Announcements & Lesson - 10 August 2014

Announcements:

Our next RS Activity will be on Wednesday 20th August where we will have our traditional Fish and Chip night.  We will meet outside Felixstowe Leisure Centre at 7.30pm as usual.  If you require transport please speak to either Sara, Yvonne or Miriam.

We have a baptism of Barry Smith on Saturday at 6pm.  This is the husband of Sister Carolyn Smith who was baptised last year.  It would be great to have lots of support for them in this exciting occasion.

FSY - the coach will be leaving the chapel at 6.45AM tomorrow (prompt!) please ensure the youth are at the chapel by around 6.30am to avoid missing the coach. 

Lesson:

Graca taught the lesson today from President Joseph Fielding Smith on the topic of 'Eternal Marriage'.

We began by thinking about triangles.  Just as Les taught us in his sacrament talk today, triangles are the strongest structure there is and reflects well the principle that marriage is a three way relationship, between a man, a woman and God.

President Joseph Fielding Smith had personal experience with the blessings of marrying within the covenant.  He was married three times and sadly lost each, but took great comfort to the fact that life and marriage relationships can last for eternity.

Graca shared her own story, of dating Jorge for 4 years before being married and sealed for eternity in the Switzerland Temple.  She shared her Sealing Certificate and how special this has been to her throughout her life and what a blessing her marriage has been in her life.  It is only through eternal marriage that we as sisters can reach the full potential.

We split into groups and discussed various aspects of marriage:

1. The worlds view of marriage compared to the gospel view of marriage:

The worlds view of marriage is that is simply a contract which can be annulled and put away if desired, but the gospel teaches us this is an eternal principle, a scared covenant, timeless.  It is vital for us to commit ourselves to our marriages and ensure our children also learn the Lord's view and the importance of this covenant.

2. Relationship with spouse:

It is essential to spend time with your spouse and let them know you love them.  Focus on the covenant of marriage as you build trust into the relationship.

3. Teaching children:

There is so much we need to ensure our children learn and our own example in our marriages is a huge part of that, let them see how you love and treat your spouse.  We need to ensure they learn what standards are correct to the Lord, take them to the temple and teach them to love it as you do. 

4. Marriage grows sweeter:

Living the Gospel is a big part of this, as the principles such as forgiveness, help us grow stronger as individuals and as couples. Make a space for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in our lives and our marriages.

President Joseph Fielding Smith shared his feelings:

"If a man and his wife were earnestly and faithfully observing all the ordinances and principles of the gospel, there could not arise any cause for divorce.  The joy and happiness pertaining to the marriage relationship would grow sweeter, and husband and wife would become more and more attached to each other as the days go by.  Not only would the husband love the wife, and the wife the husband, but children born to them would live in an atmosphere of love and harmony.  The love of each for the others would not be impaired and moreover the love of all towards our Eternal Father and his Son Jesus Christ would be more firmly rooted in their souls."

Announcements & Lesson 03 August 2014

Announcements:

We are pleased to share some lovely news from the Periera Family - Carina had a little baby girl last night called Megan.  Congratulations to all the family !!

Our next RS Activity will be our traditional August Fish and Chip night on Wed August 20th.  We will meet outside the Leisure Centre as usual at 7.30pm.  If anyone needs transport from Ipswich please speak to Sara, Miriam or Yvonne.

FYI we are this week losing one set of our Elders.  Please keep feeding our 4 remaining missionaries who appreciate your support greatly.

A reminder that the Family History Centre is open on the 2nd Sunday each month - please speak to Alison Pentreath if you would like to come in and receive some help.

Please can we have your VT figures for July ASAP if you have not already passed these to your VT supervisors.

Sister Pam Talbot-Ashby has a large crop of blackberries at the bottom of her garden if any sisters would be interested in picking some, please contact her. 

Lesson:

Our lesson today was given by Sara - who posed the question, what would you love your relationship with your Father in Heaven to be like?

Suggestions from the Sisters included: Loving and Kind / Encompassing love / Personal / Close / Understanding / Friend / Honest / Faithful / Strengthening / Two Way / Protective and Safe / Grateful

Sara made the proposal that to have this kind of relationship with the Lord there is one thing we need to be doing right in our lives, which we may not think of automatically.  That is observing the Sabbath Day.  Since the recent Sacrament Meeting on this topic Sara has studied the subject and found some wonderful insights on the difference this one thing can make.

We watched the following video by Brother John Bytheway a wonderful and popular youth speaker in the church:

CLICK HERE

We discussed the idea of the Sabbath being viewed and treated differently from Holy Sabbath - Sabbath - Sunday - Weekend and began to think about how WE treated it.  Not with the words we use so much as with the attitude and actions we bring to it, remembering in particular that the Sabbath is far more than the three hours we spend at church each Sunday.

The Sabbath was instituted on the earth right from the Creation and throughout the Bible we see the Lord consistently asking his children to live this law, to observe His day.  And we decided we wanted to know why it was so important.  If we could understand WHY, it becomes so much easier to live the law.

We turned to a scripture in D&C 59:9 where the Lord continued to exhort his children in the latter-days to observe the Sabbath Day - where he told us why.  We need to keep unspotted from the world.  So what does that have to do with our relationship with the Lord?    Sister Sheri L Dew summed it up perfectly in one sentence:

Coming unto Christ means walking away from the world.  It means placing the Lord at the centre of our lives.

THAT is what the Sabbath allows us to do.  To walk away from the temptations of the world and remember and move toward what it is all about - the Lord.  It is that choosing and deciding which enables us to become the people that will be close to the Lord both here and in the eternities.

We compared two quotes - we have a choice!!!

Elder Bruce R McConkie:  "It is in no sense an exaggeration, nor does it overstate the fact one wit, to say that any persons who keeps the Sabbath according to the revealed pattern will be saved in the Celestial Kingdom."

President Joseph F Smith: "Persons who habitually desecrate the Lord's day and do not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, will become weak in the faith and spiritually sickly and will lose the Spirit and favour of God and ultimately forfeit their standing in the Church and their exaltation."

Back to the video we learnt of Eli Herring, who was an amazing American football player who was offered millions of dollars to play in a top team but turned it down as he didn't want to play on the Sabbath.

What became of Eli Herring?  He went on a mission, married in the temple and became a teacher - earning a lot, lot, lot less than millions of dollars.  And did he regret the decision?  Not a bit!

But what was even more impressive is how he became the man who could turn down the world in favour of the Lord.  When a little boy he liked to creep into the spare room on a Sunday and watch football on TV.  One day his father caught him, Eli panicked expecting anger.  But his father wasn't angry, he was disappointed.  He said Eli turn it off.  Eli did and never watched Sunday football again. 

His father (the one who spoke of the Holy Sabbath - Sabbath - Sunday - Weekend) taught his family in his everyday life he was one who believed in the Holy Sabbath.  He knew and loved the Lord.  And by making those choices and being that example his children became men who could knew and loved the Lord too.

By observing the Sabbath Day we are allowing ourselves to have the relationship with the Lord we desire but more than that we are allowing our children and our families that relationship too.  That's what Sara learnt about the Sabbath day.  What did you learn?  And what difference will it make to you and your family?

Visiting Teaching Supervisors

Sisters,

As you may know we have recently been calling and working with our Visiting Teaching Supervisors to help us gather accurate reports of all the VT efforts you make. 

We have listed below those routes which already have VT Supervisors assigned - the remainder will be sorted shortly.  PLEASE ensure you report back EVERY month to your Supervisor, no matter how much you have or haven't done.  And if you have problems please speak to them as they will be able to help you achieve your VT successfully.

For those of you who have not yet been assigned VT Supervisors, please continue to hand in your figures / reports to either Lucy Dowling or Sara.

Supervisor - Lucy Dowling:

Maxine & Keith
Marian & Joanne
Gail & Pauline
Yvonne & Dorothy
Sarah S & Lucy
Karen P
Jackie W


Supervisor - Jane Albright:

Viv & Miriam
Margaret & Nikki
Sara & Jane
Ann H
Ros & Jackie
Pam TA
Susan R


Supervisor - Alice Santos:

Catherine & Alice
Kim & Denise
Gail A & Trish
Graca & Raquel
Lesley & Alice
Cristina / Ariel / Ana Bela
Betty & Coral


Supervisor - Isabel Prudencio:

Elisabete & Diana
Fatima & Maria P
Ana & Isabel
Paula & Sofia
Rogelia & Sonia
Alex Z

Supervisor - Sabrina Correira:

Kate & Sarah G
Leeanne & Beth
Louise & Sue K
Cristina & Sabrina
Katiuska
Gloria & Annie
Marta & Ana

Any problems please speak to the Presidency or Lucy.

Announcements & Lesson - 27 July 2014

Announcements:

With the holiday season upon us, it is easy for us to miss sisters for a few weeks and assume they are on holiday.  Please keep a special eye out for the sisters on your VT list and let the Presidency know of any issues that arise.

Also - please can you ensure your VT figures for July are given to your VT supervisors or to Lucy ASAP. We will add a list of who the supervisor you need to report to on here shortly.

We have the baptism of Lois' husband Liam Stopher on Saturday at 6pm, it would be lovely to come along and support the family.

Our next RS Activity will be on Wednesday 20th August where we will be having our annual Fish and Chips in Felixstowe.

The cleaning team for this week is:  Richard & Gail Dowling, Cristina and Raul Nunes, Roberto & Sabrina Correira and Ron Littlewood.

We have had a few offers of furniture, is these are of any use to you please contact the person direct:

* Derrick Dawdry has a neighbour with a sofa and 2 armchairs available
* Trisha Read has 2 single bed bases available
* Gloria Watson has a dresser available

Lesson:

This weeks lesson was given by Sister Annie Green and was taken from an amazing talk given at the April General Conference by Elder David A Bednar "Bear up their burdens with ease".

This talk is precious for each of us and well worth another listen - you can hear the talk by clicking HERE

You may remember the talk as a story was shared about a man who was desperate to buy a four wheel drive truck, finding all kinds of excuses to justify the purchase to his wife.  Eventually they made the decision to indeed purchase the vehicle - to prove his point he decided to go into the mountains and chop and collect wood, only to discover the vehicle got stuck in all the snow. It could ONLY be moved once a load was added to the back allowing some traction and movement.  Elder Bednar shared how we too need a load, a load that will allow spiritual traction enabling us to them move forward.

In groups today we discussed various questions raised in the talk such as Why is a load necessary?  Are all loads spiritually equal?  How do we come unto Christ?
How do we become yoked to Christ?

They are vital questions that we ALL need to know the answers too - make time this week to hear / read this talk again and find the answers YOU need.  Listen to the spirit and let Him teach you.

A few of the special quotes you may wish to consider are as follows:

"Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus Christ.  In essence, the Saviour is beckoning us to rely upon and pull together with Him, enough though our best efforts are not equal to and cannot be compared with His....We are not and never need be alone.  We can press forward in our daily lives with heavenly help.  Through the Saviour's atonement we can receive capacity and strength beyond our own."

"Do we also understand the Atonement is for faithful men and women who are obedient, worthy and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully?  I wonder if we fail to fully acknowledge this strengthening aspect of the Atonement in our lives and mistakenly believe we must carry the load all alone - through sheer grit, willpower and discipline and with our obviously limited capacities."

"The Saviour has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities - but also for our physical pains and anguish, out weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us...there is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Saviour did not experience first....He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy.  He can reach out, touch, succor, heal and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying upon our own power."

WE DID IT !!!!

Sisters, we did it with 4 hours to spare!  50,000 people worldwide have indexed in this 24 hour period!  Amazing effort - well done to all those who took part.  And there is still 4 hours to go if you haven't done your batch yet....

Announcements & Lesson - 20 July 2014

Announcements:

Are YOU one in 50,000?  Don't forget this is the weekend for the Worldwide Indexing Event where the church aim to have 50,000 indexers and arbitrators taking part in a 24 hour period!  In the UK our 24 hours goes from Monday 01:00am to Tuesday 12.59am.  Please take part and help the project be a success.  You only have to index ONE batch (or as many as you wish) to be part of it.  If you have never indexed before Sister Beverly Roddie can talk you through how to register.

 

 

For those of you with girls in YW - a reminder that the activity this Tuesday is a trip to Felixstowe, leaving the chapel at 7pm and returning at 9pm.  Please ensure your girls are at the chapel ready to leave on time!

 

The next RS activity will also be in Felixstowe for our annual fish and chip evening - Wed 20th August.

 

The cleaning team for this week is:  Torres Family, Watling Family, Marta and the Gull Family.

 

Sister Joanne Stockill needs some help this week with care for Deborah between the hours of 9-5.  If you can help for a couple of hours please get in touch with Jo, she would very much appreciate it.

 

 

Lesson:

 

We had a wonderful teacher today - Sister Carissa Giles who recently moved to Ipswich with her family.  She did a fabulous job teaching Chapter 14 'The Gift of the Holy Ghost' from the President Joseph Fielding Smith manual.

 

What a precious gift we each have the opportunity of receiving as we take the decision to be baptised into the Church, the gift of a companion and friend, in the Holy Ghost. We know he is the third member of the Godhead, is a spirit and can be the greatest blessing to each of us. 

 

Carissa shared this lovely video with us as we began to think about the role of the Holy Ghost in our own lives and what part we play in keeping him there?

 

How does the Spirit strengthen your testimony?

 

We heard some lovely experiences today of what can happen when we choose to make some quiet time in our lives for the Spirit to speak to us...we heard of sisters who were led to the missionaries, of sisters who were protected in dangerous situations and sisters who felt comfort and peace.  As Carissa shared, every good thing comes from the Lord, so it is worth us following every prompting we receive.  How do YOU see the Holy Ghost in YOUR life?  How do YOU feel His promptings?

 

President Smith said this:  "It is my judgement that there are many members of this church who have been baptised for the remission of their sins and who have had hands laid upon their heads for the gift of the Holy Ghost, but who have never received that gift - that is, the manifestations of it.  Why?  Because they have never put themselves in order to receive these manifestations.  They have never humbled themselves.  They have never taken the steps that would prepare them for the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Therefore, they go through life without that knowledge, they are lacking in understanding.  When those who are cunning and crafty in their deceit come to them criticizing the authorities of the church and the doctrines of the church, these weak members do not have understanding enough, information enough, and enough of the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord to resist false doctrines and teachings.  They listen and think that perhaps they have made a mistake, and the first thing you know they find their way out of the church, because they do not have understanding."

 

Sisters - do we understand the gift we have been given and how to prepare our lives to be worthy of it? 

 

We finished today with the following video and a beautiful testimony from Carissa of the Holy Ghost and the blessing it has been in her life.

 

The Voice of the Spirit



 

 

 

 

Announcements & Lesson - 13 July 2014

Announcements:

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.