Dear friends,
Happy New Year from us, the Stake Presidency!
We are grateful for your kindness, effort, love, and forgiveness that you extend to us and to each other. Last year, we came across people who were living through trying circumstances both in our community and all around us. Your donations, time, and skills have been so helpful.
Fresh starts
As you ponder a fresh start today, we invite you to continue to be spiritually minded, which the prophet called ‘Think Celestial!’.
Thinking Celestial we believe starts with something as small as a prayer. We can testify that truth, comfort, and guidance are only a prayer away. A reverent prayer of sincere respect, thanks, and heartfelt desires shared – will often give us snippets of thoughts or feelings that guide our actions or outlook on a problem, question, or relationship.
When we pray, we “secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that we must ask for in order to obtain” (Prayer: Guide to the Scriptures). This means that sometimes we can miss out on blessings, feelings, testimony or inspiration just because we overlooked the need to ask. Sometimes that happens when we feel distant from Him. No one is ever too far from God to reach out. He will answer.
Invitation
Our invitation this New Year is to continue or even start again to “pray to the Father in the name of Christ” (Moroni 4:2).
He will guide you to be spiritually minded. “As you think celestial, your heart will gradually change. You will want to pray more often and more sincerely. His response to your prayers may surprise you and will help you to think celestial.” (Russell M Nelson, October 2023 General conference)
With all our love,
President Peter Cope
President Mark Plumbley
President Steve Cottrell
Poole England Stake Presidency