Craft Night

Craft Night - Make this fantastic pumpkin for your front porch.

Tuesday, October 7 th at 7:00 p.m. at Anne Steenblik's home. Bring two round fence posts ($4 each at Home Depot in the garden section). Bring either orange paint or $2 for paint already purchased. Bring your own brush (not foam brushes). Bring any greenery and ribbon you would like on the top around the stem.

Teacher's corner

Anne Steenblik "Looking Back and Moving Forward"
Sep 28
One of the first General Conference talks given by President Thomas Monson was the focus of our lesson today. Anne had the talk on DVD to show us and we gained some insight into the succession of the presidents in our church. There is a pattern given - when the president dies, the counselors shift back into their respective positions of seniority in the Quorum of the 12 (now 14) apostles, and this becomes the presiding authority of the church. The senior apostle becomes the next president within a few days and new counselors are chosen. Any vacancies in the 12 are filled and the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve are complete again. Never at any time is church leadership absent.

Anne next gave us a wonderful list of ways to prepare for conference - which happens to be next Sunday!

• Write a list of specific questions, concerns, or problems you need spiritual directions on.
• Pray often about these items and help in finding answers.
• Arrange your schedule to watch, listen to or read conference without distractions - good luck mothers of young children. God will bless you with what you need to hear!!
• Listen for answers - interestingly, these answers may come in the talks, music, or even prayers of conference. Be open to the promptings of the spirit!

Don't we have the best teachers!!

Relief Society Broadcast

Saturday provided an outstanding evening for all who attended the Relief Society General Board Broadcast. The General Relief Society President Julie Beck started off the evening. Some of her comments are: "The purpose of Relief Society as stated by the Lord, is to organize, teach and inspire his daughters to prepare them for the blessings of Eternal Life. We can do this by:
1. Increasing faith and personal righteous.
2. Strengthen families and homes.
3. Serve the Lord and His children.

She reminded us we have duty to defend and proclaim the gospel. Our homes should be a refuge from evil. They need to be sacred sanctuaries from the world.

The first counselor in the Relief Society Presidency, Silvia Allred spoke about the importance of temple worship in our lives and how to utilize the blessings of the temple. Barbara Thompson, the second counselor called for a righteous army of women. She stated, "Relief Society is not just a class or a place to go if you are not in the Primary or Young Women. It is the Lord's glorious organization for women."

Dieter Uchtdorf, the second counselor of the First Presidency was the concluding speaker. He said, " To me it appears our splendid sisters sometimes under value their abilities and focus on what is lacking, or imperfect rather than that which has been accomplished and who they really are. The good news is that this points to a marvelous quality - the innate desire to please the Lord to the best of your ability. Unfortunately, this can lead to frustration, exhaustion and unhappiness." He then said, "Today, I would like to speak to those who have felt inadequate, discouraged or weary."

To enjoy the remainder of their talks go to http://www.lds.org/broadcast/grsm/0,6220,285,00.html

We concluded the evening with soup and salad and good conversation among one another.

Enrichment Group - Food Storage

Who would have thought you could have so much fun at a food storage meeting? Well, we did. We also got a lot of work done. Each sister brought food storage items for her family, beans, rice, sugar, oatmeal, pasta, even baking soda! We then worked together to pouch them in special airtight bags. Thanks to Cynthia Israelson we had the pouches and the pouch sealer from the Bishops Storehouse. Everyone went home with their cars full of bagged food to their now filled pantry. It was so successful we will have to do it again.

Too bad we didn't get pictures of the ladies hauling in 100 lb bags of rice, beans, etc. But here are photos of a few of sisters (some missed the camera). Earthquake, we are ready! Almost.

Don't Miss This!

The General Relief Society Broadcast is this Saturday at 5:00 pm at the Stake Center. Chapel dress is appropriate. The food should be taken to the kitchen before the broadcast starts. Dinner will be in the cultural hall immediately following the broadcast. Please bring and invite friends.

Teacher's Corner

Lesson 18 - Angela Lee - Sep 21

Angela Lee taught an energetic lesson entitled "Beyond the Veil: Life in the Eternities", which was a continuation of Kristi's lesson last week on the plan of salvation. We learned that Joseph Smith was translating the New Testament in 1832, and came upon some references for heaven. Logic dictated that there must be levels in heaven, so he and Sidney Rigdon prayed for an answer. They were given a vision recorded as Section 76 in the Doctrine and Covenants, known as the Vision of the Three Degrees of Glory.

These degrees of heaven are labeled as the Telestial Kingdom, symbolized with a star; the Terrestrial Kingdom, symbolized with a moon; and the Celestial Kingdom, symbolized with the sun. There is an extensive list of requirements for each kingdom in section 76, but the following is a brief list. Those who receive the glory of the Telestial, or lowest kingdom, are those who reject Christ both here on earth and in the post-mortal life. The heirs of the Terrestrial kingdom do not accept Christ here, but do in the post-mortal life. Those worthy of Celestial glory are valiant in their testimony of Jesus Christ, and have the opportunity to live in eternal family units if they reach exaltation, which is the highest level of the Celestial kingdom.

This life is so important! How we decide to live in this brief experience will dictate where we will live and who with for all eternity. Sisters, we are on the right track!

Where's A Shirt?

Jennifer Larson is looking for a cub scout shirt size 8 preferably, but a little larger would be OK. If you can locate one - a huge thanks - click on the comment button below and leave a message or just give her a call!

Nauvoo Temple

Audrey Wells received this from her cousin:

A good friend of mine, who is also our former stake president, as well as the chief temple architect for more than half of our current temples, told me an interesting story about the Nauvoo Temple. His name is Keith Stepan. He was the managing director for the Temple Construction Department for the church.

When the Nauvoo Temple was being built, for various reasons, they had some challenges and delays in getting the statue of Moroni mounted on top of the temple. It was September of 2001 and one such delay was due to the 9/11 attacks, but there were other problems as well.

They started having some concern over exactly when they could mount the statue. As they looked over the construction plans, they decided that a particular day would be the last chance they would have to mount the statue without too much trouble. Anything beyond that would present big challenges.

That day came and the weather was not cooperating. It was stormy and very windy. The crane operator felt that it was unsafe to attempt to mount the statue with the wind blowing as strong as it was. Keith Stepan and some of the others on the project went off to a private spot and prayed for the Lord to temper the elements so that they could put Moroni in place that day.

Soon afterwards, the wind died down and the clouds opened up just above the temple. They decided to go ahead. Just as the crane began lifting up Moroni, a column of light shot straight down from the sky directly onto Moroni. The statue was successfully installed. The date was September 21st, just in time for a significant anniversary. It was September 22nd, 1827 that Joseph Smith received the golden plates from the Angel Moroni. Here is a photograph of the statue of Moroni being mounted on the temple in Nauvoo. Keith told me this story personally and gave me this picture.

Thanks for sharing, Audrey.

The Plan of Salvation - Kristy Krueger, Sept. 14

Sister Krueger taught a well-known and doctrinally important lesson yesterday on the plan of salvation. As she explained, "The plan stays the same, but we are different." It is refreshing to ponder again on the meaning of "The Plan of Happiness" as experiences change our outlook.

Important universal questions and their answers were addressed. Namely:

1. Where did I come from?
2. Why am I here?
3. Where do I go when I die?

The answers were simple and direct:

1. We came from the pre-earth life where we lived with our Heavenly Father as spirits, associating with our spirit brothers and sisters. We chose to follow Christ as he followed our Father, and thus gained a mortal body at birth.
2. On Earth, we 1) learn, 2) develop faith, 3) test our moral agency, 4) receive a body, 5)work on repentance, and 6) have fun!!
3. When we die, our spirit separates from our body and returns to the Spirit World. The righteous, who followed Christ, reside in "Paradise". Those who did not follow Christ valiantly, or who never heard the gospel, will go to "Prison" and be allowed to accept the gospel. The reuniting of our spirits and bodies into a perfect unit (Resurection) is followed by the Judgment, where we will be judged by Christ on the basis of our works and thoughts.

Both Ginger and Kristy gave examples of something which we need to learn while on this Earth - the Lord should be our first resort of help, not what we use when every other avenue has been exhausted!

Kristy began the lesson with a powerful story. She and Doug were awakened by the Northridge earthquake and ran down the hall to check on Lindsay, who was their only child at the time. Doug instinctively scooped her up in his arms in a protective gesture which startled her awake. Later, Lindsay told them that she had been having a nightmare. In the dream, she was falling down a deep well and was very frightened. Just at that moment, she felt Doug's arms embrace her and pull her to safety. What a wonderful analogy of our Savior's love and committment to us!!

Girl Talk

From Angela Lee......
I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my niece's hair. I couldn't go back to sleep for a good 15 minutes, during which time I had an epiphany....Here it is..

Megan Sok has the most gloriously thick and brilliantly blonde hair. During their two week visit in August, she was a fish, always in the pool. About half way through their visit, my sister, Alison, and I noticed that Megan's hair was turning bright green. We asked a hair dresser what to do and in addition to using the suggested product, she said it was important for Megan to saturate her hair with regular tap water before going swimming. Obviously if something is at it's saturation point, nothing more can be added. Why on earth was I thinking about this in the middle of the night? Then it hit me, at FHE that night I talked to the kids about what is going on in California right now with this controversial "Harvey Milk Day" legislation and this whole effort we are engaged in to fight for traditional marriage. We had a great discussion and I feel confident that my kids have a solid belief in what is right. Here's the epiphany that came - we have to saturate our kids minds with the truth so when they go to school, there isn't room for caustic teachings to penetrate their brilliant spirits and turn them green.

Do you have a thought to share? Just email it to the Presidency and we'll post it.

Welcome!

Welcome Sisters to the new Felicita Relief Society Blog. We have been looking for a way to keep you up to date on all the activities in Relief Society. The light went on when our Stake Relief Society President shared the new stake blog, "Sunday Thoughts" with us. (You can click on it at the side under 'Favorite Places', there's a mention of Aundrea.) Yes, that was the answer to our search....a ward blog.

We will give you a preview of the last RS lesson. You can click and find the latest visiting teaching message. Also calendar, birthday's and enrichment activities will be listed. There will be some fun stuff too.

You can also leave a comment. Just click at the bottom of the post; where it says comments, to leave your comment. A new window will pop up. After you leave your comments go to the bottom and sign in, either use your google account or mark the box: name/url and leave your name. Last names are optional. It is fun to read everyone's comments. We love comments.

Hope you enjoy!

Ginger Proffitt
Marilee Weston
Aundrea Ristine
Billye Alires

Presidency Message - September 08

Our lesson Sunday was taught by Aundrea Ristine. She shared the talk by Julie B. Beck from the Ensign, Nov 2007, pages 109–12. The following is a synopsis.

President Hinckley stated, "I am convinced there is no other organization anywhere to match the Relief Society of this Church. It has a membership of more than five million women across the earth. If they will be united and speak with one voice, their strength will be incalculable. It is so tremendously important that the women of the Church stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord."

Latter-day Saint women must Stand Strong and Immovable in Faith

We need to:
1. Make and keep covenants with Him.
2. Are worthy and worship in His temples.
3. Study His doctrine in the scriptures and the words of prophets.
4. Qualify for, recognize, and follow the Holy Ghost.
5. Share and defend His gospel.
6. Participate in sincere personal and family prayer.
7. Have family home evening.
8. Live principles of self-reliance and provident living.

We must Stand Strong and Immovable in Family

We need to:
1. Understand and defend the divine roles of women.
2. Embrace the blessings of the priesthood.
3. Form eternal families.
4. Maintain strong marriages.
5. Bear and rear children.
6. Express love for and nurture family members.
7. Accept responsibility to prepare a righteous rising generation.
8. Know, live, and defend the doctrine of the family.
9. Search out and perform temple ordinances for extended family members.
Latter-day Saint women must be Stand Strong and Immovable in Relief

We are a Relief Society, and we should be the best women in the world at providing relief.

President Hinckley said that there is a better way than the way of the world. He called upon the women of the Church to stand together for righteousness. He said that if we are united and speak with one voice, our strength will be incalculable.

We must stand strong and immovable in our faith in Jesus Christ and His restored gospel; strong and immovable in upholding, nourishing, and protecting our families; and strong and immovable in providing relief.

Visiting Teaching

This is the video Nicole Dunn shared during 'Visiting Teaching Moments'. Turn your speakers up and enjoy. :-D