Sunday Happenings

Sister Hansen taught from ch. 8 Praying to Our Heavenly Father today. Questions to think about:

What is Prayer?

• communication with our Heavenly Father
• Faith, Hope, Belief
• A Gift

Why Do We Pray? (James 1:5, Alma 37:37)

• to increase faith
• to feel peace
• express gratitude
• to find comfort, pray for children/family
• Repentence

When Should We Pray?

• privately at least every night and every morning
• family prayers
• praying over meals
• Church meetings
• constantly have a prayer in our heart

How should We Pray?

• "we should always pray in faith, "with a sincere heart, with real intent" (Moroni 10:4)

How Are Prayers Answered?

• Why do you think answers to prayers are not always readily apparent? Why do you think answers to prayers do not always come when we want or in the way we want?

In what ways has Heavenly Father answered your prayers?

Last weeks lesson, The Holy Ghost (ch. 7) was given by Sister Murphy. It was her last lesson...she is now going to be in Primary, we will miss her. The spirit was definitely present during the lesson. Here are a few things to think about:

How does the Spirit communicate with you? What did the Spirit reveal to you during General Conference a couple of weeks ago? One of my favorite quotes from the lesson:

“When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even of the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase” (Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., 5 vols. [1957–66], 2:151).

Announcements:

• Musical Fireside tonight: 11164 S Londonberry Dr (1515 E), Sister Kerhl will be performing
• Maralin Hoff the "Earthquake Lady" spoke at the Emergency Preparedness Fair yesterday. To find out more about 3-5 day emergency kits go to: http://bereadyutah.gov/ and http://homelandsecurity.utah.gov/
• Sister Blanton is looking for a place to live. If you can help or know of a place please contact Bishop Carter or Sister Baumann
• Sister Peck and Sister Glade had their babies. Both moms and babies are doing well.

Relief Society Activity Survey

We would like to find out about what type of activities you would like us to plan. We will still have our quarterly activities i.e., Birthday Social, Fall Social, Thanksgiving/Christmas Activity. We would also like to plan smaller activities that center around provident living, and drawing closer to our Savior. Please complete the survey questions on on the right side of this blog. If you have additional suggestions, please leave a comment following this post.

General Conference Activities for Kids & Youth

I'm so excited for General Conference! I love being able to be filled spiritually and set new goals that will help me draw closer to the Savior. I know it isn't always easy for kids or even youth to sit through conference. I remember my mom used to make Bingo games with mnm's as the markers, if we sat through conference and played we got to eat the mnn's afterwards. Here are a couple of sites that have some fun activities for kids & youth.

Check out lds.org for some fun conference activities for kids, go here. Have you also seen their Friend magazine site? There are great activities for the kids to do....coloring pages, puzzles, stories they can listen to, etc.... Go here, if you would like to check it out.

The other site is called Prepared not Scared! She has some fun ideas for food storage, family activities, & conference activities for youth and kids. To view her site, go here. You will need to scroll back through her past posts....she has been posting activity ideas all week.

Spotlight Sister

Our spotlight sister this week is Kim Adamson. Kim has grown up in the Salt Lake area. She has two older brothers and a younger sister. Her favorite color is Robin's Egg Blue and she loves to eat lobster.

Kim has many hobbies which include pottery, fusing glass, metal, clay, and making jewelry. For work she is a Medical Microbiologist. Something you may not know about her is while in college, she won several first place state trophies in Karate. Someday she would like to travel all over Europe.

She has held many callings in Relief Society and Young Women's. Her favorite is being on the Relief Society Meeting committee, which is her calling now.

Visiting Teaching Reminder

Just a reminder to get your Visiting Teaching done! How are your sisters doing? Kind of a funny cartoon that shows how much technology is part of our lives.

Book Club Reminder

Just a reminder: Book Club tomorrow at Sister Olpin's house. 7:00 p.m. Come join us for a fun night out!

Sunday Happenings

Today our lesson was taught by Sister Smith, it was taken from Bishop H. David Burton's Oct 2009 Conference talk entitled: "Let Virtue Garnish Your Thoughts".

Bishop Burton starts his talk by quoting D&C 121:45, "Let virtue garnish they thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God".

There are many virtuous traits we should make apart of our lives that end with the letters ity: this suffix means quality, state, or degree of being. Some of these virtues include: "integrity, humility, civility, fidelity, and the list goes on and on. Bishop Burton refers to these virtues ending in ity as the "ity" virtues."

We can see the lack of these virtues everywhere we look in the world. What can we do to lift ourselves above the world, and make sure we embrace these "ity" virtues? Bishop Burton states, "We need to stand tall and be firmly fixed in perpetuating Christlike virtues, even the "ity" virtues, in our everyday lives. Teaching virtuous traits begins in the home with parents who care and set the example. A good parental example encourages emulation; a poor example gives license to the children to disregard the parents' teachings and even expand the poor example. A hypocritical example destroys credibility."

"President James E. Faust suggested that integrity is the mother of many virtues. He noted that integrity can be defined "as a firm adherence to a code of moral values." It is difficult for a person to display virtuous traits if he or she lacks integrity."

Bishop Burton ends by saying, "I testify and declare that our Heavenly Father expects His children to exercise integrity, civility, fidelity, charity, generosity, morality, and all the "ity" virtues. May we have the humility to take the opportunity to act upon our responsibility to demonstrate our ability to do so, I pray in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Which of the "ity" virtues could be worked on this week to bring you closer to the Savior?