We've got a lot of fun things going on this summer. Read on to find out more!
Dates to Remember:
July 17th: Relief Society Meeting Night. Retro Homemaking: How to Live Like Your Grandmother in a Modern World. Join as at 7 p.m. for a fun night of cooking, cleaning, and crafting. Really, it will be fun. Don't let those three c-words scare you.
July 21st: Pioneer Day 4-6 p.m. at Altisma Park. Go here for more information.
July 24th: Stake Humanitarian Day 7 - 9 p.m. at the Stake Center.
Book of Mormon Challenge:
Our annual summer Book of Mormon reading started on June 17, but it's not too late to start if you haven't! 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. Look for bookmarks outside of Relief Society that have the scheduled reading.
Visiting Teaching:
Summer is crazy with people coming and going on vacation, so schedule your appointments early. Here is this month's visiting teaching message.
Summer Humanitarian Mission:
Our Humanitarian mission for this summer is to raise enough
money to build six wells for people who don't have access to fresh, clean water.
Find out more about it here
Activity Days Bake Sale:
The 8 - 12 year old girls will be having a bake sale this Wednesday, July 11 at the church from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. to raise money for our Summer Humanitarian Mission. They will have a variety of goods to buy including baked goods and some fun crafts the girls have made. Please feel free to bring young children with their change!
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.
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.
Temple
Theme:
One of our
goals as a Relief Society Presidency and the focus of our Stake Relief Society
Presidency is to get sisters to the temple, so when I found this video of President Monson talking about the
purpose and importance of temples, I had to share it. Please watch it when you
have a chance!
Summer Fun
Days:
School is out, 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)
For Our Singles:
School is out, 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)
For Our Singles:
Aug. 2 - 6: Orange County Singles
Conference: Pursue Your Path to Happiness. Contact ocbconference@gmail.com with questions or talk
to sister Cassandra Leonard.
Lesson Schedule:
July
29: Bishopric
Message
Lesson
Recap: Doing Our Part to Share the Gospel and How to Share the Gospel Effectively
Annette Flint gave our lesson this week which included two chapters from the George Albert Smith manual. She did a great job combining these two chapters about missionary work into one lesson.
President George Albert Smith served three full-time missions during his life. In the manual we read, Because of the war, the number of missionaries in the mission had been drastically reduced, and efforts to increase that number were hindered because missionaries were being denied visas. In addition, enemies of the Church were spreading false stories about Latter-day Saints, creating prejudices that were difficult to overcome. Notwithstanding these limitations, President Smith was confident that the work would move forward because of the examples set by faithful Latter-day Saints. He noted that as the Church becomes more well known, “its members are esteemed for their virtues,” and critics “are quickly divested of their unjustified prejudices, by coming in direct contact with the Latter-day Saints in their daily lives. … They then judge us by our fruits, from personal observation, and such information, as they impart it, can have but one effect, and that most favorable to us.”
Sister Flint pointed out we are in a similar position now with all the opportunities to correct misperceptions in news and other places that we see every day because of the spotlight on Mitt Romney. Not only that, but we all have responsibility to share gospel. As President Smith said,
How can we share gospel effectively? The first thing we can do is have the courage to open our mouths. President Smith shared this story:
The adversary has used his strongest efforts to prevent the spread of the truths of the gospel. And it is your duty and mine, by tact and brotherly love and faith, to overcome the prejudice that the adversary has sown in the hearts of our Father’s children, to break down the false impressions that exist in some cases even in the minds of good men and good women, and to teach them the gospel of our Lord, that it is the power of God unto salvation unto all those who believe and obey it.
We send missionaries to the nations of the earth to proclaim the Gospel as revealed in this latter day. But that is not all our duty. Right at our doors, by the hundreds and thousands, are choice sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. They live among us, we become friends, but we fail to teach them to the extent we should, concerning the Gospel that we know is the power of God unto salvation. The Presidency of the Church are doing all that lies in their power; they devote their time during the day, and often into the late hours of the night, in the interest of the Church. The brethren who are associated with them give liberally of their time, traveling and teaching the Latter-day Saints and carrying the Gospel to our Father’s children. The presidents of stakes, high councilors, bishops of wards, and their assistants, labor unceasingly to bless the people, and their reward is sure. But are we doing all we ought, so that when we stand before the bar of our Heavenly Father He will say we have done our full duty by our fellows, His children?6
One of the very first revelations … in the Doctrine and Covenants, reads as follows:
“Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men; …
“Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work.” [D&C 4:1, 3.]
It is not necessary for you to be called to go into the mission field in order to proclaim the truth. Begin on the man who lives next door by inspiring confidence in him, by inspiring love in him for you because of your righteousness, and your missionary work has already begun,
Disseminating the truth is not the responsibility of someone else, but it is your responsibility and mine to see that the gospel of Jesus Christ in its purity is taught to the children of men. Doesn’t it make you feel grateful?
We work best as missionaries when we teach by example rather than just preaching what we believe. This was true in President Smith's time too. He recounted the following story:
Only a few days ago, one of our sisters, visiting in the east, in a conversation with an educated man, was told by him, “I cannot believe as you do but I wish that I could. It is beautiful.” And so it is with many of our Father’s children, who, observing the character of this work, watching the actions of the men and women who have embraced the truth, they are filled with amazement at what has been accomplished, and the peace and happiness that follows the sincere believer, and wish that they too might have part in it; and they could if they had faith.12
We need to prepare our children early to teach the gospel whether they go on missions or not. President Smith said,
We need to prepare our children early to teach the gospel whether they go on missions or not. President Smith said,
Don’t let your children grow up without teaching them the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don’t wait to send them into the mission field to learn what the gospel means. I remember when I was in the South [as a missionary] fifty-five or sixty years ago, a man who came from a large family said, “I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to tell these people.”
“Why,” one of the brethren said, “teach them the Bible. Go and get your Bible and read Genesis.” He said, “I don’t know where Genesis is in the Bible,” and yet he had gone from a … Latter-day Saint home to carry the message of life and salvation to those people in the South. However, it was not very long after that until his mind was changed. He had received a testimony of the truth through study and prayer, and he knew that the gospel was here, and he was able to stand on his feet and freely bear testimony that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth.18
I am impressed with the importance of preparing for the work. It is not sufficient merely that a boy signify his desire, because of his confidence in his parents, to do what they would have him do, go into the world and preach the gospel; it is not sufficient that he answer the calls that our Heavenly Father makes from time to time through his servants for mission service; but it is also necessary that he qualify for the work, search the scriptures, and learn what the Lord would have him know. It is important that our sons and daughters become established in their faith and know as their parents know, that this is our Father’s work. …
A dozen men qualified for the work are worth more in the mission field than a hundred who are ignorant of the truth and who themselves have to be taught before they are capable of explaining it to others.
We participate in missionary work by preparing to serve missions ourselves. It's not only young people who should be preparing to go, but all of us who may someday be able to go as senior missionaries. President Smith recounted the following story:
Only a few years ago many of my friends were well-to-do, they had the necessities of life, and many of the luxuries, and when it was intimated that they might go into the mission field some of them would say: “I can not leave my business, I can not get along if I go off and leave what I have.” But their business has gone off and left them. The things that they thought they could not get along without have disappeared from their control, and many of these very men today would be happy if they could go back ten years, and if they were then called to go into the service of the Lord, they could say: “I will adjust my affairs, I am happy at the opportunity that is offered me to be a minister of life and salvation.”
I feel that some of us are selfish. We are so glad to enjoy our blessings, we are so happy to be surrounded by the comforts of life and to have the association of the best men and women that can be found in the world, that we forget our duty to others. How happy we could be if we would strive to be more potent for good in the world by ministering to those who have not yet understood the Gospel of our Lord.
How can we share gospel effectively? The first thing we can do is have the courage to open our mouths. President Smith shared this story:
I was riding on the train one day. My companion in the compartment was a Presbyterian minister, a very pleasant, fine gentleman, and when he gave me the opportunity to do so, I told him I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was amazed and he looked at me with astonishment. He said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed of yourself to belong to such a group?’
“I smiled at him and said, ‘My brother, I would be ashamed of myself not to belong to that group, knowing what I know.’ Then that gave me the opportunity I desired to talk to him and explain to him some of the things we believe. …
“There was a good man who had no conception of what we were trying to do. We were not there to give him sorrow nor distress; we were trying to help him. And as we talked the situation through I said to him: ‘You have a misconception of the purpose of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this land. I am here as one of its representatives, and if you will just let me tell you a few things, I think you will feel better towards us.’ I said, ‘First of all, we are asking all you fine people over here to keep all the glorious truths that you have acquired in your churches, that you have absorbed from your scriptures, keep all that, keep all the fine training that you have received in your educational institutions, all the knowledge and truth that you have gained from every source, keep … everything that is good in your character that has come to you as a result of your lovely home; keep all the love and the beauty that is in your heart from having lived in so beautiful and wonderful a land. … That is all a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then let us sit down and share with you some of the things that have not yet come into your lives that have enriched our lives and made us happy. We offer it to you without money and without price. All we ask you to do is hear what we have to say, and if it appeals to you, accept it freely. …’
“That is the attitude of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Loving our fellowman is the best way to share our beliefs with him. President Smith said, We cannot drive these young people, and our neighbors and friends into the kingdom of heaven by scolding them and finding fault with them, but I want to tell you that we can love them into the direction of our Father in heaven, and by and by, perhaps, lead them there too.
That is our privilege. Love is the great power to influence this world.7
Let us who know, those of us who have a testimony, go forth day by day and with love and kindness unfeigned go among these men and women, whether they be in the Church or out of the Church, and find a way to touch their hearts and lead them into that pathway that will insure them a knowledge of the truth.
Thanks, Annette, for a great lesson.
Brittany Larsen
Jalane Hong - 1st Counselor john_jalane@msn.com
Melanie Jacobson - 2nd Counselor melanie53@hotmail.com
