Around the Lake Ward

Hi All,

We had a wonderful Ward Conference on Sunday.  During the ward business, Mark N was released from activities committee (because he was married on Saturday), Marcia C was sustained as the communication specialist and Erin C was sustained to oversee the outreach communication efforts.

After the sacrament, Laurie A bore her testimony and told us of her upcoming baptism on July 18th. She spoke wonderfully and brought much excitement to the ward.

The Bishop and President Rasmussen were our 2 speakers at ward conference.  The Bishop spoke about his reflection on the past year and a half as Bishop with peace and satisfaction that the ward had done well.  He reminded us about his first few weeks being Bishop and the urgency he felt to 'grow the ward.'  He then gave us 4 reasons he felt that we needed to grow the ward.

1.  Build critical mass 

2.  So we would have enough members to carry out the responsibilities;  temple assignments, service, reach out to others, help those with special needs, touch the inactives...

3.  Show the church that our ward model is a good one for the singles in the church, that it is an effective way to serve singles.

4.  Rescue and help the many singles in the area who struggle and stray.
(Click here for the full text of the bishop's talk.)

Around the Lake Ward

Debbie is in Utah with our youngest son on a temple tour. He is heading to Argentina on his mission in a few weeks so the two of them went to see how many temples they could visit over the weekend. Their goal is 8 temples in 3 days (Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday)!

So, I will try to fill in and provide a tidbit about what is happening in the ward this week.

Last Monday we had a great barbeque at our house. It got hectic so we didn't get an exact count, but we think about 50 ward members and friends came to visit! It was wonderful. We had originally planned on 8 to 10 but then started hearing there would be quite a few more, so we scrambled to make sure we'd have enough food. Thanks to the generosity of so many who came, there was plenty of food for all. We had an absolutely wonderful time. I sure enjoy seeing so many people come together to socialize and strengthen friendships and I so enjoy your warm friendship with us.