The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in San Antonio

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

We all love a “dream come true” story because we can relate it to our hopes, dreams and aspirations. Dreams rarely come true without hard work and a great deal of persistence, and Dawson Wayne Rice is no exception. A portion of Dawson’s dreams got a whole lot closer with his newest song “With All My Heart” featured on the Church of Jesus Christ’s 2023 Youth Album.  

Dawson, who just returned from a performing mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo earlier this week, is getting ready to audition before the celebrity judges in Nashville for a spot on American Idol. This past year has brought a lot of wonderful changes and has brought his dream more into focus. 

When Dawson first listened to the Church’s youth album a couple of years ago, he was so impressed and loved the music. The Church produces a new album each year to strengthen youth and to support the youth theme for that year. “The Church makes some really good music” said Dawson, “I started to listen to it and I thought it was really good. Shortly after that, I thought I’d like to be on this.” 

He quickly discovered there really was no information about auditioning for the album so he started following as many Instagram accounts and reaching out to musicians until he got a coveted email to ask about being on the album. “I told them I was super interested in doing it. They asked me to send them some videos, which I did. They told me, ‘Just to let you know, we typically don’t use people outside of Utah because we don’t have a travel budget.’” He quickly responded, “If you want me, I’d be happy to cover my travel budget because I think that would be a super fun experience and an opportunity.” 

Things were quiet for several months, but Dawson continued to keep in contact and reiterate his desire to be a part of the upcoming album. In March of this year, Mitch Davis, who has produced numerous musical productions and albums for the Church, emailed Dawson. “The email from Mitch Davis asked me to get on a zoom call with them the next day. That’s how it happened. Originally they had asked me to write a song and to pitch to them with another writer that they had. So we wrote a song and pitched it to them. They didn’t end up using it for the album but then, about a week or so later they reached out and said ‘We have a song written by Nick Day that we want you to try out for.’ So that’s when it happened that I was going to be in — and I officially had a song.” Continue reading “Dreams Really Do Come True!”

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

The Seguin congregation’s submission to the Guadalupe County Fair garnered them the “Grand Champion” award! It wasn’t for a bull or a pig or even for a baked pie!

Wanting to raise awareness on emergency preparation and family history, the Seguin congregation participated in the Guadalupe County Fair this weekend. Their goal was to get folks thinking about their level of preparedness and how to plan for emergencies. They also wanted to help people know where to begin to start doing their family history and discover the joy of learning more about their family tree.

The Seguin congregation built floats and had booths at the County Fair. Their float “Seguin Ward Family History Tree” won the Grand Champion Float for 2022! Their booths were both well attended. Continue reading “2022 Grand Champions!”

by Leisa Parsons and Kristen Pack, Area Media Specialists

It’s probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ”temple service,” but it’s effects are enjoyed by all who visit the San Antonio Temple grounds. Twice a year, in the fall and the spring, the grounds of the temple are made ready for volunteer gardeners to plant flowers.

Last week all of the temple’s flower beds were turned over in anticipation of the many volunteers who would show up this weekend to plant flowers. 4,990 plants loaded on 251 flats were delivered to the temple grounds. The plants are then placed around the temple grounds to await the volunteers.

Paul and Paula Linnemeyer are Service Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ currently in their fifth year serving as the temple’s chief landscapers. Paul said, ”When we started, we didn’t have a lot of direction, about an hour of instruction, so we studied on the internet as to what we could use. Since then, I have learned to appreciate design.”

Continue reading “Beautiful — Inside and Out!”

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

It’s one of the first signs that the fall season really is here and it’s more predictable than the weather. Despite retailer’s attempts since late July, when folks start to see pumpkin patches popping up around the area they know that autumn and the holiday season have truly arrived.

Unloading 48 pallets of pumpkins from a semi truck, 60 members and missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Seguin helped to set up a pumpkin patch.

The pumpkin patch is part of the Seguin’s First United Methodist Church’s annual landscape. School children will make their yearly pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch, along with other groups and families. There is a reading area for story time, and of course, a place to get those great family pictures! Continue reading “Pumpkin Patch Service Party”

By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist

Last month women of the Texas Hill Country Stake came together for their annual Relief Society Conference.  In and of itself that’s pretty normal.  But what wasn’t normal was that it was also seen by women over 5,700 miles away in the Warsaw, Poland Branch.  In addition to that, their Relief Society President, Agnieszka Mazurowska, was the concluding speaker of the conference.  

Why on earth would that happen?  

Because last spring the members of the Church of Jesus Christ’s Hill Country Stake joined in a collaborative effort with Polish Church members by sending new suitcases to Warsaw to be distributed to the refugees from Ukraine. Texas families partnered with Warsaw families to help Ukrainian families.  

According to Cindy Beattie, Hill Country Relief Society President, approximately 400 new suitcases were purchased by members from around San Antonio and shipped from a warehouse in Poland to the Warsaw congregation. (Read more about the suitcase donations.)

From that time on, a special bond formed between Beattie and Mazurowska.  When the time came for the Hill Country Stake Relief Society’s conference to take place, Beattie invited the Warsaw women to join them via Zoom.  “They had done so much for others,” Beattie said, “I thought our Stake Relief Society could do something for them to bring light into their lives.” Continue reading “Women from Warsaw and San Antonio Join Together in a Conference”

by Leisa Parsons, Area Media Representative

9/11 was a tragic day for our nation, but amid the chaos there were inspiring acts of bravery and service. In conjunction with the federally recognized September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance, approximately 800 volunteers across the city got together Saturday morning to perform acts of kindness and service totaling over 2,700 volunteer hours. Members and friends of the Church of Jesus Christ fanned out around the city and outlying areas providing labor for 14 community projects including trash pick-up, painting, spreading mulch, collecting food donations and a variety of other services.

Many volunteers donned vests and cleaned up trash in several locations around San Antonio. Some of the wards and stakes worked directly with the City of San Antonio to pick up litter along streets. The volunteers were told to “kick it before you pick it” ensuring there were not any bugs or critters in the trash! Terri Freeman of the San Antonio North Stake had someone drive by as she was picking up trash and inquired about the cleanup. “He asked what we were doing, he told us that it was wonderful and asked ‘How can I find out about helping?’ I told him to check out JustServe.org for ideas.” Members in Uvalde also participated in picking up litter along a stretch of U.S. 90. They worked with Adopt-a-Highway in their cleanup efforts. Other congregations in San Antonio worked with the city’s Parks and Recreation department to help clean up area parks.  

Along with the litter pick-up in the city, folks in the Canyon Lake area cleaned up several parks and hiking trails. They picked up trash and some helped add mulch to hiking trails. In one of the parks volunteers used their weedwackers to help clean up and better define area hiking trails. Continue reading “A Tribute to the Memory of 9/11 Through Service”

By Giles Lambertson, Eagle Pass District Communications

(En español abajo)

Michael Hurst manages the Church’s 2,000-acre peanuts-growing farm near Pearsall. He also serves as group leader for a congregation of Saints meeting 16 miles away in a Dilley community center under the umbrella of the Uvalde Branch. To say the Church is central in the life of Brother Hurst and his wife Marcia is not an overstatement.

“We love being on the farm and actively participating in the Church’s welfare program. It’s like being on a mission. We hope to be here a very long time,” says the group leader.

The couple moved to the farm two years ago from San Antonio, where they had lived for eight years. Yet this is not an urban couple transplanted to a rural setting like the old television sitcom, Green Acres. The couple has bona fides as country folk.

The manager was born 50 years ago in Killeen in east-central Texas and has ranched and farmed most of his life. Marcia Hurst is a Portland, Oregon, native who grew up around horses and became a barrel racer, one of the most popular rodeo events.

They are college-trained as well. Eight years ago, Michael Hurst decided to augment his knowledge of ranching and farming by acquiring expertise with the computer: He earned an information technology degree from the University of Colorado.

Marcia Hurst has a similar educational bent. She earned a degree in nursing, which she utilized during a six-year stint in the U.S Air Force including at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. After her military service, she continued her nursing work, mostly caring for children in cancer and transplant units. She then returned to school to become certified as a family nurse practitioner.

When the couple moved to the Church farm, they didn’t give up their personal interests. Stabled next to an equipment building on the property is a horse named JW. Marcia Hurst is training it at the request of an area rancher. Continue reading “Farm Life and Service”

By Giles Lambertson, Eagle Pass District Communications

(En español abajo)

While Rene Garza was serving a mission as a young man in the Spanish-speaking California North Sacramento mission, he was called to be a branch president. It was a harbinger of future church service—including in 1996 becoming the first president of Eagle Pass District, which was his calling for 12 years. For four-plus years, the 72-year-old has been president of Del Rio 3^rd Branch.

The veteran leader is not a lifelong member… but almost. Born in the Texas community of Robstown, President Garza’s extended family began to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was two years old. 

While still in his 20s, and as a consequence of his mission experience, Brother Garza was assigned by the First Presidency to help with the transition of the church’s missionary training programs. The plan was for the Spanish language training mission (LTM) program on the Brigham Young University campus to become the missionary training center (MTC) in Provo. 

Brother Garza was called to direct the pilot program for the MTC. It proved viable. The missionary training center opened in 1978 as a place for overall training of missionaries, rather than just development of foreign language skills. 

While that was a significant leadership role, Provo is a bigger part of President Garza’s story for another reason. It was on the BYU campus—where he served in three bishoprics, by the way—that he met his future wife, Kathryn. They married and moved to Del Rio in 1979. The Garza family eventually swelled to a total of seven with the addition of five sons.

The couple owned a State Farm Insurance agency in Del Rio for nearly 40 years, with Kathryn a licensed agent and office manager. With degrees in education from BYU and the University of New Mexico, she also taught in public schools. “She loves teaching,” says her husband.

Over the years, the Garzas have served in a host of positions, individually and together. She has been president of both branch and district Relief Society, a seminary teacher, president of branch Young Women and Primary organizations and a stake missionary. Continue reading “A Lifetime of Service: President Rene Garza of Del Rio 3rd Branch”

By Leisa Parsons, Area Media Specialist

Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints get adept at packing up their suitcases. Every six weeks during mission life transfers occur, with about one-third of the missionaries being reassigned to a new area of service each time. A big transfer is occurring in the Texas San Antonio Mission at the end of this month. It will be time for a new Mission President and his companion. President Jason and Sister Stephanie Tveten will be heading home after three years of service in the Alamo City with Steven and Jennifer Fitzgerald arriving to take the reins of the mission.

The Tveten’s and their children will be returning to Wenatchee in eastern Washington. He will be resuming his dental practice. They are taking with them a deep love of Texas, its people and memories of their unique mission experience. The Tveten’s fully weathered the Covid pandemic during their three years of service. The pandemic brought with it a host of challenges along with wonderful blessings and some changes in how the missionaries reach people. 

President Tveten said he was impressed with the resiliency of his young missionaries during Covid. He said: “You read the book The Saints and you get a perspective of some of the challenges of the early Church and world wars and other pandemics…. During Covid the missionaries learned how to adapt and they did remarkably well. It has really prepared them for challenges that will come later in their life.”

The Tveten’s both said that over the last three years they have learned the power of invitations — normal and natural invitations. Along with member’s opportunity to invite, President Tveten reminds, “…success is not dependent upon the outcome or agency of others. We just invite. In fact the first words of the missionary’s purpose is ‘we invite others to come unto Jesus Christ.’” Sister Tveten said: “I have realized that people want to feel needed. Everyone loves being invited to something and feeling like they are seen. We have a desire to be together. Don’t be afraid to invite — to know the things that you know or share the things that you know, to help them be a part of something.”

Incoming president, Steven Fitzgerald also recognizes the power invitations have and the changes that Covid brought to missionary work. He said: “We want to take all of the good things that are already happening, like the Come Unto Christ Facebook page. We want to be able to allow people to connect with the Church any way they feel comfortable. Whether it is face to face or through different media — that’s great. We want this message to be brought to everybody, however they need to receive it.” Continue reading “TSAM…Anticipating a Big Transfer”

By Ken Jarvis, Area Media Specialist

Sam West is a lot of things.  He’s a member of the Indian Springs congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a young adult, a son, a brother and he has Down syndrome.  Sam West is also an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal in the 25m free style swimming event at the Special Olympics 2022 USA Games in Orlando, FL.  

“When we lived in California we visited San Antonio for the National Down Syndrome Association meetings,” said his father Chuck West.  “We were so impressed by the level of support from the local group that we decided if there was ever an opportunity to move to San Antonio we would.  In a few years a position opened up and we were able to move.”  

Continue reading “Area Young Adult Takes Gold in National Special Olympics”