Recently members from the Public Affairs Committee in the Denver Metro Area were invited to attend an evening of cultural enlightenment with the Turkish Muslim Community. This group is part of the Multicultural MOSAIC Foundation, and their mission is to inform and practice open dialogue in order to promote peace and harmony in the world.
At this dinner, one of the leaders of MOSAIC taught us about Ramadan. After which, Elder Hillier of the Seventy discussed Mormon Fasting.
Here are some things that were taught:
-Ramadan is practiced by faithful Muslims throughout the world
-Ramadan is named after the month of the Muslim calendar that the community spends fasting
-Fasting during Ramadan occurs from sun-up to sun-down, about 16 hours a day. This includes food and drink.
-At the end of the fast each day, families are encouraged to engage in a Thanksgiving type feast and invite friends and family over to enjoy the meal
-After Ramadan, Muslims embrace 3 solid days of celebrations with family and food!
-Ramadan is practiced to promote humility and to learn to serve those less fortunate
-Muslims are asked to contribute a portion of their income (2.5%) to the poor.
In many ways, their Ramadan is similar to the Mormon fast. Here is what the Mormon fast consists of:
-Once a month, usually the first Sunday of the month, Mormons are asked to fast for 2 meals or 24 hours. This includes both food and drink.
-Mormons are asked to contribute the money they saved by not eating (i.e., the money they would have spent on food) to the poor. This money is given to the Bishop of the ward (congregation), who uses this money to help those less fortunate in his congregation. If more money is collected than needed, that money is given to other wards in the area, or sent to Salt Lake City for the church as a whole to use throughout the world.
-Fasting is used as a means to help members be humble and to learn to serve those less fortunate.
From this evening, members of the Public Affairs Committee realized that Muslims and Mormons share many of the same ideals and beliefs. In fact, we are very similar in many ways. It was wonderful to share our mutual beliefs and learn from each other.
Plus, as an added bonus, we got to enjoy their fantastic feast after the sun went down- and it was DELICIOUS!!!! Truly, The Mosaic Foundation is a wonderful organization, and we were blessed to partake in such a wonderful evening.
A few weeks ago we posted about Sister Redford serving in Argentina. You can read about her HERE. Now, her sister has joined her in serving the Lord, only instead of Argentina, she is in New York.
Here is a recent letter from Sister Carolyn Redford:
Hello family!
Sounds like you guys had a pretty superb
week! Lyss, I'm super jealous! Dad, I remember you showing me that song,
and I really liked it! I can't believe A is going on a mission!
That's so awesome! I wish him the best of luck! Mom, my talk went pretty
well! I got through it at least, and took up an appropriate amount of
time! So that's good. I felt a little bad because our ward is part deaf,
so one of the elders translates during the sacrament, and I was talking
really fast because I was super nervous, so oops. But other than that
it was good! I really enjoyed church this past week. We learned about
covenants and baptism and it renewed my faith in those topics. Anyway,
my week was pretty good. I was really frustrated the other day because
it seemed like literally nothing was working out. It's just been tough
because somedays are super good and some days are rougher, but we
canNOT figure out what the difference is between those days. But we are
working with some really awesome people who are definitely prepared.
Anyway, nothing too interesting happened this week. Yesterday, Paul ( a
member) did this goodbye breakfast for our district, and he made the
best bacon I've ever had. Then he had a prize for the people who were
leaving( a box of Cheerios!) but they had to rap for it! Only one of
them actually rapped ( the white boy from Utah), then one of them did a
backflip, one of them did the worm and the last one sang! It was pretty
hilarious and I super wish I would've recorded it.
Anyway,
this week we're trying to focus more on faith and hope. I never realized
that hope is having trust in a God and His promises. And faith is
having the courage to act on it. So, hope plays a bigger part than I
realized. I'm hoping to be a little better this week, and I'll show my
faith but working like crazy! It's gonna be great! I hope you guys have a
good week too! Love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Redford
P.s. Today is transfers! I made it through six whole weeks and I'm still alive!
Sister Redford is serving from the Falcon Park Ward.
The annual stake softball tournament is upon us- and we know there is great excitement all around!
Not all of the details have been ironed out, so look for announcements in your wards. So far, this is what the stake presidency has sent out:
On August 9, we will be holding our annual softball tournament at
Redstone Park. It seems to take a while to pin down metro districts
with the precise date. Now that we have the date, and with this date
quickly approaching, we wanted to be sure you were aware of this event.
We will be circulating a tournament schedule in the next few
days. We will hope to have men's teams, young men's teams, and
women's teams (consisting of both young women and relief society
members). Non-member friends are invited and encouraged to participate.
We will have more information soon.
Jimmer Fredette and his wife, Whitney, will be speaking to the youth in
the Stake Center this Sunday, July 27, at 7:00 p.m. All youth and their
parents are encouraged to attend. This will be a great missionary
activity so youth are encouraged to bring their friends.
Although
other members of the stake may also wish to attend, we encourage such
members to take seats in the overflow space in the cultural hall, and
leave seats in the chapel for the youth and their parents.
This should be a great event. We look forward to seeing you there.
In the 1840's, Mormon Pioneers crossed the plains from Nauvoo, IL to Salt Lake City, UT. This was a difficult journey, but on July 24th, 1847 the first group of pioneers finally reached the Salt Lake Valley. Since that time, Mormons around the world have celebrated this momentous occasion.
Here is a recent talk given by one of our church leaders, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, speaking of those early pioneers- and how we can learn from their strength to make our own futures brighter. This talk was given at the Ogden Pioneer Celebration on July 13, 2014:
In a few weeks the eyes of the Church will be on this city as the
Ogden Utah Temple is getting ready to be rededicated. The open house
will begin August 1, and a cultural celebration will be held on
September 20. So Ogden, get ready for this historic event. It will be
wonderful and a time for a spiritual new beginning. You LDS members, I
invite you to talk to your bishops to make sure that you have a current
temple recommend—and take your friends to the open house. You who are
friends of the Church, I invite you to ask your Mormon friends what the
temple is all about. Don’t be shy about asking, and if your friends
don’t know the answer, the missionaries surely will.
It is interesting to note that when the original Ogden Temple was
dedicated in 1972 there were only 14 temples worldwide, and now there
are 142. Church membership then was 3 million, and now there are more
than 15 million members worldwide.
With such great things happening around us today, it is wise to
prepare for the future by looking to the past. Lessons from the past
can help us to better manage the present and prepare for the future.
More than a century and a half has passed since the first pioneers made the 1,300-mile trek
from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake Valley. What they and those who
followed them did was difficult and dangerous. I doubt that many of
those who set foot on that journey really understood what they were
getting into or that they looked forward to the daily effort it
eventually required. But they did know it was going to be hard and that
there was a possibility they or someone they loved would not finish the
journey.
And yet they came.
By the tens of thousands they came.
And we—the Church, the nation, and even the world—are richer because they came.
Theirs was an act of faith and courage. They believed that God had a
plan for them and a place prepared where they could worship God and live
their religion in peace. It is no wonder that 160 years later we still
commemorate their achievement with songs, speeches, parades, fireworks,
commemorative treks, pins, balloons, banners, and T-shirts.
I am pleased to accept the invitation to be with you today to celebrate, remember, and honor those remarkable pioneers.
As you might know, none of my ancestors made the trek across the plains to these valleys in the Mountain West.
But then, even though my ancestors were not numbered among those who
took part in that great enterprise, I claim the heritage of those noble
pioneers as my own. Their example has influenced my life for good. I
treasure the foundation they established for the restored gospel. I
honor what they did, what they became, and what they gave to us as a
result of their sacrifice.
Today it is my great desire that those of you who descended from
those noble pioneers will allow me to praise and honor these great souls
as if they were my own ancestors.
President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf waves to attendees at the Pioneer Days Devotional in
Ogden, Utah, on July 13. Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver.
Whether we descended from the pioneers or not, it is wise to remember
that the glory of their sacrifice belongs to them. We can’t place the
trophies they earned for their faith and industry on our mantels. We
can’t pin the medals they earned for their courage and bravery on our
chests.
Our generation will need to stand on our own achievements, not on those of previous generations.
In the life to come, I will be eager to meet with those legendary
giants who gave so much to found these cities here in the valleys of the
mountains. I think they will be pleased by our interest in them. I
think they will be humbled by our admiration. But I also believe that
they will be far more concerned not about what they did, but about what we did as a result of their sacrifice.
I have a feeling they will be pleased far more by our performance
than by applause, praise, or parades. They will want to know if we
gained anything from the hard-won lessons they learned through
tribulation and trial. They will want to know if their sacrifice and
endurance made a difference to us and to our children.
All Is Well?
Attendees at the Ogden Institute Pioneer Days Devotional in Ogden, Utah, on July 13. Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver.
As I think about our pioneer heritage, one of the most moving things that comes to mind is the song “Come, Come, Ye Saints.”Those who made that long journey often sang this hymn during their
trek. They sang it at night as the campfire was fading, giving way to
the darkness of night.
When I think of the lyrics of that hymn and the context in which it
was sung, it brings tears to my eyes. I am very much aware that all was not
well with these Saints. All they had to do was to look around and see
how it really was. They were plagued by sickness, heat, fatigue, cold,
fear, hunger, pain, doubt, and even death.
But in spite of having every reason to shout, “All is not
well,” they cultivated an attitude that we cannot help admiring today.
They looked beyond their troubles to eternal blessings. They were
grateful in their circumstances. I am in awe of those wonderful souls
who, despite every evidence to the contrary, sang with all the
conviction of their souls: “All is well.”
On a day such as this when our hearts and minds are turned to the
great sacrifices of those pioneers, our praise for them is empty if it
does not cause inner reflection on our part. Today I would like to talk
about a few of the attributes that inspire me as I contemplate the
sacrifice and commitment of those great souls.
Number 1: Compassion
The pioneers looked out for one another. They cared for each other
irrespective of their social, economic, or political background. Even
when it slowed their progress, even when it caused inconvenience, even
when it meant personal sacrifice and toil, they helped each other.
Handcart pioneers near South Pass, Wyoming.
In our goal-driven and partisan world, individual or party objectives
can sometimes take precedence over taking care of fellowmen or
strengthening the kingdom of God. In today’s society, reaching certain
ideological goals can appear to be a measure of our worth. Setting and
achieving goals can be a wonderful thing. But when success in reaching
goals comes at the expense of disregarding, ignoring, or hurting others,
the cost of that success may be too precious.
The pioneers not only looked after those in their company, but they
considered those who came after them—they planted crops for the wagon
trains that followed to harvest, whoever those harvesters might be. They
included people of all walks of life.
They learned the practical benefits of helping others. It must have
given them comfort to know that just as they reached out to others, when
the time came that they needed help, others would reach out to them.
In our day, it is easy to isolate ourselves, look only to our own
desires, and discount the interests of others. The pioneers knew the
strength of family and friends. And because they depended on each other
they became strong. Friends became family. They knew that becoming
insulated and thinking primarily of themselves was a road that would
lead to almost certain disaster.
In our world, examples of self-interest and self-indulgence are so
abundant. It is very easy to slip into that mindset. The pioneers serve
as a good reminder of why we must break away from the temptation to
isolate ourselves and, instead, reach out to help each other.
We must have compassion and love for one another.
Number 2: Work
President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, with their first
great-grandchild, Eva Mae Evans, and grandson Eric Evans at the Pioneer
Days Devotional in Ogden, Utah, on July 13. Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver.
The pioneers knew the value of work. The first line of that great
pioneer hymn is “Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear.”
This phrase became an anthem to the weary travelers—“No toil nor
labor fear.” It is difficult to imagine how hard these great souls
worked. Walking was one of the easiest things they did. They all had to
pull together to supply and provide food, repair wagons, tend to the
animals, minister to the sick and feeble, seek and collect water, and
protect themselves from the pressing dangers of the elements and the
many hazards of the wilderness.
Today we sometimes struggle in the morning to get out of our soft
beds and into the bathroom for a hot shower. We eat a nutritious
breakfast and drive in comfortable cars to air-conditioned offices.
We can learn something from the pioneers. They woke up each morning
with clearly defined purposes and goals that everyone understood—to
serve God and fellowmen and to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley. Every day
those purposes and goals were clear to them; they knew what they needed
to do and that each day’s progress mattered.
They knew they couldn’t simply take a day off. Each day they
literally put their shoulders to the wheel in order to get closer to
their new place of refuge. Some days they made good progress. Some days
they made little. But they didn’t have the option to give up. In spite
of feeling overwhelmed, in spite of many good reasons to become
discouraged and disheartened, they did not give up. They could not give
up. No matter how difficult, no matter how much they wanted to do
something else, they kept their eyes on their goal and on their purpose.
Each day and with every step they edged relentlessly closer to their
destination.
In our time—when so much of what we desire is so easily within our
reach—it is tempting to turn aside or give up whenever the road ahead
seems a little bumpy or when the slope tends to rise so steeply before
us. In those moments, it might inspire us to reflect on those men,
women, and children who did not allow sickness, hardship, pain, and even
death to deter them from their chosen path.
A pioneer family with a handcart.
But the pioneers did not work only because they had to. In the
process, their labors enlarged their character and broadened their
understanding. Work diminished their natural tendencies toward self-love
and magnified their understanding of their divine nature. It heightened
their compassion for others. In the labors of each day they discovered
and solidified an inner strength and profound spiritual depth.
They learned that doing the hard things—even applying themselves to
the tasks they really did not want to do—deepened and strengthened body,
mind, and spirit. This habit firmed their souls and became a blessing
to them long after their trek across the plains and mountains had ended.
Lorenzo Clark was a baby when his English emigrant family arrived in
Salt Lake City in 1853. He later wrote of what it was like growing up
during that time: “My earliest impression is one of work,” he said. “The
idea and ambition of everyone around me seemed to be to accomplish more
and do it better than anyone else. Work was more [natural] than play,
even among the young children who were expected to carry wood and water,
run errands, feed the chicken and pigs, kill crickets and grasshoppers
on sight with sticks, gather [alfalfa] seed, and help as far as possible
with the gardening. … Though we … enjoyed and remembered the willow
whistles and spool tops made and put into our hands by older persons,
the real spirit of the pioneer group was industry and everyone
[despised] the idler.”
President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “We play too much. We work too
little. We overeat, overdrink, and overplay. We are the richest people
in the world, but not the sturdiest. We are at ease in America. And so
we need to recapture the spirit of our parents and grandparents.”
The next time we groan about an uncomfortable, inconvenient task that
we know we should do, perhaps we can remember the example of these
great pioneers, rise up, and do it.
Number 3: Optimism
When the pioneers sang “Come, Come, Ye Saints,” they voiced a third lesson: “But with joy wend your way.”
A choir of institute students performs at the Pioneer Days Devotional in Ogden, Utah, on July 13. Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver.
It is one of the great ironies of our age that we are blessed with so
much and yet we can be so unhappy. The wonders of prosperity and
technology overwhelm us and shower us with security, entertainment,
instant gratification, and convenience. And yet all around us we see so
much unhappiness.
How many people do you know who are truly happy? Can you say the same for yourself?
The pioneers, those wonderful souls who sacrificed so much, went
without and hungered for even the most basic of necessities to survive.
The pioneers understood something about happiness. They understood that
happiness doesn’t come as a result of luck or accident. It most
certainly doesn’t come from having all of our wishes come true.
Happiness doesn’t come from external circumstance. It comes from the
inside—regardless of what is happening around us.
If they were here with us today there is no doubt in my mind that
they would tell us we can be gloriously happy even if our favorite TV
show is cancelled, traffic comes to a crawl, the rain spoils our picnic,
or the fast food worker forgot to include straws or packets of ketchup
at the drive-through window.
I do not need to tell you stories of pioneer tribulations or the
deprivations they faced. I do not need to tell you of how they went
without food, how they suffered in sickness, endured heat and cold, and
how they tearfully buried their loved ones in shallow graves.
And yet, listen! Can you hear them? Can you hear their voices
singing? “We’ll make the air with music ring, shout praises to our God
and King.”
Oh, what inspiration we can take from this.
When we complain about a Church meeting that has gone four minutes
over its allotted time, perhaps we can hear the voices of those blessed
pioneers: “Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard? 'Tis not so;
all is right.”
A covered wagon on a raft being pulled across the Platte River, where other wagons are waiting.
When we cover our face with our hands and complain that someone else
got the promotion, someone else got the part, someone else got the
biggest slice of pizza, it might be helpful to remind ourselves that
there is a difference between the profound and trivial.
The pioneers sang, “But if our lives are spared again to see the
Saints their rest obtain, oh, how we’ll make this chorus swell—all is
well! All is well!”
So often our excuses for not being happy are in reality trivial and
vain, as though we are looking for a reason to be at odds with the
world—as though we want to prove somehow that we cannot experience joy.
The pioneers knew that the things around them did not determine their
happiness, but the things within most certainly did. And with that
spirit they found happiness in every circumstance and in every
trial—even in those trials that reached down and troubled the deep
waters of their very souls.
The pioneers were not supermen and superwomen. They were just like
you and me. How often did they wonder if they could go on? They must
have asked themselves over and again, “Can I do what I have been asked
to do?”
But they pressed on. In faith, one step at a time, they pressed on.
They trusted in God and His divine and merciful plan. And they left a
legacy that will inspire and strengthen generations to come.
Their Trials, Our Trials
The pioneers had their trials.
We have ours.
Some might say theirs were much more difficult than ours, but I am
not so certain. You are familiar with Brigham Young’s famous saying:
“This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty, and all manner of
persecution and be true. But my greatest fear is that they cannot stand
wealth.” “The worst fear I have about this people is that they will get
rich in this country [and] forget God.”
Attendees at the Ogden Institute Pioneer Days Devotional in Ogden, Utah, on July 13. Photo by Sarah Jane Weaver.
We sometimes look back on what the pioneers had to endure and with a
sigh of relief say, “Thank goodness I didn’t live in that time. I
couldn’t have survived.”
But I wonder if those courageous pioneers, had they been able to see
us today, might not have voiced the very same concern. Of course times
and circumstances are different today. They had their challenges—we have
ours. They had their successes—we have ours. But as the circumstances
may have changed, the principles for respectfully and successfully
living together as a caring and prospering community under God have not
changed. They remain the same.
If we think that we have become successful as a result of our own
abilities and intellect only, if we worship our own capacities and
idolize the gods of money, power, and fame,” we have much to learn from the pioneers.
From the pioneers we can learn to have faith and trust in God; we can
learn to be compassionate to others; we can learn that work and
industry not only bless us temporally but spiritually and that happiness
is available to us no matter our circumstances.
Pioneers burying a baby.
In the end, the best way we can honor the pioneers—the best way for
us to repay our debt of gratitude to them—goes beyond making and hearing
speeches, marching in parades, or attending fireworks celebrations.
The best way we can show our gratitude is by incorporating into our
own lives the faithfulness to God’s commandments, the compassion and
love for our fellowmen, the industry, optimism, and joy the pioneers
demonstrated so well in their own lives.
As we do so, we can reach across the decades of time and take the
hands of those noble pioneers in ours. We can add our own voices to
theirs as we sing with them the great pioneer anthem and “make the air
with music ring, shout praises to our God and King; above the rest these
words we’ll tell—all is well! All is well!”
May our hearts, spirits, and voices be filled with the same passion,
industry, and faith of our pioneer forefathers today and always, and may
we teach our children the same is my prayer and blessing, in the name
of Jesus Christ, amen.
Besides helping the stake with this blog, we work with the communities in which we live to build relationships with people not of our faith. Specifically, we try to build relationships with opinion leaders in each town (mayors, school board members, leaders of other churches, etc.) and work with them to make our communities stronger.
In Highlands Ranch, we help organize various service opportunities- such as the Hunger Stops Here Food Drive organized last April and the Teacher Appreciation Dinner also held in April. We also helped with the 4th of July Float and Parade as a way to try and inform people about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We do not proselyte, we simply try to build relationships with those not of our faith.
Serving on the Public Affairs committee has been both rewarding and fun! There is never a dull moment as we try to build relationships and dispel myths, and most importantly- to serve others.
For more information about what Public Affairs does, you can click HERE.
Yesterday (June 22) was a crazy day at church. We had
about 10 non-members there, which made up about a third of our
congregation! Maybe a fourth. Didn’t count. We planned on having 5
lessons before and after church, we were even gonna do splits with
members, but it didn’t work out quite like we planned. When does it ever
work out like we plan though? The second hour we did young women’s with
our new adopted 12 year old and invited two 20-something non-members to
join us too. I was leading the lesson and it was, again, nothing like I
had planned. We’re using the new come follow me curriculum and there
are lots of great short videos that go with the lessons. I had picked a
video of Elder Holland explaining who Christ is with videos of Christ’s
life, but when we got to the lesson I accidentally played the wrong
video. It turned out to be the video of the atonement, which is a bit
gruesome (someone’s ear gets chopped off), and I absolutely had not
prepped the class for it. Kinda weird to just sit down at a new church
and watch a video of someone suffering and dying. I felt pretty stupid,
but we watched it anyway and had a good talk about the atonement and
watched another short video about how we can forgive people because of
the atonement. Craziness. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I
thought for sure that was the end of those investigators. We called one
of the girls later and she said she liked it a lot and was really
interested in meeting again so maybe that video was just what she
needed?
This week was a heavy week for me. Our investigator pool
is growing and we just had a baptism and have one coming up on July 6,
but even so I feel discouraged from time to time. Just goes to show that
numbers don’t matter! I’m learning that if I don’t take care of myself
spiritually, I won’t be prepared for the challenges of the day. In my
personal study I’ve been spending most of my time learning how to teach
the lessons (which is great and necessary) but very little time finding
answers to my own questions and strengthening my own spiritual reserves.
Today I read Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
My grace is sufficient for
thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ
may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s
sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
and it really helped me refocus and feel peace about what
I’m doing as a missionary. I love the idea that weaknesses give us an
opportunity to better understand Christ and for his grace to work in our
lives. It’s super hard for me to own up to my weaknesses because I’m
prideful, but I’m trying to be humble so that I can feel Christ’s help
more in my own life. Sometimes I forget when I pray for strength that I
have to work for it. Learning to be spiritually/emotionally/mentally
strong is basically the same as becoming physically strong; you don’t
get stronger by lifting a tiny weight over and over again! Gotta add on
the weights and then drink some nasty muscle milk and be sore for a
while!
The important thing this week is that Olga was baptized! As
the day approached, we realized that Saturday mornings at the beach in
Sochi are crawling with people…and that can be kinda awkward for a
baptism. Sister McGhie told me that at another baptism a man literally
chased the Elders around because they were wearing their white baptismal
clothes and it drew a lot of attention. So the whole week we prayed
that the weather would be good but not too good. I put in an order for
clouds and a bit of rain in the morning but then clear skies by 11. The
morning of the baptism came and it was raining pretty hard. We were
nervous that it would keep raining and she wouldn’t want to be baptized.
The weather really affects old ladies here and they don’t leave their
houses when it rains if they can help it. But we prayed and prayed and
prayed that it would stop raining in time for the baptism and it cleared
up by about 10!
What we didn’t know is that the sea gets pretty tumultuous
when it storms, and the waves were “gnarly” for an 83 year old (in the
words of Elder Goodwin). We decided to have two elders go out with her.
The waves were coming in too fast to get her past where they break and I
irreverently kept yelling at them “JUST PICK HER UP!!!” It wasn’t one
of my finer moments, but they weren’t making any progess. They picked
her up and got her out farther but had to baptize her twice because it
was still rough and hard to get her completely immersed.
Sister Nicholas
Sister Nicholas is serving from the Westridge Ward. For more information about her mission, you can visit her blog HERE.
Here is a favorite recipe from the Hamilton family in the Westridge Ward. It is great for everyone, but if you are gluten free than this is a must-try recipe! Enjoy!
Crustless Cranberry-Pecan Pie
¾ cup melted butter
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups flour (I use whole white wheat flour)
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup chopped pecans
1.Preheat oven to
375 degrees.“Pam” 9 inch square cake
pan.
2.Beat butter,
sugar, eggs, and vanilla until thick and fluffy, about 5 minutes.Fold in flour by hand.Fold in cranberries and pecans.Pour into prepared pan and spread
evenly.
3.Bake 45 minutes or
until fork inserted in center comes out clean.Serve hot or cold.
The BYU Men's Soccer Team came to Highlands Ranch and hosted a FREE soccer clinic for kids! The coach of the Men's soccer team at Highlands Ranch High School, Bud Harper, organized the event.
We are grateful for his help, as well as the help of so many others who worked so hard to make this event a huge success!
Abigail Keenan provided these wonderful pictures of the event:
For this week's Missionary Monday, we want to highlight the efforts of Sister Nalen in organizing a float for the Highlands Ranch 4th of July Parade as well as putting together a booth at The Town Center for people to come and learn more about the church. Thank you, Sister Nalen, for all of your efforts- it really paid off as we were able to showcase the stake in a positive light!
The theme for the float was "Family, isn't it about, time?"
About 30 people from the stake came and braved the 90 degree weather and walked with the float. It was great to see so many youth!
Some primary kids joined in the fun as well!
The float had a camping theme:
The booth (located in Town Center) had a fishing game for kids to fish. They fished out candy along with a pass along card. Over 400 pass along cards got handed out as a result!
Inside the booth visitors could find various items to take home, ranging from Bibles to copies of The Proclamation On the Family as well as ask questions and find out more about the church.
The missionaries were also on hand to try and talk to people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you to everyone involved! It was a wonderful day, and a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about what we believe!
