Beautiful summer - hello to you! 

I hope you are enjoying time outdoors in this wonderful Wisconsin we live in! My name is Anjenette Pond. My husband, Jonathan, and I live in Sheboygan with our family! We have nine children with four sons that currently live at home. My calling in the stake is to help connect members of the Appleton Wisconsin Stake to their communities at large.....to encourage relationships that will help us gather all of His children and our hearts to Christ!

I hope that many of you participated in our June Community Service Month in some way! Making friends and serving others is the best way to make connections outside the walls of our chapel. This message is to encourage being deliberate in these efforts. The best way to discover where, when, and whom to serve is to petition the Lord for direction and revelation! Answers to our plea will come to our heart and mind, 'by the Holy Ghost' (D&C 8:2), especially if we have intent to act.

We just became grandparents of little Isaac. Visiting with our daughter, Allie, and her new baby, reminded me of family culture. They are creating values and traditions with their growing family. We can implement new traditions into our home culture as we realize what we can do to change and serve God and His children in new ways! Make volunteering a family centered activity! Serve with your neighbors, work colleagues, sports teams....create normal and natural volunteering grooves in your family culture!

Hosting Elder Pond for a week of home MTC reminded our family to be deliberate in sharing and living the Gospel! Studying ACTS in Come Follow Me has been life changing for me. Watching Saul/Paul's conversion from a passionate religious deterrent to one of the most amazing missionaries of all times has affected me! We have power to do SO much good. We have to determine our ability to go and do, assess our willingness and then get to work like Paul. He teaches us in Acts 20:35 by his example that 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'. 

Mason, Griffin, & Truman attended and absolutely loved FSY a few weeks ago. Our sons learned SO much at FSY. One of my favorite lessons they brought home is about growth vs comfort. 'There is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone'. These words are powerful and crucial to understand! We need to Get uncomfortable in order to grow!  Let's grow AND serve!

To summarize this brief message....Let's Get Uncomfortable and Connected to Jesus Christ through service! We can receive revelation as to when, where, and what and get busy like Paul to give something good. We can grow our family culture and make new friends inside and outside of our chapel walls.  

I am so grateful for frequent life reminders of what we are about!  I love you and I love this great work!  

God bless you as you strive to love His children more intentionally.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sister Anjenette Pond