promptings from the Lord.

-Madison Sickler, Stake Family History Youth Consultant, Smithfield 6th Ward

Sharing the Message That We Believe in Christ!

Missionary experiences, in my past, have always found me. As time continues I've found that I must find them...but the rewards are far greater because of the effort and love I put into the search.

Living in Smithfield Utah, compared to other places around the world, has offered me the chance to look for opportunities to share the gospel. One such experience occurred due to the Ogden Temple dedication. Curiosity rather than theology instigated many discussions with our new neighbors from the Midwest so I cautiously invited them to attend the temple open house with our family.

We had a fantastic experience and they had many questions about the temple and eternal families. Their strong Southern Baptist background gave a foundation to a discussion that continued on my front porch later that night. As we shared our beliefs with each other and recognized the many similarities, the Spirit was present and we both felt that conviction. The sweetest moment was when this dear lady stated with conviction, "You believe in the same Jesus I do!". My mind cried out with a resounding "Yes!". These cherished neighbors have now moved back to the Midwest but I recently talked to them and they left with a solid understanding that we are all Christians and that we LOVE our Savior.

Missionary work is not simply a matter of baptizing those who are ready, they are making ready those to be baptized. I truly believe the Lord helped us to instill a seed that day and not just in them, but in me.

-Sister Noelle Harrild, Relief Society President, Smithfield 6th Ward