Friends of the Topeka Kansas Stake

06/19/2026

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first concert in the Hollywood Bowl with a new performance there this week. Members of our stake can view the Choir’s “Songs of Hope” program this Friday, June 26, from 6:30-8:30 PM in the Topeka Stake Center and the Emporia meetinghouse. (Because of licensing agreements, the broadcast will only be available in those two locations in our stake and won’t be streamable to individual homes.)

The Choir will be joined by the Orchestra at Temple Square and several guest artists, including Donny Osmond, the Bonner Family, David Foster, and Katherine McPhee.

Please join us for this uplifting and historic occasion, which will also include refreshments. Appropriate casual dress is recommended.

06/11/2026

Come hear the Topeka Stake Choir sing during the Juneteenth Musical Celebration in Topeka this coming Sunday, June 14, at 3 PM, at St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church, 701 SW Topeka Blvd.! The Choir (pictured above from last year’s Juneteenth program) received a standing ovation last year.

The free musical program will feature religious music from people of many different local churches. It is one of many events planned in Topeka to celebrate June 19, 1865, when the last enslaved people learned after the Civil War that they were free.

Parking for the event is available in lots around the church and on neighboring side streets. Come and support the Choir and this great community event!

06/03/2026

Congratulations to two recent high school graduates in our stake who were honored as Kansas Governor’s Scholars by graduating in the top 1% of their high school class!

Brandon Hazlett (in the photo on the left) graduated from Burlington High School. A member of the Burlington Branch, he will attend Brigham Young University-Idaho in the fall.

Tanner Haddock (right photo), graduated from Washburn Rural High School in Topeka. He is a member of the Colly Creek Ward and will attend Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the fall.

Both young men also recently graduated from the seminary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for high school students.

05/28/2026

This Sunday, May 31, units in our stake and throughout the United States will hold a special fifth-Sunday lesson on moral agency and religious freedom. The lesson is tied in with the upcoming 250th anniversary of the United States. The lesson will focus on how the U.S Constitution and Declaration of Independence protect God-given rights and prepared the way for the Restoration of the Gospel. To read more about this lesson and to access a study guide for it, you can click on the photo below.

The Church has created a webpage featuring a discussion guide, video and other resources for a fifth-Sunday meeting on May 31 focusing on moral agency and how the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence support religious liberty.

05/26/2026

Congratulations to the 16 recent high school graduates in the stake who also graduated from seminary! And many thanks to their dedicated teachers! Over four years, they studied the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, and the Doctrine and Covenants/Church history, either before high school classes or online.

Seminary graduation was held in Topeka on May 21. The graduates, arranged by ward/branch, are:

Burlington Branch: Heidi Ard, Hyrum Ard, Brandon Hazlett

Clinton Lake Ward: Taryn Jones, Julianna Outcalt

Colly Creek Ward: Caleb Eberle, Tanner Haddock, Ella Hirschi

Emporia Ward: Daniel Gillenwater

Hiawatha Branch: Malachi Hoschouer

Kaw Valley Ward: Wesley Budge

Lawrence Ward: Olivia Abbey

Wakarusa Valley: Dane Baumgartner, Hailey Bills, Anna Gordon-Ross, Megan Petersen

We extend our love and best wishes to them and to all the youth in our stake. Here are photos of some of the seminary graduates after the graduation program.

05/19/2026

Dates for the Wichita Temple are here! Temples are sacred buildings dedicated to be a House of the Lord by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we perform sacred ordinances there. These buildings are different from our meeting houses where we meet weekly. All are welcome to take a tour of the temple during the public open house dates before it is dedicated for its sacred purpose.

So excited to announce that the Wichita Kansas Temple Open House and Dedication dates have been announced by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A media day for the Wichita Kansas Temple will be held on Monday, September 21, 2026. Invited guests will tour the temple on September 22 and 23. Doors will open to the public from Thursday, September 24, through Saturday, October 10 (excluding Sundays and Saturday, October 3).

Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will preside at the dedication on Sunday, November 1, at 10 a.m. (rebroadcast at 2 p.m.). The dedicatory session will be broadcast to congregations in the Wichita Kansas Temple district.

Here is the link to read more at Church Newsroom: https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/news-for-temples-in-kansas--wyoming--argentina-and-idaho

05/15/2026

Well done and welcome back to two “good and faithful” stake members, Ellett Davis and Eli Hoschouer, who completed two years of missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last week and have returned to their families before heading out to college!

Brother Davis (in the left photo), a member of the Emporia Ward, served in the Nevada Reno Mission. He said that he loved to help people come closer to Jesus Christ and said that his missionary service helped him to draw closer to the Savior too. “I love Jesus. He is my best friend. He has my back,” he testified, adding that the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ especially helped his testimony of the Savior to grow. After working this summer, he plans to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho in the fall and study computer engineering.

Brother Hoschouer (in the right photo), a member of the Hiawatha Branch, served in the Philippines Tacloban Mission, where he spoke Tagalog, Cebuano, and Waray-Waray. Though he, like the people around him, lived in very humble circumstances—and experienced a couple of typhoons—he said he loved the chance he had to teach people about Jesus Christ, our loving Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness, and eternal families. “This is the Gospel of true joy,” he testified. After serving as an FSY counselor this summer, he will attend Brigham Young University-Hawaii.

05/01/2026

Sister Abbie Hansen of the Lawrence Ward, a new missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, this past Wednesday, after one week of home MTC. She will be in the Provo MTC for two weeks and then begin service in the Nevada Henderson Mission on May 12th.

Her mission covers parts of Nevada, Arizona, and California.

After high school, Sister Hansen studied a semester at BYU-Idaho. In the months leading up to her mission, she worked as a nanny and served as a temple worker.

She is the 7th member of her family to go on a mission.

She said, “I want to be a missionary because I want to serve my Savior Jesus Christ and grow my relationship with Him. I also want to go to love and serve new people.”

Our prayers are with Sister Hansen and all the missionaries serving around the world!

04/29/2026

Many thanks to all of the youth and adults from the Topeka wards who took part in Sharefest this past Saturday morning! Latter-day Saints joined people from many other Christian churches and organizations in Topeka on that annual service day to “demonstrate the love of Christ in the community” through landscaping, painting, and cleaning up the grounds of area schools. Here are photos of some youth from the Colly Creek and Lake Shawnee Wards who helped.

04/28/2026

A semi truck from the Church, bearing the words “JustServe.org” and “America250,” arrived this past Thursday at Harvesters in Lawrence with a donation of 40,000 pounds of food. The delivery was one of 250 that will be made in 2026 by the Church to food banks in all 50 states as part of a national collaborative effort to celebrate the 250th anniversary of United States independence.

2200 T-shirt bags made by Latter-day Saints in Kansas—including 870 from the Topeka Stake!—were also donated to Harvesters for use in distributing food to people in Lawrence, which has prohibited the use of plastic bags. Many, many thanks to everyone who helped make the T-shirt bags or donated shirts to the project!

Church representatives from Kansas, including President Neil and Sister Kristie Hansen and Carol Christensen, the stake communication director, were able to meet Harvesters leaders and members of the Kansas America250 Commission and tour Harvesters’ facility, which serves 27 counties in northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri. Representing the Church, President Hansen spoke briefly at a short program. With rising food insecurity in the United States, Harvester leaders expressed great gratitude for the Church’s donation.