Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Hearts and Hands Program Update

Have I Done Any Good?

Have I helped anyone in need?
Have I cheered up the sad or made someone feel glad?
Has anyone’s burden been lighter today because I was willing to share?
Have the sick and weary been helped on their way?
When they needed my help, was I there?

We encourage each sister to take a moment in each month to find a way to serve one other sister (or more!) in the ward. This compassionate service activity is known as our "Hearts and Hands" program. It reflects the love and friendship we share with each other, as well as the care and concern we have for each other. In October, the theme is: PUMPKINS. Think of all the wonderful things we can do with pumpkins: pie, cookies, decorations, lanterns, vases, carving, and roasted seeds, just to name a few! If we’re lucky, Marguerite will share her terrific pumpkin bread recipe and Shirley Campbell will share her pumpkin-chocolate chip muffin recipe

If you have a great experience you’d like to share with the Relief Society, please do! This can be an experience as a giver or as a receiver. Email Deanne Welch, deannekwelch@hotmail.com with details to post on the blog. All entries will be kept anonymous.

Lesson by Andrea M. on "Church Welfare"


This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the modern day Church Welfare program.
I’ve been asked to teach a lesson from two talks at last GC that relate to principles of Church Welfare.

“The Sanctifying Work of Welfare” by Bishop H. David Burton and
“Opportunities to Do Good” by President Henry B. Eyring

Bishop Burton is called Bishop because he is the Presiding Bishop of the whole Church. One of his responsibilities is to oversee how all the tithing and other offerings, like fast offerings, or humanitarian aid offerings are distributed throughout the world, both inside and outside of the Church.

These offerings certainly are part of the church welfare program, so you can see that he has probably thought about the guiding principles that relate to welfare.

The title of his talk is “The Sanctifying Work of Welfare.” I’d like to consider his choice of title because it really adds depth or meaning to what we are really doing when we speak of welfare work.

So to start out our lesson today first I want to talk about the word SANCTIFY and secondly I want to talk about what we are actually talking about when we use the word WELFARE.

In the church setting when we used the word sanctify we need to understand its meaning. Sanctification is defined as: The process of becoming free from sin, pure, clean, and holy.

So in his title, Bishop Burton is telling us that we can become free from sin, pure, clean and holy through participating in the work of welfare. We are acting in the way Jesus would act.

The other word from his title is word that is used often in the Church, WELFARE…
When we talk about WELFARE in the church context, what are we talking about?

There are two main categories we break welfare work into (Put on Board)

1. Self Reliance and 2. Care for the Poor and Needy and Service

First we’ll talk about Self Reliance.

Self-reliance is the ability, commitment and effort to provide spiritual and temporal necessities of life for self and for family members.

Within the church we even go so far as to define 6 areas in which we should become self-reliant. And as we rely on God for inspiration and as we work hard, we can achieve this self-reliance.

Many of you know the areas in which we should work on being self-reliant (health, education, employment, home storage, finances and spiritual strength... and the purpose of our lesson today is not to review those, but they are something for us to consider at another time. You can find more info on those six areas at the end of the lesson. Or,if you have online access you are free to read the 6 areas of focus in the Church Handbook 2, which is available for all to see and study on line at the lds.org site. The Welfare section is chapter 6 and I’d encourage you to take a day this week to study that section and evaluate through your study and prayer areas you might want to work on.

But let’s read a quote from Bishop Burton about self-reliance from his talk. Listen for the important principles he identifies:

“Each generation is required to learn anew the foundational principles of self-reliance: avoid debt, implement principles of thrift, prepare for times of distress, listen to and follow the words of the living oracles, develop the discipline to distinguish between needs and wants and then live accordingly.”

Discuss Bishop Burton’s principles.

I thought we could read a section from our new book, “Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of RS.” The story illustrates some of these principles of self-reliance that we’re taught today by Bishop Burton. (Story starts with the heading, Wheat. p.52-54, 66-67)

After we read the story, we’ll bring the discussion back to the 21st C. and figure out what these 5
principles from Bishop Burton mean to us today.

? Comments on this story and how it relates to Bishop Burton’s principles up here on the board?

? I’d like us to share how you’ve learned these principles of self-reliance in your life.
? Or how have you taught these principles to friends or family members around you?

? How can living these 5 principles help you and me become more like Christ? More free from sin, more pure, more holy?
? How does the condition of our heart change as we try to become more self reliant, try to follow these principles?

Avoid debt principle…example of driving old car

Part 2 of Welfare is our need to

II. Seek out the Poor and Needy

The Purpose of President Eyring’s talk, “Opportunities to Do Good” is to inspire us to act on our desires to help those in need. He reminds us that we’ve all made covenants to help out our neighbors in need.

Pres. Eyrings says, “He (God) has invited and commanded us to participate in His work to lift up those in need. We make a covenant to do that in the waters of baptism and in the holy temples of God. We renew the covenant on Sundays when we partake of the sacrament.

ALSO at the beginning of his talk he repeats several times that we need to do more than have sympathy with those who are in need, we need to act. Let me read you some of the phrases he uses:

“My hope is to renew and strengthen your commitment to act.
“They turned their feelings of sympathy into a decision to act on their covenants.”
“Those who heard of the tragedy felt sympathy, and some felt the call to do good.”
“Wherever you live, you have seen that miracle of sympathy turned to unselfish action.”
“I could feel sympathy in the room but some suggested names of people who might employ the person who needed work.”
“We feel compassion, and we know how to act in the Lord’s way to help.”

? What tips or triggers can you offer the women in the room that might inspire them to move from having sympathy for someone in a tough spot, to then acting on those feelings to do something more?

President Eyring transitions from inspiring us to ACT to giving us some principles again, that have guided him when he wanted to help in the Lord’s way and also when he’s been helped by others.

“First, all people are happier and feel more self-respect when they can provide for themselves and their family and then reach out to take care of others.

I have been grateful for those who helped me meet my needs. I have been even more grateful over the years for those who helped me become self-reliant. And then I have been most grateful for those who showed me how to use some of my surplus to help others.

I have learned that the way to have a surplus is to spend less than I earn. With that surplus I have been able to learn that it really is better to give than to receive. That is partly because when we give help in the Lord’s way, He blesses us.”

“A second gospel principle that has been a guide to me in welfare work is the (power and blessing of unity.)

That increased feeling of brotherhood is true for the receiver as well as the giver. To this day, a man with whom I shoveled mud side by side in his flooded Rexburg home feels a bond with me. And he feels greater personal dignity for having done all he could for himself and for his family. If we had worked alone, both of us would have lost a spiritual blessing.”

I feel more of a bond with Kathryn L. because we worked out at Foothills Park together picking up fallen tree limbs.

“That leads to the third principle of action in welfare work for me: (Draw your family into the work with you so that they can learn to care for each other as they care for others.)

Your sons and daughters who work with you to serve others in need will be more likely to help each other when they are in need.”

? How have you seen this play out in your life?

“The fourth valuable principle of Church welfare I learned as a bishop. It came from following the scriptural command to seek out the poor. It is the duty of the bishop to find and provide help to those who still need assistance after all they and their families can do. I found that the Lord sends the Holy Ghost to make it possible to “seek, and ye shall find” in caring for the poor as He does in finding truth. But I also learned to involve the Relief Society president in the search. She may get the revelation before you do. (The HG will help you seek out and find those who are in need.)”

I remember when I was serving in the RS presidency I received a phone call from a sister in the ward. She told me that she had felt prompted to reach out to another sister in the ward who she felt was suffering. She didn’t want to know details, but she just wanted to know if I thought the inspiration was correct, which it was. I was so thankful that the HG helped this woman find this other sister who was in need.

This reminds me of a quote from our General RS President, Julie Beck, that we should all ponder and act on. She said, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.”

So I hope we can adjust our lives where necessary to do this, “qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation.” It’s in this way we are able to know who to reach out to and what to do.

My 9 year old son just interviewed me for a class project about coming to California. One of the questions was what was the hardest thing for me to get used to when I moved here? I moved to Berkeley when I was 18 to go to college from a clean, well-manicured Phoenix neighborhood. I told him the hardest thing for me to get used to was walking to school past and sometimes stepping over homeless people.

You can imagine when I went to institute and discussed everyday application of the principles we were reading in the scriptures, that we had discussions about how to handle the many homeless people we encountered each day.

As we studied the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4, I remember the words of my institute teacher. He counseled us to live our lives in a way that the spirit could direct us as we had daily encounters with so many destitute and mentally ill people. He said that we would need to be able to discern very quickly case by case, how we were going to handle the approach of a beggar. I had some very sacred and unique experiences during those times.

I feel very thankful for this counsel from President Eyring to seek the guidance of the Spirit when these situations arise. I’ve felt directed on many occasions.

As we reach out to the poor and needy, certainly their lives are blessed, but in a unintentional way, we are sanctified, or made holy through service to others.

AND FROM Bishop Burton, “This is the sacred work the Savior expects from His disciples. It is the work He loved when He walked the earth. It is the work I know we would find Him doing were He here among us today.”

If time, we’ll ponder the quotes below and discuss.

Quotes to ponder from Bishop Burton on Seeking Out the Poor and Needy

“As sons and daughters of God, we cannot inherit the full measure of eternal life without being fully invested in caring for each other while we are here on earth. It is in the benevolent practice of sacrifice and giving of ourselves to others that we learn the celestial principles of sacrifice and consecration.”

“The great King Benjamin taught that one of the reasons we impart of our substance to the poor
and administer to their relief is so that we may retain a remission of our sins from day to day and walk guiltless before God.”

“Since the foundation of the world, the cloth of righteous societies has ever been woven from the golden threads of charity. We yearn for a peaceful world and for prosperous communities. We pray for kind and virtuous societies where wickedness is forsaken and goodness and right prevail. No matter how many temples we build, no matter how large our membership grows, no matter how positively we are perceived in the eyes of the world—should we fail in this great core commandment to “succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees,” or turn our hearts from those who suffer and mourn, we are under condemnation and cannot please the Lord and the jubilant hope of our hearts will ever be distant.”

“This is the sacred work the Savior expects from His disciples. It is the work He loved when He walked the earth. It is the work I know we would find Him doing were He here among us today.”

Class Handout and Description of 6 Areas of Focus related to Self-Reliance BELOW:

Self-Reliance Areas of Focus

1. Health (Wof W, nutritious food, exercise regularly, control weight, adequate sleep, good
sanitation, hygience, obtain adequate medical/dental care, cultivate good relationships w/ family and others.)

2. Education (study scrips & other good books, improve ability to read, write, basic math, obtain as much edu as possible,including formal or technical schooling where possible.)

3. Employment (work is the foundation upon which self-reliance & temporal well-being rest, become skilled at it, diligent, trustworthy, give honest work for the pay and benefits received.)

4. Home Storage (3 month storage of normal diet, gradually build longer-term supply, store drinking water.)

5. Finances (pay tithes, offerings, avoid unnecessary debt, use a budget, live w/in a plan, build
reserves by regularly saving a portion of your income)

6. Spiritual Strength (pray daily, study scripts & latter-day prophets, attend Church mtgs, serve
in callings or assignments, obey commands, exercise faith in HF and Jesus, develop their
testimonies.)

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Lesson by Mandy W. on Temple Work and Family History


A little background on Mandy, who recently moved into our ward (and we are so happy to have her!)
-from Mesa, Arizona
-served a mission in Santiago, Chile
-Married 8 yrs with 3 kids. Oldest is Ellie (5yrs), then Noah (3yrs), and Rowena (4mo)
-Last 5 yrs in Michigan

Moved here in June and was just called to be RS Temple Coordinator.
In Mandy's words: "I am grateful to be set apart with this calling before I teach this because I truly hope to have the Spirit to help inspire people about the importance of Temple trips."

Lesson: Temple Work and Family History
Mandy started out with this short video on why we build temples.

??? What makes the temple important to you personally???
-It is a place of peace and a refuge form the outside world
-It is the greatest university known to man-- provides higher education
-To learn about life after death
-To leave our pains and trials behind as we lose ourselves in service
-To have a personal encounter with God and to hear His voice. In the temple, God and Jesus Christ speak to us and to one another, and then invite us to respond verbally to them.
-One sister shared that her life has changed since she became a temple worker. She has learned more about her relationship with Jesus Christ, about God's love for her, about the importance of sacred ordinances, and has felt deeper love for others.

The things we are taught in temples:
o Our purpose here
o Our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
o Our premortal existence
o The meaning of life and life after death

“[Temples] are a souce of spiritual power and strength. They are a place of revelation”
–Silvia H. Allred (General Conference 2008)

“The all-important and crowning blessings of membership in the Church are those blessings we
receive in the temples of God” –President Monson (April General Conference 2011)

President Monson in the Mormon Message said “It lifts us”, “It exalts us”, “Points us to Celestial
Glory”, it is a place of “tranquility, kindness, love and light”

???Why are temples important in our lives???

-Perform necessary ordinances and covenants!! AND THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR US!

I love how the book specifically adds how “[Heavenly Father] has ASKED us to perform ordinances for our ancestors in the temples” WHAT AN HONOR – He has asked us to be a part of it!

I absolutely loved the last priest shown in that Mormon Message – he said “It’s a beautiful thing . . . extending the blessings that have come to me in and through Jesus Christ. That’s a beautiful way of letting the ETERNAL mix into the temple – which, in a way, is what Christianity is all about”

???What are the ordinaces???

Temple Ordinances Seal Families Together Forever

???What does it mean to be sealed???

“Whatsoever thou shalt bind in earth shall be bound in heaven” Matt 16:19, D&C 132:7

The book “Baptism and all other ordinances prepare us for THIS sacred event” EVERYTHING IS
LEADING UP TO THE TEMPLE. Growing up we always hear about how important baptism is but it is amazing to realize that that is just the stepping stone.

Quote:
“The Atonement of Jesus Christ assures each of us that we will be resurrected and live forever. But if we are to live forever with our families in Heavenly Father’s presence, we must do all that the Savior commands us to do. This includes being baptized and confirmed and receiving the ordinances of the gospel.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have each been baptized and
confirmed by one having the proper priesthood authority. Each of us may also go to the temple to receive the saving priesthood ordinances performed there. But many of God’s children have not had these same opportunities. They lived at a time or place when the gospel was not available to them.

Heavenly Father wants all of His children to return and live with Him. For those who died without baptism or the temple ordinances, He has provided a way for this to happen. He has asked us to perform ordinances for our ancestors in the temples.”

Like that sweet man pointed out in the Mormon Message we have the chance now – and the
RESPONSIBILITY to extend “the blessings that have come to [us] in and through Jesus Christ.”

Story from the manual:
“Mario Cannamela married Maria Vitta in 1882. They lived in Tripani, Italy, where they raised a family and shared many wonderful years together. Mario and Maria did not hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ during their lifetimes. They were not baptized. They did not have the opportunity to go to the temple and be sealed together as an eternal family. At death, their marriage ended.


Over a century later a great reunion took place. Descendants of Mario and Maria went to the Los Angeles Temple, where a great-grandson and his wife knelt at an altar and served as proxies for the sealing of Mario and Maria. Tears filled their eyes as they shared in Mario and Maria’s joy.”

Many of our ancestors are among those who died without hearing about the gospel while on the earth. They now live in the spirit world (see chapter 41 in this book). There they are taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who have accepted the gospel are waiting for the temple ordinances to be performed for them. As we perform these ordinances in the temple for our ancestors, we can share their joy.

???What experiences have you had doing temple work for your ancestors???

???How do we get started???

1. Identify our ancestors.
2. Find out which ancestors need temple ordinances performed.
3. Make certain that the ordinances are performed for them.

???How has the Lord helped you or members of your family find information about your ancestors???

Additional Family History Opportunities: Participate in Family Organizations! Go to your family reunions, even if it's hard. Consider organizing a family reunion if your family doesn't regularly hold one.

CONCLUSION:

If you have children, take them to the temple! Walk around the grounds, take a picnic, and go to the Visitors Center.
If your children are 12 years old or older, they can share in these blessings by being baptized and confirmed for their ancestors.

Involve the whole family – Make the temple part of your family’s tradition!

**The Relief Society presidency would like to help you go to the temple and invites you to bring the temple more into your life. Marguerite shared that we can come "face to face with God and feel of His great love for us." Please let us know how we can help you in your efforts to go!

More on Temples from LDS.org

Monday, September 5, 2011

Lesson by Krys C. on "Becoming Holy"

Reference: “Reflections on a Consecrated Life,” D. Todd Christofferson, October
2010


Consider tension in our lives between
Sacred, holy, lasting, consecrated
Profane, unclean, transitory, unhallowed
Regarding holiness, we are subject to two requirements:
1) To stand in holy places
My disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved” (Doctrine
& Covenants, 45:32, see also D&C 87:8; D&C 101:22)).
2) To behave in a holy way, to be holy.
Psalm 29:1-2: Given unto the Lord, O ye might, give unto the Lord glory
and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the
beauty of holiness.
Leviticus 19:2: “Say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God
am holy.” (Lev. 19:2.)

What does it mean to be holy? What are the various things that “holiness” can
apply to or describe?

Holy Ghost (my view: more like a title than a description)
Holy One of Israel

“Holy” as authority or relationship:
Holy Priesthood
Holy Scriptures
Holy One of Israel (also a title)
The most holy faith (D&C 21:1-2)

“Holy” as a purpose or a state of mind:
Holiness to the Lord
- Not only on temples, but was on early stock certificates in Zion’s Cooperative Mercantile Institution
Holy of Holies
Paul – a holy calling (2 Tim 1:9)
Sabbath day, to keep it holy
Silence can by Holy
Purity


“Holy” as a place:
Holy Temple (repeat)
Zion = Holy City of the Lord
City of Holiness, even Zion, (Moses 7:19++)
Homes –
Holy Land

Old Testament:
The most common word for “holiness” and “holy” is qodesh (ko desh),
which refers to (a) holiness or holy name (as in “my holy name” in Psalms 2:6
or Isaiah 11:9), (b) a thing consecreated to God (as in the silver consecrated in
the temple in 1 Chronicles 26:20), (c) a sanctuary (as in the holy tabernacle in
Exodus 35:19 or the temple in Daniels 8:14), or (d) the most holy thing – with
reference to the temple or the ark of the covenant. There is a sense in which
a ‘holy’ thing is dedicated or hallowed.

-dedicated or hallowed things are holy because they have been linked directly to deity.
-holy things also have light in them- spiritual qualities.

New Testament:
In the New Testament, the word “holy” is from Hagios (ha ge os). It has a
connotation of something hallowed (it is derived from a word for something
awful): something “on account of some connection with God possess a certain
distinction and claim to reverence, as places sacred to God which are not to be
profaned.” (Thayer’s) Lexicon). It refers to the temple in Acts 7:33 and Matthew
14:15, the land of Palestine, Jerusalem (Matthew 4:5, Revalation 9:2). “Holy”
also refers to people as well as places, such as apostles, angles, prophets.

A second meaning in the New Testament is something “set apart for God,”
including the group of saints and Christians. Finally, holy can mean “prepared
for God” (as in a sacrifice with solemn rites), or “pure, sinless and upright” (as in
reference to John the Baptist in Mark 6:20)

Book of Mormon:
In the Book of Mormon, “holy” is used to refer to something related to God

(Alma 10:9, a “holy man” identified by an angel, a holy calling or ordinance (Alma
13:6-8) and even Jesus Christ (2 Ne 31:7), “holy scriptures” and “holy prophets”
(Hel 15:7). It is also used in the sense of purity: “If ye were holy I would speak
unto you of holiness.”

Music can be holy, especially hymns

The Visiting Teaching message for August was about how we are a "society of holy women"
If we are holy women, then we try to live a life of consecrating our works to God and standing on holy ground.

Why do we have holy places? What is the relationship between a holy
place (or time, or thing) and us as holy people?

There seem to be at least two purposes for describing something as holy:
(1) to demonstrate its relationship to God or deity
(2) to give instruction or warning to maintain its holiness

Isaiah 35:8: And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be
called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it [shall be] for
those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err [therein].

D. Todd Christofferson, “Reflections on a Consecrated Life” (Oct 2010 General
Conference, from Ensign)

Bro Christofferson says: “To consecrate is to set apart or dedicate something as
sacred, devoted to holy purposes.” He suggests five elements of a consecrated
life (i.e., one that is more holy).
1) Purity
• “Consecration therefore means repentance,” because we are
seeking to become sinless and spotless.
2) Work
• “A consecrated life is a life of labor.”
• God glorified his word of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal
life of his children; designed mortal existence to require nearly
constant exertion (plus a “kind word for leisure)
3) Respect for physical body
• Your body is a temple of God, “therefore glorify God in your body,
and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor 6:19-20).
4) Service
• Servant is not greater than the Lord (John 13:14-16).

5) Integrity
• Integrity is not naivete. It is “naïve to suppose that we are not accountable to God.”

I think of these as specific ways that we can change our relationship
with the divine, and to find a sense and place of sanctuary (Old Testament) or
connection (New Testament).

- sing songs which are holy in a reverent way (especially hymns). Separate the things that need to be kept holy and pure form the things of the world.
-make family time a sacred time- one of rejuvenation and strengthening family relationships.
-Sometimes we just need to raise our eyes a "foot or two" and look at the beauty around us.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Hearts and Hands Experience + September Theme

Shared by a sister:

  It's really nice to have my visiting teacher come by each month.  I feel that her message is always personalized just for me.  This month she made me feel extra-special when she presented me with a yummy chocolate caramel, beautifully wrapped in cellophane and tied with a gold ribbon.  She told me that she had read in the Relief Society Recap that the "Hearts and Hands Project" had a chocolate focus for August.  She knew that I had a special fondness for dark chocolate (as did she), and thought I might enjoy this little treat, a favorite of hers.
     She went on to expalin how she likes to cut her piece in fourths and savor it throughtout the day.  I thought I would give it a try and see if I could make mine last that long.  However, before I knew it, my knife had cut it into thirds.  I started enjoying it after lunch, one-third at a time.  Unfortunately, an hour later it was completely devoured. 
     No matter how long you decide to savor your chocolate goodie, I hope you enjoy yours as much as I did mine.  More importantly, how appreciative I am that I have such a thoughtful visiting teacher who really knows how to brighten my day!



We encourage each sister to take a moment in each month to find a way to serve one other sister (or more!) in the ward. This compassionate service activity is known as our "Hearts and Hands" program. It will reflect the love and friendship we share with each other, as well as the care and concern we have for each other. In September, the theme isAPPLES. 

Think of all the wonderful things we can do with apples: pie, crisp, caramel, baskets full, spice, dried. And remember that September 17th is National Apple Dumpling Day! (And if you still didn't get enough chocolate in August, September 12th is National Chocolate Milkshake Day!) 

If you have a great experience you’d like to share with the Relief Society, please do! This can be an experience as a giver or as a receiver. Email Deanne Welch, 
deannekwelch@hotmail.com with details to post on the blog. All entries will be kept anonymous.