Sunday, February 23, 2014
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013
December Birthdays
3 Denise New-Hamilton
8 Beverly Massey
14 Rachelle Infanger
14 Cherie Walters
17 Chelsea Griffith
18 Julie Walker
20 Sandy Osborn
23 Kristina Brewer
25 Jessica Anderson
25 Tanya Gutierrez
27 Darleen Johnson
28 Connie Durham
30 Carol Cooper
31 LaVerne Hathaway
Friday, November 1, 2013
November Visiting Teaching Message
Visiting Teaching Message
Visiting Teachers Led Me to
Jesus Christ
By Jayne P. Bowers
“[The Lord] said unto
[Peter] the third time, Lovest thou me?
And [Peter] said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest
that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him,
Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).
In the late 1970s, a friend
asked me to go to Relief Society with her.
“What’s that?” I asked. My friend
simply said, “Come and see.” Wow! I was
captivated from the first moment.
Later that summer Leann came
to my house and said that she was my visiting teacher. This seemed strange and wonderful at the same
time, especially since I was not a member of the Church. Here she was taking time from her busy
schedule to share a spiritual thought with me and to see if there was anything
she could help me with. I knew from her spirit that she was sincere. I’ve never forgotten Leann and the messages
she shared with me.
A couple of years passed, and
Frances moved into our ward. Truthfully,
it wasn’t exactly “our” ward since I wasn’t a member yet, but I thought of it
that way. By this time I had two little
girls, and I could see how the Church auxiliaries were blessing their
lives. Come rain or come shine, Frances,
my new visiting teacher, visited me with a lesson, a laugh, a story, or a
helping hand. I recall when Frances came
one hectic afternoon. Seeing that I
couldn’t sit and talk, Frances stirred my culinary concoctions on the stove
while I tended to my daughters’ needs.
Years passed and I
moved. As much as I hated to leave my
Church friends, I soon found another group of sisters with strong testimonies
and big hearts in the Relief Society in “my” new ward. A Relief Society teacher gave us a decorated
to-do list and encouraged us to write “Be kind” at the top of our lists each
day. The sisters sitting beside me and I
thought it was a grand idea, especially since it supported the Relief Society
motto “charity never faileth” (Moroni 7:46).
Then I read a story about a
pioneer women. When that woman was a
child, the prophet asked her family to help settle a Latter-day Saint community
in a remote area. Tragedy befell when
one of her siblings died. Her mother was
distraught and deep sadness permeated the family.
One day this little girl was
looking out the window. As far as she
could see, a blanket of snow surrounded the family’s modest home,. As the little girl stared at the horizon, she
saw two people trudging toward the house.
On they came, slowly making their way, and suddenly the child realized
who they were—they were her mother’s visiting teachers.
That story inspired me. I was baptized in May 1983. It is an honor to be a visiting teacher my
self. I love associating with so many
women who exemplify the “virtuous woman” whose “price is far above rubies’ (Proverbs
42:20). It is wonderful to be with women
who are also striving to be kind, to love one another, and bring others unto
Christ.
“Many women have reported
that the reason they came back into Church activity was because a faithful
visiting teacher came month after month and ministered to them, rescuing them,
loving them, blessing them.
“At times the most important
blessing about your visit will be to just listen. Listening bring comfort, understanding, and
healing. Still another time you may need to roll up your sleeves and go to work
in the home or help to calm a crying child.”
“When I went visiting
teaching, I always felt better. I was
lifted, loved and blessed usually much more than the sister I was
visiting. My desire to serve increased. And I could see what a beautiful way Heavenly
Father has planned for us to watch over and care for one another.”
November Birthdays
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
1 Wolha McGinnis
5 Virginia Kiesig
6 Jacqueline Jones
7 Blythe Jameson
10 Shannon Shearer
11 Nicole Hansen
15 Stephanie Rigby
20 Caryol Tolman
24 Kathy Afa
24 Catherine Christensen
23 Peggy Henshaw
24 Kellie Price
26 Meranda Butler
28 Suzette Salazar
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
October Visiting Teaching Message
Visiting Teaching Message
The Divine Mission
Prayerfully study
this material and seek to know what to share.
How will understanding the life and Mission
Him and bless those
you watch over through visiting teaching?
For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.
This is the first in a series
of Visiting Teaching Messages featuring aspects of the mission of the Savior.
Jesus Christ “created the
heavens and the earth’ (3 Nephi 9:15). He
did so through the power of the priesthood, under the direction of our Heavenly
Father (see Moses 1:33).
“How grateful we should be
that a wise Creator fashioned an earth and placed us here,” said President
Thomas S. Monson,”… that we might experience a time of testing, an opportunity
to prove ourselves in order to qualify for all that God has prepared for us to
receive,”¹ When we use are agency to obey God’s commandments and repent, we
become worthy to return to live with Him.
Of the Creation, President
Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said:
“We are the reason He created
the universe! …
“This is a paradox of man;
compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.”² Knowing that Jesus Christ created the earth
for us because we mean everything to Heavenly Father can help us increase our
love for Them.
From the Scriptures
John 1:3; Hebrews 1:1-2;
Mosiah 3:8;
Moses 1:30-33,35-39; Abraham
3:24-25
From Our History
We have been created in God’s
image (see Moses 2:26-27), and we have divine potential. The Prophet Joseph Smith admonished the
sisters in Relief Society to “live up to [their] privilege.”³ With that encouragement as a foundation,
sisters in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been taught to
live up to their divine potential by fulfilling God’s purposes for them. “As they come to understand who they really
are—God’s daughters, with an innate capacity to love and nurture—they reach
their potential as holy women.”4
“You are now placed in a
situation where you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted
in your bosoms,” said the Prophet Joseph Smith.
“If you live up to these principles how great and glorious!—if you live
up to your privilege, the angels cannot by restrained from being your
associates.”5
What Can I Do?
1. How does seeking to understand our divine
nature increase our love for the Savior?
2. How can we show our gratitude for God’s
creations?
Notes
1. Thomas S. Monson, “The Race of Life,” Ensign,
May 2012,91.
2. Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “You
Matter to Him” Ensign, Nov. 2011, 20.
3. Joseph Smith, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and
Work of Relief Society (2011, 171.
4. Daughters in my Kingdom, 171.
5. Joseph Smith, in Daughters in my Kingdom, 169
Official Web site of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
©2013 Intellectual Reserve,
Inc. All Rights Reserved
October Birthdays
5 Lopelini Lasitani
11 Shirley Davis
11 Jan Peterson
12 Pilar Gutierrez
16 Lynn Foltz
20 Sheri Ann Madrid
22 Delia Blackshear
24 Candace Aiono
24 Suzanne Trader
25 Brandy Rodriguez
30 Thuy Do Fitzgerald
31 Gina Oltman
31 Heidi Ropati
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