Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

From Bishopric:
Dear Ward Family,
“And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 23:10-11)

So announced the Angels of God to the Sheppard’s on the first Christmas night over 2000 years ago, our prayer is that each of us can keep Christ and His loving characteristics the focus of this Christmas Season for He truly is the reason, for the Season.


Merry Christmas!
Kingwood 1st Ward Bishopric



This will be the last one for a couple of weeks (We’re headed for Colorado over Christmas). Hope everyone out there has a Merry Christmas!!!!

Upcoming events:
* Mond 14th 6:30 Stake Christmas Concert – what a great FHE outing!

* Friday 18th Ward Temple night.

* Sun 20th 7:00 PM YSA Metro Fireside @ Klein Stake Center

* Thursday 31st 9:00 PM YSA Activity - Klein Stake Center

We handed out 2010 lesson manuals today, if you did not get one, be sure to drop by the clerk’s office/RS next Sunday to pick one up.

Be sure to watch the Christmas Spirit vid on LDS.org!

You know the 3 fold mission of the church? A 4th mission has been added! Read about it here and think about how we can make this season better for another:
New LDS emphasis: Care for the needy.
Salt Lake Tribune - Religion » The church is adding helping the poor to its 'threefold mission.'


RS Lesson: Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith
The Martyrdom: The Prophet Seals His Testimony with His Blood

Erin taught the lesson today – only one more lesson to go in the JS Book. It has been a wonderful 2 years learning about our beloved prophet!

On June 24, 1844 Joseph and Hyrum Smith bade farewell to their families and rode with other Nauvoo city officials toward Carthage…

Caryn and Annette performed “A Poor wayfaring man of Grief” for us.

“On the afternoon of June 27, 1844, the little group of brethren sat silent and disconsolate in the jail. One of the men asked Elder Taylor, who had a rich tenor voice, to sing to them. Soon his voice was raised: “A poor wayfaring Man of grief hath often crossed me on my way, who sued so humbly for relief that I could never answer nay.”2 Elder Taylor recollected that the hymn “was very much in accordance with our feelings at the time…”

“Shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon, a large group of attackers stormed the jail … Hyrum Smith was shot first and died almost immediately. Elder Richards miraculously received only a superficial wound; and Elder Taylor, though severely wounded, survived and later became the third President of the Church. The Prophet Joseph ran to the window and was fatally shot. The Prophet of the Restoration and his brother Hyrum had sealed their testimonies with their blood.”

In June 1844, the Prophet said: “I do not regard my own life. I am ready to be offered a sacrifice for this people; for what can our enemies do? Only kill the body, and their power is then at an end. Stand firm, my friends; never flinch. Do not seek to save your lives, for he that is afraid to die for the truth, will lose eternal life. Hold out to the end, and we shall be resurrected and become like Gods, and reign in celestial kingdoms, principalities, and eternal dominions.”

Early on June 27, 1844, in Carthage Jail, Joseph Smith wrote in a hasty letter to Emma Smith: “I am very much resigned to my lot, knowing I am justified and have done the best that could be done. Give my love to the children and all my friends …

“[Joseph Smith] spent the last winter of his life, some three or four months, with the quorum of the Twelve teaching them. It was not merely a few hours ministering to them the ordinances of the gospel; but he spent day after day, week after week and month after month, teaching them and a few others the things of the kingdom of God.”

Wilford Woodruff said about Joseph Smith’s meeting with the Apostles in March 1844: “I remember the last speech that [Joseph Smith] ever gave us before his death. … He stood upon his feet some three hours. The room was filled as with consuming fire, his face was as clear as amber, and he was clothed upon by the power of God. He laid before us our duty. He laid before us the fullness of this great work of God; and in his remarks to us he said: ‘I have had sealed upon my head every key, every power, every principle of life and salvation that God has ever given to any man who ever lived upon the face of the earth. And these principles and this Priesthood and power belong to this great and last dispensation which the God of Heaven has set His hand to establish in the earth. Now,’ said he, addressing the Twelve, ‘I have sealed upon your heads every key, every power, and every principle which the Lord has sealed upon my head.’ And continuing, he said, ‘I have lived so long—up to the present time—I have been in the midst of this people and in the great work and labor of redemption. I have desired to live to see this Temple built. But I shall never live to see it completed; but you will—you will.’ …

“After addressing us in this manner he said: ‘I tell you, the burden of this kingdom now rests upon your shoulders…

“Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!”

I am going like a lamb to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer’s morning; I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me—he was murdered in cold blood.’—The same morning, after Hyrum had made ready to go—shall it be said to the slaughter? yes, for so it was—he read the following paragraph, near the close of the twelfth chapter of Ether, in the Book of Mormon, and turned down the leaf upon it:
“And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: If they have not charity it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness, thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place which I have prepared in the mansions of my Father. And now I … bid farewell unto the Gentiles; yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood. [Ether 12:36–38.] The testators are now dead, and their testament is in force.

“Hyrum Smith was forty-four years old in February, 1844, and Joseph Smith was thirty-eight in December, 1843…

George Albert Smith, the eighth President of the Church, declared: “Joseph Smith performed his mission; and when the time came that he was face to face with death, he said, ‘I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer morning. I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life, I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall yet be said of me, “He was murdered in cold blood.” ‘ [See D&C 135:4.] He was not afraid to stand before the pleasing bar of our Father in heaven and answer for the deeds done in the body. He was not afraid to meet the charge that had been made against him, that he was deceiving the people and dealing unjustly with them. He was not afraid of the result of his life’s mission, and of the final triumph of the work which he knew was of divine origin, and for which he gave his life.”

Thanks for another great lesson Erin!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years everyone!
- jamie.