Stake Presidency Message
From the Columbus Ohio Stake Center in Columbus Ohio we share the Stake leadership Monthly message President Richard Hoyt has the message for January 2025. This month's message is brought to you in podcast (and video) format, with the following transcript.
Mark Harrington (MH): Welcome! This is the stake monthly leadership message for 2025 and we will be doing a Stake In Review of 2024. I am your host Mark Harrington, and our main presenter and guest today is Richard Hoyt, our Stake President.
President Richard Hoyt (PRH): Hello, everybody!
MH: Before we get into our yearly report, let's have a get-to-know President Hoyt, through question and answer. I put together, or assembled some questions for you.
PRH: Okay, Mark! I haven't seen these!
MH: No, he hasn't seen these, so these could go anywhere, at any time!
PRH: I'm a little nervous…
MH: Question number one.
PRH: All right!
MH: What is your favorite color and why?
PRH: What is my favorite color and why? I don't know you know, I've kind of just always liked green a little bit and I don't have a reason for it other than I can just enjoy that color I guess. It's just there!
MH: Awesome! Let's see here. What does your favorite meal consist of?
PRH: Oh that's a good question!
MH: Main course, sides, desserts
PRH: Yeah, well I don't know, I always love to start with a good big salad. I love it when I can get a salad, and I don't know I mean, we mix it up a lot. We do a lot of pasta in our house. That always feels good and anytime we get some ice cream at the end of it - ice cream's the winner right there!
MH: Awesome! Are you a pet person?
PRH: I am not a pet person.
MH: Well then we can skip this question!
PRH: We do a lot of - we help out some friends. We dogsit and things like that.
MH: Well then the then the trick question here is, What kind of pet would you have if you had one?
PRH: Oh dear, something very quiet like, something maybe like a snake and can just sit in the corner…
MH: I was going say goldfish…
PRH: Goldfish! That could work too! The quieter the better that would be good.
MH: There you go! From the realm of Comics, movies, or streaming sources, Who might your favorite hero or villain be?
PRH: Oh that's a good question! That's a really good question. I don't know… Who would my favorite hero or villain be? Give me a minute to think about that - I have to come back - that's a good one.
MH: Okay! We had talked about dinner earlier - what is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
PRH: Well, there we go! I love chocolate! I just go right for the chocolate! Right for the win right there.
MH: Love it! Do you have a list of favorite hobbies?
PRH: I do!
MH: So maybe share your top five.
PRH: Top five! I don't have that many hobbies!
MH: Or share what you like to do the best.
PRH: So a couple of things - I love board games. I have a lot of board games at home, and anyone wants to play or has a board game night, the Hoyts are more than happy to be part of that.
And then I'm an IT guy so I love just spending time tinkering with technology and things along that line.
And maybe the last one I'll do is, I love the weather so I keep an eye on the weather, things like that, I’m a trained weather spotter so some fun things like that.
MH: I did not know that! That's nice! All right so a little more church related question - Who might your favorite General Authority be?
PRH: That's a good question! I've had a chance to meet a few. You know Elder Sikahema, when he was here, was a great guy - I loved spending some time with him. In terms of, if I could just sit down and spend an hour with, it would be Elder David Bednar. I would just have a little bit of time with him, he'd be a lot of fun.
MH: Right, I bet! I can only imagine. Knowing the Columbus Temple holds great meaning to most of us locals, do you have any other favorite Temple?
PRH: Well, I grew up in Wisconsin - joined the church in Wisconsin - so the Chicago Temple was our home Temple - our go-to Temple there. So that's always got a little special place for us too.
MH: Understandable. How many temples have you had the chance to visit?
PRH: Oh that's a good question!
MH: You can limit it to whatever number you like.
PRH: Probably, you know, we've counted it out before - I think somewhere around 20 to 30 or so. They've all been in the United States - haven't had a chance to go International yet, so that'll have to get on the list at some point.
MH: There you go! Do you have a favorite Church historical site?
PRH: So I’ve spent a lot of time up in Kirtland (Ohio) - I do like Kirtland. There's a special Spirit there and then Nauvoo (Illinois) is right up there as well. I love going to Nauvoo and experiencing that as well.
MH: Awesome. Do you want to go back to hero / villain?
PRH: I don't know if I've been able to pick - I've been thinking about it this whole time! There's a lot of great ones out there, but I'm not going to be able to pull one out. You got me on that one there!
MH: Okay! So by default the committee will say Captain Moroni!
PRH: Okay, Captain Moroni!
MH: Just to have some fun.
As we transition to our message of the hour let me remind you that this year for Sunday School we will indeed be studying the Doctrine and Covenants. There are manuals out - if you need a physical manual just ask your Sunday School teacher or Sunday School president, and of course, if you are in the digital mode they are found in the gospel library. Also for every instructor and every parent the Sunday School Stake President encourages everybody to review Teaching In The Savior's Way. It's great for all Sunday instructors, primary, youth, adult, and for home review, the teaching opportunities for parents, guardians, and caregivers.
So at this moment it's time to hit the Stake 2024 review from President Hoyt, so the time is yours!
PRH: Well, that's great!
MH: So what are some of the greatest things that have happened for the Stake in 2024?
PRH: It's hard to summarize a whole whole year like this, Mark, but I think there's just been a couple of highlight events that have been really amazing.
We had our Why I Believe Fireside, which is an opportunity we had to hear from members, and those who recently joined the church and just kind of their story of coming to find the gospel. Those are always very uplifting.
We had our Evening of Belonging as a group where a few people shared their journey in the church, that may not be like the traditional journey, and that was just a great opportunity to hear from people and to experience that.
We've been out in the community - the West Jefferson Ox Roast was one place that we were at and mingling with people.
Then of course we capped off the year here with the Giving Machines at the Polaris Mall and that was just fantastic - way exceeded expectations! Everyone was really excited and we're hopeful to bring those back next year - no guarantees - but of course the momentum is headed in the right direction.
MH: Nice! So what kind of growth have we had in the Stake?
PRH: It's great! Almost every week there's a baptism going on in one of our units. It's fantastic to see all those great things happening.
It seems like multiple times a month I'm meeting with people who are going to the temple for the first time and it's great to see all those wonderful things happening.
So a lot of things that most people don't see on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, but there's all these exciting things going on!
MH: Awesome! So how's our missionary effort going?
PRH: You know it's wonderful! We've got so many members of our stake out serving. So if we take a look at that, we've got our first young service missionary who's serving right now from the Hilliard Ward so it's great to see him involved. We're going to set apart another one actually this coming weekend so we'll have two young service missionaries. That's fantastic!
And then right now just between our youth and our adults we've got 28 people who are serving missions - anywhere from our young people serving at home, young people serving out and about in multiple countries, to our more experienced people serving from home, and then a few couples who are also out and about serving around the country. So it's great to see all that!
I love getting their letters home - that's a highlight! I get to read those - they are fun!
MH: I bet! So every month there's always a spiritual message. What's our spiritual growth goal or direction?
PRH: As we close out 2024 we were focused, and we used 3rd Nephi, 5:13 as our scripture: “I'm a disciple of Jesus Christ.” We grounded ourselves on the Savior - on Christ.
Looking forward to Doctrine and Covenants, as we're going to study that in Sunday School, Doctrine and Covenants 6:36: “Look unto me in every thought: doubt not, fear not.”
You know, there's a lot of things that are going on out and about in the world, and in our families, and in our homes, and it might be easy to have that fear - it might be easy to have some doubts. But I love that, as we focused last year, being a disciple of Jesus Christ now as we look unto Jesus Christ, He can remove those doubts. He can remove those fears. Really, all of Doctrine and Covenants 6 is just an amazing “shot in the arm” of let's go do this!
The Savior is on our side, and it's all going to be okay! That doesn't mean we won't have our challenges, but we've got the way to get it done.
I’m really excited about that and looking forward to Doctrine and Covenants and having Kirtland so close, it’s like these are real events! This is part of our history here in Ohio, so I’m really excited about it.
MH: A lot of exciting things are happening in our backyard. Not only then, but even now!
PRH: Absolutely!
MH: We hope you have a great day, and thank you for your time!