Sisters and Brothers,

This week marks two years since the formation of the Geneva Heights 12^th Ward. It is hard to believe that it has only been two years that those of us who live in this small corner of Vineyard have been blessed to serve together in this ward. In that relatively short period of time we have been through many changes. It is safe to say that we are a very different ward from the one that was created two years ago. We have bid adieu to friends who have moved and have also welcomed new friends into the ward; the structure of our meetings continue to undergo changes as we ride out a global pandemic; we’re still learning about and implementing the new Children and Youth Program, Come Follow Me and other new initiatives from the Church. 

Change is part of life. The Church changes to meet the needs of the day; the ward changes with the ebb and flow of its members, and each of us change throughout our lives as we learn and grow. I’m not the same person I was last month—much less the same person I was when I was in high school—and, on the whole, that is a good thing! We should all be invested in changing and becoming more and more like Christ every day. Ironically but importantly, Jesus Christ is described in the scriptures as being “unchangeable from eternity to all eternity” (Moroni 8:18). In order for us to make and evaluate the important changes needed in our lives, Jesus Christ remains the steady standard, the unchanging yardstick by which we measure our progress. If Christ or his Gospel were changing, we would run an eternal, unwinable race to obtain an ever-changing finish line.

We will be talking about changes—as individuals and as a ward—in our upcoming sacrament meeting. The purpose of this is to look back at the past two years as a ward and use the past to inform the future as we consider how we yet need to change (collectively and individually) to obtain the vision and purpose of our ward and of our lives. Please plan to join us this Sunday at 9am as we celebrate the last two years as a ward and renew our association as a ward family for the next few years to come.

Faithfully yours,

Bishop Ty Kenworthy