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.