Stake Conference Leadership Talk

Another Stake Conference Talk 

Another McDonald's Coke 

Guilty. 

In the LDS church we have wards which are when your congregation gets over 200 members. Those wards all lump together to form a stake. We have about 2,000ish people in our stake (at the least) I have no idea really how many honestly. 

Anyways, I was asked along with two other people to speak on Saturday for a Leadership Stake and Ward Council session. 

Levi and I both said we had no idea how I was chosen to speak but 

I was asked to bear my testimony about ministering and how it has helped me along the covenant path. 

I have oddly enough spoken at several Stake Conferences which only happen twice a year. 

My talk was on Zoom to several leaders of our church. I also was able to meet Elder Richard DeVries of the Area Seventy which was a huge blessing. 

Our church is organized semi like this:

Prophet/President

1st and 2nd Counselors 

Quorum of the 12

Quorum of the 70

Presiding Bishop

1st and 2nd Counselors

Stake President

Stake 1st and 2nd Counselors

Stake Clerks

Bishops

1st and 2nd Counselors (Levi)

Secretaries

Ward Clerk

Elders Quorum/Relief Society Presidencies

EQ and RS 1st and 2nd Counselors

Secretaries

Primary President

Primary 1st and 2nd Counselors

Secretaries 

Sunday School President

1st and 2nd Counselors

Teachers

Several Member Callings 

**I am sure I missed some but this is a generic layout

Old Testament

The earliest mention of a Seventy in the scriptures is in the Old Testament (see Exodus 24:1, 9). The Lord did not want Moses to bear his burdens alone, so He instructed Moses to gather “seventy men of the elders of Israel … that they may stand there with thee” (Numbers 11:16). The Lord empowered the seventy elders by taking the spirit that was upon Moses and giving it to the Seventy. “When the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease” (Numbers 11:25).

New Testament

During His mortal ministry, the Savior Himself called seventy to assist as His work expanded, saying, “the harvest … is great, but the labourers are few” (see Luke 10). He instructed them and “sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come,” explaining that those who would hear their voices would hear His voice (see Luke 10:16). The Seventy returned “saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name” (Luke 10:17).

Richard J. DeVries, 62, St Joseph, Michigan; regional president, Chemical Bank, South Region; currently serving as ward Sunday School president; former bishop, bishopric member, mission president, stake presidency member, and stake president; wife, Dyana; six children.