Bishopric's Message

Brothers and Sisters,

As the song says, “This is the most wonderful time of the year”. Why is it so wonderful? In our climate it is quite cold. It is hard to travel and hard to move around easily. Nothing is growing in the garden and there are not many birds on the bird bath.

This is a wonderful time of year because we draw close to family and friends. We show love to one another by gifts and by acts of service. We enjoy the beauty and silence of fresh fallen snow. Bright colored lights drive away the darkness. The smell of pine, either real or imitation, scents our homes. Pictures of the Savior and advent calendars grace our walls. Wonderful treats are baked and shared with friends and neighbors. These are all reasons to love and look forward to Christmas.

This is the most wonderful time of the year because we can appreciate how much our Heavenly Father loves us. We can imagine a beautiful young baby being born to a virgin mother in a stable in Bethlehem. We can imagine angels appearing to shepherds in the fields urging them to go and visit their newly born king. We can see towns folk and rich nobles from the east following a star to a small stable in Bethlehem to worship this special child whose birth had been foretold by Prophets. This child is the fulfillment of Prophecy and the key to our eventual return to live with our Father in Heaven. It is appropriate for time to be divided into two epochs, BC before his birth, and AD, after his birth.

We are called to be reborn through Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost into new men and women through the atoning sacrifice this Child performed on our behalf 33 years after his birth. He was willing to be born and then give his life for us. We celebrate his birth this month. Let us do so with quiet acts of service, often anonymous for one another. Let us celebrate his birth with prayer. Let us celebrate his birth with generosity to the less fortunate. Let us remember how this Child has blessed our lives and bless the lives of others.

Thank you for all you do.

With all our Love,

Peruvian Park Ward Bishopric

Relief Society Message

The “lights” have been shining brightly all through the year with our theme from Matthew 5:16 this year in Relief Society, so having the LDS initiative for the holidays to “Light the World in 25 ways over 25 days” is a wonderful way to bring this year to a close with our beautiful Sisters and their families.

We have been taught that by serving others, we serve God. The quote by C.S. Lewis on our birthday cards was “Don’t shine so others can see you, but shine so that through you others can see God.”

Last Thursday, the sisters were privileged to have 6 Bishops serving our dinner for the Holiday Social. We thank all who participated and all who helped make the evening so enjoyable. We have so many talented and creative sisters in the ward. We want to encourage all of our ward family, young and old, to find ways to serve as many people as you can, starting with your own family and then reaching out to the community during the month of December. We wish you a season filled with peace, joy, love and happiness as you fulfill this challenge and in so doing, come closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. We Love and Pray for You!

Young Men's Message

What a wonderful time of year we're in. We're blessed to live where we do and enjoy the blessings that we have. We hope that you've been able to take some time to really think about how blessed we truly are.

If you go and talk to our young men they should be able to communicate with you a bit better as they've just completed working on the communication merit badge. A huge thank you to Sister Weatbrook for coming and teaching us. We had a fun combined activity in which we had to make a desert with a strange combination of foods. Some were edible while others made us not want to eat ever again...it was fun either way.

As we start in on this time of year we hope you'll reflect on what all the celebrating is really about. Our church leaders have implemented a #lighttheworld initiative in where we're challenged to "light" the world by different acts each day leading up to Christmas. To learn more check out #lighttheworld and see what you can do to get into the "lighting".

The Lord came to this world to give us peace as he stated "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you" (John 14:27) Let's resolve to finding that peace this Christmas season or at any time in our lives. Come unto Christ and he will give us peace regardless of any situation we are in. He lives and loves us and wants us to have Joy.

Primary Message

The primary is gearing up for a very exciting month! The Christmas social is always fun for us! We get to write our letters to Santa and have our pictures taken with him too! So everyone bring your neighbors and your grandkids to enjoy breakfast and Santa Claus after!! We also are excited for our crafts to celebrate the season, and we are always excited for what will come next year!

We will also be singing in sacrament on the 18th! We have been learning a new song and hopefully it will help others feel the spirit as much as it has for us!

We would like to give a special thanks to all of the Ward that has been helping us out with substituting and volunteering this year! We have been lacking on publicly appreciating those that have served in the primary and have been released! Thank you! We love you all, we miss you, and hope you have some amazing experiences in the future!

Single Adults

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Peruvian Park Single Adults from ward single representatives Maryella Cundick and Louise Cook!

Announcements

Welcome Baby Ruby Dawnell Savage

Welcome Baby Gideon Brown

Weekly Events

• Sundays | 9am Choir Practice
• Tuesdays | 5pm Basketball

Newsletter Notes

• Please email anything you want included in the newsletter to CatherineOlson@gmail.com anytime of the month! Send me Upcoming Events, Important Dates, Birth Announcements, New Move-In's, Goodbye Letters, Ward Activities, Exciting News and Anything Else! Don't forget your gorgeous photos!
• Update your ward records online with your picture, email and current phone number at the church website.