Here's the latest for this week:
Dates to Remember:
May 10: Stake Women's Conference Plan Your Life Around the Temple. 6:30 p.m. at the stake center. Light dinner will be served.
May 13: Mother's Day
Monthly Demo Class:
We will be offering demos monthly that can help strengthen our families and homes. Here is the schedule for the next few months. The times and dates change depending on the teacher, so take note of when demos are offered.
May 22- Food Dehydration with Elaine Gold- 10 a.m.
May 25 - Ebelskiver (Danish pancakes) with Brittany Larsen - 10 a.m.
June - Making wheat bread with Eileen Stidham - time and date TBD
If you have a skill you would like to learn or a skill you would be willing to offer, please contact Katie Anderson or Geralene Beckett and we will get it on the schedule for the second half of the year.
Visiting Teaching:
The May issue of the Ensign is the conference report, so please choose a message from conference to share with the sisters you visit. You can find all of the talks here.
Missionary News:
If you would like to feed the missionaries, please contact Lauri Rex at laurirex@yahoo.com or 589-2929.
Don't forget to keep not only the elders serving in our ward in your prayers, but also the elders serving from our ward. Patrick Carlisle is in the Berlin, Germany mission and Landon Gold is serving in Durban, South Africa.
Diane Smith:
Many of you know Sister Smith has been in the hospital for the past few days. She and her family would like to express their appreciation for your meals, visits and prayers.
The medicine Sister Smith is currently on makes her very tired and groggy. She loves having visitors, but if you would like to visit please call ahead to make sure she is awake (858-663-8696).
Don't forget to keep not only the elders serving in our ward in your prayers, but also the elders serving from our ward. Patrick Carlisle is in the Berlin, Germany mission and Landon Gold is serving in Durban, South Africa.
Diane Smith:
Many of you know Sister Smith has been in the hospital for the past few days. She and her family would like to express their appreciation for your meals, visits and prayers.
The medicine Sister Smith is currently on makes her very tired and groggy. She loves having visitors, but if you would like to visit please call ahead to make sure she is awake (858-663-8696).
Lesson Schedule:
May 6: Presidency Message
May 13: George Albert Smith chapter 9 Open Your Soul to the Lord in Prayer
May 20: George Albert Smith chapter 10 The Scriptures
May 27: TFOT The Laborers in the Vineyard Elder Holland
May 20: George Albert Smith chapter 10 The Scriptures
May 27: TFOT The Laborers in the Vineyard Elder Holland
Lesson Recap: Drop By Drop, Katie Anderson
I missed the lesson today so Katie has sent me her notes to pass along. Sounds like it was a fantastic lesson.
If you have one leaky faucet in your home and it drips one drop per minute every day, you lose 272 water bottles full of water a year! That is a lot of water! One drop of water doesn't seem like much, but little by little, drop by drop things add up.
But today we are going to talk about how little by little, drop by drop we can do those things that will bring us close to Christ. They may seem small but when you add them up, they cause GREAT change!
So how do we prepare our lives, drop by drop? But today we are going to talk about how little by little, drop by drop we can do those things that will bring us close to Christ. They may seem small but when you add them up, they cause GREAT change!
DAILY DEDICATION TO THE GOSPEL
President Kimball in his book Faith Precedes the Miracle says it best:
“Attendance at sacrament meetings adds oil to our lamps, drop by drop over the years. Fasting, family prayer, home teaching, control of bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures—each act of dedication and obedience is a drop added to our store. Deeds of kindness, payment of offerings and tithes, chaste thoughts and actions, marriage in the covenant for eternity—these, too, contribute importantly to the oil with which we can at midnight refuel our exhausted lamps.” President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985), Faith Precedes the Miracle(1972), 256.
In this quote, President Kimball gives the following daily dedications to the gospel:
Service- Mosiah 2:17
President Monson said, “We are the Lord's hands here upon the earth, with the mandate to serve and to lift His children. He is dependent upon each of us.”
How do you find daily or weekly acts of service help you fill your lamp?
Attending church-
Dallin H. Oaks in The Gospel Culture says, "The Lord has commanded us to attend sacrament meeting every week to partake of the sacrament (see D&C 59:9–12). When we do that, repenting of our sins and renewing our promises to serve the Lord and always remember Him and keep His commandments, we have the precious promise that we will “always have his Spirit to be with [us]” (D&C 20:77). This is how we can see beyond the obstacles and discouragements of this life to guide us to our heavenly home."
How does attending your weekly meetings help you?
Prayer-
Russell M. Nelson in his talk Thanks Be To God says,“Because one’s spirit is so important, its development is of eternal consequence. It is strengthened as we communicate in humble prayer with our loving Heavenly Father.26”
How has prayer brought you closer to your Heavenly Father?
Scripture Study-To add upon our knowledge we have to read from the holy scriptures. We are instructed to read from them daily.
How does reading from the scriptures daily help you add oil to your lamps?
Tithing/Fast offerings-
Henry B. Eyring in his talk The Blessings of Tithing said, “There are at least three ways that paying a full tithe in this life PREPAREs us to feel what we need to feel to receive the gift of eternal life.
First, when we pay our tithes to the Church, our Heavenly Father pours out blessings upon us
Second, all of us who have paid a consistent full tithe feel greater confidence in asking God for what we and our families need.
Third, those who pay tithing feel an increase in their love of God and of all God’s children. "
Sharing the Gospel- Mark 16:15 “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature”
Home Teaching- and I’m going to add visiting teaching- I know I have learned to love as Jesus loves through visiting teaching. I’ve been humbled as I see sisters struggle. I’ve been humbled as I’ve asked for help from my visiting teachers. These are all things that help bring me closer to Christ. Each month may seem like a little visit but over time a friendship can grow, trust can build and you can strengthen each other.
One thing I want to add to the list is attending the temple. One thing that helps add oil to my lamp and I think it can help everyone is regularly attending the temple.
I come from a home with an inactive dad. When I decided to come back to church I came once in a while and I wasn’t doing the things I should. I added to my lamp daily, with scripture study, with prayer, with regularly attending my meetings. The difference didn’t happen overnight but now over 10 years the change is amazing!
My husband and I were talking about all these things we are talking about. I was saying that sometimes when I go to church I get a gallon of oil in my lamp. I have a wonderful spiritual experience or I am affected greatly by a talk. Or this can happen with prayer or the temple. What I don’t notice is the one drop. I don’t notice as much when I go to church and I just get one drop BUT that one drop is important, it’s essential. Elder Bednar said it best, when he referring to the quote from President Kimball said, “The key lesson for us to learn from this statement by President Kimball is that deliberate, consistent, and reliable preparation and performance provide essential oil for our lamps. Furthermore, steadfastness is a prime indicator of spiritual maturity.
In Elder Holland’s Talk, This, The Greatest of All Dispensations he says:
"Because ours is the last and greatest of all dispensations, because all things will eventually culminate and be fulfilled in our era, there is, therefore, one specific responsibility that falls to those of us in the Church now that did not rest quite the same way on Church members in any earlier time. We have a responsibility to prepare the Church of the Lamb of God to receive the Lamb of God—in person, in triumphant glory, in His millennial role as Lord of lords and King of kings.
We have the responsibility as a Church and as individual members of that Church to be worthy to have Christ come to us, to be worthy to have Him greet us, and to have Him accept, receive, and embrace us. The lives we present to Him in that sacred hour must be worthy of Him!"
Elder Holland goes on to say, "I am filled with an overwhelming sense of duty to prepare my life (and to the extent that I can to help prepare the lives of the members of the Church) for that long-prophesied day, for the time when we will make a presentation of the Church to Him whose Church it is."
Thank you, Katie, for a beautiful lesson.
Have a great week!Thank you, Katie, for a beautiful lesson.
Brittany Larsen
Presidency members:
Geralene Beckett - Presidentbeckettbunch@cox.net
Diane Smith - 1st Counselordianebsmith.smith5@gmail.com
Katie Anderson - 2nd Counselorkatiewoodanderson@gmail.com
Shannon Lo - Secretaryfoxymomsml@cox.net
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