Enrichment Night: Tuesday June 5 @ 6:pm.
There will be a Taster's Table and a Nursery.
We will be having a Sewing Evening with a Take and Trade Fabric Table. Come and visit.
Stake Conference: June 16 and 17th.
Adult Mtg Saturday the 16th @ 7 pm.
General Session June 17th @ 10 am at the Garland Tabernacle.
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RS Council Meeting: Facilitator was Jessica White
Jessica Reviewed the past few lessons that were geared toward Unifying our Families with the Savior. They were taught by Jamie Johnson and Tammy Ward. Jamie taught two lessons, the first being about Family Councils. It entailed holding family councils - General (whole family), Executive (Husband and Wife), Limited (Parents with one child) and One-on-one (A Parent with a single child).
Her next lesson was on Teaching in the Home. This lesson was about taking the opportunity to teach children in various ways.
Sister Tammy Ward taught a lesson on Temple Work and Family History. Sister White encouraged all of the sisters to go back and read about these lessons on the blog if we weren't able to attend or if we wanted to remind ourselves about the things that have been taught.
Sister White then began our lesson by reiterating what the Relief Society Council Meetings were to be like. In these first-Sunday council meetings, the Relief Society counsels together about local responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges; learns from each other’s insights and experiences; and plans ways to act on impressions received from the Spirit. These discussions should draw upon relevant scriptures and the teachings of living prophets.
Sister White again stated that we needed to share topics and experiences to strengthen each other.
Sister Jean Bingham stated, "One of the beautiful things about this council meeting is that you actually come up with an action plan at the end of the meeting.”
So in keeping with the direction given, Sister White began this lesson by introducing the topic that the Relief Society Presidency decided on at the first of the year, Unifying our families with Christ. She then asked us to listen to the Spirit and share our thoughts and feelings. As we began she suggested that it is okay when there are moments of silence as that may be when the Spirit is teaching and touching hearts.
Sister Bonnie Clark began by telling how her life has been blessed through the priesthood this past few months. She has been blessed by others through their ministering. She has made new friends, people that she never thought she would have been blessed by. She is so grateful. She talked about how learning from these councils she and her family have been blessed and it has brought them closer. She talked about her son and how because of these councils they are able to talk and she feels that because of these blessings they will be close throughout their lives.
Sister Tammy Ward talked about how on council Sundays she takes notes on her phone so that they are always with her and because of this she is more able to implement the ideas into her life. She has asked Sister Teri Garn to come to her home and give a Family Home Evening lesson on family history work so that her children can understand how to do this work.
Jamie Johnson said that she is trying to begin to do family history work, but she feels like it could be overwhelming to her children. So she is beginning by telling them stories from their ancestors. She feels that it is a basic way to begin and that because of telling them these stories, her children will have a greater appreciation for their ancestors.
Kathy Pinborough has told her husband that she will do family history work. It is a commitment that she plans on keeping.
Sister Kent told of how she has begun taking a beloved aunt over to the family history center in Logan. She told of how they have a studio over there where they place a person in a chair and that person can be filmed telling stories or whatever. She is able to have video of her sweet aunt telling stories. This will be a great blessing to Merlyn's children. They will have the stories in her aunt's own voice and they can also see her.
Sister Tonya Hess told of how when her son Wade was living here with them, she had a table covered with her scrap booking materials. Her sweet son left her a note on top of it saying, "If this isn't family history, I don't know what is!" I have to agree with him. She is keeping a visual history with stories and pictures for her posterity. What a talent! She is doing modern family history work.
Sister Bonnie Ashby said that they have a program on their computer that you can turn on the microphone and speak into it and then you can print what you have said. It makes it easier for her and brother Coy to record stories, etc. this way.
Jamie Johnson said that the reason she has been thinking so much about these stories is that she heard a quote, but she wasn't sure of the exact quote, but it said that by knowing your ancestor's stories it gives us strength to handle our problems. (Well, I looked it up on the Internet and here is the quote by President Oaks.)
A recent study by a university in the South concludes persuasively that if you want a happier family, create, refine and retell the stories of your ancestors' positive moments. Emphasize their ability to bounce back and persist through adversity. That act alone will increase the odds that your family will thrive for many generations to come.
Family stories count. Children should know that they belong to something bigger than themselves.
Sister Teri Garn also said that there is a Time Magazine article about family history stories strengthening our families. I couldn't find one from Time Magazine, but I did find a link for one from the NY Times. The link is here .
Kara Welling who is the ward historian talked about how she has gained a testimony about how our ward history will bless the church. That through us sharing stories and journaling it helps the church to know how programs are working and how people are being strengthened. Although she talked about how right now there are privacy issues because the people that they are gaining stories about are alive right now, so the only way you can read about what is happening in our ward history is by going down to Salt Lake City and going to the Church Offices where these histories are stored.
Kathy Pinborough told how in their family they did family history work by coping their (her and Alan's mother's) recipe books. She said that it was a neat way for her grandchildren to see what recipes these grandmother's used because of the stains that were on the copies. She and brother Pinborough then gave these copies to their children as gifts.
Sister Norene Rawlins talked about how she organized their family histories and pictures and then bound them and gave them to her grandchildren as gifts. What an awesome gift.
Sister Merlyn Kent said that there is an app that you can use that lets you see which of your ancestors you look like. She told of how her son had some of the characteristics that was like one of the women in her family. We all got a laugh out of that. You can find this at: familysearch.org/discovery/compare.
Sister Norene said she likes to go to relativefinder.org.
These are some ideas that we can all use in our family history work. We need to make it fun and enjoyable so that everyone wants to become involved.
At the end of the discussion, Sister Jessica White asked what our next topic of discussion might be. Some of the suggestions were:
- Christ-centered traditions.
- Instilling patriotism, gratitude and sacrifice in our children.
- Examples of being unified through Christ to build our ward family.
It was then suggested that maybe we could somehow incorporate all of these suggestions into our next discussion to help strengthen our families.
Sister Pinborough ended this Relief Society by saying, "there is such a Spiritual strength through counselling with each other as ward sisters."
