We are sad to announce the death of Sister Djamilia Riberio this week who many of the Portuguese sisters will know well. She was not active at church but has been fighting a long battle with cancer. She leaves three little children so please remember her family in your prayers. We will let you know the funeral details once we have them.
We have a very special RS Activity planned for this month - Wednesday 24th September at 7.30pm - where we will be enjoying each others company and having a cream tea (without the tea!!!). Due to catering, we do need a good idea of numbers. If you have not already let us know, please email Sara and let her know you are coming ASAP.
We hope you all enjoyed the wonderful inspiring counsel from our Church Leaders at our Sisters Conference on Tuesday. We were able to distribute Book of Mormons to some of you sisters today to begin your study as per Elder Bednar's challenge - as soon as the delivery of the remainder arrives we will get these out to you. We hope to start up a Facebook Group for those of you who would like to share your thoughts and what you are learning as we progress through this challenge. It is going to be an exciting journey.
The cleaning team for this week: Adcock Family, Albright Family and Jim Boon.
A reminder that the first weekend in October will be General Conference. We will be showing the General RS Session on Saturday, we will let you know timings shortly. This will mean that Fast Sunday will be on 28th September instead.
Lesson:
Todays lesson was based on Joseph Fielding Smith Lesson 17: Sealing Power & Temple Blessings.
President Smith shared a story about a man he met in 1902 in Massachusetts who had taken on the grand task of searching the records of every individual who had come to Essex County before the year 1700. When asked why, he said "I do not know why, but I got started and I cannot stop." Pres Smith said to him "I can tell you why you are doing this and why you cannot stop" and proceeded to explain to him about the prophecy concerning Elijah and the fulfilment of that promise. And so it continues today...as many men and women, both within and outside of the church, gather their families together further fulfilling the Lord's prophecy:
Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smith the earth with a curse. - Malachi 4:5-6
How blessed we are that Elijah did come and the sealing power, the power to make families eternal was returned to the earth. How much do we value that power of the temples and sealing power in our own families?
President Smith said "There are thousands of Latter-day Saints who...are willing to go to meeting, willing to pay their tithing and attend to the regular duties of the church, but they do not seem to feel or understand the importance of receiving the blessings in the temple of the Lord which will bring them into exaltation. It is a strange thing. People seem to be content just to slide along without taking advantage of the opportunities presented to them and without receiving these necessary covenants that will bring them back into the presence of God as sons and daughters."
We further discussed the need to continue to go to the temple and considered that maybe we take it for granted that it is so easily accessible to us? Alice Sousa shared with us how just a few years ago the Portuguese Saints had to travel to Switzerland for the nearest temple - a 2 day, 2 night bus journey each way. They would visit once a year and stay a week and that time was very precious to them. Is the temple as precious to us? Do our actions show that to be the case?
We watched a beautiful video which can be viewed HERE
Then had a wonderful opportunity to think about our own ancestors and the experiences we have shared with them in the temple - it was lovely to hear Marian, Bernice and Pam share special moments of feeling close to their ancestors within the temple walls.
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