White Oak Ward
2022 WARD HISTORY
ELDERS QUORUM
During the year, I have most profoundly felt the Spirit in our quorum council lessons. I have been amazed at how the Spirit has weaved the comments on the gospel principles together and brought to my mind and the minds of others doctrinal scriptures to support the spiritual confirmations and conclusions that we came to as a quorum as we counseled together. I have truly felt and came to a deeper understanding of the meaning of the instruction and principle in Moroni 6:5 And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls. We truly created an council environment with each other focused on the welfare of our souls where brethren that shared sensitive struggles weren’t judged, but instead were loved, prayed for, fasted for, and embraced. To me I felt the countenance of the Savior being borne out as the brethren received each other in love, in His name. And indeed, in observing this I came to a deeper understanding of the principle and instruction in D&C 88:130-133:
130 And when he cometh into the house of God, for he should be first in the house—behold, this is beautiful, that he may be an example—
131 Let him offer himself in prayer upon his knees before God, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant.
132 And when any shall come in after him, let the teacher arise, and, with uplifted hands to heaven, yea, even directly, salute his brother or brethren with these words:
133 Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to fellowship, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen.
I believe our Elder’s Quorum lessons have captured the tender feelings of love fellowship captured in verse 133, where I have witness the brethren willing to fellowship each other with a Christlike love. In fact, receiving each other in His love and then because of the that love becoming fixed and determined in helping each other overcome sin and other challenges. Observing the Lord work this way in the quorum has been a deep and profound personal reminder and testimony builder for me that this is indeed His Church, His Priesthood Body, and that he knows his children by name and how to succor and sustain them.
-Elders Quorum President
The EQ 2022 goals were focused around a few main areas:
Missionary Focus
a. Improve the EQ Presidency and RS Presidency involvement and line of sight into the
missionary efforts. To accomplished this we released the ward mission leader and had the
missionary program roll-up directly under the EQ and RS assigned counselors.
b. Hold consistent missionary correlation meetings. The EQ second counselor led weekly
missionary correlation meetings and was successful in including the young men and women for
a good portion of the year.
c. Create communication plan to keep bishopric and entire ward councils appraised of
missionary progress. EQ 2nd counselor began emailing weekly updates to the entire ward council
on the progress of friends of the church receiving lesion.
d. Incorporate the new and returning member report in our missionary and activation efforts. We
encountered obstacles where EQ presidency didn’t have all the available information to populate.
By the end of the year we developed a process with the Ward Exec. Sec and membership clerks
to help populated data fields. Copies of the new and returning member progress report were most
recently shared with Bishopric and Ward Council for the Corbin family,
Welfare program
a. EQ Presidency set a goal to be more involved in the welfare program. In 2022, the EQ
president now works directly with three families for food orders where the RS President
previously shouldered that burden entirely. We anticipate increasing this sharing into the new
2023 year. EQ President work directly with families creating needs assessments, and in creating
financial plans to become more self sufficient. As a result one brother will be enabled to come
off the welfare rolls in early 2023. Brother Rob Carver, by assignment worked directly with
another single sister in establishing financial budgeting and tracking. This effort has empowered
the sister to be more confident in knowing where her money is going and how to prioritize her
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spending. It sets the foundation for her to build and create additional habits for success as she
seeks to sustain her family in righteousness. In addition, the EQ presidency helped identify
employment opportunities and helped members and nonmembers prepare resumes and cover
letters for job opportunities. As a result, one unemployed Brother was able to secure employment
in his field of choice.
Teach EQ lessons in Council format
a. As a Presidency we coordinated with the RS and reframed the teaching of the lessons from a
traditional lesson format, to a council format. With the intention and invitation that we council
together for the welfare of our souls. This created a bond of trust and brothers began sharing
personal struggles with addictions, mental health, and other challenges where the Savior had
provided His love and support through those challenges. There was no judgement in the quorum
as these challenges were shared, instead the brethren rallied and supported in each other, sharing
their own experiences with the Savior’s power to heal all hurts. Having previously been an EQ
president numerous times, I can share that these council lessons have consistently been the most
spiritual and most bonding EQ lessons than any previous EQ lesson.
Missionary Work
We reestablished consistent weekly correlation meetings. The EQ president frequently went
teaching with he missionaries. For example, he helped teach the Corbin family, a part member
family which led to the reactivating of the husband and son, and the baptism of his wife, daughter
and another son.
RELIEF SOCIETY
The White Oak Ward Relief Society went through great spiritual growth in 2022. We had five births, four deaths, and a sister, along with her son and foster daughter, were baptized. We saw the return of some families after Covid and we increased in our Relief Society attendance, both in our Sunday meetings and in our monthly activities.
Our 2022 ward goal, and subsequently a Relief Society goal, was to improve the council method of teaching and learning. We incorporated that format with a monthly theme from the church Addiction Recovery Program (ARP). OurRelief Society 1st counselor selected conference talks from the most recent General Conference that applied to each monthly theme. The instructors presented the theme then facilitated discussion by asking guiding questions from ARP and the conference talks. This method ensured that our discussions were focused on the Savior. Over the course of the year, more and more sisters began to share personal experiences and daily struggles, as well as the miracles of forgiveness, and how the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ influenced their everyday lives. As the discussions continued, we noticed strengthening of testimonies and greater relationships between the sisters. This has been evidenced by the willingness of sisters to take meals to new mothers, help with funeral meals and arrangements, and friendshipping of new members and “vintage” members alike.
I am amazed at how the younger sisters take care of each other. We had a relief society activity to celebrate the summer births of three new babies. When a sign-up is shared to take meals to new mothers, it is filled within 24 hours. Likewise, we had a funeral service for a special needs member. The sign-up sheet for food and assistance filled up quickly as many members of the ward offered support for their family. Additionally, when a young member of the ward died unexpectedly, the ward again provided much needed love and support to the family. Likewise, all of the sisters in the ward have shown Christ-like service through the joys of new motherhood, the sacredness of death, and the support of sisters who are struggling with burdens of addiction, poverty, and abuse. I am blessed to work with the wonderful sisters of the White Oak ward. I appreciate their strength, their testimonies, and their willingness to serve each other and those in our community.
We have been blessed through missionary efforts. I attended a meeting the missionaries had set up with a local family. While visiting with them, we were able to determine that they were actually members who had not been to church in years. We were able to help them become part of our ward family. A few months later, I was able to visit with another family along with the missionaries. We were able to bear testimony to them and I was blessed to be able to give the baptism talk at their baptism. A Sister was called as Relief Society 2nd counselor in the summer of 2022. She has been a wonderful addition to the ward missionary committee and has been an asset to the missionaries.
In August 2022, our ward was extremely blessed to be part of the Washington D.C. temple open house and re-dedication. There was a concerted effort within the Stake and our ward to prepare for the opening of the temple. In our ward, we held a class called “Returning to the Temple.” It was based on the temple prep course, but was catered to endowed members. We shared in-depth discussions of the temple prep lessons in order to prepare for the opening of the temple. To also prepare for attending the temple, the R.S. sponsored a family history workshop in July. In June,
July, and August, many members attended the open house and reported their experiences in fast and testimony meetings and in Relief Society. Previous to the re-dedication, ward members worked alongside Hartwood ward members to clean the church building to temple standards. The ceremony was broadcast to the stake center where members eight years old and up with a temple recommend were invited to attend. There were three broadcast sessions, with sessions one and two shown at the stake center. The third session was attended at the temple by Bishop David and Sis. Gibbons, Bro. Brad and Sis. Whitney, Bro. Burdsal and myself. Bro. Perrine sang in the choir at the temple during the 2nd session. The spirit was extremely strong and I can testify that angels were in attendance. We are extremely blessed to have “our” temple re-open so the work of making covenants and family history can go forth.
YOUTH
The Youth Theme for 2022 was “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5) Over the course of 2022, we focused on helping the young women in the White Oak Ward feel the love their Heavenly Father and Savior have for them. We wanted them to know they were an important child of His and they could trust the Lord.
This last year we have tried to have the youth be the lead element for service projects. For the second year in a row we participated in; a community cleanup which involved picking up trash along roadways, gleaning corn for local foodbanks, and tied fleece blankets to donate to a local homeless shelter. We want to continue these efforts for the youth and encourage other ward members to participate in these efforts.
YOUNG WOMEN
The Young Women have “Come Unto Christ” this year as we have served others in our community. In March, we participated in a community clean up. The YW picked up trash in a field along side Stafford Elementary. In April, a few of our YW had the opportunity to volunteer at the the Washington DC Temple Open house. The youth were assigned to place booties on the feet of the visitors. In June, we made scarves to be sent to refugee families in the war torn parts of the world.
In June we went to girls’ camp. The Young Women in our ward wanted to include a service project as a part of their camp experience. They also wanted to serve animals. I found an animal rescue farm near our campground. I thought we would feed and maybe brush horses. When we arrived on the humid June day, our job was mucking manure and building a fence in the hot sun. The girls were not amused to say the least. They were not amused, but they did not whine; and they tossed manure and built a quality fence. I was very proud of what they did that day, because it was not what they wanted, but they served anyhow. The owner of the farm commented to me about what great workers the girls were.
In October, alongside the young men, we planted flower bulbs all around the Stake Center for the beautification of our church grounds. In December, a Sister shared her talents with the Relief Society by volunteering to sing a musical number at the Relief Society Christmas Party. In December, we cleaned the yard of Sister Cropp. Along with the Young Men we raked and gathered the leaves from her yard. In December, we had another blanket tying activity. Along with the Young Men and other members of our ward, we tied fleece blankets to donate to the homeless community.
Our Young Women have also offered up many hours of unseen service to each other. They love one another and support each other. They are very welcoming of those who feel a little different and are a bit unsure.
It is an honor and a privilege to serve with the Young Women of the White Oak Ward. Everyday, I feel the love the Lord has for them. I know they will bless many lives with their spirit and testimony.
YOUNG MEN
I have been impressed this year at how well the Young Men of the ward get along with each other. This was most noticeable at camp this year as we spent 4 days and three nights at Pocahontas State Park and I never heard an angry word from the young men. As we had a small number of active young men we would have one combined Sunday lesson instead of breaking up into quorums. In this setting all the boys have been respectful of the thoughts and comments shared by one another.
Throughout the year the adult leaders have strived to make our Sunday lessons be more of discussion and council time. We quickly noticed though that some weeks we had more adults in meetings than young men. This led to the young men not sharing very much. We devised a rotation for teaching and bishopric assignments so there would only be three adults with the young men. When this happened, the boys began to participate much more in the lessons and it gave the bishopric specific times to attend lessons with the young women.