Announcements & Lesson - 27 April 2014

Announcements:

Next weekend is Stake Conference.  The meetings will be as follows:

• Saturday 3pm - Priesthood Leadership Meeting
• Saturday 6pm - Session for all 12+
• Sunday 10am - General session from Ipswich Chapel (to be broadcast to Colchester, Cambridge and Chelmsford Chapels)

 Saturday May 17th is the Stake Women's Day.  It is always a fantastic day and all Sisters and Laurels are invited to attend.

Please can you ensure your VT figures and reports are passed to Lucy Dowling asap.

There is a London Temple District SA temple week coming up on 2nd-6th June.  Activities are planned for the entire week, including FHE, a welcome dinner and firesides.  If you want any further information please speak to Sara who can give you relevant contact details.

Elder Thiago Pereira returns shortly from his mission and his family are having a party to welcome him home on Saturday 10th May at 6pm.  We have all been invited to come along.

Brother Neil Klotz has a large Continental King Size bed available if anyone would like it.  It measures 2M by 2M.  He also has duvet covers etc to fit the bed.  If you are interested please speak to Neil.

Lesson:

Todays lesson was taken from Elder D Todd Christofferson's talk The Moral Force of Women from October 2013 General Conference.

Click here to see a video / read the talk

It was a wonderfully uplifting and inspirational talk about the importance of the Lord's daughters and the role we can and need to play in the world today.

Elder Christofferson said "Women bring with them into the world a certain virtue, a divine gift that makes them adept at instilling such qualities as faith, courage, empathy and refinement in relationships" and then went onto share some wonderful examples of women who had really affected his own life - moments that were so important to him that they had never been forgotten.

Is it possible WE too could be that kind of an influence on those around us?  Especially when not assigned to do so, but purely out of love? 

The talk reminds us however that of course this role women play is under attack by the world today in lots of ways, 3 of which were discussed specifically:

1. Devaluation of marriage and motherhood and homemaking as a career.

2. Attitudes towards human sexuality - including the topics of abortion, and dressing immorally

3. A push for equality and to erase all differences between the masculine and feminine traits

Clearly these all come from Satan and are not what the Lord desires of His daughters.  Sister Margaret D Nadauld (a former General YW President) said this:

"The world has enough women who are tough, we need women who are tender.  There are enough women who are coarse, we need women who are kind.  There are enough women who are rude, we need women who are refined.  We have enough women of fame and fortune, we need more women of faith.  We have enough greed, we need more goodness.  We have enough vanity, we need more virtue.  We have enough popularity, we need more purity."

Elder Christofferson's plea to us is to 'protect and cultivate the moral force that is within you'.

Annie spoke of a seed and how it needs to be cultivated to become all it can be, all that it has the potential to be and likened this to us as women.  She asked us to all to write down one Christlike quality - and determine two ways we can improve on that, on how we truly can cultivate ourselves and be the daughters the Lord wants us to be.

Enrichment - Emotional Wellbeing !!

What a lovely night we had on Wednesday...

Sister Ros Lafevre taught us all about labelling and how we both label ourselves and each other and how much kinder we can and should be.

Ros - Our Amazing Teacher

We had great fun writing much kinder - and more accurate labels instead!!  And then spent some time learning how to change our view on the world to increase our own happiness.

Ros also had us bring out our own creativity as we drew pictures and expressed ourselves freely.


It was a fabulous evening and most helpful for many of our sisters.  Of course we then spent some great time eating and socialising and making new friends.

We missed those of you who couldn't make it - come join us next time !!!

The Sisters creativity!!!

Amazing Sisters in the Ipswich Ward - How we love them!

We have the dates for the next couple of months enrichments - so please mark them in your diaries and keep them free:

Wednesday May 28th - Food Storage / Emergency Kits with Kim Spencer

 

Wednesday June 18th - Guest Speaker: Patriarch Barry Lowater.  An evening to learn how our Patriarchal Blessings can help throughout our lives

Annoucements & Lesson - 20 April 2014

Announcements:

This Wednesday we have a wonderful Enrichment meeting for you on the topics of Emotional Wellbeing.  You will have the chance to attend 2 classes - one given by Sister Ros Lafevre and one by Sister Jill Lucas who is a professional counsellor within our stake.  It starts at 7.30pm and will be a great and uplifting evening.

On Saturday we have the baptism of Nuno Alves at 6pm.

Our Stake Conference will be held the weekend of 3rd-4th May.  There will be a Priesthood leadership session on Saturday afternoon, followed at 6pm by a General Adult session.  Then the normal Sunday session at 10am.  All meetings will be held at the Ipswich Chapel.

May 17th is our Stake Women's Day.  Please put the date in your diaries and plan on coming, it is always a wonderful occasion.

Lesson:

Todays lesson was given by Sister Sara McCullum from Chapter 8 of the Joseph Fielding Smith manual on The Church & Kingdom of God.

President Smith made an interesting remark: "I hope the Saints throughout the world DAILY thank the Lord for being members of the Church."  So we took some time to consider and share today what blessings we personally are grateful for that come to us as members of His church.  These included the temple and blessings of eternal family units, the Holy Ghost and the safety and guidance it brings, the opportunity to be able to talk to God at all times, the Atonement and the chance to repent and live forever, Priesthood blessings, knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, the comfort and teachings the scriptures bring, and a knowledge of truth.  Then we considered life without any of them!  How dark and scary the world would be. A life without hope and joy.  It soon became clear what a blessing being a member of His church really is and that we absolutely need to be thanking the Lord for it every day!

We then went on to consider President Smiths statement:

"The Lord has established all things in order and has given us a perfect system.  Men cannot improve on it.  If we could carry out that which the Lord has revealed, as he has revealed it, then all things would be perfect, for the organization is a perfect organization.  The theory of it - the plan of it - is without flaw."

We looked at how perfectly for example the system of VT is.  Our RS President Louise shared her testimony of how when actioned correctly is ensures no one is left out, everyone is cared for and uplifted and strengthened but at the same time those serving were also being made for Christlike.  It truly is a perfect system.

But some days it seems we come to church and our experiences are not so good - the day doesn't go well, or someone upsets us and we talked about how vital it is to make the distinction in our minds that although we as individuals are not perfect and can at times upset or make mistakes - still that does not affect the perfection of the Lord's gospel.

Elder Holland said it perfectly - "Except in the case of His Only Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with.  That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it.  So should we!"  How much kinder and more understanding we sometimes need to be to each other.

We then talked about our role in the Kingdom - the need to serve one another and help each other along that path.  President Smith counselled us to 'never refuse' a call to serve and had some strong truths to teach:

"The man who does only those things in the church which concern himself alone will never reach exaltation.  For instance, the man who is willing to pray, pay his tithes and offerings, and to attend to the ordinary duties which concern his own personal life and nothing more, will never reach the goal of perfection."

Sisters how blessed we are to be members of the church at this time on the earth.  Never again will the church be removed, now instead is the time to prepare a world for the return of Jesus Christ.  The Lords needs each of us.  He needs us to stay close to Him and to help His children along the path to eternal life.

Are we ready to help? 

Announcements & Lesson - 13 April 2014

Announcements:

This Saturday we have our Ward Easter Activity.  We are meeting at Christchurch Park (Park Road entrance) at 12 noon.  Please bring a picnic, a blanket to sit on and some small wrapped chocolate eggs if you would like to take part in the Easter egg hunt.  Any questions please see Sarah Garnham.

Our Enrichment meeting this month is on Wednesday 23rd April and is based on Emotional Health and Wellbeing.  There will be two classes to attend, one run by Sister Ros Lafevre and the other by Sister Jill Lucas who is a counsellor in the stake.

Stake Conference will be on the 3rd-4th May.  We will give more details as they are received.

On May 17th is our Stake Womens Day which is always fantastic.  As part of this day the Stake will be focusing on a challenge they have set for al sisters in the stake.  This is a challenge to live the 'Spiritual Five' which are:

1. Personal Prayer Daily
2. Personal Scripture Study
3. Take time to ponder each day
4. Service
5. Observe our Covenants

Lesson:

We had a real treat today as our lesson was given by Sister Sarah Garnham on Chapter 7 of the Joseph Fielding Smith manual 'Joseph and Hyrum Smith, witnesses for Jesus Christ'.

Sarah posed the question 'who are we inspired by and why?'  We shared various comments from the wonderful qualities of the Saviour, Prophets and Pioneers, through to members of our own family.  Then we read of how very inspired Pres Smith was by Joseph and Hyrum (Hyrum Smith being his grandfather who he was never able to meet). He recalls hearing wonderful accounts of these men while he was a child and how the spirit gave him a witness of the reality of what they had done for the Lord.

"I never knew my Grandmother Smith.  I have always regretted that, because she was one of the most noble women who ever lived but I did know her good sister, my Aunt Mercy Thompson and as a boy I used to go and visit her in her home and sit at her knee, where she told me stories about the prophet Joseph Smith and oh how grateful I am for that experience."

We then thought about our own children and how we could also help them to feel this same inspiration and love for the prophet Joseph Smith.  Ideas shared included the use of films and music portraying his life, the testifying of your love for him, teaching them the truths he restored to the world, looking at the growth of the church and playing games that he played etc to help understand the real man he was.

Sarah shared her testimony for Joseph and the wonderful links with the Saviour as we looked at the roles they both played in the building and restoring of the Kingdom.  President Joseph Fielding Smith shared his feelings:

"There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord raised the Prophet Joseph Smith up and gave him revelation, commandment, opened the heavens to him and called upon him to stand at the head of this glorious dispensation.  I am perfectly satisfied in my mind that in his youth, when he went out to pray, he beheld and stood in the actual presence of God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ."

Of course we also looked at the most wonderful relationship that Joseph and Hyrum as brothers shared and how we too can use that as our example in how we love and support each other as sisters in the gospel.  What a beautiful description was shared of Hyrum by Joseph:

"Brother Hyrum, what a faithful heart you have got!  Oh may the Eternal Jehovah crown eternal blessings upon your head, as a reward for the care you have had for your soul!  Oh how many are the sorrows we have shared together and again we find ourselves shackled with the unrelenting hand of oppression.  Hyrum, thy name shall be written in the book of the Law of the Lord, for those who come after thee to look upon, that they may pattern after thy works...I could pray in my heart that all my brethren were like unto my beloved brother Hyrum, who processes the mildness of a lamb, and the integrity of a Job and in short the meekness and humility of Christ and I love him, with that love that is stronger than death, for I never had occasion to rebuke him, nor he me."

We closed today sisters with a portion of this incredible and powerful testimony from Elder Jeffrey R Holland:

Safety for the Soul