In the New Jersey Morristown Mission there were four stakes and a district: Caldwell, Morristown, Scotch Plains, East Brunswick, and the Paterson District. On this occasion, the Liberty Park Stake was organized or created. Now there are five stakes in our mission. The new stake will include Newark, Jersey City, and the Union City and West New York area wards and branches. The Caldwell Stake was renamed and is now the Soldier Hill Stake and now includes Caldwell, Englewood, Emerson, Passaic, and Paterson and the areas surrounding. Emerson Ward was renamed and will now be the Soldier Hill Ward. Scotch Plains Stake includes Short Hills, East Orange, Elizabeth, Maplewood, Plainfield, and Perth Amboy. Each stake has four Spanish units and they all have from nine to ten wards or branches.
It was a special day in New Jersey. Elder Sinclair commented that from one branch 31 years ago we now have three stakes today. It was also mentioned that we multiply by dividing. The church is definitely growing here. There are lots of new members and they will have opportunities for growing into callings.
New Jersey is a melting pot for many different nationalities. In this meeting, headsets were given for those who did not understand English. There were channels for French, Spanish, and Portuguese. I know that Korean was mentioned also, but I don't think there was a channel given for translation.
Elder Christofferson lived in New Jersey as a youth. He mentioned living in Somerset (which is close to where we live) and as a teenager he and the youth here would perform each summer in the Hill Cumorah pageant. He said that there was only one stake in New Jersey then. His testimony was strengthened at this time and he considered the Hill Cumorah as sacred ground.
There was a wonderful youth choir that sang a medley of "Stand in Holy Places" and "Helaman's Army." Elder Christofferson asked that the choir come up after the meeting and shake hands with him. We were also able to greet many of our wonderful Young Adults as all of their wards or branches were a part of the meeting. What a joy it is to see them often.
Elder Hancock's Birthday
We don't remember telling the young adults that Elder Hancock was going to have a birthday, but two of our classes came prepared with decorated cakes, balloons, and one place even had pizza to celebrate. Like usual, they are always ready to party!
 |
| Paterson |
 | |||||||||
| Elizabeth |
By the way . . . he says he is still 29!
John's Visit
This last week we have had the wonderful experience to have our son John and his oldest three children, Kiersten, Brayden, and Stephanie come for a visit. It has been a week filled with seeing the sights in New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia and then still taking time to attend Institute classes in the evening and then playing cards at night. I think we were able to successfully wear them out - but at the cost of wearing us out too! What a wonderful time to be with them.
 |
| Taking the train into the City |
 |
| Ferry to Ellis Island |
Empty Sky Memorial in New Jersey built across from Ground Zero.
 |
| Ready to enjoy "Cake Boss" treats |
 |
| Near Princeton |
 |
| Playing UNO after Institute in Newark |
From this week's lesson:
According to Moses 8:15, the Lord is disappointed in the decision of Noah’s granddaughters to marry the sons of men. “The daughters of thy sons have sold themselves” and his “anger was kindled for they [the sons of men] will not hearken to my voice”. What does it mean that Noah’s granddaughters “sold themselves”? In choosing to marry wicked men, Noah’s granddaughters forfeited the opportunity to receive the full blessings Heavenly Father offers those who marry in His covenant. The same principle applies today. The ultimate purpose of the creation, the fall, the atonement is for families to be sealed together. The very purpose for which we exist is to be sealed as families. If we choose to not seek these blessings of eternal life, then in a sense our existence is for not.
No comments:
Post a Comment