A huge thank you to all those who took part in Helping Hands yesterday. We managed to add 1,048 graves to the Billion Graves site. If you were not able to help yesterday, you can still be a part of this great work. If you click HERE it will show you a map of all the photos we took yesterday, all the tags that are green still need to have the details transcribed. It would be great if you could go on and type up a few to help this all be actioned in the next week or two.
Lots more photos have been added to Facebook if you want to have a look (on Sara McCullum's page) and we will add some more on here during the week.
This Saturday we have our Stake Family Fun Day - Damien Watling and Josh Donker will be heading up the Ipswich team, so make sure you see them so you can help out or come along on the day and cheer loudly !!
Sisters it appears that our missionaries are not being fed very much at the moment by the Ward. Please call Sister Catherine Donker if you are able to offer them a meal this week. The lists will be passed around next Sunday as normal, please try and find a time in your calendar that you invite them into your home.
A date for your diaries - our next RS Activity will be our annual trip to Felixstowe for fish and chips on Wed 20th August.
Please note there are a number of dishes still to be collected in the kitchen from meals provided to the Turners and other events, if you are missing something please take a look in there.
Also a reminder to check when your Cleaning Team is next due to clean the chapel, on recent occasions it has been left to just a few people to do the entire job. This coming week is Team 11 headed up by the Green family.
Lesson:
This weeks lesson was taken from Chapter 13 of President Smith's book 'Baptism' in which he said "There is no more important counsel that can be given to any member of the Church than to keep the commandments after baptism. The Lord offers us salvation on condition of repentance and faithfulness to his laws." Are we taking that counsel in our own lives?
We discussed the important symbolism of water, blood and spirit being present when we born on this earth and the necessity that they are also a part of our 'new birth' as we are baptised and take on the Lords name and become part of His kingdom.
One of the most touching doctrines taught in the lesson was the revelation that children under the age of 8 do not sin and thus do not need repentance, or baptism. Pres Smith told the story of his mission where they met with an American family living in England. The family enjoyed associating with the Elders due to the American connection but made it quite clear they were not interested in religion! The Elders waited, knowing one day the questions would come - and indeed they did. One night the mother, weeping, shared that when they first arrived in England they lost a small baby. They approached their local minister who told them he could not give a Christian burial and that their little baby was lost to them. Weeping, this mother asked the Elders, 'is my baby lost? Will I never see it again?' What a blessing to have the knowledge to assure this mother, 'no your baby is not lost. No baby is lost. Every baby is saved in the kingdom of God.'
So what of us? The Lord has expectations of us that we need to obey. We made covenants at baptism and it is now our mission to try to faithfully obey them and to repent when we fall.
"Every person baptized into this church has made a covenant with the Lord to keep His commandments...we are told that we are to serve the Lord with all the heart and all the mind, with all the strength that we have, and that too in the name of Jesus Christ....We should not forget these things, for this commandment is binding upon us as members of the church."
We had a wonderful treat to finish the lesson today, as the Senior Primary came to sing to us about baptism - what a privilege to watch these wonderful children of God, all recently baptised teach us of the need to try to keep our baptism covenants and remind us what a wonderful blessing baptism is.
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