What Does It Mean to Me to Live in a Community of Saints

What a privilege it is to live among good people! Our friends and neighbors in our ward and stake are great people and they provide many blessings for us. I'm sure I could not list them all. But here are a few of them.

We are surrounded by a brotherhood of worthy priesthood holders. At any time we can call upon a home teacher or a neighbor to help give a family member a blessing. The priests came to our home every week for a time to bring the sacrament to Shana during her illness.

The system of home teachers and visiting teachers allows for every family to be watched over and provided for by friends who love them and desire to meet their needs. They can notify the Bishop or other leaders when a situation needs more help than the home and visiting teachers can themselves provide.

We have the opportunity to meet often with the saints, to renew our covenants via the sacrament, and to feel the spirit and learn the gospel from one another

The opportunity to be in the ward choir is, for me personally, a chance to worship through music and to feel the spirit. My week is always better if if includes a choir practice or performance.

We have the opportunity to grow through service. Our callings not only help those around us, but also help us to stretch and grow.

We feel the love and concern of our community. It is obvious that they love us. They inquire about the health of family members. They ask about our adult children who no longer live at home. They ask how we are doing, and don't hesitate to help where appropriate.

All of these and more are wonderful blessings that come of living among the saints.

What Does the Legacy of My Ancestors and the Saints Means to Me

First of all, much of my knowledge of the gospel comes from those who have gone before. Even my personal testimony came as a result of applying the principles taught by my parents and by the prophets through the scriptures.

The choices of the prophets and saints have made these scriptures available. The choices of my parents and other ancestors have put me in a place where the gospel was taught to me from my youth, both by precept and by example. It has taken the efforts of a long line of faithful and worthy ancestors to put me where I am.

Many came to this country at great sacrifice in order to to follow the Lord's ways and gather to the church.

I owe my eternal life to them, if I should succeed in so living as to merit eternal life.

I am unable to express the enormity of what they have done for me and for my family. Their examples give courage and faith, and have caused me to come to love the Lord, just as they did,