"Follow the Prophet, He knows the Way"
Our sacrament meeting was quiet this week since the Dan Rasband family are enjoying their time in Hawaii. Usually Yuna scoots over to sit as close to grandpa and me as she can. Dojin is indifferent towards us, except when he wants a treat out of my bag or something to color on. Jennie and Jordan were lucky because they were invited to share the condo in exchange for a little help with the kids.
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| Jordan and Yuli |
During our Come Follow Me this morning, Roy and I began talking about being members of a true and living church. We talked about all of the revelation and guidance Russell M. Nelson has recieved and shared since becoming President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. We have been truly blessed throughout this pandemic because of changes and policies that were implemented before 2020 that prepared us to weather the storm. We decided to document some of these changes in our letter today.
Starting in 2018, the visiting and home teaching programs were changed to ministering. This has been a hard change for many, but we see the inspiration in this plan, as it eliminated the need to be in people's homes each month and encouraged us to use other methods to serve and minister to those we are assigned, as well as others around us.
A new activity program was announced for children and youth. The relationship the Church has had with the Boy Scouts of America was ended. I think we will see many blessings in the future due to this change.
The Hymnbook and the Children's Songbook are being revised. This will create unified editions for the worldwide Church.
We have been asked and encouraged to use the full name of our church-The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Truthfully, I have thought about this one for a long time since it is very clear in the scriptures what our church is to be called. I was glad to see this implemented. It's not always easy to break old habits, but it's good to continue to work on this as we share the gospel with others.
One of the biggest announcments/changes was in that of the Home-Centered, Church-supported gospel study, that also included changing the number of hours spent in church. This has been a great blessing in our family, and continues to be. It was amazing, when we were unable to attend church at all for several months, to see the inherent blessings in this plan. Each week I find my testimony strenghtened as we discuss the lesson.
Besides being prepared to have church at home, the new policy of allowing people to go to the temple after being married somewhere else, without having to wait a year, probably helped a lot of young couples that desired to get married during the time period that the temples were closed. The fact that women, youth, and children may now serve as witnesses has helped the work to go forward, also.
There have been many other changes. When they announced that there would no longer be Stake Young Men Presidents, I was wondering if that would affect my calling, but it didn't, I'm still Stake Young Women's President. However, I had already had two different YM president's to work with, and they gave me this third one (part of the high council) right in the middle of planning a combined fireside, but I made it through okay. 😊
As we look at all of these changes that have been directed by President Nelson, we can see that revelation continues today. The Lord doesn't leave us alone to weather uncertain times. As the primary song says, "Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, in this there is safety, in this there is peace...
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