Relief Society E-news June 3 - June 9

Hi Sisters,

Summer is almost here and the year is nearly half over. Time really does fly.

Dates to Remember:

June 8 - Last day of seminary
June 10 - Stake Priesthood Meeting 7:30 a.m. at the stake center. Please encourage your husbands and sons to attend.
June 14 - Last day of school
June 17 - Father's Day
June 17 - Book of Mormon summer reading challenge begins
June 19 - Relief Society Meeting Night

Summer Fun Days:

School is out in two weeks, so let's get ready for some fun! Here are some of the fun things a lot of local moms will be doing:
Mondays - Swim at Altisima Pool
Tuesdays - Head to the beach (changes from week to week, but usually San Clemente area)
Wednesdays - Free movie www.regmovies.com/summermovieexpress
Thursdays - Mission Viejo Lake (contact a MV resident to get on the list to get in)
Fridays- RSM beach club (contact RSM resident to get on the list to get in)

Book of Mormon Challenge:
Our annual summer Book of Mormon reading will start on June 17, so get ready! This is a great opportunity to encourage your children to read the entire book when they don't have homework or other school activities to distract them. It's also a great time to read it yourself! Reading it in a short amount of time gives you a whole new perspective on scriptures that may already be familiar.

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.

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:

 

Here is the link for this months visiting teaching message and a cute handout. Only two weeks until kids are out of school, so schedule your appointments soon before summer madness starts.

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 Carlile is in the Berlin, Germany mission and Landon Gold is serving in Durban, South Africa.

Lesson Schedule:

June 3: Presidency message

June 10: George A. Smith Ch. 11 Revelation from God to His Children

June 17: George A. Smith ch. 12 An Enthusiastic Desire to Share the Gospel

June 24: TFOT: And a Little Child Shall Lead Them

Lesson Recap:  Foolish or Wise

 

Sister Beckett taught our lesson this week which centered around our theme this year of Filling our Lamps. Today she focused on how making wise choices and prioritizing our time is our path to eternal salvation. 

In the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) it is taught that 5 women were wise and 5 were foolish. The virgins in this parable represent the members of the church. It’s interesting to note that as all the women in the parable were waiting for the bridegroom to come (striving to follow the Savior and waiting His arrival) with their lamps, only half of them were actually ready and prepared to meet the Savior and be worthy of eternal salvation. 

Matthew 25:2- 4 reads,

 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

How can we know if we are being as the wise women or the foolish? Last month Katie taught us about filling our lamps “drop by drop” and that we needed the essential things to be as the wise virgins who have a surplus of oil  - or a surplus of faith.

When we recognize what are the essential things, then we can prioritize them.

Wisdom and Order

King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon  teaches us that all things must be done in wisdom and order( Mosiah 6:27).

Wisdom and order means to put the most important and essential things at the top of our list.

We can know if we are being wise when we take a good look at how we spend our precious and very limited time.

The scriptures teach us …seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)

Keep Your Eye On The Ball:

It’s been said by many team coaches to “keep your eye of the ball.” Why is that so important? If the team player is not focused on the ball he will miss the play and could ultimately loose the game. Same as it is in life for us. We need to keep our eyes on reaching our ultimate goal of eternal salvation.

As compared to generations earlier we are given more discretionary time due to advancements in technology. I often think about my grandmothers whose days were mostly spent doing labor-intensive work. Washing clothes, making bread and preparing meals for not only their own families but for the farm help as well. I have similar jobs to do in my days but I can microwave my dinner and run to the store to purchase my bread. I don’t have to hang dry my cloths or iron them. I often think… What am I doing with all this extra time that the generation earlier did not have options for … I also often think about my accounting of my time to the Lord? I wonder if I’m filling my time with the things he was hoping I would be privileged to be here on the earth at this time. 

It’s easy to rationalize our time, get over involved, feel entitled to more leisure, spend much of our time on the internet, Facebook, Pinterest and all our fun App games. Sisters … we need to keep our eyes on the ball – to not loose sight of our ultimate goal of eternal salvation in exchange for things that have no life! 

 It has been suggested that what happens in a certain city stays in a certain city. I like the sign posted in Sevier County, Utah, which states, “What happens in Sevier County … you can share with your friends!!!” When we realize that we are accountable to God, we see how foolish rationalizations can be. Those who rationalize remind us of little children who cover their eyes, convinced that if they can’t see us, we can’t see them. I would suggest that if we think about giving an accounting of our actions to the Savior, our rationalizations would be seen in their true light. (Gene R. Cook – Quorum of the Twelve Apostles)

A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a million things, most of which are important. A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her that she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence. But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently. The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.—Julie B. Beck

Setting Goals:

To manage our time we can divide priorities into three categories- “must do”, “should do”, and “nice to do”

The Must Do’s are the essential things pertaining to our eternal salvation – those things we must do if are on the path back to our Heavenly Father.

·        Personal scripture and prayer

·        Make and keep covenants – baptism, sacrament, temple

·        Love and care for my family

·        Keep the commandments Matthew 19:16

How Can We Know If We Are Being Wise?

How do we know if we are wise or foolish? When we hear inspired counsel, we obey. That is the test of wise or foolish.

What does it profit us if we listen to wise counsel and do not heed the words? Of what use is experience if we do not learn from it? What good are the scriptures if we do not cherish the words and incorporate them into our lives?

Elder Utchdorf taught us that we can know when we are being foolish or wise without time and sacrifices, he said, “ We can ask ourselves, “Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?” There are so many good things to do, but we can’t do all of them. Our Heavenly Father is most pleased when we sacrifice something good for something far greater with an eternal perspective.

  Elder Uchtdorf  also taught the important of understand the “why’s” of the gospel not use the what and how, he said … “When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight. It becomes precious and sweet.”

Then, after we have done all that we can, we should remember the wise counsel and comforting assurance of King Benjamin, who taught, “And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength” (Mosiah 4:27).

Our Should Do list could include the following:
Exercise
Eat right
Self care
Work
Take care of what we have/keeping our houses in order
Education- seek learning
FHE
 

And our Nice to Do list could include some of these things:

Hobbies
Read/write
Sew
Friends

Whatever we put on our lists we need to balance them with the essential things. The only things we need to do are on our Must Do list, but even the things on that list must be balanced. If we spend all of our time focused on church service to the detriment of our families, or vice versa, that's not a wise use of our time. Let’s be as the wise virgins ready and prepared to meet the bridegroom by filling our lives with the essential things.

 

Thank you Geralene for a fantastic lesson!

Have a great week!

Brittany Larsen

brittanylarsen73@hotmail.com

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