Jefferson 1st Ward

Hi all:
We now have been assigned to attend the Jefferson 1st Ward in Ogden. We have attended three times now. Our first meeting was Stake Conference. It was the Riverdale Stake. Riverdale is a nearby city and we couldn't figure out how that stake could go so far in distance to include our ward, which is located at 27th and Jefferson. Today, we found out that to help out with the inner city Ogden wards, nearby stakes were assigned one of the wards to be part of that stake. Our ward is a part of the neighboring Riverdale Stake. We have an interesting ward to say the least.

In our ward boundaries we have two homeless shelters, a halfway house, St. Anne's shelter, a mental health residency home, many apartments and a few regular homes. There are 8 senior couples from Riverdale Stake serving as church service missionaries to work with about 6-9 families each, 3 or 4 Welfare service workers, 2 social service workers, 8 full time missionaries( of which we are a part) and about 20 active stable members. The rest are either new members, or transient individuals dealing with individual challenges. We have been assigned to assist in a Gospel Principles class to help with newly baptized members, or those older investigating the church, or coming back to church. We had 17 in the class today, that included 4 or us fairly stable members, and the class teacher. We had one brother that said he had been released from prison, was in a halfway house, trying to get himself together. There was an elderly lady in a wheel chair, with her dog shadow(no, she isn't blind), the class president, who was dealing with mental health issues, who needed direction on what he was to say or do, two women who were dealing with drug abuse, three homeless men, and a handful of others. But in spite of this combination of things, the spirit of the Lord was strong, and todays lesson on Jesus Christ, was shared and the Holy Ghost bore truth.

This ward is a very needy ward, but there is an incredible amount of love that is shared and felt. I have been impressed with the simple gospel messages that have been shared, and that the Holy Ghost was in abundance.

One of the welfare missionaries shared that in one evening they had 70 requests for help of one kind or another. Half of the women attending come in pants or jeans. Several of the men have hair longer than mine. It is not unusual to see boys/men with baseball caps on backwards or sideways. But, they are wonderful people just trying to survive and find the hope that comes through Christ.
We are excited to be in this ward and hope that somehow we can help.

We love you all. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.