Spotlight on New Ward Members, 1983

In 1983, Bev Allred wrote an article for the ward newsletter introducing her new neighbors to the community. This made me think about the nature of a Latter-day Saint ward. The makeup of a congregation is ever changing. People move in, people move out. Kids grow up and move away from home. Babies are born. Loved ones pass away. Over the 70-year-history of the Bountiful 9th Ward, a lot of people, certainly in the thousands, have passed through the homes found within our ward boundaries. 

Though in that change, there is consistency. The place of worship looks much the same today as it did when it was completed over 60 years ago. While some of the songs we sing today weren't around in 1960, many were. The words shared from the pulpit are largely the same, though the historian will be interested in the changes in emphasis or even the smallest nuances. The words spoken by priests at the sacrament table each Sunday are the same, even as we see new deacons each year take on the responsibility of passing the bread and water. 

Consistency and change. We see a lot of both as we look back over the past 70-years of this community's history. I never met Keith and Debbi Weimer, though I live just a few houses down from where they lived. They moved away before I arrived. But like them, and so many others, I moved into a home within the ward boundaries. Bev Allred was probably among the first people to welcome both the Weimers and us to the neighborhood.

There is something beautiful about this thing we call a ward. We arrive, we serve, we love, we make new friends and say goodbye to old ones, our kids grow up and go their separate ways. It's sad and beautiful and terrible and wonderful all at once.

Bev Allred's concluding paragraph captures some of the magic of the Latter-day Saint ward. May we continue to introduce ourselves to those who join us and truly make them feel a welcomed and wanted part of our community. And once a member of the 9th Ward, always a member.