Announcements & Lesson - 29 December 2013

Being a 5th Sunday we had a joint Relief Society and Priesthood meeting today so there were not many announcements.  Those which were mentioned are:

• There is a New Years Eve party at the Ipswich chapel - if attending please bring along some food / snacks to share.  It starts at 9pm.

• Sister Evelyn Dawdry is still in hospital and may remain so for a little while.  She would love visitors and is on Haughley Ward where visiting hours are 10.30 - 3.30. 

• Sister Delores Hernandez is also in hospital still but expecting to come home today or tomorrow.  However with none of her family close by it would be great to continue to have some visits in her home.  She lives near Ipswich Railway Station.  Please contact a member of the presidency if you are able to visit and we can pass on her address.  The visit will need a Portuguese / Spanish speaking sister to be there too as she speaks no English.

• There is to be a Priesthood and Auxiliary leadership training meeting on Saturday 18th January 2014 at 6.30pm for all members of the Ward Council and presidencies given by Elder Dryden of the Seventy.

Bishop confirmed that the Stake will no longer be producing Stake Directories each year however the information is available on the many websites the church provides.  Todays joint lesson was to run through the websites available to us and to show a brief review of how to use them.  The main information shared is detailed below however if you require some assistance in using these resources please speak to a member of the Presidency.

Bishop did also confirm that a small print out will be available for those who do not have access to computers to ensure they have ward leaders contact details.

John Folley (Ward Clerk) gave us a presentation on Lds.org and Lds tools.  He reaffirmed the importance of setting up an LDS account to be able to access the local phone directories / calenders which are available on the Internet and as an App on smartphones.

Each LDS program uses the same LDS account so if you have ordered something from the online store or been involved with indexing you will already have an account.  Otherwise you can create one on LDS.org.  You will need your Membership number which can be found on your temple recommend, your recent tithing settlement slip or from John Folley.

Once this is set up you will be able to access LDS tools - which shows the names, addresses and telephone numbers of members of the ward and stake. If your details were in the Stake Directory they will automatically be added into Lds Tools.  This also enables you to update information if you move home, change phone number, email etc.  It also contains the calenders for all ward and stake events.

Paulo Periera then spoke to us about 'Spreading Viral Breadcrumbs.'.  You may remember that the England London Mission President visited us a few months ago to share his vision on spreading breadcrumbs in our missionary work.  Just making a comment about the gospel and waiting to see if the comment is picked up and can lead to further discussions and missionary work.  Paulo explained how the resources to share the gospel online are becoming ever more available.

He shared the following statistics:

In just one month 79 million people watched over 3 billion videos on You Tube. 
Over 1 billion people use You Tube and Facebook each month and over 560m use Twitter.  Many people now 'live' online and it is a perfect way to share the gospel message.

There are three main websites the church have - LDS.org which is aimed at the membership of the church and with which most are familiar.  Familysearch.org where we do our family history work.  And the third, Mormon.org which is aimed at those outside of the church and allows them to see real people who are members of the church sharing their testimonies and love of the gospel and their Saviour. 

Paulo reinforced how important it is for us to set up our own member profiles on Mormon.org.  It is incredibly easy to do and some members of the ward have already done so - maybe this can be one of your New Years goals to do your bit in sharing the gospel.   All you need to do is go to the Mormon.org website and then click Profile in the top right hand corner.  Again any help needed please speak to a member of the presidency.

We also briefly discussed how easy it is to share the gospel via Facebook and other social media sites by simply sharing a video that touched our hearts or a simple message.