Chili Cookoff is Fun for All

        It was another one of the Mokelumne River Ward's great friendshipping events. A large crowd enjoyed choosing from 15 different pots of Chili and multiple choices for toppings, cornbread, salads, and deserts.  Each person was given a ticket before they ate and asked to put it in the jar in front of the chili they choose as the best. The winners were awarded prizes. How could one choose?  Each one was delicious.
    "Peoples' Choice" was nailed by Chene Mogler (left) and Tyler Burton (right) picked up an award for "Most Colorful" with a pot of chicken chili made by his wife Jennell. Others who won awards were Loren Perry for "Perry's Chili," Eric Fairbanks for "Woodland Chili," and Tammy Woods for "Just Eat It."
    Chene Mogler was also awarded a prize for his "Hottest Chili" called "Two Alarm."  Cindy Parker nailed "1st Empty Pot" with her "Sweet Bacon" entry.

   These are a few or the people who attended and enjoyed the event.  In the upper right picture are the "official" tasters: Elders Quorum President Don Daley, and bishopric counselors  Joseph Stringer and Tyler Burton.
      Thanks go to Tammi Woods, Ann Grether, Andrea Mogler and Julie McGhie for planning and organizing this wonderful event.

Lily Mogler Makes Annual Masters Wrestling Tournament

    Lily Mogler's picture recently appeared on the front page of the Stockton Record sports section.  Quite an honor!  This is her story.
      Lily, daughter of Chene and Andrea Mogler, was introduced to wrestling in 4th grade when her older sisters started wrestling in high school.  She would hang out on the mats while waiting top pick up her sisters. That led to her joining the youth wresting cub at Tokay.  She started competing in tournaments in 5th grade.  She is now a freshman on the Tokay team.
     Why does she like wrestling?  Because it keeps her in shape, helps with time management, and teaches discipline.  "It helps you to develop into a strong independent woman and teaches you how to deal with touch times without giving up."
     As a 5th grader she qualified for SCWAY kids stats in the 12U division for Folkstyle and went to Texas to compete at Women's Body Bar Nationals in Freestyle.  In 6th grade she won 1st in both Freestyle and Folkstyle at the Clash for the Crown all girls tournament and brought home two custom singlets (athletic jerseys.)  She also competed at Reno Worlds.
   As a freshman she worked hard to earn a spot on the girls varsity lineup and wrestled hard to earn a spot at Masters.
    Lily goes to seminary each morning and Young Women every Tuesday night, and considers it a good break from the stress of school.  Every summer she looks forward to girls camp and being around nature.  She says she feels the spirit there and can feel her testimony growing stronger.  Lily's parents support wrestling for her because it makes all the girls appreciate their bodies as they are.  The girls compete against other girls their same size. Lily recently dropped five weight classes by not skipping meals, but using portion control and smart meal choices all season. "It teaches them how to eat correctly and in a healthy way," says her mother Andrea.  "Ultimately wrestling gives them a lot of self esteem."

"Days for Girls" -- A Project of Great Significance

     Above is a picture from the "Days for Girls" website illustrating girls in countries where they previously had no access to menstrual care solutions, and now they do! They can now face the world with dignity, health, and opportunity.

    Lodi stake is involved with other stakes to provide women around the world with safe, beautiful, washable, and long lasting alternatives they can count on month after month--along with vital health education. Our stake is beginning a project that will last through September to create at least 500 menstrual kits .  Above are pictured two sisters from Mokelumne River Ward who are in stake positions and working to organize the wards for this project;  Center: Cathy Leonard, Stake RS Secretary, and Right: Ruth Anderson, Stake RS President.

       These are some of the sisters in the ward who participated in a Saturday four-hour event to complete as much as possible.  The kits involve 16 different parts, so it is not a task that can be completed in a few minutes. Young Women as well as Relief Society sisters are involved. Many more events will happen, and sisters can also take work home. The goal is to make a sustainable solution that will shatter stigmas and limitations for all women and girls.  A very noble project.  We will be writing more about this as the project progresses.

Wade and Ann Broughton Called to Serve Mission

Ann and Wade Broughton

    Wade and Ann Broughton have been called to serve in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission and will check into the MTC on March 16.  In Charlotte they will be working with a Spanish speaking ward of the Church.
   As a young man, Wade served a mission in Bogota Colombia.  While there he served as the branch president for six months.  "Then is when I learned the wonderful value of sister missionaries," he said.  "Besides being branch president, I was the Relief Society president too.  None of the other Elders it the branch had a clue about what to do."  Fortunately his mother had been a RS President when he was young, and Wade knew what to do to train the sisters in Colombia until sister missionaries could be sent there to help them.
   Meantime Ann graduated from BYU and was teaching elementary school.  She also wanted to serve a mission and had turned her application in.  But then Wade came into the picture, they fell in love, and Ann was prompted by the Holy Ghost that she should marry him and postpone her mission.
  The Broughtons have had many experiences serving in the Church. Wade has been an Elders Quorum president twice, Young Men president, Priest Quorum advisor and executive secretary for two bishops. He has also been a scoutmaster, bishop's counselor, stake high counsel, and stake YM presidency.  Recently he was bishop of the Lodi 2nd Ward until the Lodi wards were consolidated.
He is currently Assistant Area Auditor for Sacramento Coordinating Council.
   Ann has also had a variety of callings in the church: primary counselor and president, Young Women counselor and president, seminary teacher, Relief Society counselor, stake RS secretary and counselor in the stake Primary.  In addition her talent for playing the piano and organ has been an ongoing part of her church service.
    Recently Wade has volunteered once a week in the Family History Center.  Ann has served as a temple ordinance worker in the Sacramento California temple for ten years, and was joined by Wade after he retired from General Mills.  They are well prepared to service a mission and will be an amazing asset to the Spanish ward in Charlotte, North Carolina.  We wish them well.

Alysa Webb Begins Mission Service

 
    Alysa Webb, daughter of Brad and Bronwyn Webb, has left for her full time mission in Rancagua Chile.  Rancagua is just south of Santiago, Chile.  Even before leaving she said she "loves it already!" On her last Sunday before leaving she performed a vocal solo in Sacrament meeting as well as give a farewell talk.  In it she said she has recognized her true identity, and that there is no greater joy than having a change of heart.  Her mission has already strengthened her testimony. We are sure that Sister Webb will be an outstanding missionary.  This picture was taken on the day she went to the Sacramento Temple with her parents to receive her endowments.

Debra Smith Newest Convert to the Church

  Sister Debra Smith (second from right) was baptized January 11 by Jett Godi and was confirmed a member of the church the next day.  She began her mission lessons with the elders, then was transferred to sister missionaries Sister Ball (left) and Sister Hamilton (right.)  The Spanish sister missionaries sang a special duet "Like Him" as part of the service.
   Sister Smith said she was excited to become a member of the church, and looked forward to learning more about it and meeting all the members of the Mokelumne River Ward.

A New Presidency for Young Women

Young Women begin the new year with an excited Young Women Presidency.  The group attended the temple January 24 to worship and get inspiration for their new responsibility.  L to R:  Kaela Burke, secretary; Brenda Casper, first counselor; Hilary Sroufe, president; and Lisa Holden, second counselor.

Missionary Plan for the New Year

   On the last Sunday of 2019 the entire ward from age 11 and up met together to discuss ways to make the ward mission plan come to life.  Ward Mission Leader Eric Fairbanks and the Elders Quorum presidency had arranged circles of chairs in the cultural hall.

  Each circle discussed and made notes in three areas that were each presented on slides showing on the stage screen.  The areas were those that had previously been discussed in Ward Council: 
1. Prepare
2. Invite
3. Support

Left: Brother Fairbanks takes the microphone to each circle of members and they use their notes to report their ideas in each area.  Don Daley, Elder's Quorum President, and Casey Haynes, Elders Quorum First Counselor, were there to assist.

Some of the ideas expressed from the notes were:

Collecting items for homeless shelters; walking dogs at humane society, making hygiene kits for the "Days for Girls"program; ward-wide food storage program; involve non-members in cemetery and other cleaning projects; share extra garden produce; have a yard work service plan, help the Salvation Army; have an activity at Lodi Lake and many more.

   Our ward missionaries are Sister Ball, left, and Sister Hamilton.  They are eager to work with ward members in finding people to whom they can teach the gospel.

A Special Christmas Sacrament Meeting

   Today Mokelumne River Ward honored the birth of Jesus Christ through beautiful music and touching talks. Caden Webb sang an amazingly beautiful rendition of "O Holy Night," followed by the choir singing "O, Come Emmanuel" featuring soloist Marie VerSteeg.  They also sang two other Christmas hymns in the program.  The songs, "We Three Kings," and "What child is This" were sung by the McGhie family.  Their oldest daughter Samantha accompanied them on the guitar.
   Spiritual Christmas talks were given by the bishopric: Joseph Stringer, Tyler Burton, Tim Shull and Bishop Eric Holden.

  Following the meeting, a "Linger Longer" was held for everyone to enjoy food brought by members.  There was a lot more Christmas delights than these pictures show. The darling Santa Claus was designed and constructed by Hazel, Willa and Hilary Sroufe!

     This is just a portion of the large group of people who enjoyed food and fellowship with one another.  The next two pictures are a few people who didn't escape the camera.  We report that everyone had a wonderful time.

Relief Society Sisters and Elders Join Hands

     Casey Haynes, far left, is 1st counselor in the Elders Quorum presidency.  Missionary work falls under his domain.  It an effort to get families involved he brought a blank calendar into Relief Society one Sunday and said if the sisters would fill it up with dates to have a friend(s) over for an evening to meet with the Sister Missionaries, he would cook a dinner for them.
   This was quite an enticement, as Brother Haynes is well known as an excellent cook.The calendar filled up.  The Relief Society Christmas dinner was donated and cooked by Casey and his wife Jennifer and it was beautifully presented and delicious. Casey said it was a good deal.  Also helping him and Jennifer with the meal was Joseph Stringer and Brad Webb.

 The sisters enjoyed being served by the ward's Young Men and Young Women. They were very pleasant and capable.

This chicken dinner was out-of-this-world good.  After the main course everyone enjoyed desserts provided by the sisters.

After the sisters finished eating, the youth got to load up on all the extra desserts.  There wasn't much left after that.  This dinner was enjoyed by all!

   The sisters were able to take home two special gifts. Inside the red package on the left was a small ornament featuring "Away In A Manager" being held by Priscilla Quarnstrom. On The right are wooden inns made by Laurie Shore.  She and her husband Rocky made mangers for all of the sisters for Christmas two years ago.  It's definitely the season to be generous.  We are grateful.

Photo Essay: Amazing Ward Christmas Party

   The fun began with an invitation for everyone to come to the church and board the Polar Express.  We didn't know how much fun was going to be had.  Sister Cathy Leonard put it into words:  "It was really magical, beautiful, imaginative, exciting, fun, and heartwarming.  Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves.  A lot of hard work on the part of many was obvious."

   The conductor of the train invited everyone to come for a ride, then he collected tickets that had been handed out earlier.  This conductor looks a lot like Bishop Holden, but we know it isn't him, because this charming man has a mustache, and of course the bishop doesn't.

   On the ticket, everyone was invited to come in their best pajamas.  These are three examples of some really fun pajamas. On the left are the McGhie children whose mom Julie was able to find coordinating pajama outfits for all of them.  Upper right are Willa, Starr, and Hazel Sroufe who also looked darling in their matching P.J.s.   But Teresa and Dan Sroufe take the prize for showing their love in identical plaid pajamas.  What fun!

  The decorations for this event were simply beautiful! The building was transformed into a winter wonderland.  Every detail was articulately placed.

    Dinner that evening consisted of food that every kid likes: pancakes and sausage.  Cooking was done by members of the Elders Quorum and really hit the spot.

    Right after dinner, and before train rides and Santa, several ward members were selected to present the real reason for celebrating Christmas.  Wade Broughton read the Christmas story from the bible.  Steve Demetras gave a few ideas for how we can teach the Christmas story in our homes.  It was excellent, and in addition he provided a copy for us to use in our homes.  It is on the blog a couple of entries before this.  Be sure and find it.  It's called Teaching the Christmas Story.  And lastly, Caden Webb sang "O Holy Night" with his beautiful voice.

   The primary delighted with Christmas songs especially for us.

Then it was time to board the Polar Express and head for Santa land.

   Santa was a hit!  He was very well dressed and obviously shops at the best department stores. He smiled at the children, listened to their requests, and had a helper with him who gave each child a treat.

   The cocoa stand featured hot chocolate with all kinds of "fixins."  It was manned by delightful young men and young women.

   Yes, an outstanding and never-to-be-forgotten event with lots of people helping, but these were the kingpins who worked tirelessly to put it together.  They are Don Daley, Elder's Quorum president; Casey Haynes, 1st counselor; Neil Anderson, second counselor; and Chris Congrave, secretary.

Gwen Daley Is Baptized

The Daley Family on Gwen's baptism day:  Behind are Don, Cori and son Tyler.  Front: brother Owen, and Gwen

     Gwen Daley, daughter of Don and Cori Daley was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on November 23.  She was baptized and confirmed by her father. The baptism was presided over by Bishop Holden and witnessed by Cori Daley and Gwen's aunt Carli Glock.
   The talk on baptism was given by another aunt, Megan Daley.  Her grandmother Pam Daley gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.
   When asked what she was most excited about regarding her baptism Gwen replied, "That I would be forgiven of my sins."  The room was decorated with rainbows because Gwen loves the song, "When I Am Baptized."  It was a great day.