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| McKinzey, Alyssa, Billy, Mike T, Richard, Miguel, Mike E, Jesse, & Mike C |
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Bowling
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Laser Tag & Buffalo Wild Wings
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| Rutgers' student from Ukraine, Daniel S, Elder S, Alysa, Richard, Alyssa, Emily |
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| Daniel C, Chaz, & Shane |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Easter S'mores
Easter Message
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| Walter Rane's "The Resurrected Christ" |
This is the season of the year when the Christian world remembers the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of love for His Father and for us, the Savior allowed Himself to suffer beyond the capacity of mortal man. He said, "Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit — and would that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink — Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men" (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18-19).
Our Savior broke the bands of death. Through His Resurrection there is assurance that life is everlasting. Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so.
As special witnesses, we declare that God does live. Jesus Christ is His Son, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Redeemer, our Mediator with the Father. Jesus Christ atoned for our sins. He became the firstfruits of the Resurrection. Because He died, all shall live again.
The First Presidency, Thomas S Monson, Henry B Eyring, and Dieter F Uchtdorf
Monday, April 2, 2012
Spirit of Prophecy
1) liken scriptures to our day
2) understand manner in which Jesus prophesied
3) understand geography/culture of ancient Israel--study regions and manners of Jews
4) understand consequences of actions
5) read scriptures with "spirit of prophecy"
Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear
unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you,
nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit
of prophecy. But I give unto you a prophecy, according to the spirit which
is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the plainness which hath been
with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for
behold, my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn. -2 Nephi 25:4
-Revelation 19:10
See also:
3 Nephi 3:19
Jacob 1:6, 4:6
Alma 3:27, 4:13, 4:20, 5:47, 6:8, 8:24, 9:21, 10:12, 12:7, 13:26, 16:5, 17:3, 23:6, 25:16, 37:15, 43:2,
Helaman 4:12, 4:23
D&C 11:25, 131:5
Joseph Smith--History 1:73
Best. Lunch. In. Jersey.
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| Today, after my monthly WW weigh-in-- which by the way, I am maintaining my weight goal for 21st month!- --we had a late lunch at Pierre's in South Brunswick, NJ. |
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| This is what restaurant looks like from outside. Building has several conference rooms for wedding receptions, bat and bar mitzvah, business functions, etc. What isn't pictured is across parking lot-- Pierre's huge deli, pizza, and bakery! |
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| This is what inside of restaurant looks like. We sat at table pictured in bottom left of this flyer-- if we hadn't looked through those advertising flyers everyone gets in mail and tosses in trash, we'd never have known about this place!! |
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| My luncheon special included soup or salad, entree & dessert. I chose the butternut squash soup. Wowzer! It was GOOD! |
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| Our bubbly waiter, Joe, steered me to the fish taco. It was a HUGE serving so I had to take some home-- AND IT WAS FISH-A-LICIOUS! |
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| There were several desserts offered--2 chocolate--but I chose carrot cake because I could share it with my lunch date! YUMMMMMMMMY! |
Friday, March 30, 2012
Trivia: Tomatoe Pie Is What?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Tuesday Night Institute Class
Isaiah 29: 4 "And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust." [The Book of Mormon came "out of the ground" and in it, the Nephites, our dead Israelite "relatives" who came from Ariel; in other words, Jerusalem, speaks to us as from the dust.]
Isaiah 29:11-12, 14 "And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. ...Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." [Isaiah gives prophecy about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in the last days. He gives specific detail which has been fulfilled.]
Joseph Smith--History 1:63-65 "Sometime in this month of February, the aforementioned Mr Martin Harris came to our place, got the characters which I had drawn off the plates, and started with them to the city of New York. For what took place relative to him and the characters, I refer to his own account of the circumstances, as he related them to me after his return, which was as follows: "I went to the city of New York, and presented the characters which had been translated, with the translation thereof, to Professor Charles Anthon, a gentleman celebrated for his literary attainments. Professor Anthon stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those which were not yet translated, and he said that they were true characters. He gave me a certificate, certifying to the people of Palmyra that they were true characters, and that the translation of such of them as had been translated was also correct. I took the certificate and put it into my pocket, and was just leaving the house, when Mr Anthon called me back, and asked me how the young man found out that there were gold plates in the place where he found them. I answered that an angel of God had revealed it unto him. He then said to me, 'Let me see that certificate.' I accordingly took it out of my pocket and gave it to him, when he took it and tore it to pieces, saying that there was no such thing now as ministering of angels, and that if I would bring the plates to him he would translate them. I informed him that part of the plates were sealed, and that I was forbidden to bring them. He replied, 'I cannot read a sealed book.' I left him and went to Dr Mitchell, who sanctioned what Professor Anthon had said respecting both the characters and the translation.""
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Friday Night Cleaning Crew
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Quest for Humility
and becomes our quest,
in that moment,
God will endow us with power."
--Ezra Taft Benson
Best Places to Live in USA
Money Magazine's 2008 Top Ten Best Places to Live included: 1) Plymouth, MN, 2) Fort Collins, CO, 3) Naperville, IL, 4) Irvine, CA, 5) Franklin Township, NJ, 6) Norman, OK, 7) Round Rock, TX, 8) Columbia/Ellicott City, MD, 9) Overland Park, KS, 10) Fishers, IN
Criteria in 2008: 1) plentiful jobs, 2) excellent schools, 3) affordable housing
Money Magazine's 2011 Top Ten Best Places to Live are: 1) Louisville, CO, 2) Milton, MA, 3) Solon, OH, 4) Leesburg, VA, 5) Papillion, NE, 6) Hanover, NH, 7) Liberty, MO, 8) Middleton, WI, 9) Mukilteo, WA, 10) Chanhassen, MN
Criteria in 2011: 1) great job opportunities, 2) top-notch schools, 3) safe streets, 4) economic strength, 5) nice weather (Are you kidding me? Really?!?!), 6) plenty to do
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Another Round of Apartment Inspections
+&+Barrett+(Alaska)+02.JPG)
Every 6 weeks there is mission "transfer conference" and following that senior missionary couples are assigned to check apartments. Yesterday we got to visit with Sisters Wright (California) and Barrett (Alaska). Next week we have 5 other apartments to visit. Sunday, March 18, 2012
Worth of Souls
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. D&C 18:10An old man had a habit of early morning walks on the beach. One day, after a storm, he saw a human figure in the distance moving like a dancer. As he came closer he saw that it was a young woman and she was not dancing but was reaching down to the sand, picking up a starfish and very gently throwing it into the ocean.
"Young lady," he asked, "Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
"The sun is up, and the tide is going out, and if I do not throw them in they will die."
"But young lady, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You cannot possibly make a difference."
The young woman listened politely, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves, saying, "It made a difference for that one."
-adapted from "The Star Thrower" by Loren Eisely (1907-1977)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Missionaries Publish Peace
And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.
And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth. -Mosiah 27:35-37
Friday, March 16, 2012
Miracle of the "Wall Sit"
A few blogs ago, I wrote about our mission president's health challenge. Here's the rest of the story written by his daughter, Julie: I wanted to witness miracles, see prayers answered and be a recipient of a tender mercy or two, but I could barely understand how the spirit worked, let alone feel a "burning in my bosom." Seeing prayers answered were obviously way out of my reach. And witnessing a miracle? Forget about it.
But I've come to understand that I witness these things every day. Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve, said, “Sometimes as Latter-day Saints, we talk and act as though recognizing the influence of the Holy Ghost in our lives is the rare or exceptional event. We should remember, however, that the covenant promise is that we may always have his Spirit to be with us.”
What about all the unseen answered prayers, or the whispers of the Spirit that are sometimes too soft to recognize, or the tender mercies granted that we define as "luck?" When it comes to my dad, he is not lucky. He is a living, breathing tender mercy, and an answer to my prayers.
My father, Jon Jeppson, is the president of the New Jersey Morristown Mission, and has been for the last eight months. While attending a district meeting recently, he was challenged, along with all the missionaries, to a wall sit. A wall sit, you might ask? It's where you sit with your back against the wall as though you had an invisible chair beneath you. The district leader spoke about endurance, perserverance and goal setting and explained to the missionaries how enduring a wall sit could be compared to missionary work. They’re both tiring, grueling at times and make your legs burn. They also both take focus, determination, willpower and skill.
My dad wanted to win the wall sit competition. Unfortunately, he was competing against 19 and 20-year-old machines, and being a senior citizen, well, he lost.
Not only did he lose miserably, he herniated a disc in his back in the process. It caused enough pain that he scheduled an MRI, which indeed show a herniated disc. But it showed something else: It showed a large mass in his right kidney the size of a fist.
A tumor.
How can this be? My dad is already a cancer survivor and lost his leg to bone cancer when he was 19. At the time, he had just received his mission call to Bristol, England, and was told the leg needed to be amputated immediately and to forget the mission. Even with the surgery, doctors couldn’t guarantee his life. This didn’t stop my dad. He went ahead with the surgery, and still served a faithful mission a year later in Boston. He has been cancer-free ever since — but cancer decided to show its ugly face again.
After the MRI, my dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer — 46 years after having bone cancer — and was told to have surgery to remove the kidney immediately. At this point, we had no idea how far the cancer had spread throughout his body and if he caught it too late. After all, he had had no symptoms or pain of any kind. So he flew home, leaving 150 missionaries behind, hoping to return to his mission once again, cancer-free.
The surgery was a success. Doctors lifted the infected kidney out and informed us that no other organs were affected, and that the cancer was contained in the kidney only.
If it hadn’t been for the challenge of the wall sit, my dad never would have hurt his back. And if he hadn’t hurt his back, he wouldn’t have had an MRI. If he hadn’t had the MRI, we may have never known about the tumor, and by the time it would be found, it may have been too late.
Sometimes we don’t know why the Lord works the way he works. I kept asking myself, “Why, of all people, is my dad struggling with his back and hobbling around on crutches when all he wants to do is serve Heavenly Father and help those missionaries?” I did not realize that, thanks to a tender mercy, the backache led to a life-saving miracle.
My dad was sent to share the gospel the people of New Jersey, but didn’t know he would be sent to save his own life. With five stakes fasting for him in addition to countless family and friends at home, we witnessed a miracle. I witnessed a miracle. I know my prayers were heard. I felt a renewed sense of hope and light, just like the converts I had longed to relate to.
The Lord knows what he’s doing, and the evidence will speak for itself later down the road. Or maybe it never will. But you can always remember that determination, willpower and faith can remove all doubt and fear — and, in this case, a kidney.
Here’s to a successful two-and-a-half more years in the mission field to my dad, the wall sit wonder.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Job Testifies--Even in His Afflictions!
-Job 19:23-27
Puts me in mind of hearing Bruce R McConkie's final testimony at General Conference April 1985: "...And now as pertaining to this perfect Atonement, I testify that it took place at Gethsemane and at Golgotha. And as pertaining to Jesus Christ, I testify that he is the Son of the Living God who was crucified for the sins of the world. He is our Lord, our God, and our King. This I know of myself independent of any other person. I am one of his Witnesses. And in the coming day I will feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God's almighty Son and he is our Savior and Redeemer and that Salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way." (Elder McConkie died 13 days after giving this testimony.)
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Latter-Day Prophets on the Resurrection
“We
are in possession of all the ordinances that can be administered in the flesh;
but there are other ordinances and administrations that must be administered
beyond this world. I know you would ask what they are. I will mention one. We
have not, neither can we receive here, the ordinance and the keys of the
resurrection….They will be ordained, by those who hold the keys of the
resurrection, to go forth and resurrect the Saints, just as we receive the ordinance
of baptism… This is one of the ordinances we cannot receive here, and there are
many more.” (President Spencer W Kimball quoted these words of Brigham Young at
the re-dedication of the Mesa Arizona Temple).
“The
Lord Jesus, who was the firstfruits of the dead, the firstfruits of them that
sleep, and who holds the keys of the resurrections, will bring to pass the
resurrection of the [righteous], and will set them to work in bringing about
the resurrection of their brethren as He has set them to work in all the other
branches of the labor from the beginning…
“True, we have, in our limited understandings,
perhaps imagined, many of us, that this glorious resurrection was to come upon
us and upon the whole world suddenly, like the rising of the sun. But you must
remember the sun does not rise the same hour and the same moment upon all the
earth. It is twenty-four hours in rising and twenty-four hours in setting. So
with the resurrection. There is a day appointed for the resurrection of the
righteous. And it is sealed upon the heads of many that if they are faithful
and true, they shall come forth ‘in the morning of the first resurrection’; but
the morning lasts from the first hour of the day until mid-day, and the day
lasts till night…
“But this ‘morning of the first
resurrection’ is nigh at hand, and blessed are those who, through their
faithfulness, shall be counted worthy to have part in it; for they shall be
crowned kings and priests with God and the Lamb—they shall reign with Christ
and in the midst of his people, and carry on the work of redemption and
resurrection of the saints of God. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 25, pp 33-34).
“If we ask who will stand at the head of the
resurrection in this last dispensation, the answer is—Joseph Smith, Junior, the
Prophet of God. He is the man who will be resurrected and receive the keys of
the resurrection, and he will seal this authority upon others, and they will
hunt up their friends and resurrect them when they shall have been officiated for
[meaning when all the ordinances of salvation and exaltation have been
performed for them vicariously or otherwise in the temples], and bring them
up.” (Brigham Young, Journal of
Discourses, vol. 15, pp 137-139).
“[Joseph’s]
spirit is waiting for the resurrection of the body, which will soon be. But has
he the power to resurrect that body? He has not. Who has this power? Those that
have already passed through the resurrection—who have been resurrected in their
time and season by some person else, and have been appointed to that authority
just as you Elders have been with regard to your authority to baptize. You have
not the power to baptize yourselves, neither have you power to resurrect
yourselves…” (Brigham Young, Journal
of Discourses, vol. 6, p 275).
“Some
person holding the keys of the resurrection, having previously passed through
that ordeal, will be delegated to resurrect our bodies, and our spirits will be
there and prepared to enter into their bodies. We want a house, and when we get
it and our spirits enter into it, then we can begin to look forth, for what?
For our friends. We want them resurrected. Here is this friend and that friend,
until by-and-by all are resurrected. (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, pp 139-140).
“The
body will come forth as it is laid to rest, for there is no growth or
development in the grave. As it is laid down, so will it arise, and changes to
perfection will come by the laws of restitution. But the spirit will continue
to expand and develop, and the body, after the resurrection will develop to the
full stature of man” (Teachings of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, section 4, footnote #4, p 200).
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
O Remember, Remember
"And behold, I tell ye these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." -v 17
"O how you ought to thank your heavenly King! I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another--I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandment he doth bless you and prosper you." v. 19-22
"...ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are;..." v 34
"...if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord,..." v 36
"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." v 41
Monday, February 27, 2012
Becoming Self-Reliant
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Violeta's Mission Farewell Gathering
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| Malorie, Mike T, Sis & Elder S, Dixon's, Ambrose |
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| Violeta & Dalia--their father told us he "won the lottery" with them! |
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| An hour before... |
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| The guest of honor helps set up. |
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| Elder S, Edhgar, Brandy, Ambrose, Elder D, Chris |
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| Cultural Hall fills up! |
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| Good luck, best wishes and God bless, Violeta! |
Friday, February 24, 2012
Lutheran Bishop's Perspective on "Mormon" Baptism for the Dead
The Latter-day Saint practice of vicarious baptism on behalf of the dead is once again a focus of controversy. In the past few weeks, it's been portrayed in the news media and on the web as unbiblical, ghoulish, bizarre, shameful, vicious, anti-Semitic, immoral, hateful, an exercise in "black magic" and (by some extremists) possibly even illegal. A national television commentator recently named President Thomas S. Monson among "the worst people in the world" for presiding over the practice.
It's high time for the view of a very respected non-Mormon scholar to be heard above the noise.
Around 1990, on behalf of his fellow editors for the then-forthcoming "Encyclopedia of Mormonism," the late Truman Madsen contacted an eminent New Testament scholar named Krister Stendahl. Professor Stendahl had served, by this time, as chaplain and dean of Harvard Divinity School and as the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm (i.e., effectively, as the head of the state church of Sweden), and was also known for his contributions to Jewish/Christian dialogue. Professor Madsen invited Stendahl, a personal friend, to contribute a brief article on baptism for the dead in early Christianity.
Stendahl declined, pleading the demands of a heavy schedule. But Madsen persisted and, already knowing his friend's general position on the matter, offered to draft something himself and send it to Stendahl for revision; once the article was satisfactory, it could appear under Stendahl's own name. Eventually, Stendahl agreed to the proposal.
But when the draft arrived, Stendahl wasn't at all happy with it. Madsen's proposed article, he said, was too noncommittal; the Mormon position was stronger than the draft had suggested. So Stendahl wrote an entirely new article, after all.
This is the entry that now appears in the "Encyclopedia of Mormonism."
Referring to 1 Corinthians 15:29 ["Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"], Stendahl briefly alluded to a number of conflicting explanations of the passage. However, he wrote, "the text seems to speak plainly enough about a practice within the Church of vicarious baptism for the dead. This is the view of most contemporary critical exegetes." And, he concluded, such a position is "quite reasonable."
On at least two other occasions, though, Professor Stendahl (who died in 2008) spoke much more personally about the practice of vicarious baptism for the dead. There is, he once said, such a thing as "Christian envy." His own fellow Protestants, he lamented, typically give little thought to their forebears; they certainly don't seek them out in order to bring the blessings of Christ to the dead.
Accordingly, he described himself as feeling "Christian envy" for the Mormon practice of performing ordinances in the temple on behalf of deceased ancestors.
On another occasion, captured on film and easily accessible online in the wonderful little "Mormon Messages" video titled "Why Mormons Build Temples," Stendahl spoke of the practice of baptism for the dead with extraordinary warmth and appreciation:
"It's a beautiful thing," he remarked. "I could think of myself as taking part in such an act, extending the blessings that have come to me in and through Jesus Christ. That's a beautiful way of letting the eternal mix into the temporal — which, in a way, is what Christianity is about."
As Latter-day Saints seek to make their own voices heard amidst the sensationalism, disinformation, hostility and clamor of this "Mormon Moment," believing members of the church and their friends would do well to give this little video, including Stendahl's strikingly affirmative remarks, even wider circulation than it's already had. This can be done on message boards and blogs, in online "comments" sections, via e-mail and in numerous other ways.
Another extremely useful resource is a series of articles that has recently appeared in volumes 19 and 20 of the Maxwell Institute's "Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture": 1) "Salvation for the Dead in Early Christianity," by Roger D. Cook, David L. Paulsen and Kendel J. Christensen; 2) "Baptism for the Dead in Early Christianity," by David L. Paulsen and Brock M. Mason; 3) "Redeeming the Dead: Tender Mercies, Turning of Hearts, and Restoration of Authority," by David L. Paulsen, Kendel J. Christensen and Martin Pulido; and 4) "Redemption of the Dead: Continuing Revelation after Joseph Smith," by David L. Paulsen, Judson Burton, Kendel J. Christensen and Martin Pulido. The first three are accessible online at maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/jbms/; the most recent article is available in print, but hasn't yet been put online.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
East Brunswick YSA's Got Talent!
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| Richard, EBYSA Elders Quorum President, played piano solo. |
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| Tyler, EBYSA Sunday School Counselor, sang selection from "Les Miz." |
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| Sydora lit up the stage performing a modern dance to "It's a Wonderful World." |
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| EBYSA Elders Quorum Choir performed a hymn. |
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| In 5 minutes, Sister Dixon schooled us on "How to Paint a Masterpiece". |
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| Michael C, EBYSA Elders Quorum counselor, did a cognitive memory trick! |
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| Billy, EBYSA Sunday School teacher, played the bass! |
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| Alex finished up EBYSA Talent Show with an amazing piano piece! |
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