Summer 2003

The Rochester Second Ward was organized under the direction of Stake President Darrell Rose on January 5, 1986. John R. Ferrara was called as Bishop with Kent Nelson First Counselor and Brent Spencer Second Counselor. Julia Squires was called as President of the Relief Society. At that time, the Second Ward comprised 250 to 300 members. The meetinghouse was located at 1002 16th Street SE and was shared with the Rochester First Ward. Over the years, the First and Second Wards were reorganized into the Third and Fourth Wards and the Preston and Dodge Center Branches.

All wards share similar organization, purposes, and goals. They provide opportunities to meet and associate with a variety of people, give reasons to serve or be served, grow in the gospel, progress towards eternal goals, develop and use talents and abilities, and form eternal friendships and associations. All wards are amazing collections of people with similar values, beliefs and desires. They are constantly changing in terms of births, deaths, people moving in or out, callings, and maturation of children, youth, and adults. The ward is an extended family, especially for those living at a geographic distance from their own biological family, and it increases the richness of our life experience.  However, each ward is unique and is the sum of the personalities, testimonies, talents, challenges, triumphs, ages, experiences and individual righteousness of the members. 

The purpose of this brief history is to attempt to analyze and report a few of the unique and meaningful characteristics of this organization of church members and friends over the past seventeen years. Topics include leadership, the youth, the importance of music, and service and spirituality.

 

Leadership

The Second Ward has always been blessed with an abundance of people with leadership ability. There have been only four bishops in the history of the Second Ward. Bishop Ferrara served from 1986 to 1994. Michael Johnson was called to serve as bishop on September 11, 1994. Bishop Johnson wrote the following paragraphs for this history:

 

I served as Bishop of the Rochester 2nd Ward from September 1993 to February 1999.  In this brief reminiscence, I will not mention specific names, because there are so many outstanding 2nd Ward members who have served so selflessly that I fear inadvertently omitting some. Instead I will share my overall impressions.

This period saw further transition in the Rochester area from a few wards with focus in many members’ eyes primarily on their own ward to a multi-unit area with a greater awareness of other wards and the stake. Although there was intermittent resistance to this growth and change from ward members (including myself) until we caught the vision of divinely promised growth and our responsibility for it, the 2nd Ward as a whole supported and often led in this effort. For several years prior to my becoming bishop we had held early morning seminary on a ward basis, and this had evolved into a de facto ward youth activity and communications center, as well as a gospel instruction class. Our ward seminary had outstanding teachers, and an extraordinarily cohesive group of youth with excellent gospel knowledge. In 1994 (I believe), we made the transition to a Rochester area multi-unit seminary under stake direction. Although our youth did lose some ward-based unity, they also became active participants and leaders in the stake, and gained in our unity as a church rather than a unit. Similarly, the division from three Rochester units to four was difficult for many of us (my particular challenge was losing my first counselor), but supported and sustained. It was frequently difficult for our bishopric to find enough members available to fill all the ward callings without overextending our members. Intermittently, when we were most challenged, I would calculate the ratio of members holding major stake callings to ward membership or Melchizedek Priesthood membership for all the wards in the stake. We always had the highest ratio in the stake, but were somehow able to fill all necessary ward callings. I strongly believe that we were blessed in this by our willingness as a ward to support our ward members serving in stake leadership positions.

One of President Hinckley’s major themes during this period was retention of new converts. We were not universally successful, but I was honored by our ward’s response to President Hinckley’s challenge, both in organized efforts such as home and visiting teaching, and in individual acts of friendship and reaching out. I personally learned much from our ward members in this area that I am not naturally talented in. I believe we were successful almost completely in always greeting visitors to our meetings and reaching out to them. Often, ward members returning to Rochester after traveling would comment on how much friendlier the 2nd ward was than the ward they had visited, where no one had talked to them at all.

During this period, we had several major challenges affecting families in our ward which required significant service given confidentially by many members, led by our Relief Society, Elders Quorum and High Priests Group. Although difficult, it was a wonderful experience to see what a wonderful spirit of service the 2nd Ward had, even though this service was usually without recognition and sometimes not adequately appreciated by its recipients.  

My personal goal as bishop was to help each ward member personally “come unto Christ” and better understand and appreciate and apply His Atonement. As a bishopric, we tried to make the sacrament the true focus of our Sabbath meetings. Topics directly related to the Atonement, such as repentance, forgiveness, mercy, were frequently assigned topics for sacrament meeting speakers. We asked all sacrament meeting speakers to conclude with their testimony of the Savior and connect it with their topic.  As we emphasized temple worship and service under stake leadership, we strove to emphasize the integral part of the temple ordinances in coming to Christ and applying His Atonement. I cannot offer a quantitation or metric of this goal. My personal feeling is that our success as a ward in coming to Christ was reflected in the spirit of our fast and testimony meetings, and the extent to which we testified of Christ and rejoiced in Him.  By this measure, we were blessed to bring each other “to the knowledge of the Lord [our] God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ [our] Redeemer.” (Alma 37:9)

 

Bishop Brent Spencer served from January 24, 1999 until very recently. On June 15, 2003, Father’s Day, Bishop Spencer and his counselors, Carl Bauer and Paul Day, were released and Michael Ross was called as Bishop with John Barlow and Dan Woolley as counselors. 

Bishop Brent Spencer recently wrote the following regarding Rochester Minnesota and the Second Ward:

Rochester is not a typical place. It is certainly not a typical midwest city. The influence of the church in Rochester is not typical. From my perspective the church in Rochester is a wonderful blend of transplanted and native peoples. This blend yields a diverse and rich whole. The growth of the church has been modest, yet steady. In some ways, it was a sad day when we were divided from one ward into two. Life was simple with only one ward. When a new LDS family moved into the area, you were assured the opportunity of meeting them at church. Today that chance is only one in four and becoming less as each year passes. There are many fine LDS families I do not know, and wish I did.

If I were to identify a single distinguishing positive characteristic about Rochester, it would be the strength and testimony of the youth of this town, specifically the youth of the Rochester 2nd Ward. I could cite many areas of strength of the youth, but for this writing I will focus on three: first, the number of Eagle Scouts…the percentage of young men achieving this goal is more than 90%. We have one family in our ward with eight Eagle Scouts. Second is the number of youth who excel in music, sports and academics. They continue to excel after leaving Rochester. Third is the personal integrity of the youth. They are known by their peers as honest, trustworthy, moral individuals. The youth are our best member missionaries. There will be many of their classmates who will join the church over their lifetime as a result of the great example of their LDS friends while they were growing up.

We have been in Rochester for almost 26 years. All our children, except one, have been born here. All have grown up here. The church has become an integral part of their lives, in major part, due to the influence of their friends. For this I am eternally grateful.

What is frequently said about another Minnesota place, can be said about Rochester. It is a place “where the women are strong, the men good looking, and especially, all of the children are definitely above average.” 

 

Bishop Ross, in his testimony on the day of his sustaining, emphasized that the gospel is a blueprint for living and that Jesus is a personal Savior. 

There have been ten Relief Society Presidents who have served and continue to serve to bless the Ward:

President Julia Squires President Karen Nielson

President Charlotte Ash President Carol Jackson

President Karen Mower President Cheryl Darsow

President Krista Firl President Ann Eldredge

President Susan Spackman President Karon Ferrara

Multiple individuals, too many to name, have served in the presidencies of the various ward organizations. One very apparent common characteristic of these leaders was their willingness to do whatever was asked of them by the bishopric and their stake leaders. Their willingness to serve was, and is, an example of selflessness and love.

Multiple Second Ward members have served in various stake callings. President Darrell Rose and President Richard Robb served as Stake Presidents. President Martin Robbinette served as counselor to President Robb. President Thomas Spackman and President John R. Ferrara serve as counselors to our current, beloved Stake President, Darrell Krueger.  Six Second Ward members serve or have served as Stake Relief Society President: Veryl Firl, Helen Mathias, Karen Mower, Suzee Peterson, Julia Squires and Janice Day. 

President Darrell Rose was sustained as stake president on April 25, 1982 and became a charter member of the Second Ward when it was formed a few years later. His main goal as president was to increase the number of full-time missionaries in the stake. He achieved this goal and many others. In 1985 the Chicago Temple was dedicated and President Rose began the tradition of stake temple bus trips for adults and youth. Many stake members’ first experience in the temple resulted from these trips. It was said that no one slept during President Rose’s talks. His wry sense of humor and “to the point” communication style was unique and effective.

President Richard Robb was set apart as stake president on August 24, 1986 by Elder Loren C. Dunn of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Martin Robbinette, of the Second Ward, became his second counselor in 1989. President Robb led the stake to unprecedented growth in both size and spirituality. His goals as president of the stake included the following: fulfill the three-fold mission of the Church, promote individual worth, and build testimonies and faith. President Frank Odd, one of President Robb’s counselors, wrote this statement concerning President Robb:

The tone of this presidency has been set by President Robb, who presides. His enduring achievement has been to entreat the saints of this stake to deepened faith in Jesus Christ, to call us to loving, compassionate and competent service–challenging us by his example, lifting us through the power of his caring, empowering us through his vision of our individual and collective worth and capacity, blessing us through his receptive sensitivity to the spirit of the Lord—and to motivate us to grow ‘in the trunk of the tree.’

 

President Robb’s eloquence and masterful teaching from the pulpit will always be appreciated and remembered. Because of his leadership, the Rochester Minnesota Stake Center, located at 2300 Viola Road NE, was dedicated on June 13, 1993 and the Second Ward moved to this location. He was released as stake president on November 12, 1995. President Robb was ordained stake patriarch on November 10, 1996 and has provided blessings to many members of the stake.

Multiple other Second Ward members, too many to mention, have served in stake callings and assignments as mentioned above by Bishop Johnson. For example, in 1989, twenty-two Second Ward members were serving in stake callings. This number increased to twenty-four in 1991. At present, ten serve in stake callings.

On March 18, 1990 the Second Ward lost a spiritual leader of immense influence when Patriarch Mark Anderson passed away. He was an early leader in Rochester, serving as branch president, bishop, high counselor, and patriarch. His frequent, fervent, powerful testimonies shared in testimony meeting and on other occasions touched the lives of all that knew him.  

 

Exceptional Youth

Bishop Spencer has told us of some of the accomplishments of the young people who have lived in the Second Ward. The youth have been well-served by parents, wonderful teachers in Primary, Sunday School, Young Women and Young Men, and leaders who have had the vision and the capacity to help the youth excel. In addition to Bishop Spencer’s list of accomplishments, consider also the following:

• Excellent Primary attendance and activity

• High percentage of the young women who receive the Young Women’s Recognition Award
• Excellent seminary attendance and graduation rates 
• Many young people sharing their testimonies in fast meetings
• Superb talks from the pulpit by the youth
• Regular temple trips with excellent attendance and reverence
• Large number of youth who sing in the ward choir
• Great majority of young men who serve full-time missions
• Large number of youth who marry in the temple

 

A Very Musical Ward

Appropriate music invites the Spirit and is a very special worship activity. The Second Ward has had a history of wonderful music. With Deann Spencer as the catalyst, with help from many other talented individuals, the Second Ward has excelled in vocal and instrumental music. The choir has performed regularly in sacrament meetings. “Fine Arts Night” began over a decade ago and has included much more than music. In former years, the performance of the Messiah at Christmastime, and several stake musicals have relied on the talents of Second Ward members. All of us have been blessed by these efforts.

Service and Spirituality

These two words go hand in hand and we have had many, many excellent examples of people in the Second Ward who always have strived to serve. Behind the scenes, acts of Christlike service are common in the ward, and I expect that everyone can think of personal examples that have touched themselves and their families.

Teaching the gospel in the Second Ward, in every organization, has always been superb. Teachers of the young people have had an especially important impact. One of our best teachers, Paul Day, is renowned for his object lessons. He has published books with the goal of helping members understand the scriptures. Did you know that many years ago Brother Day was the first to take the responsibility to teach members and nonmembers at the Federal Medical Center on a twice per month schedule? That tradition continues to this day.

The Relief Society has lovingly provided spiritual and physical support to the sisters and families of the ward. The Elders Quorum and High Priest Group regularly pronounce blessings for Mayo Clinic patients. Duane and Helen Mathias have opened up their home as a place of refuge for many Mayo Clinic patients and family members.

The Young Women and Young Men participate in service projects on a regular basis. Many Rochester Second Ward members served as ordinance workers at the Chicago Temple, traveling that considerable distance on a monthly basis. The ward has been blessed to have members who have been strong advocates and resource persons for family history work, such as Don and Veryl Firl, Alex and Regina Faresin, and Craig and Cheryl Darsow. 

In 1995, A History of the Rochester Minnesota Stake was completed by Veryl Firl. She was called as stake historian by Stake President Richard Robb. Both are members of the Second Ward. It is an inspired document with insights into the early members of the Church in this area, as well as the hand of the Lord in ensuring that the right people were  in the right place at the right time to assist in building the stake.

Attending a sacrament meeting at the Rochester Second Ward for the first time is a rewarding experience. The welcoming and friendly atmosphere is felt by all visitors and new ward members. 

A sizable segment of the ward population at any point in time has been made up of students and their families in various levels of medical training, graduate studies in a variety of fields, internships at IBM, etc. The Second Ward becomes an important anchor for them at this time in their lives. They may spend a few months to many years in Rochester. They have consistently served and contributed to the ward. Their example to the young people is powerful. While most leave Rochester after their training, they provide a lasting legacy in service, spirituality and friendship.

One cannot consider service and spirituality in the Rochester Second Ward without thinking of the labors of the full-time missionaries. They have made a lasting impression not only on those whom they have taught and baptized, but also on the ward members, particularly the young people. 

So, there you have a glimpse into a few of the aspects of the Rochester Second Ward’s first seventeen years. Those of us who have had the privilege to be part of this ward family are indeed blessed. The faces, ages and names may gradually change, but the memories last forever.