Merry Christmas

The secret of Christmas,
Is not the things you do at Christmas time
But the Christmas things you do
All year through.

A Circle of Sisters - RS Lesson, November 7, 2010

Our presidency message this month was given by Sister Kerri Vannucci.   And, for a special treat, the RS Presidency arranged for all of the sisters, including those normally in Primary and YW to be able to attend.  Our fantastic Young Women took over primary, including the teaching, sharing time, music, and everything.   It was truly a spiritual feast for the sisters to be together.

Sister Vannucci told us that it's important to come to church, to come to Relief Society each week so that we can feel the spirit and fill our cups.

We are living in times when Satan is knocking on our doors.  And it is our right as wives and mothers to stand strong and say, "No!"

Sister Vannucci asked us to think of what comes to mind when we think about RS.  Some responses were: sisterhood, food!, different things at different times, wisdom, support, opportunities to serve, a soothing balm.

One of the fantastic things about Relief Society, and about Visiting Teaching is that we are assigned to love someone and some is assigned to love us.

President Boyd K. Packer once quoted the prophet Joseph Smith who, when the Relief Society was organized, said, "This society is organized “according to your natures. … You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies [within you]. …“If you live up to [these] privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates. … “If this Society listen[s] to the counsel of the Almighty, through the heads of the Church, they shall have power to command queens in their midst.” The Relief Society, General Conference Address, April, 1998.

This ward has a lot of angels, both on earth and in heaven, lifting and helping each other.  Sister Vannucci commented that "When you're doing your best, the Savior will make up the rest."

Relief Society helps us.  As women, we have divine attributes:  we are on the errand of angels.

Our husband's battles are as hard as ours and they turn to us for strength.  It's easy to get overwhelmed and let ourselves feel empty and tired.

Sister Julie B. Beck in her General Conference Address of October, 2008 titled, Fulfilling the Purpose of Relief Society said that we are commissioned to:

1. Increase in faith and personal righteousness.  
Miracles don't produce faith.  Strong faith is built upon obedience to the gospel.

2. Strengthen families and homes.
Sister Vannucci shared the experience of the prophet Nehemiah who had the people of Jerusalem build the walls of the city.  They kept their swords on their belts to fight off the wicked, even as they worked.  We need to do the same thing in our homes.  The people were assigned sections of the wall. Each of us has assignments and responsibilities and we do them together.

3. Serve the Lord and His children.
We need to pray for strength to serve and help others.  Turn your burdens to the Lord.  You can't do it all yourself.  He will lift you.

President Packer spoke of the Circle of Sisters and he said, "Each sister, no matter where in that circle she stands, can look to either side and feel the spirit of inspiration coming back as she extends the gentle hand of charity to those on either side."

Sister Vannucci told us, "I hope you can feel our love for you.  I hope that you can feel the love of the Savior.  As you feel His love, I hope you can then look to the sister next to you in the circle and strengthen her too."

We can't be critical, we can't be judgmental.  We don't know what is going on in each person's life.  We need to love.

Sister Vannucci shared the following thought, which was given to all the sisters as a handout. 

"Did you ever compare your service to silverware?  All silverware is made to serve, but the different pieces serve in different ways.

Forks stab.  "This is mine," they say. Bits of meat, carrots, pickles, salad and cheese.  "This, this and this are mine," says the fork.  Everything for me, me, me."  And soon every last morsel on the plate has been pinned by the spear of the selfish fork.

Knives cut.  "Too big," says the knife.  Slice. Cut. Chop. Dice. Everything must change its shape to satisfy the whim of the knife.  Nothing is right as it is.  Everything needs paring down, carving or separating.

Spoons serve.  Cereal, soup, peas; all the impossible foods can be handled comfortably from the smooth bowl of the spoon.  Spoons say, "Here let me help you." The spoon has a gentle and refined way of serving.  She seems to say, "We can manage together."

Help Me to Be A Spoon.

We can be mindful of each other.  We can be the spoons and serve.

An Evening of Gratitude

For our Relief Society Night or that meeting formerly known as Enrichment, we spent a delightful evening learning about and discussing gratitude.

Sister Margo Kelly shared a wonderful message about gratitude. Margo acknowledged that it's so much easier sometimes to focus on the negative and our trials, instead of focusing on the positive. She defined gratitude as "Gratitude is acknowledging the hand of God in our lives."

Isn't that a wonderful thought? How often do we neglect acknowledging God's hand in our lives? For many of us, it is far too often.

Margo shared several quotes from President Monson's conference talk from this past October entitled, The Divine Gift of Gratitude. President Monson quoted another individual who said, "feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." What an amazing thought. Margo said she imagined a bunch of Christmas presents that were wrapped, but not given. How tragic that would be. At the same time, not expressing our gratitude to God or whomever, is just as tragic.

One thing that Margo also talked about was the importance of expressing gratitude to those around us. Those who touch or help us in some way. Talented woman that she is, she passed around a basket of thank you notes (many of which she had made) and invited those in attendance to take one or two cards and to write out a message to someone we appreciate and then to give or mail the cards.

Margo shared Matthew's account of Jesus Christ when he was traveling in the wilderness for three days and 4,000 people followed him. None of them had eaten for three days, and they were probably somewhat whiny and complaining. The disciples saw only what was lacking: the food. The Savior, instead of complaining with them asked, "How many loaves have ye?" The disciples replied, "Seven, and a few little fishes." The Savior had faith that they would have sufficient for their needs and he prayed and gave thanks for those loaves and fishes and then he blessed it and brake it and the disciples distributed it. And there was enough. But, before there was enough, Christ expressed gratitude for what was already there.

President Monson also said, "to express gratitude is gracious and honorable, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live with gratitude ever in our hearts is to touch heaven." Margo shared this quote twice, because it is so profound.

At the end of her remarks, there was some discussion and sisters were able to share moments or experiences where they were able to see the hand of God in their lives. One sister shared the thought that when we focus on gratitude even when things are desperate and hard, we can find joy. And when we can consistently find joy during the hard times, we will become a more spiritual and celestial people.

To end the evening, we adjourned to the cultural hall and had delicious refreshments and made gratitude journals. These are small notebooks that will fit into a purse and are intended for you to use to write the things you are grateful for each day.

What a wonderful way to cultivate an attitude of gratitude! May you each take some time this week to find those times in your life when you can see the moments of gratitude and give thanks for them.

A Message From President Henderson

I found this little story I would like to share with you.

Keeping a Positive Attitude in Trying Situations

One day I hopped in a taxi for a ride to the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and just missed the other car by inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And, I mean he was friendly.

So, I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage - frustration, anger, and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you.

But the taxi driver said not to take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well and move on. Do not take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so.., love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don't.

Because life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it. Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

Humanitarian Date Night!!!

June 29th, bring your spouse to our humanitarian night. We will be working on our quilts and eating pie!!! Babysitting will be provided, so make it a fun night with your date! 6:30 at the Stake Center.

Presidency Message June 6

Lenice Smith started our lesson with these words, see if you can guess her topic...

Spotless, Promises, Covenants, Blameless, Salvation, Eternal Life, Protection, Blessings, Respect, Holy, Worthy, Righteous, Undefiled, Beautiful, Pure, Armor, Shield, White Raiment, Covering, White, Modesty, Clean

Our lesson today is on properly wearing the Temple Garments. All of her material came from the talk - The Temple Garment:“An Outward Expression of an Inward Commitment”
By Elder Carlos E. Asay

Understanding is key to wearing the garment. It is an armor of God. We have a life and death struggle each day, it is important that we dress modestly and appropriately.

A simple suggestion is to play Head Shoulders Knees and Toes... found here.

Thankfully we live in a time and place where capris are in style. It's not hard to find cute t-shirts that are longer.

It is important to remember that while we may remove the garment to swim or do other activities that we immediately place them back on.

If you have any questions on how to wear the garment properly, please contact our Bishop.

Combined Lesson May 30th

Thoughts from a lesson by Brother Preece for our combined lesson.

We can all recall the story of Peter wanting to walk on the water with Christ. He began to sink when he became afraid the Savior took his hand and they walked together.

The Saviors arms have been described as open, extended, stretched out, encircling and mighty. It is an invitation to repent!!!

Repentance "too little understanding, too little applied by all." Without it, there could be no perfecting of the saints.

It should be "Part of our daily process" - Elder Maxwell.

Turning of the heart and will to God... without watch, there can be no progress in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Steps to repentance
-We have to come to ourselves like the prodigal son came to himself.

We are an example to our children

Humanitarian Service Activity Tuesday May 18 6:30pm

We will be working on quilts and putting together Birthday Celebration Kits. Please bring the items you signed up for to th eactivity or drop by Amie Christensen's house. We'll see you Tuesday night at the church!

Prophets of God - RS Lesson, May 16, 2010

Thank you Kerri Vannucci for giving our lesson this week! We discussed Lesson 9, Prophets of God We discussed several questions.

-What powers and gifts does the Prophet have?
All the keys
Present day revelation
Power of discernment and understanding
Special witness of Christ, testifies of His divinity
D&C 107:91-92 "And again, the duty of the President of the office of the High Priesthood is to preside over the whole church, and to be like unto Moses— Behold, here is wisdom; yea, to be a seer, a revelator, a translator, and a prophet, having all the gifts of God which he bestows upon the head of the church."

Who is your favorite prophet?

-What have you learned from the lives and the teaching of the prophets?
The story of President Kimball in the airport when he helped a mother with her children.

-Why do we need a living prophet today?
We still need guidance
We can't do it alone

-What can we do to follow and sustain the prophet?
Pray for him
Listen to their talks

-What has the prophet taught or emphasized lately?
We listed titles of the last 2 years of conference talks given by President Monson.

Great blessings follow obedience to the prophet.

Prayer - RS Lesson May 9, 2010

Gail Stark gave a wonderful lesson on prayer this week from our Relief Society manual Lesson 8 Praying to our Heavenly Father. We had 5 group discussions on the following topics and these were our answers.

1- What is Prayer?
-Communication with God

2- Why do we pray?
-To realize God is there
-For strength
-For our weaknesses
-To ask Heavenly Father for strength to live the gospel

3- When should we pray?
-Always!
-In our heart
-When we don't want to
-When we are upset
-When we are angry
-When we are happy

4- How should we pray?
-D&C 88:63 aDraw bnear unto me and I will draw near unto you; cseek me diligently and ye shall dfind me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
-Always pray in faith with a sincere heart
-Pray for the Lord's will

5- How are prayers answered
-Prayers are always answered, even if you don't think they were answered
-Yes answers
-No answers
-Not right now, but later answers
-It doesn't matter

May 4th Visiting Teaching Conference

Please come to our Visiting Teaching Conference. Join us Tuesday May 4 at 6:30 in the gym. Light dinner and babysitting will be provided. If you are a visiting teacher and if you are visit taught (which is all of us!) please attend! Be sure to call the sisters you visit and your friends to remind them of the meeting! See you there.

Sunday April 25 - Watching with All Perseverance

Watching with All Perseverance
Elder David A. Bednar

Our Relief Society was fantastic. Christine Breshears taught our lesson and brought some great thoughts for us. We talked about warnings and about Ezekiel 33:2-16 . Elder Bednar gave us some early warning signals as moms for our children, for anyone who is a nurturer, which is all of us!

1- Reading and talking about the Book of Mormon.

• Are we reading just to read the Book of Mormon, or are we discussing it and talking about what we're reading?
• Nephi declared, “My soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn” (2 Nephi 25:4). The root word plain in this verse does not refer to things that are ordinary or simple; rather, it denotes instruction that is clear and easily understood.

2- Bearing Testimony Spontaneously

• It doesn't have to be "I'd like to bear my testimony" all the time! Simply being who you are and acting the right way shares our testimony.
• Christine shared some great stories about how her family's testimonies were strengthened when her children prayed for someone to come help their mom, and someone came! Also when their uncle was dying in the hospital, they held a family fast and their uncle was able to keep on living!!! What a great way to build and share your testimony than to actively show your children!

3- Inviting Children to Act

• As gospel learners, we should be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).

Elder Bednar closes with these words
I bear witness that parents who consistently read and talk about the Book of Mormon with their children, who share testimony spontaneously with their children, and who invite children as gospel learners to act and not merely be acted upon will be blessed with eyes that can see afar off (see Moses 6:27) and with ears that can hear the sound of the trumpet (see Ezekiel 33:2–16). The spiritual discernment and inspiration you will receive from the combination of these three holy habits will enable you to stand as watchmen on the tower for your families—“watching . . . with all perseverance” (Ephesians 6:18)—to the blessing of your immediate family and your future posterity.
This is a promise to the parents! We can hear the warnings, we will hear the trumpet and we will have eyes that can see afar off.
Thank you Christine for a fantastic lesson!