Manila Creek 2nd Ward

08/15/2024

August Temple and Family History Invitation!

06/26/2024

Here’s a fun activity to put on your calendar for July !

06/14/2024

The Primary enthusiastically invites you to watch the Flag Day Parade tomorrow morning beginning at 9:30 a.m. Attached you will find a map of the route so you can come on over and give them a cheer!!

We would deeply appreciate your love and support. It will begin at 9:30 at the McKinney's and follow the map ending at Val Vista Park

06/02/2024

05/21/2024

Missionary Monday :
Here’s a fun message from the official page of The Church of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The beautiful sister who begins this video is Ellie Sessions , the daughter Julie Sessions in our very own stake .

05/19/2024

3 weeks from today is our semi-annual Stake Conference and you are invited .

05/07/2024

May Family History Challenge

05/06/2024

Missionary Monday from our own Wayne & Julie Smith

Aloha Manila Creek 2nd Ward,
We are loving our time serving the Lord on this mission. We have so many opportunities and different ways of serving, and we know that a picture is worth a thousand words so we are including 9000 words in picture form.
What do we love about serving, let us count the ways
We love experiencing so many different cultures. There are 70 countries/states represented here
We love living across the street from the temple and attending there often
We love serving with so many awesome and dedicated missionaries
We love seeing the sunrise
We love meeting many different, but amazing people (some famous, some ordinary and some old friends)
We love experiencing the beautiful place that we live
We love the family ward we attend and all the awesome people we are coming to know and love
But more than anything, we LOVE serving God by serving the awesome students who come to BYUH. Some people joke that serving a mission in Hawaii is just like going on a vacation. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's a great place to vacation and we do a little sightseeing but where we really feel fulfilled is serving the students, other missionaries, participating in mission devotionals, district meetings, and taking some shifts helping guests at the Polynisean Cultural Center.
All of this reminds us of something that President Nelson has taught:
When we speak of gathering Israel on both sides of the veil, we are referring, of course, to missionary, temple, and family history work. We are also referring to building faith and testimony in the hearts of those with whom we live, work, and serve. Anytime we do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—to make and keep their covenants with God, we are helping to gather Israel. (President Nelson, Let God Prevail, October 2020)
We love serving God in this part of the vineyard and helping in the gathering of Israel.
And we say thank you to the Manila Creek 2nd ward for all of your love and support for us!
Love,
Elder Wayne and Sister Julie Smith

04/29/2024

Missionary Monday from our wonderful Tait Vargason:
Life isn't necessarily a big box that needs to be checked off. My mission isn't either. Its a place we learn, and of course use the Atonement, to become something new. We have the chance every Sunday to start again, think about Jesus' sacrifice, to use his Atonement to be better the next week. That principle is something that i have come to love about the gospel. In my studies i found Romans 6:1-4

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Is it okay to live in sin because he has paid the price? No. But is it okay that we've messed up but are still trying to become something through the Atonement of Christ? yes absolutely. We have been baptized and we have tied ourselves to him through covenant. So what have i been trying to do? verse 4 tells me "we also should walk in newness of life" That's what i have been trying to do. Accept Jesus Christs sacrifice, be thankful for it, and then use it to become better than I was before. What a gift.

04/16/2024

Missionary Monday update from Elder Braxton Hill :
My mission out here in the Philippines has been wild. The culture is so different from back home. Adjustments to the people, Tagalog, Ilokano, living standards, and most of all food has made for some pretty crazy stories over the last 20 months. Even though its been difficult at times, it has really been the best (almost) 2 years haha.

Something that has come up a lot is temples! We have taught our friends 5 or 6 times about them in the last month, the Urdaneta temple dedication is on the 28th, and a big theme from conference this last week was temples, so they have been on my mind a lot recently. I want to share the story of a member here in Irisan that she shared with us and a friend in one of our teachings. So Nanay Tiru is a pioneering member here in Baguio. Back when she was being taught by the missionaries the church was very young in the Philippines and there wasnt a temple here yet. Her husband had died very young and the idea of temples and being sealed to him was one of the big reasons she was converted. She was really poor at the time but told god if he would provide a way, she would work her butt off to go to the temple. So over the course of 5 years she worked and worked and sold everything she could in order to save up some money. By some miracle she was able to get a visa which is not very easy here in the philippines, especially back then. So she sold everything else she had that she wouldnt take with her, and went to utah. She stayed with the former missionaries that converted her and was able to attend the temple for the first time. Then miracle after miracle and she was able to somehow make it back to the Philippines, and miracle after miracle she was blessed with 100x what she had before. I dont think those blessings came by coincidence. That story really made me think if I would be that willing to sacrifice so much to go to the temple. Back home im so lucky to live 5 min away from a temple but I unfortunately took it for granted and didnt attend like I shouldve. Now being almost 2 years since I last attended a temple, its been put into perspective the true importance of them. The blessings that come from temples are incredible. So for those of you who live near temples or have access to them I invite you, just like our living prophet did last week, to attend more frequently and recommit our lives to the savior through temple worship.

Of course its a sacrifice but like Bruce R. McConkie said in the April 1975 conference, "The law of sacrifice is a celestial law."

Its so crazy how fast the time is winding down. It feels like just a couple months ago I saw the first spider the size of my head in our kitchen, but now I only have to deal with that for 4 more months 🤯.

Anyways mahal ko kayo at ingat palagi! Alam ko na si Jesus ay yung cristo at Amok nga ti simbaan ni jesucristo dagiti santo idi ud-udina ket pudno!

03/25/2024

Missionary Monday from our very own Sister Elise Livingston serving in the San Francisco/ Oakland Mission with a visitors center assignment :

Hello Brothers and Sisters! As I’ve been on my mission I've had the opportunity to be assigned to a Chinese Branch in San Francisco as well as spend 22 hours a week at the Oakland Temple's Visitor Center! I would love to say working at the Visitors Center is easy work because people come to you, but in-fact balancing the extra training in Mandarin and Cantonese and also the Visitors Center has been a lot of work. Through all of these experiences, the Lord has blessed me with so many humbling opportunities to grow spiritually. The people I have learned the most from, have been our friends who exercise so much faith, but have a hard time seeing it in themselves. We were teaching one of our friends the plan of salvation and had just talked about the 3 kingdoms of glory. We asked her which kingdom she most wanted to go to. She said 當然高榮國度! Of course the Celestial Kingdom! So many people we've met have a hard time believing they'll make it to the celestial kingdom because they’ll never be perfect enough for it. But our Savior provided everyone the opportunity come unto Him. No one will be denied that who truly seeks to do His will !
To close i just wanted to share something I always share when I give the Christus (the statue of Christ) tours at the Visitors Center. Jesus Christ is incapable of forgetting you. All of your pain, trials, joys, sins, and experiences are engraved in His hands, feet, and other scars. When you look at Jesus Christ, you will always find yourself. He could’ve been ressurected in a "perfect body" free of scars and wounds. But those scars remind Him of you. He doesn’t want to ever forget you and who you are. Jesus Christ has the full picture of who you are. Allow yourself to find yourself in and through him.
-邱姐妹 (Sister Livingston)

03/16/2024

The Manila Creek 2nd Ward Relief Society Bee-Day party was a wonderful event. We were enriched by President Stevenson’s words on the wonderful work that women do . The food was delicious and the conversation completely delightful . Thank you to the Relief Society activity committee for putting together such an enjoyable event !🐝