G. J. 8TH WARD HAS A NEW BISHOP
SEPTEMBER 11, 2011
Today, on the 10th Anniversary of the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I was in my own ward to install a new bishop. It was a very special day and one of those special times to sustain a new bishop that was called by the Lord and he knew it. I first introduced the prior bishops of the ward and their wives. Every single one was present. I gave a ward history and asked those who were present to stand who attend the meeting in 1982 when the 4th ward was divided and the 8th ward created-only 16 stood-I had Pres. Dean count them. They were all my very close friends. I felt so old and realized that the old base of the ward and those who supported the ward for so long were gone-it wasn’t our ward any more. I explained how a bishop is selected by revelation, approved by the stake presidency, submitted to the First Presidency, approved by the Twelve in the temple and then I call on Thursday to the First Presidency office to see if the name is approved and get permission from Bro. Mortensen in that office to call the new bishop before I received the official letter. I explained how, as a stake presidency we begin to pray after we select the new bishop, that the Lord will make know to him that he is called to be the new bishop so he can have his counselor’s selected and give them to me when he is called.
Aaron Hart was sustained as the new bishop for my ward. He was a very easy choice because over the last few years the Spirit had told me over and over he was the next bishop. I took him out of the bishopric and put him on the High Council about 2 years ago so he could get some stake experience before putting him in as bishop. He knew by the Spirit he was going to be called as bishop so he had his counselors already chosen when he came for the interview. I would have called him earlier but Amber, his wife has been installed as the Relief Society President and I let her serve a year before calling Aaron because a bishop’s wife can’t serve as an auxiliary president. His counselors are Andy Harmon and Dean Blair. This is the 5th bishop change I have made this year-4 because bishops moved for work reasons.
Other events today.
1. I got up at 5:00 a.m. and got home at 7:00 p.m. I knew it was going to be a good day when I was able to button the top button on my new white shirt the first time I tried.
2. I restore a man’s priesthood and temple blessing by assignment of the First Presidency. The only people allowed to be present are his wife and me. I am to destroy all disciplinary files when this is completed.
3. I conducted temple interviews and gave my “Temple Preparation Seminar” to two sisters, one who was going to be sealed and the other married in the temple. Their prospective husband and husband were also present. I have a stake president’s blessing to the couple who are going to be married. They met on line-the second couple I interviewed this week that met this way.
4. We selected five new men for the High Council. I want to get some new faces on the council and train them for leadership positions. Our stake presidency is all in their 60s or 70s and we new younger leaders developed.
5. We got in 10 more white shirts this day which brings to 16 the number we have collected this week. These will be taken by Pres. Dean to Guatemala for the missionaries in that country in March when he goings there to do humanitarian dental work. I’m sure we will have over 200 shirts to take when he goes.
6. I meet with our zone leaders at 6:45 a.m. to go over missionary work in our stake. We have been very blessed with good missionaries. We have had 35 baptisms so far this year.
Other activities this week include:
a. Attending our “Best of Especially for Youth” activity which we host for the four stakes in Colorado. We had almost 500 youth there to listen to the two speakers from Utah, eat and attend a dance. The kids were really excited and love to get together. It is not so important for our stake but it is important for the Meeker and Montrose stakes because their youth are so spread out and don’t have the opportunity to associate with large numbers of Mormon youth.
b. I also attended the Transfer Meeting for the missionaries. I suppose I am the only stake president in the mission that attends these meetings but that is the advantage of being retired as a stake president. I told zone leaders I was too embarrassed because of the scabs and cuts on my face from my fall Labor Day weekend but they said they wanted me to come anyway so I did and they asked me to speak. The western slope missionaries gather at our stake center at noon to wait for the caravan coming from Denver bringing the missionaries that have been transferred to the western slope and taking back our missionaries that are being transferred to Denver. Our new zone leader is Elder Thomas that I met at Catherine’s and Gabi’s ward. He told me he wanted to be transferred to our stake and I joked with him that I would have to put in a good word with the mission president about that. Of course I didn’t talk to the mission president but he was assigned to my stake anyway.
c. Mike Perry just got back from a two week trip with his son Justin to Alaska-it was a life remembering experience. Mike thanks us for visiting his daughter Adie in Portland on our visit-it meant a lot to her.
d. Catherine and Gabi worked very hard on our yard when they were here. They also took me to Dr. Dean to get my teeth put back in place, clean me up and sew up my face. They were great help to us and good company. Gabi wore my “Mattlock” suit to church with his own bowtie-he was the toast of the town.
e. The county road department came by this week and cut back the trees on E7/8 Road. One worker said this was the fifth time in his 22 years he has cut these trees. They were covering about half of the pavement.
f. Clarissa is getting ready for her big trip to Denver, El Paso and California. We are getting her car ready. I will go to the BYU v. Utah game this week with Don Cleveland, Dean White and Ole Dunn. I intend to replenish my popcorn ball supply. Gabi and Connie attended the BYYU v. Texas game on Saturday in Austin.
g. Clarissa’s hip is really hurting-she goes to the doctor this week.
h. I have enjoyed reading the book Jean Robinson complied and co-wrote for the DUP on the pioneer women of San Juan County born before 1900. My mother provided the seed money for the project. I’m surprised that I know some of the women. I am also saddened when I read that some of those women were handcart survivors and also “Hole in the Rock” people-great sacrifice and suffering.
i. I finished reading my book of the First World War-I just don’t know enough about it. The number of people who died in each battle was unbelievable. I am sending this book to Connie to read next along with the book she left this summer, “Beyond Bank of Brothers” which I finished. I am also reading a book called “Twelve Mormon Homes” written by the wife of Col. Thomas Kane as she and her husband accompanied Brigham Young and one of his wife to Dixie for his winter season. She writes about the Mormon homes she stays in and her impressions-very interesting. We have a convert in our stake who is a direct descendant of Col. Kane and he loaned me this rare book to read.
j. I walked 2.5 miles every day this past week but Sunday-no problems. This coming week I will do 3 miles per day.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
NIGEL CROWE II
8-15-2011A
Dear Nigel,
You have been on my mind recently. In my current church assignment, I am a Stake President over the Grand Junction Colorado West Stake, which means I supervise 10 wards or congregations. Vernon King, the bishop of one of these wards is a descendant of George Cannon from Peel. Bishop King and his family visited the Isle of Man early this summer and attended the Douglas Ward. When he told the members he was visiting the home of his ancestors, they told him he must either be a Cannon, Cowley or a Kelly. He reported that many of the members there knew you.
I hope things are going well for you and your family. I have been concerned about you and including you in my prayers. You have been so important to me in determining who I am. I always grew up knowing who I was-a Mormon cowboy from Monticello Utah with Mormon pioneer ancestry and then I go to the local airport here in Grand Jct. and meet you and your mother and realize that I am much more-I am a Manxman with a whole expanded heritage and set of relatives. That heritage was impressed upon me when I visited the Isle of Man last summer to meet more of my relatives. I am proud to be from the Isle of Man.
Thanks for taking me around the island and spending time with my family. Everyone was so friendly and kind. I am proud of where I came from and I feel a love and appreciation for my ancestors. I came from good people. I really enjoyed the celebration at Tynwald Hill. I enjoyed the pageantry-we don’t have much of that in our country and my daughters even met at church on Sunday one of the honored quest who marched in the proceedings the next day. I was amazed to discover that cherished American traditions of liberty and self government were in use in the Isle of Man at Tynwald Hill one thousand years ago like:
a. All proceedings are open to the public.
b. All passed laws are read to the people and available to read.
c. Representatives who make the laws are known and elected by the people.
d. Each citizen has the right to petition his government and be heard.
I enjoyed meeting the rest of the Crowe family-I’m sorry we missed your father.
We took a family history trip this summer with two of our daughters to the states of Idaho and Oregon to visit the communities where Clarissa lived before she went to college. We rented an SUV and drove 3500miles in 12 days and that included three days we spend in a beach house on the Oregon coast. We found almost every house she lived in, took pictures, met relatives, went to church where Clarissa attended as a child and heard lots of good stories about Clarissa’s experiences in these two states. I also got to meet a relative from my mother’s side of the family originally from Denmark and got some great family history including translated copies of Knud Swensen’s Danish journal. It was a great trip.
We have Connie that has taken a job at the University of Texas at El Paso after she received her PHD at the University of Texas at Austin. Kenny is a veterinarian in southern California so we look for new ways to travel to visit them which gives us an opportunity to visit places in California, Arizona and New Mexico where Williams Kelly walked on the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War. It is hot dry rocky country and I get a great appreciation for him when I visit those places.
I’m surprised at the responses I get when I wear my Isle of Man hat or a shirt to town. One man wanted to talk about the motorcycle races from there and the checkout clerk at the grocery store gave me a greeting in the original Manx language when I went through his line to pay for my groceries.
We are in good health for the health we are in. We still can go anyplace although I don’t drive in the larger cities like Denver and Salt Lake. I turn 70 this month and for my present to myself, I am walking 7 miles to celebrate, one mile for each decade of my life. I try to walk 3.5 miles each day and 6 miles on Friday to get prepared. Carol and Kim are coming from Denver to walk with me along with some friends from here. I am seriously considering volunteering for a Parkinson Disease study to test on humans the effectiveness of a new medication that stops the progression of Parkinson’s disease in mice. The University of Colorado in Denver is conducting these studies
I appreciate your friendship and the value the service you have provided for our family. My sister Ann’s husband Bob passed away this spring. She is moving from the East Coast to Salt Lake to be
Have a great summer. God is good,
Kelly Summers
8-15-2011A
Dear Nigel,
You have been on my mind recently. In my current church assignment, I am a Stake President over the Grand Junction Colorado West Stake, which means I supervise 10 wards or congregations. Vernon King, the bishop of one of these wards is a descendant of George Cannon from Peel. Bishop King and his family visited the Isle of Man early this summer and attended the Douglas Ward. When he told the members he was visiting the home of his ancestors, they told him he must either be a Cannon, Cowley or a Kelly. He reported that many of the members there knew you.
I hope things are going well for you and your family. I have been concerned about you and including you in my prayers. You have been so important to me in determining who I am. I always grew up knowing who I was-a Mormon cowboy from Monticello Utah with Mormon pioneer ancestry and then I go to the local airport here in Grand Jct. and meet you and your mother and realize that I am much more-I am a Manxman with a whole expanded heritage and set of relatives. That heritage was impressed upon me when I visited the Isle of Man last summer to meet more of my relatives. I am proud to be from the Isle of Man.
Thanks for taking me around the island and spending time with my family. Everyone was so friendly and kind. I am proud of where I came from and I feel a love and appreciation for my ancestors. I came from good people. I really enjoyed the celebration at Tynwald Hill. I enjoyed the pageantry-we don’t have much of that in our country and my daughters even met at church on Sunday one of the honored quest who marched in the proceedings the next day. I was amazed to discover that cherished American traditions of liberty and self government were in use in the Isle of Man at Tynwald Hill one thousand years ago like:
a. All proceedings are open to the public.
b. All passed laws are read to the people and available to read.
c. Representatives who make the laws are known and elected by the people.
d. Each citizen has the right to petition his government and be heard.
I enjoyed meeting the rest of the Crowe family-I’m sorry we missed your father.
We took a family history trip this summer with two of our daughters to the states of Idaho and Oregon to visit the communities where Clarissa lived before she went to college. We rented an SUV and drove 3500miles in 12 days and that included three days we spend in a beach house on the Oregon coast. We found almost every house she lived in, took pictures, met relatives, went to church where Clarissa attended as a child and heard lots of good stories about Clarissa’s experiences in these two states. I also got to meet a relative from my mother’s side of the family originally from Denmark and got some great family history including translated copies of Knud Swensen’s Danish journal. It was a great trip.
We have Connie that has taken a job at the University of Texas at El Paso after she received her PHD at the University of Texas at Austin. Kenny is a veterinarian in southern California so we look for new ways to travel to visit them which gives us an opportunity to visit places in California, Arizona and New Mexico where Williams Kelly walked on the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican War. It is hot dry rocky country and I get a great appreciation for him when I visit those places.
I’m surprised at the responses I get when I wear my Isle of Man hat or a shirt to town. One man wanted to talk about the motorcycle races from there and the checkout clerk at the grocery store gave me a greeting in the original Manx language when I went through his line to pay for my groceries.
We are in good health for the health we are in. We still can go anyplace although I don’t drive in the larger cities like Denver and Salt Lake. I turn 70 this month and for my present to myself, I am walking 7 miles to celebrate, one mile for each decade of my life. I try to walk 3.5 miles each day and 6 miles on Friday to get prepared. Carol and Kim are coming from Denver to walk with me along with some friends from here. I am seriously considering volunteering for a Parkinson Disease study to test on humans the effectiveness of a new medication that stops the progression of Parkinson’s disease in mice. The University of Colorado in Denver is conducting these studies
I appreciate your friendship and the value the service you have provided for our family. My sister Ann’s husband Bob passed away this spring. She is moving from the East Coast to Salt Lake to be
Have a great summer. God is good,
Kelly Summers
8-15-2011A
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
SPIRITUAL FEASTS
SPIRITUAL FEASTS
Spring is a great time of the year. This year was particularly satisfying . It started when I attended the Monticello Temple the day before Easter with a group of recent converts to do baptisms for those who had already passed away. It rained off and on while we traveled to Monticello. Between Moab and Monticello we marveled at the deep red color of the rocks when they are wet and clouds blocked out the direct sunshine. The clouds lifted in Monticello so I could show the participants the natural “horse head” on the side of the Blue Mountains behind the temple. There was great peace in the temple as our group joined with an extended family from Riverton, Utah to do their family names, our group’s family names and other names provided by the temple. It was a spiritual feast followed by Easter the next day when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the renewal of the earth as our valley greened up with the weekend rains. I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for this earth and His Son’s sacrifice for me.
Our next spiritual feast will be May 14th and 15th when we are privileged to have Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi as our visiting Authority for Stake Conference. We are assigned a Visiting Authority only once every two years. Elder Kukchi was the first native born Japanese to serve as a General Authority. Born in Hokkaido, Japan, his father was killed in World War II and his then single mother raised four children. Elder Kikuchi was tracted out by the missionaries when he was 14 years old and temporarily staying with an uncle as he recovered from a sickness. He was baptized one month later. He served as a full time missionary in Japan and also served another mission as a “building missionary.” While working as a proselyting missionary, he attended a missionary conference conducted by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, who over-saw the Far East missions at that time. The meeting was conducted in English because Elder Kikuchi was the only native Japanese elder present and everyone else present spoke English. Elder Kikuchi didn’t understand anything in the meeting and his companion had to tell him that Elder Hinckley had asked him to come forward and bear his testimony. Elder Kikuchi wanted to be understood by those present and as he testified he spoke In English through the gift of tongues. When he was finished, his companion told him that Elder Hinckley had afterwards pronounced a blessing on him in English, which Elder Kikuchi did not understand, that “ if he was humble enough and stayed close to the Lord, his name would be known in that part of the Lord’s vineyard in a good cause in building up the Kingdom.”
Elder Kikuchi graduated from Tokyo Asia University with a degree in Business Psychology and Management and worked in private industry. He married Toshiko Koshiiya and they have three daughters and a son. He served as stake president in Japan and was called at age 36 by President Kimball to be a General Authority and serve as a Seventy. His current assignment is the Assistant Executive Director of the Temple Department. He has also served, among many other callings, as the Temple President of the Tokyo Temple and Mission President of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. He may be short in stature but he is a spiritual giant. We are in for a great spiritual feast. Elder Kikuchi has asked that we extend an invitation to everyone in the stake through home and visiting teachers by personal visit, telephone and/or letters or e-mail encouraging the saints to attend stake conference meetings. He also encourages the saints to attend the temple to spiritually prepare for this conference.
Stake Conference will be held at our Stake Center only. The Priesthood Leadership Meeting will be Saturday May 14th at 4:00 p.m. and the Adult Meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. that same evening. The General Session will be Sunday morning on May 15th, at 10:00 a.m. at the Stake Center. We urge everyone to arrive 20 minutes early so you can get parked and find your seat before the choir and prelude music starts at 9:45 a.m.
We are blessed in our stake to have Ragged Mountain LDS Ranch. While the scenery is spectacular, it greatest characteristic is that the Spirit of the Lord resides there. We have the following activities planned there:
May 12 and 13th Cabin Cleaning by the Relief Society Sisters
May 20th and 21th Father-Son Outing and Clean Up
May 31st-June 4th Young Men’s Encampment
June 6th-11th Girls Camp
Each of these activities should be a spiritual feast as we feel the special spirit that resides there.
These activities culminate with our annual Stake Temple Day at the Monticello Temple of June 24th.. Plan now to take the day off and travel to the temple to serve with your ward in the temple and feel that peace we receive in the temple as we are reminded of our covenants with the Lord and get our priorities in the proper order. As a Stake Presidency, we look forward to sharing these events with you and feel the spirit. We appreciate the opportunities we have to serve and love you.
President Kelly Summers
Spring is a great time of the year. This year was particularly satisfying . It started when I attended the Monticello Temple the day before Easter with a group of recent converts to do baptisms for those who had already passed away. It rained off and on while we traveled to Monticello. Between Moab and Monticello we marveled at the deep red color of the rocks when they are wet and clouds blocked out the direct sunshine. The clouds lifted in Monticello so I could show the participants the natural “horse head” on the side of the Blue Mountains behind the temple. There was great peace in the temple as our group joined with an extended family from Riverton, Utah to do their family names, our group’s family names and other names provided by the temple. It was a spiritual feast followed by Easter the next day when we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and the renewal of the earth as our valley greened up with the weekend rains. I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for this earth and His Son’s sacrifice for me.
Our next spiritual feast will be May 14th and 15th when we are privileged to have Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi as our visiting Authority for Stake Conference. We are assigned a Visiting Authority only once every two years. Elder Kukchi was the first native born Japanese to serve as a General Authority. Born in Hokkaido, Japan, his father was killed in World War II and his then single mother raised four children. Elder Kikuchi was tracted out by the missionaries when he was 14 years old and temporarily staying with an uncle as he recovered from a sickness. He was baptized one month later. He served as a full time missionary in Japan and also served another mission as a “building missionary.” While working as a proselyting missionary, he attended a missionary conference conducted by Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, who over-saw the Far East missions at that time. The meeting was conducted in English because Elder Kikuchi was the only native Japanese elder present and everyone else present spoke English. Elder Kikuchi didn’t understand anything in the meeting and his companion had to tell him that Elder Hinckley had asked him to come forward and bear his testimony. Elder Kikuchi wanted to be understood by those present and as he testified he spoke In English through the gift of tongues. When he was finished, his companion told him that Elder Hinckley had afterwards pronounced a blessing on him in English, which Elder Kikuchi did not understand, that “ if he was humble enough and stayed close to the Lord, his name would be known in that part of the Lord’s vineyard in a good cause in building up the Kingdom.”
Elder Kikuchi graduated from Tokyo Asia University with a degree in Business Psychology and Management and worked in private industry. He married Toshiko Koshiiya and they have three daughters and a son. He served as stake president in Japan and was called at age 36 by President Kimball to be a General Authority and serve as a Seventy. His current assignment is the Assistant Executive Director of the Temple Department. He has also served, among many other callings, as the Temple President of the Tokyo Temple and Mission President of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. He may be short in stature but he is a spiritual giant. We are in for a great spiritual feast. Elder Kikuchi has asked that we extend an invitation to everyone in the stake through home and visiting teachers by personal visit, telephone and/or letters or e-mail encouraging the saints to attend stake conference meetings. He also encourages the saints to attend the temple to spiritually prepare for this conference.
Stake Conference will be held at our Stake Center only. The Priesthood Leadership Meeting will be Saturday May 14th at 4:00 p.m. and the Adult Meeting will be at 7:00 p.m. that same evening. The General Session will be Sunday morning on May 15th, at 10:00 a.m. at the Stake Center. We urge everyone to arrive 20 minutes early so you can get parked and find your seat before the choir and prelude music starts at 9:45 a.m.
We are blessed in our stake to have Ragged Mountain LDS Ranch. While the scenery is spectacular, it greatest characteristic is that the Spirit of the Lord resides there. We have the following activities planned there:
May 12 and 13th Cabin Cleaning by the Relief Society Sisters
May 20th and 21th Father-Son Outing and Clean Up
May 31st-June 4th Young Men’s Encampment
June 6th-11th Girls Camp
Each of these activities should be a spiritual feast as we feel the special spirit that resides there.
These activities culminate with our annual Stake Temple Day at the Monticello Temple of June 24th.. Plan now to take the day off and travel to the temple to serve with your ward in the temple and feel that peace we receive in the temple as we are reminded of our covenants with the Lord and get our priorities in the proper order. As a Stake Presidency, we look forward to sharing these events with you and feel the spirit. We appreciate the opportunities we have to serve and love you.
President Kelly Summers
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