Church pew makeover #2

Here's how the Loosli's transformed their church pew! 

4th Sunday lesson summary

Today's lesson was taught by Sis. Murdock. 

She created the bulk of her lesson from the conference talk - The visions of prophets regarding Relief Society by Sis. Beck

Latter day saint women must be strong and immovable in Relief. Why did they name it Relief Society?

It's our calling to lift up, lighten and raise someone up out of trouble. 

Sis. Beck focused on 3 things - Faith, Family and Relief. 

Sis. Murdock shared a couple of her favorite quotes. One said, "Mans greatest happiness comes from losing himself in the service of others."

She shared a "poem" on charity and it listed out all things that "Charity is...." So many simple things to do besides what we might think Charity is. 

She shared the versus of the song, "Have I done any good in the world today."

Relief Society is not a program - it's an official part of the Lord's church. 

President Spencer W. Kimball said: “There are many sisters who are living in rags—spiritual rags. They are entitled to gorgeous robes, spiritual robes. … It is your privilege to go into homes and exchange robes for rags.”President Harold B. Lee shared this vision. He said: “Cannot you see why the Lord has put it upon the … Relief Society to visit these homes? Because, next to the Master himself, there are none in [the] Church who have a more lovely touch, a more complete understanding of the hearts and the lives of these individuals.

Sis. Murdock touched on not judging others. If we judge others we have not time to love them. She shared a story that Pres. Monson once told, "

A young couple, Lisa and John, moved into a new neighborhood. One morning while they were eating breakfast, Lisa looked out the window and watched her next-door neighbor hanging out her wash.

“That laundry’s not clean!” Lisa exclaimed. “Our neighbor doesn’t know how to get clothes clean!”

John looked on but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, Lisa would make the same comments.

A few weeks later Lisa was surprised to glance out her window and see a nice, clean wash hanging in her neighbor’s yard. She said to her husband, “Look, John—she’s finally learned how to wash correctly! I wonder how she did it.”

John replied, “Well, dear, I have the answer for you. You’ll be interested to know that I got up early this morning and washed our windows!”

Let us love and serve each other as the Savior did. 

Pres. Utchdorf said we all need to come together to help and serve each other. No humanitarian effort was ever completed without the blessing of the sisterhood by our side. 

Pres. Hinckley said, "I am convinced there is no other organization anywhere to match the Relief Society of this church!

Thank you Sis. Murdock for reminding us to stretch a little farther and do a little better. VT'ing blesses the lives of each participant and the homes of those that you go into and visit. You ARE making a difference in many ways even if you can't see it. 

- Sis. Pyrah

August RS Activity!

August 7th will be the activity you will NOT want to miss! The annual Adams Park Ward

 Summer Salad Social!!!

When: Tuesday August 7th

Where: Jill Davis's backyard

Time: 6:30pm

Bring a salad to share and plan on making friends....FAST!!!

Bring your neighbors, girlfriends, VT companions and  friends!!!

It's going to be a great event and one that everyone looks forward to!

Chp 13 - lesson Summary

This weeks lesson was on Chapter 13 - Doing our part to share the Gospel and was given by Sis. Crouch.

Have you noticed a theme of lessons? Counting this weeks we have had 2 already on a similar subject and 2 more to go. Must be important! :) 

Pres. Smith served 3 full time missions, served nearly 48 years at a General Authority and 2 as a pres. of European Mission. He loved missionary work! 

Pres. Smith said, “Every member of the Church should delight in teaching the truth. We should each do something every day to bring the light to our fellow beings. All are precious in our Heavenly Father’s sight, and he will adequately reward us for enlightening them. Our responsibility cannot be shifted to other shoulders.”

The manual continues, "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..." 

Sis Crouch asked us - "What are things we can do to be missionaries in our everyday lives without being "called"?

She took comments and listed several on the board from the lesson:

- Love all of God's Children

- Service

- Support those serving missions

- Pray

- Be an example

- Invite others to activities

- Prepare to serve a mission yourself

- Share your peace, joy and happiness

- Help prepare future missionaries

- Know the Gospel

- Have your House in order

Sis. Crouch said the most wonderful manual we can have in our homes is - Preach my Gospel. You can also carry around the pamphlet - The Restoration - to give to someone or to help answer questions. 

She also pointed out that when you go to Mormon.org and watch all the great videos from people all over the world the site also lists our Beliefs and Values for people to learn more.

Here is what the site lists:

Our Beliefs:

- articles of faith

- Jesus Christ is our Savior

- This is Christ's church

- God's plan of happiness

- Restoration of the Gospel

Believe in Joseph Smith

Our Values:

- strengthening families

- missionary work

- life long learning

- freedom to choose

- humanitarian aid

- good citizenship

- service to others

Thank you Sis. Crouch for the lesson on missionary work! 

- Sis. Pyrah

Thought for the week - trials.....

I was thinking about different trials we all have in our lives and reflecting a bit on Sis. Murdocks lessons a few weeks ago. And let me reiterate again - EVERYONE has trials and everyone is dealing with something in their life whether you can see or know about it.

We all have a choice to make when the trials hits us or when we are in the midst of the trial. We can turn to God for help, comfort, understanding, solace and more. Or we can turn away usually with blame, hurt, frustration and other similar emotions in our hearts. 

We are not being punished with our trials. We are not separated or cut off from Heavenly Father's guidance and love although you may feel alone and hurt for a time. Trials strengthen us. Trials test our TESTimony. If we can look for the lesson or the good in the trial, the set back or the heartache we will see Heavenly Fathers hand in all in things. We will recognize the "blessing" of the experience. 

xo 

- Sis. Pyrah

Chap. 12 lesson summary

Sis. Couch gave our lesson today on Chapter 12- An Enthusiastic desire to share the gospel. 

Our Brothers and Sister throughout the world need the message of the restored gospel, and it is our privilege to share it with them. 

The manual told a few stories about how Pres. Smith talked with passengers on trains and even his chimney sweep. Seldom did he miss the opportunity to share the gospel. 

The world needs what we have - the gospel is Jesus Christ restored in it's fulness. 

There is need for the people of this world to retrace their steps and get back to the foundation that was laid by the Master of heaven and earth...They have been going blindly along a pathway that has led to sorrow and distress, but there has been placed within reach a remedy for all ills—the gospel of Jesus Christ. There has been mapped out for all a path that, while it is narrow, and difficult to follow, leads back to the Father of us all; and there is no other path that leads there.

There is a real famine in the world for the words of the Lord, and many honest souls are earnestly seeking to know what our Heavenly Father desires of them.  

Many sisters in the ward have been on missions, have missionaries out or have had missionaries change or touch their lives. What a blessing they are! 

There are many people who would embrace the gospel if given the opportunity. 

There were many heartfelt comments and stories shared from the sisters in attendance. We are all Human. We are all nervous to approach others. They are nervous too! Just love people and be kind. We both just want to make a connection. 

 Bro. Kendall came in to speak to us for a moment, light a fire under us and share his testimony about missionary work. 

- He told a story about being someone's friend whether they will join the church or not. 

- be enthusiastic - we are more paranoid than we need to be

- Keep it simple - ask them some questions too if they are asking you questions. We don't need to whip out all the facts, manuals, etc. 

He challenged us to look up Mormon.org. Check out all the videos of people sharing WHY they are Mormon. You can always refer to someone to Mormon.org. 

He said that the greatest missionary tool is LOVE. 

He also refered to this quote:

Sis Couch ended her lesson by playing the song - "How great shall be your joy"

Thank you Sis. Couch! We have a string of lesson on this subject so get ready! You can tell it's important so let's act on it! 

- Sis. Pyrah

Requesting clearance for take off....

 LOL! What we will do to makeover a church pew! :) 

Just had to share this photo of when the Griffins picked up their extra super mondo long church pew and transported it UP the HILL!!! 

clear the runway!!!

Then a few weeks later after seeing how DARLING Jill's bench turned out - Jill convinced Gina Anderson to pick up one of the extra ones and they still had left. 

Yeah fun times!!!

I hope we will get to share some fun pictures of finished projects!

Church Pew makeover #1

I thought it would be fun to showcase what some of the families in the ward have done with their church pews! 

Here is Jill Davis's! She is so talented! it's darling Jill! 

T.I.M.E - pres. message lesson Summary

Because Sis. Mark was out of town and traveling I had the privilege of teaching this Sunday. And I also get to do my own lesson summary (weird! but easy!) 

The majority of my lesson was created from the article in the April Ensign by Sis. Wixom. 

Pres. Uchtdof has told us, "In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time."

Twenty-nine years ago, President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, lamented that families have so little time together. Think about that—29 years ago—he said in general conference: “One of the main problems in families today is that we spend less and less time together. … Time together is precious time—time needed to talk, to listen, to encourage, and to show how to do things."

I want to open our view of family to also include our ward "family." I mean afterall we do call each other Brother and Sister. Have we spend enough time with our "sisters" in the ward? Have we reached out to someone we haven't seen in awhile or someone maybe we don't know very well...? 

There are 4 ways to strengthen our relationships with our family and ward family

T - talking 

Sis Wixom says – “Much good comes from talking, and the adversary is aware of the power of the spoken word. He would love to diminish the spirit that comes into our homes as we talk, listen, encourage each other, and do things together.

The adversary would love to bind our tongues—anything to prevent us from expressing verbally the feelings of our hearts face to face. He delights in distance and distraction; he delights in noise; he delights in impersonal communication—anything that would prevent us from the warmth of a voice and the personal feelings that come from conversing eye to eye.

I - involved

 From the article on page 57 in the June Ensign we are told that Heavenly Father is involved in our lives more than we know. I say don't forget to invite him into our lives, our conversations and daily activities....knock and it shall be opened. He is there just waiting.

M - Multitude & Minister

From Ch. 7 of the Daughters in my Kingdom book it says, "When Jesus Christ was on the earth, He showed us the way we should live.He showed us how to minister—how to watch over and strengthen one another. His was a ministry to individuals, one by one. He taught that we should leave the ninety and nine to save the straying one.The Savior calls His disciples to work with Him in His ministry, giving them the opportunity to serve others and become more like Him. In Relief Society, each sister has the opportunity to watch over and strengthen sisters one by one through visiting teaching."

E - Encouraging & Eternal 

Sis Wixom says, “Listening is just as important as speaking. When we listen, we see into the hearts of those around us. Heavenly Father has a plan for each of His children. Imagine if we could get a glimpse of the individual plan for each of our children. It takes time to focus on the things that matter most. Talking, listening, and encouraging do not happen quickly. They cannot be rushed or scheduled—they happen best along the way. They happen when we do things together: work together, create together, and play together. They happen when we turn off media, put down worldly distractions, and focus on each other."

  

------

Sis Wixom goes on to say -“Last spring, while I was visiting a class of young women, the teacher asked the class to write our 10 priorities. I quickly began to write. I have to admit, my first thought began with “Number 1: clean the pencil drawer in the kitchen.” When our lists were complete, the Young Women leader asked us to share what we had written. Abby, who had recently turned 12, was sitting next to me. This was Abby’s list:

1 Go to college

2 Become an interior designer.

3 Go on a mission to India.

4 Get married in the temple to a returned missionary.

5 Have five kids and a home.

6 Send my kids on missions and to college.

7 Become a “cookie-giving” grandma.

8 Spoil the grandchildren.

9 Learn more about the gospel and enjoy life.

10 Return to live with Father in Heaven.

“Thank you, Abby. You have taught me about having a vision of the plan Heavenly Father has for all of us. When you know you are walking a path, in spite of whatever detours may occur, you will be OK. When your path is focused on the ultimate goal—that of exaltation and returning to Heavenly Father, you will get there.”

I closed my lesson by playing the song - Someone needs your Star by Jenny Phillips. Here's a youtube video that plays the song if you haven't heard it. 

I testify to you that YOU are a STAR and shining brightly in this ward. Please share your light. There is someone in this ward that needs YOU. Share your light and love and you will feel Heavenly Fathers love for you even more in  your own life and our ward family will be benefit greatly for it. 


xo - Sis. Pyrah