December Presidency Message

Dear Sisters,

It’s that special time of year again; time to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Let’s leave the busyness and commercialism that often overshadow our celebrations out, and I would ask you to give your gifts to the Savior first. What gifts can we give the Savior? Every kind word, every gentle deed given to a neighbor, every kindness to the poor and suffering is a gift to God.  Do we look at others through the eyes of love? Do we look deep into their souls, do we forget their imperfections and not find fault? I think if all the members would choose one inactive family to anonymously remember this Holiday Season; it would make the Joy of the Season more special for you. For a lot of the inactives the voice of the Savior is but a distant memory and they need to be reminded that even though their spiritual eyes have dimmed, the Hand of the Lord is beckoning them to return to Him. Prayerfully consider what family to remember and what the Lord wants you to do.  Maybe the 12 days of Christmas with an emphasis on the Church and how they’re missed by their Father will be the invitation needed to return, maybe planting their garden filling it with flowers can make a widow smile, maybe it’s a bag of groceries, whatever you’re inspired to do that can touch their hearts will be a special gift to your Savior. Let’s take this one step further and do this all year. May God bless you and your family, thank you for all that you do.

Love, Lorraine Anderson

Relief Society President

Presidency Message - November

Last month I received a letter from my cousin’s son, Ben. Elder Fisher is serving a mission in Croatia.  His message has been on my mind.  He wrote, “I have been thinking a lot about charity, and the other gifts of the spirit. I have come to the conclusion that it is the greatest gift of the spirit. It is better than healings, visions, tongues, and protection. In fact, this gift of the spirit will endure into the eternities. Eventually our bodies will become perfected, we will all learn and speak the celestial language, and death, injury, and sickness will no longer have sway upon humanity. The gifts of healings, tongues, and others will largely become obsolete. But charity will endure. The gift of loving another is the greatest of the spiritual gifts. Charity never faileth. -Staresina Fisher” 

     I had always wondered why the Apostle Paul mentioned “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (1Cor13:13)  Now I understand that faith will be done away by pure knowledge and hope will be healed by the resurrection, but charity will be present with us forever and ever.  We can ask Heavenly Father to be filled with this great gift.

~Jennie Dumas RS Assistant Secretary

Presidency Message - October

Dear Sisters,

September is over, the kids are back in school and the nights are getting cooler.  This is my favorite time of the year!  I love the change of the seasons and the time of the year when we are focusing on being thankful and our Savior.  When we are thinking of families, friends and neighbors.  Giving service to those in need, magnifying our callings, trying to be better missionaries, and doing all we can to help others.
Next week we will have the privilege to watch General Conference and listen to our beloved Prophet and other leaders of our church.  Let us gather with our families and listen to those messages that will lift us up and bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.  To find those talks that we feel are given to us personally to help us be better sisters and to help us teach our children  important gospel principles.
President Uchtdorf in the October issue of the Ensign magazine gave three basic concepts to help us better receive and remember the words spoken at conference.
1. Members of the church are entitled to personal revelation as they listen to and study the words spoken at general conference.
2.  Don't discount a message merely because it sounds familiar.
3.  The words spoken at general conference should be a compass that points the way for us during the coming months.
He continues to say "What a privilege it is to hear God's messages for each of us during general conference!" I believe what he says is true and I have a testimony that it is true.
I am grateful for all of your examples, for your service in our ward and the love each one of you has for the Savior.  Let us continue to strive to always have the spirit in our lives, to be good to one another and always remember who we are and where we want our destination to be.

Love to you all,
Janet Sims

Presidency Message - September 2013

Dear Sisters,

As we come to the the winding up of our time with the Parables of Christ; I hope you have felt as richly rewarded as I have as we have come to know and understand the teachings of Jesus more fully.

I would like to discuss the parable Jesus used as he ended the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus said ,"...whosoever heareth these sayings of mine , and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which buildeth his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upn that house; and it fell not: for it was founded on the rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

The Rock of course is the Atonement and teachings of Jesus Christ. To get through the spiritual storms that fell on both the wise and the foolish; we must be firmly planted on the Rock though our faith, pondering on the teachings of Christ through scripture study; prayer. rendering service to those in need; teaching our families how to build their lives on the rock; and participating in the blessings of priesthood ordinances for ourselves or those who are waiting for those ordinances on the other side of the veil.

You are wonderful sisters  and you do so much; we appreciate all that you do. Keep up your good works and you will be blessed and find that you are building your house on the firm foundation that is the Rock, our Savior; even Jesus Christ.

I would hope that we harken to Jesus Christ and are doers of the work and not hearers only.

Hugs,

Linda Rogers, RS Assistant Secretary

Presidency Message - August 2013

Dear Sisters,
 

The presidency lesson for the month of August is on the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  There is so much to this parable; the son asks for his inheritance, is given it and then wastes it away on riotous living.  Reaching despair and becoming humble in his realization of his choices he returns home to his father.  The Father greets him with joy, forgives and rejoices in his return with no harbor of ill feelings.  The older brother is dismayed, selfish and burdened by the seemly unjust of it all.

I would think that we all have probably been at one time or another the prodigal son (daughter), possibly the loving father, or even the selfish son, lacking in love and compassion and struggling with how unfair the situation may seem.  I would pray that we could realize as daughters of our Heavenly Father, that he too would rejoice when we Arise and go to Father, putting aside our sins and our worldliness and return to him humble and repentant.  No matter what we have done, we will be received by Him with great joy and able to inherit all that is His.   This is truly a great blessing.

Much Love,

Shelly Ward

Secretary 

Presidency Message - July 2013

Dear Sisters,

Can you believe that summer is already here?  Time for vacations, beach, and spending lots of family time together! 

During this summer time with our families it is also a great time to try to fit in those activities where we can teach our children some important gospel principles.  Even if we don’t have children at home anymore, with the longer warmer days of summer it gives each of us the opportunity to think of others.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it starts out with the question a man asked Jesus.  “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus responded by asking, “What is written in the law?”  The man answered, referring to Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart…and thy neighbor as thyself.”  The man challengingly replied, “And who is my neighbor?”  In answer to this man’s questions, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan.  (See Luke 10:25-35).

Sisters please read this parable so we can all discover who our neighbor is.  We will all have experiences in our lives where we are like the people in this parable.  Will we be like the thieves or robbers?  Will we be the Levite who came and saw but did not help?  Will we be the Samaritan who stopped and went out of his way to help?

In His parables, Jesus taught the essentials of the Father’s plan of salvation.  Let us each remember these principles that were taught and bring them into our lives.  Take the time to teach them to our children and grandchildren. 

This summer as we go about building wonderful memories with our families, let’s look around for those opportunities to help and think of others.  “And that is done by going and doing as the Savior did, in loving our fellow beings, for when we serve them we are only in the service of our God (Mosiah 2:17).

We love each and every one of you!  Thank you for your continued friendship and service.  I look forward to teaching the lesson in July on the parable the Good Samaritan.

Love,  Janet Sims

June Presidency Message        

Dear Sisters:

This week begins the summer season for most people. Whether you are a young mother of children, a grandmother or even a great-grandmother, summer is kind of a time to let everything go – schedules go out the window! It’s good to take time to relax, but there is one thing we must never relax on, and that’s our diligence to serve others and serve the Lord. President Thomas S. Monson said: “My dear sisters: Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle.” Let us all make a goal to become a “miracle” in our families and in the lives of those we serve. Be diligent in seeking for those tasks that will bring joy and peace to you and to those around you.

Love, Carol Rhodes

Presidency Message  May 2013

           

Dear Sisters,

We are quickly moving toward the middle of Spring. Spring is such a beautiful time of year. New life burst forth in the form of new flowers and the Light of a beautiful spring day can bring us a feeling of warmth, and peace tingling with anticipation for what tomorrow will bring. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring forth the same feeling. Unfortunately there are many of our sisters who can’t feel or can’t see the Light of the Gospel in their lives. For whatever reason we need to be a Good Shepherd and help them to find that Light of Christ again. Virtually everyone in our circle of responsibility has become lost in one way or another. A lost sheep can be a young person, far away from home faced with loneliness and temptation, a single mom who lost a critically needed job, a grandmother whose children and grandchildren don’t have time for her, a man just called to be a new bishop, a mother whose child is again making choices that are wrong for them. In Isaiah 53:6 I am the lost sheep, You are the lost sheep, All we like sheep have gone astray…

It is my prayer the LIGHT of the Gospel will lead us and guide us to help those who are LOST, and if we are in a place where we are LOST I hope that we can brush the cobwebs of doubt and despair away from our eyes so we follow his LIGHT back to Him.

Lorraine Anderson

Relief Society President

Presidency Message - April 

Dear Sisters:

It's now Spring and we celebrate the rebirth of the earth and Easter. It is a time when we contemplate with more earnestness our Savior's atonement and resurrection. We are here today because of that great gift. We will return to our Heavenly Father because of the resurrection. I encourage you to take the time in your busy lives to ponder upon the richness of this gift and what it means to you personally. In focusing on the Savior and his great gift, I'd like to share a small quote from Sister Marjorie Pay Hinckley's book, By Small and Simple Things.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest force for peace and unity on the face of the earth and, when every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, there will be no divisions among us."  By him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. D&C 76:24

Let us use this time of rebirth to remember that even though the world may seem in turmoil, we are all children of our Heavenly Father. He gave us this probationary time on earth so we could grow spiritually and show our love for him by being obedient and by serving others. We are his hands, we are capable of great things. The challenges of this world are all overcome by the gifts bestowed by our Savior Jesus Christ. If we start and end each day with prayer, thanking our Heavenly Father for that great gift, we will find more joy, more peace, a greater desire to give and share, and in so doing, strengthen ourselves and those around us. It is my hope that we can all be empowered to do good by living the gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day.

Love,

Carol Rhodes, 1st Counselor

Presidency Message - March

Dear Sisters,             

I have enjoyed my time with you in Relief Society. I didn't think I was missing anything while I was serving in Primary, YW etc. I am not saying that you cannot be filled spiritually while serving outside of Relief Society; I am saying, that we need the spiritual boost we get from taking a look at our own lives from time to time.  The last few months have caused much introspection on my part. It has filled me and lifted me up to share with you your beautiful spirits, comments, and experiences.

As we take a personal inventory, I find myself and perhaps you do too; weeding out habits that have crept into our lives with non-essential fillers; gets in the way of doing good things that are so much more rewarding than some of the endeavors we get involved with in our day to day living.  We need to do a Spring cleaning of our inner houses. Repenting of things we need to repent of; getting rid of old habits that weigh us down.

Jesus taught a parable known as the "Empty House." He taught that repentance requires we fill the void left by discarded sins/habits with good actions to keep the bad actions from returning.  President Kimball stated, "The devil knows where to tempt, where to put in his telling blows, He finds the vulnerable spot. Where one was weak before, he will most easily  be tempted again. In abandoning sin one cannot merely wish for better conditions. He must make them...He must eliminate anything which would stir the old memories."

In March 2003, Elder Victor D.  Cave said, "True repentance, then, is not merely eliminating the negative in our lives; it also must involve replacing the negative with positive attitudes and actions.   

As we strive to fill our "empty houses" with good actions; we will find ourselves taking time for personal study; reaching out to others; helping lift them up and they in turn will lift us in the process; we will be walking in the Savior's footsteps and filling our lamps with oil; helping others fill theirs as we strengthen them and help them learn to walk with Christ

With love,

Linda Rogers, Assistant Secretary

Presidency Message - February 2013      

Dear Sisters,                                           

Many sisters had the opportunity to meet with the Relief Society Presidency in Visiting Teaching interviews last month, to share their joys, strengths and challenges. We were uplifted by your sweet spirits and the love you have for one another, the sacrifices you make and the care and concern you share for those sisters in our ward. We appreciate the way you uplift each other, are quick to accept service opportunities and share your talents.

Taking a personal inventory, expounding on what we see in ourselves and setting goals, will help us to improve our “caring”. How can we be a better friend? How can we prepare ourselves to be open to the spirit and willing to obey the promptings we receive so we can be in tune with our sisters needs? Robert D. Hales said "As we follow [the Savior], He blesses us with gifts, talents, and the strength to do His will, allowing us to go beyond our comfort zones and do things we’ve never before thought possible."

How well we prepare will help to define the way we emulate our savior as we fill our lamps with oil. As I sit in Relief Society Meeting taking roll, looking out at each of you sisters, I am often awestruck at how I feel. I’m amazed at the caliber of sisters in our ward, talented, beautiful, righteous sisters. A room full of magnificence. And yet, we are missing so many; they are not there to share in the gospel light with us. They are not there to help strengthen their testimonies and their families. They are not receiving the blessings that are offered to them through the Savior. Our lives would also be enriched if these same sisters were with us.

As we walk with Christ this year, as we fill our lamps, let us beckon those who are missing, to walk with us.

Many of our sisters are simply in need of a friend, someone who will take the time to get to know then, love then unconditionally and not give up on them.

Who will we beckon to walk with us, as we Walk with Christ this year?

Hugs,

Shelly Ward, Secretary

Presidency Message-January 2013

Dear Sisters,
I think many of us, at this time of year, find our hearts and homes turned toward the Savior. It is near impossible, with the constant reminders of Christmas, like decorations, being with family, gifts, lights, and music, to turn away from the Savior. Would it be a horrible thing if we thought of the Savior as often as we do during Christmas, all year long? Now, I am definitely not suggesting that we leave our Christmas decorations up all year long as a reminder (although if you would like to, please do so).

This year, our wonderful Stake Presidency has decided that our theme for the year will be "Walking With Christ". This will be a great way for us, both as individuals and families, to work to grow closer to our Savior and be more like Him. On the first Sunday in January, we will be passing out "Walking With Christ" goal cards to assist us on our journey back to the Savior.

My daughter, Savannah, loves to listen to the Primary music CD that is passed out to the children to help them learn the words to the songs for the Primary program. Because she does not have a CD player of her own, we often listen to the CD in the car. In a previous year, there was a song called "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". When I heard the words to the song, I cried. I have included the lyrics from the first verse here for you, as we begin together here on our journey to Walk With Christ.

"If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously,
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?"

With Love,
Tara Poulsen, Second Counselor