We Belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

As many of you know, we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Some of you may be unfamiliar with the church, the teachings and what it means to be members. While we understand that everyone may not agree with what we believe, we feel that increased mutual respect and strong bonds are built when individuals have an accurate knowledge and understanding of each others religious beliefs. So, we thought we would start by taking a few moments this week to share some facts about the Church as an organization.

As always, we are happy to answer any questions that you may have or to clarify items. We hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about the Church that we greatly value our membership in.

• •“Mormon” is a nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, derived from our use of the Book of Mormon, another book of scripture similar to the Bible. Members are often referred to as “Mormons,” “Latter-day Saints,” or “LDS.” The term “Saint” means “member”, or "follower of Christ".
  

• • The Church was restored in 1830 in upstate New York with Joseph Smith as its first prophet and president. Today it is headquartered in Salt Lake City, with President Thomas S. Monson as the present prophet.

• • There are now over 13.5 million members in 176 countries and territories. About 6 million of these are in the United States, making us the fourth largest Christian denomination in America. As one of the fastest growing Christian faiths in the world, we complete a new chapel every working day. Members pay a tithe, which is 10 percent of their income, making this and other programs possible.

• •Local congregations are led by volunteer, unpaid members. Both men and women serve in assigned leadership positions.

• •Mormons are well represented in politics and government. (In the United States, for example, there are 16 members in Congress, from both political parties.) Members also serve in high and trusted positions throughout the world in business, medicine, law, education, media, sports, and entertainment.

• • Mormons place particularly strong emphasis on family as the basic unit of the Church and of society. We have a deep commitment to marriage (defined as a union between one man and one woman). Polygamy, a limited practice in the early pioneer days of the Church, was discontinued in 1890, some 117 years ago.

• • Families and individuals, whether members of our faith or not, can attend Sunday services in our chapels. Here we worship together, instructing one another from the scriptures.

• • The Church has auxiliary programs for women, youth, and children as a support to the family. These programs provide such things as religious instruction, opportunities for Christian service, sports, drama, music, and Scouting.

• • And there is also much focus on extended family, genealogy, and personal family history, providing young and old with a stronger sense of roots, identity, and belonging. The highest and most sacred ordinances of our faith relate to our families, both living and dead, and some of these ordinances take place in our temples.

We hope reading this has given you more insight about the Church. We hope to write a similar blog entry soon with a greater focus on specific beliefs and values of the Church. In the mean time, if you are interested, here are some links to a couple official Church websites.

www.lds.org - The official main website for the Church. In the top right hand corner there is an option to choose from various languages.

www.mormon.org - A great resource that introduces people to the basic doctrines of the Church.



Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Jason, Laura and Atticus

Bicycles, Windmills and Wardrobes

This week in "The Adventures of Laura, Jason and Atticus" we'll hear the harrowing tale of how the troublesome trio has adapted to life in Holland! Ok, ok, so it may not be THAT exciting, but we finally feel settled into our new place in Holland. The move out from Germany went quite well. Surprisingly, there was barely any traffic to deal with. It probably helped that it was early Sunday morning when we left. Something to know about being in The Netherlands, though: traffic here is ridiculous. Could be because it is the most densely populated country in Europe, but in any case, rush hour here is more like rush hours. Fortunately, we are using a popular transportation system in Holland that avoids rush hour - Bicycles! No need to worry about rush hour. That said, there is quite a bit of bike traffic too. Ever been in a line up of 30 cyclists at the local traffic light? Craziness.

Anyhow, being here has been incredible so far. Holland is a beautiful country - very green and lush, despite the wind and incredibly unpredictable weather. The people we have met so far have been very kind and helpful. It certainly helps that the vast majority of the Dutch speak English to some extent making communication easier.

The neighborhood where we live is a great place on top of it all. Our apartment backs out onto nothing but pasture land filled with sheep, cows, and canals. There are even a couple of windmills nearby - one of which still operates, and the other is over 200 years old! Otherwise, we live within walking distance to all the nearby stores we'll ever likely need to visit. Downtown is only a 45 minute walking trek away, and church is a half an hour jaunt. The Hague Temple is a little further than walking distance but it is only a 20 minute drive. It's awesome being so close to everything.

Jason's work is only 9 km away so he still bikes every morning. There's usually a good wind coming off the North sea most of the day so it means it's a lot quicker for him to bike home than to get to work. Otherwise, his new project is going well, and his colleagues all seem to be terrific people.

Laura stays busy helping the little man grow, making sure Jason doesn't get himself into too much trouble, and working on her degree. Three exams next month! Christmas will be a nice chance to relax.

And, of course, Atticus is busy being cute. He's smiling, laughing, and mastering how to roll over. He's adjusted well to the new place, which we're very grateful for. There are, of course, some new pictures of our little man below. Almost four months and already getting so big!

Our apartment is, well, wonderful! We love it here, if for nothing else but the view (see pictures of the view at the end of this post). Below is a link to a YouTube video we took giving a short tour of the place. It's a bit bigger than our last place, laid out much better, and our land lady has been very helpful. We were very blessed to find the place when we did. Hope you enjoy the look around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbFF6RShjEw

Otherwise, we hope you're all healthy, happy, and doing well. We now have our own permanent Internet connection, which is very nice to have. We've also got Dutch cell phones that we can take incoming calls on from anywhere for free, so if you feel like giving us a ring, by all means! We'll send out an email with our contact details.

Have a terrific weekend, and we hope to hear from soon!

Tot ziens,

Laura, Jason and Atticus

Big yawn!

Enjoying a good laugh.

Sleeping on his walk to central Leiden with Mom and Dad

Wide-eyed and drooling = CUTE!

He's an airplane!

Our "backyard"

A beautiful sunset outside our windows after a rainy day.

The start of a new day. Morning fog over the ground and the moon high in the sky.

The sun beginning to set behind the neighborhood windmill.