On Being Genuine

"The Church is not an automobile showroom, it is
more like a service station" - Pres. Uchtdorf

Our soon-to-migrate-westward EQ member, Daniel Harbuck, was able to dispel any question of his lame duck status by actually reaching out to see if he could teach a lesson in his few remaining months with the quorum.  He was assigned the topic of 'On Being Genuine' from a recent priesthood session talk by Pres. Uchtdorf.

In typical form, he was able to get a lot of class participation (even from those that couldn't attend in person) by doing some coordination with quorum members in advance.  He texted several members independently to ask, "Are there any examples of genuine love/service/testimony/anything that you can share?"  We were able to draw out some great stories in the class.  Below are some excerpts.

• An anonymous testimony was submitted recounting a story of a quorum member who, when he was a youth, stayed out too late one Saturday night with his friends and took a substance he shouldn't have, and which was detected by his parents when he got home.  The next day on the LONG ride to church the father waited for the rest of the family to head out of the parked car and then, unorthodoxically, told the son that he wanted him to stand in front of his fellow priesthood youth and tell them what he did and ask them to forgive him.  (Wow!)  [I'm not sure what I would have done in that situation either as the father or the son.]  So this young man stood up and explained what he did and then said he immediately felt the overpowering love and acceptance of his fellow friends.  
• Abraham S. shared a short story from his youth about finally pushing back on his father who he felt was pressuring him too much and the father sort of cracked and broke down a bit and said, "I'm sorry, son.  I guess I've never been the father of a 14-year old boy before.", and how this instance both showed him how genuinely hard his father had been trying, and improved their relationship greatly ever since.
• Skyler S. shared a fantastic story which I'll call the parable of the 3 priesthood friends, Stu, Trevor, and Skyler.  One boy, Stu, was the son of the stake president, and everything came naturally to him.  Sklyer started to grow tired of everyone saying how great Stu was, and he complained to his mom, "Mom - this guy's not actually that great.  I know.  I'm the one showing up on time to prepare the sacrament.  I'm the one collecting fast offerings every month."  His mom responded, "Skyler, are you serious?!  Look at Trevor.  He's doing all the things you are doing, and more, AND he's not asking for any recognition."  And then a few days later Skyler actually found Trevor at a street near his house and said, "Hey man, what are you doing here?" to which Trevor sheepishly responded, "Oh... yeah... I mean... I just kind of come here sometimes and just help someone out with something."  When Skyler pressed further he came to learn that this guy, Trevor, was actually doing repeat visits to a widow's house to do her yardwork for her.  Ha!
• Abele T. shared his appreciation for fellow quorum members who shine through as examples of genuineness for him by taking time out of their busy lives to help others in need and practice what they preach.
• Dan K. shared a story about how being a nursery teacher was actually quite difficult for him and his wife, and once when he slightly let on about it to his home teacher who happened to have a kid in nursery he was impressed that of all the preachy things the home teacher could have said, he simply said, "Thank you for helping in the nursery.  It's nice that my wife and I can count on people as reliable as you and your wife to trust our kids with so we can attend our classes and be spiritually uplifted."

"Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count.” - attributed to Albert Einstein

Harbuck Move - Timelapse (Oct'14)

Harbuck Move - Timelapse from pace barker on Vimeo.

Stake Conference Chair Takedown Assignment

This one is tough because we always seem to get paired up with the singles ward and both of us have hardly any trucks to be able to easily tackle the 300 chairs that need to get hauled after stake conference to the nearby ward building. But we find a way to make do.  At least the weather was nice.

Jacob and Josh loading up the SUV.  "Just pack enough of 'em in there and that way they won't slide around."

Homer Knudson, right, recruits some whippersnappers to help him maneuver a cart of chairs through the strait and narrow doorframe.  

EQ History - 2009

At the close of 2009, the Elders Quorum presidency consisted of Joseph Brubaker as President, Matthew Archer-Beck as first counselor, Sterling Fillmore as second counselor, Brent Olson as secretary, and Lance Gorbutt as assistant secretary. During the year, the Elders Quorum leadership had changed as Timothy Valentiner and Scott Lund moved for employment reasons. Blessed with many capable quorum members, both Presidencies organized the quorum to fulfill the Church’s missions of proclaiming the gospel, perfecting the saints, and redeeming the dead.

On the missionary front, the Elders Quorum focused on conversion, retention, and reactivation. A number of investigators joined the church, and on one special evening the five adult members of the Lkhagvasuren family were baptized. The quorum strived to fellowship these and other new members by teaching the lessons from the Preach My Gospel manual to support their conversion, despite the language challenges presented by the ward’s cultural diversity. Working on reactivation, Elders visited homes to meet and invite members to receive home teachers as well as to determine if unknown members on record still lived in Arlington. Highlights included another Lost Sheep Blitz in December and the return of Tigabu Afework.

The Elders Quorum developed spiritually and physically by participating in various uplifting activities. Spiritually, the Elders Quorum was blessed to participate in weekly class discussions and many ordinations, including Matthew Kantorski’s and Bumbagerel Norov’s ordination to the Melckizedek priesthood. On the temporal side, house moves were still common, but one interesting new challenge was the massive snow-shoveling expedition that we held close to Christmas when the DC area was hit with one of the biggest snowstorms in the last 50 years.

Snowmageddon, when Arlingtonians had to live
without Crate & Barrel and the Apple store
for 4 whole days!

The Elders Quorum also focused on temple work. Elders attended the Temple on Stake Temple Day each month and also helped new members prepare to attend the temple to perform ordinances for the dead. Together with the High Priests Group, the quorum helped new members create family history records. With quorum members, many new members entered the Temple for the first time and second times on planned trips in May and December. Several had the wonderful opportunity of receiving baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost for beloved siblings and parents.

Toward the end of 2009 the Elders Quorum presidency made changes to improve home teaching. The presidency increased the number of home teaching districts so that each district leader could work more closely with assigned companionships and also began using personal priesthood interviews to train and follow up with home teachers. Despite the challenges presented by high turnover in the ward, many home teachers served faithfully, and, of particular note, the quorum performed many priesthood blessings throughout the year for the members of our ward.

EQ History - 2008

The Arlington 2nd Ward Elders Quorum (EQ) was formed with the creation of the Arlington 2nd Ward.  The Elders Quorum Presidency (EQP) called at that time comprised the following: Timothy Valentiner (President), Scott Lund (1st Counselor), Joseph Brubaker (2nd Counselor), and Matthew Archer-Beck (Secretary).  In the first weeks following creation, the EQP extended callings to quorum members in order to fill the needs for managing quorum hometeaching activities; quorum instruction; and overseeing activities under the quorum's stewardship for fulfilling the church's three-fold mission by calling Chairs and Committee Members to an EQ Missionary Committee, EQ Temple Committee, and EQ Temporal & Spiritual Affairs Committee. The quorum has been very blessed by the many able quorum members and their willingness to faithfully serve in the callings extended.

The EQ has been especially blessed as well by the diversity of backgrounds of its members, including recent converts that joined the church just prior to and following creation of the Arlington 2nd Ward.  These new members have provided a unique opportunity for quorum members to maintain a vision and focus on the importance of missionary work and retention of new converts.  The EQ has made this effort a priority in conjunction with the ward and stake's focus on missionary work. The EQP, in conjunction with the Bishopric, created an EQ Mission Plan outlining the goals, structure, and methods for achieving the objective of "focusing on the conversion, retention, and reactivation of our neighbors that they may receive the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, including temple blessings." Part of the ward Mission Plan, which directly involves the EQ, includes the role of hometeachers delivery/facilitating the New Member lessons to recent coverts they hometeach, as opposed to calling separate Ward Missionaries to do so.  This has been a blessing a challenge thus far for the quorum's hometeachers.  We are striving to carry this out faithfully.

A unique aspect of the EQ is the growing number of converts of Mongolian origin.  Language barriers and cultural differences within the quorum have posed new challenges and been a source of great blessings for quorum members.  The EQ Presidency has sought to encourage as many activities as possible to encourage fellowshipping/integration of recent converts, as well as promote their spiritual growth.  These activities have included weekly sporting events at the ward building, PPIs, ward/EQ dinner activities, and a break-out Basic Priesthood Ordinances/Principles class that meets once a month during EQ.

One significant quorum activity worth highlight was the Lost Sheep Blitz effort carried out in December.  The activity included quorum members going out as hometeaching companionships (during EQ meeting on Sunday) to knock on two less-active members' doors to introduce themselves, extend a personal invitation to attend church next Sunday, and to assess whether the less active member would like to receive hometeaching visits.  This turned out to be a very motivating activity to all that were able to participate, with many encouraging anecdotes.  This effort also helped the EQP identify quorum members that have since moved from the ward in order to pass their names to "address unknown" so they may be eventually located and their new wards informed.

Overall, the Arlington 2nd Ward Elders Quorum has been very blessed as a newly formed quorum in 2008 with many opportunities to serve one another, and those under our stewardship, as Priesthood holders and disciples of Christ.