Invitation to Stake Conference

THE CHURCH OF
JESUS CHRIST
OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS
CYPRESS CALIFORNIA STAKE

Sisters & Brothers:

We bring you greetings and extend to you and your family our personal invitation to attend Stake Conference, to be convened the weekend of September 7, 9 & 10, 2006. We trust that, over the summer, your family had an opportunity to spend some quality time together engaged in (using the words of the Proclamation on the Family) “wholesome family recreational activities.”

We continue to celebrate our 30th anniversary as a Stake of Zion, and have been thrilled with the interest in, and participation of, members of the Stake (present and past) in each of our reunion activities and events. You may be interested to know that, for our Stake-wide Relief Society Enrichment event, we enjoyed hosting and honoring our past Stake Relief Society Presidents. Nearly 350 sisters attend this wonderful evening.

Well over 1,500 participated in the reunion weekend and its various events and venues. We were thrilled to accompany 120 Priest and Laurel age youth to Nauvoo this summer, and 75 Young Single Adults to the “cradle of the restoration” -- Kirtland and Palmyra. Both “pilgrimages” were magnificent experiences; we were blessed with temperate weather, well behaved youth and young adults, and we believe all were edified and strengthened by the journey.

In all our celebrating, however, we have yet to focus on the Gospel “theme” selected for this 30th anniversary year. The scriptures teach us of those special times in various Gospel dispensations where the Saints of the Most High lived together in righteousness, had “all things in common” among them, and where the Lord referred to them as a “Zion people.”

Accordingly, during Stake Conference we will focus on teaching each other how to establish this “Zion” -- not in some abstract or theoretical sense, and not on some grand or macro scale. Rather, let us meet together and teach and testify to each other about establishing Zion in our own hearts, then in our own homes, then in our own Wards.

Printed on the reverse of this invitation is a complete schedule of the various sessions of Stake Conference. During this conference, special youth and Young Single Adult choirs will combine with the Stake Choir to inspire us with the “hymns of the Restoration.” A time to “linger longer” will follow the Saturday evening adult session of conference.

Conference speakers will be drawn from our youth, our Young Single Adults, faithful and wonderful members of the Stake, and selected Stake officers. We invite you, we urge you, and we importune you to plan your end-of-summer schedule so as to fully participate in each session of conference to which you or your family is invited.

The Stake Presidency