23 New Friends: A Surprise

23 New Friends: A Surprise: When the doorbell rang, I told my mom to tell Rebecca to come on in to the family room where I was lying on the couch. I just remembered th...

Next two weeks of talks and images

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8EpJPNrCA0EY2hlOGRMaTZONnc/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to the second 2 weeks of Conference talks and images to hang up. According to the schedule it is:

 The Plan of Happiness By President Boyd K. Packer
President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

    The end of all activity in the Church is to see that a man and a woman with their children are happy at home, sealed for eternity.

 

The Family Is of God By Carole M. Stephens First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency

    We each belong to and are needed in the family of God.
 

 Yes, We Can and Will Win! By Elder Ulisses Soares Of the Presidency of the Seventy

    We must hold ever more tightly to our testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we will win the daily battles against evil.

 

The Eternal Perspective of the Gospel  By Elder Rafael E. Pino  Of the Seventy

    For decisions that affect eternity, having a gospel perspective is essential.

  

First 2 week resource for General Conference Study

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8EpJPNrCA0ESmhGMmxkR21UMTQ/view?usp=sharing

Here is the first 2 weeks of General Conference talks with Photo/Quotes to hang up while you study

Last night we did the Pass and Write idea in our family and it was AMAZING!! Totally loved it. My kids spend 15 minutes immersed in the Conference talk and shared after what they learned. My 14 year old asked if we could do it again.  So it was a hit :) YEAH

I also loved that they "found" the quotes from the walls in the talk. My 9 year old came in after reading for a few minutes and said "Hey this is on the wall." That was exciting.  I guess I wasn't very clear where I got the photo/quote on the wall?? Also got a question "What does "succor" mean?

succor- from Google search

noun

    1. assistance and support in times of hardship and distress.
   
synonyms:    aid, help, a helping hand, assistance; comfort, ease, relief, support, TLC
    "they are providing succor in times of need"
       
verb

    1. give assistance or aid to.
    "prisoners of war were liberated and succored"
    synonyms:    help, aid, bring aid to, give/render assistance to, assist, lend a (helping) hand to;
    minister to, care for, comfort, bring relief to, support, take care of, look after, attend to
    "the prisoners were succored"


Been thinking about fasting and what I can do to be better at it.... It has always been a hard thing for me. For many years I was pregnant or nursing so wasn't able to fast for health reasons so I got out of the habit.

But I am ready to do better now.  Also thinking about what a "generous fast offering" is for our family. Still working and praying about the answer to that question.

First 2 talks-

“Is Not This the Fast That I Have Chosen?”

By President Henry B. Eyring

Here are some resources we used to learn about fast offerings with my children

https://www.lds.org/friend/2005/06/for-little-friends/what-are-fast-offerings?lang=eng

Filling Our Homes with Light and Truth

By Cheryl A. Esplin

Follow the Prophets 40 weeks of talks

As you surely noticed there are only about 10 talks I was able to write down my thoughts and take notes on during conference weekend. There were many I heard but was doing other things and unable to write my ideas and inspiration down and there were some I just missed all together. It is such an outpouring of information that by Sunday I am a little exhausted and less able to hear. So last conference I made it a goal to do a conference talk every week as our families scripture study. It has been a great blessing and has really helped me remember what I learned and get constantly nourished by the good word of God through the 6 months. I am also able to slowly but surely get more out of each talk. So today I found a 40 day challenge to read a conference talk. This was too fast for my family we don't get through a whole talk in a night so I made it 2 talks a week. This will get us through all the talks by the next conference! Yeah

Here is the 40 day challenge Thanks to  Bryan Porter Facebook LDS General Conference

 

And here is the edited one we will be doing as a family

 

So Monday April 13th  we start with Fasting and Light and truth

Going to try this idea out with my family and see how it goes.

https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/teach/youth/teaching-idea-passing-and-writing/

April General Conference 2015 part 3

Sunday April 5, 2015

Pres Monson
Temple blessings

He has been prophet for 7 years
144 Temples adding 8 additional temples
3 new Temples announced- Haiti, Thailand, and Ivory Coast.

Sis. Wixom- Come whatever place you are and offer what ever you have.



Personal Challenges: Find the list from Elder Ballard's counsel to RM's
Excercise is the key to healing depression.
Weekly work on a new talk with our family during scripture study each night.
Pray for the youth to have their eyes opened
Create a Texting group for youth to send inspirations to each other

Lessons from April 2015 General Conference part 2

Saturday General Women's conference March 28,2015

Pres Eyring

Savior is at the center of our lives- Mother is the center of her home if she has the Savior in the center of her heart then it is a Christ Centered Home.

Find rest unto your souls

Willing to bear one anothers burden- Comfort, Stand as witness of God.

We help strengthen others when we allow them to rely on the Savior. Atonement power is the way for you to have the ability to comfort and help them come to the Savior and get that Atoning power.

Joy always comes after sorrow

Charity never Faileth

"In thee our hearts rejoice."

Personal Challenge: Rely on the Holy Ghost to bring comfort.

Family Challenge: Put the Savior at the center of my life and heart so He will be at the center of our home.

Saturday April 4th, 2015

Elder Eyring
Blessings of the Fast

"So the Lord has given us a simple commandment with a marvelous promise. In the Church today we are offered the opportunity to fast once a month and give a generous fast offering through our bishop or branch president for the benefit of the poor and the needy. Some of what you give will be used to help those around you, perhaps someone in your own family. The Lord’s servants will pray and fast for the revelation to know whom to help and what help to give. That which is not needed to help people in your local Church unit will become available to bless other Church members across the world who are in need. "

"So I didn’t wait for Sunday. I took a fast offering to my bishop that morning. I know that my offering may be used by the bishop and Relief Society president to help someone in my neighborhood. My small offering may not be needed near where my family and I live, but the local surplus could reach even as far as Vanuatu.

Other storms and tragedies will come across the world to people the Lord loves and whose sorrows He feels. Part of your fast offering and mine this month will be used to help someone, somewhere, whose relief the Lord will feel as if it were His own."

Personal Challenge: Pay a generous fast offering each month.

Family Challenge: Have a family lesson about fasting the blessings of and the power to bless others

Elder Packer-
True Love

"And if you suppose that the full-blown rapture of young romantic love is the sum total of the possibilities which spring from the fountains of life, you have not yet lived to see the devotion and the comfort of longtime married love. Married couples are tried by temptation, misunderstandings, financial problems, family crises, and illness, and all the while love grows stronger. Mature love has a bliss not even imagined by newlyweds."

". . . God is our Father! All the love and generosity manifest in the ideal earthly father is magnified in Him who is our Father and our God beyond the capacity of the mortal mind to comprehend. His judgments are just; His mercy without limit; His power to compensate beyond any earthly comparison."

Sis Burton
Marriage and Duties of Husbands and Fathers

" It must be difficult, at best, for covenant men to live in a world that not only demeans their divine roles and responsibilities but also sends false messages about what it means to be a “real man.” One false message is “It’s all about me.” On the other end of the scale is the degrading and mocking message that husbands and fathers are no longer needed. I plead with you not to listen to Satan’s lies! He has forfeited that sacred privilege of ever becoming a husband or father. Because he is jealous of those who have the sacred roles he will never fill, he is intent on making “all men … miserable like unto himself”!"

 Personal Challenge: Print up the list of 5 questions

". . .  how often do we intentionally “speak kind words to each other”?¹⁶

We might test ourselves by asking a few questions. With a little adaptation, these questions can apply to most of us, whether we are married or single, whatever our home situation might be.

1. When was the last time I sincerely praised my companion, either alone or in the presence of our children?
2. When was the last time I thanked, expressed love for, or earnestly pleaded in faith for him or her in prayer?
3. When was the last time I stopped myself from saying something I knew could be hurtful?
4. When was the last time I apologized and humbly asked for forgiveness—without adding the words “but if only you had” or “but if only you hadn’t”?
5. When was the last time I chose to be happy rather than demanding to be “right”?

Now, if any of these questions lead you to squirm or feel a tinge of guilt, remember that Elder David A. Bednar has taught that “guilt is to our spirit what pain is to our body—a warning of danger and a protection from additional damage.”

https://www.theredheadedhostess.com/teach/youth/how-do-the-things-i-say-affect-those-around-me/

Love this lesson for applying this talk to our family especially loved this poem:

Builder or Wreckers

I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho-heave-ho and lusty yell,
They swung a beam and a sidewall fell.
I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled,
As the men you’d hire if you had to build?”
He gave me a laugh and said, “No indeed!
Just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do.”
And I tho’t to myself as I went my way,
Which of these two roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?
Am I shaping my deeds by a well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town,
Content with the labor of tearing down?
- Unknown

Lessons from April 2015 General Conference

"Are your eyes open?"

Here are my thoughts and inspirations for my life this weekend from General Conference. It was a great weekend and many personal questions I have had were answered and I had many ideas for goals in all areas of my life. I love the opportunity to rejoice with the Saints and listen to the Prophets and Seers who are assigned to teach us all.

First my desire to sustain the Prophet was increased by the 5 people who opposed him. I realized that sustaining the prophet was in my heart and I wanted to support and defend him in his heavy burden to teach the people of this generation. Here is an article and I agree with DaNell Roberts I was saddened by the dissenter's choice to publicly oppose the Prophet because of their dissatisfaction with being heard. The voting is for questions of worthiness and not for a personal platform to get attention and publicity for your cause.

http://fox13now.com/2015/04/04/5-hands-among-thousands-mark-rare-votes-of-dissent-during-lds-churchs-general-conference/

Second in a talk today I was given personal counsel for my family and in my calling to teach the youth. It came from a reference to the scripture 2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

I have always loved this story but have always focused on the part about the angel hosts coming to the rescue of the prophet and protecting him.  But today I realized there was counsel for parents and teachers of youth. There was a second miracle that the young man's eyes were opened to see the angels. To have the veil parted so he could have greater faith and hope. This is what I want for my children and the youth in my stewardship. I will be praying this for them daily. "Please open their eyes that they may see thee, and light and truth."

General women's conference

It has been 20 years since we were given the inspired counsel from the Family a Proclamation to the world. I had 2 children at the time one 3 years old and one just 2. It was a busy time for our family and the proclamation has been a great source of guidance and direction in raising my children. It came at a time that the doctrines taught in it were generally accepted by all including the media. It has been shocking to me to see each thing in the Proclamation challenged publicly and with great venom in my sons lifetime. What a blessing is the clear and direct teachings in the proclamation! So grateful to have it given to me so early in my motherhood.

Loved the object lesson in Cheryl A. Esplin's talk about the two pop cans. Loved the idea of being full and that protecting you from being crushed by the pressures of life. Was personally inspired that the way I am best filled is by attending the temple every week.

"When we are filled with light and truth we cannot be crushed."

"Effort and time are required to fill our homes and hearts with light and truth."

"Need time to think-not so distracted- she received personal revelation."

"Do not bury your testimony in the ground."

Personal challenge- Write down your testimony and share it everywhere you can do not let it buried with you.

Family Challenge- Need to create more quiet time for our family to be filled with light and truth

The talk by Carole M. Stephens reminded me that we are all needed in the family of God. Each is important and needed. She reminded me through the story of Sister Yazzie that motherhood has no boundaries and that I need to expand my influence for good to all who need me to nurture and mother them.

"She is grandmother to everyone."

"God needs us to be one- united in our covenants."

Sis Oscarson reminded me of a RS lesson I was in many years ago where the teacher said "I think women and daughters of God can be fearless warriors in the war of truth when it is necessary." She was a small woman but when she said it I could feel the power of her spirit and feared for her enemies. I knew she was right and women have a power to defend truth.

"Weak, trembling, fearless girl." Missionaries are under my protection.

I loved the story of Marie protecting the missionaries from the mob intent on their bodily harm. I loved the strength of her standing at the door and wondered if I would be able to be that brave when it is my turn? Wondered if I could defend the truth and find that kind of courage.

"How little we knew 20 years ago how much we would need the "Proclamation on the family".

"Be defenders of the proclamation to the world just like Marie."

"If it is the Lord's plan- it should also be our plan."

Personal challenge: Model righteous marriages and families. Live the proclamation to the best of my ability.

"Teach your children that the roles of Motherhood and Fatherhood are eternally important and there is no greater honor than that of Parenthood."

"Every child should feel that they are the most important priority for their parents."

"One cannot forget mother and remember God."

"Role of the Homemaker- Defend the sanctity of the home. Create a home of refuge, order, where scriptures are studied."

"Protect and defend home as second only to the temple in Holiness."

"Call to arms. 3 things to Protect- marriage, parenthood, and the home."

"Filled with light and truth you cannot be crushed"