Meet and Greet Activity

Dear Sisters,

Tonight we had so much fun getting to know each other and eating a delicious dinner.  Thank you to everyone who helped put this activity together, and thank you to all those who cooked the yummy meal.  

The Relief Society is a wonderful organization that provides us with so many opportunities to bond as sisters.

Monthly Relief Society Meeting

Hello Sisters

This Tuesday, August 30th is going to be our annual relief society getting to know you activity at the church. We are going to have yummy food and lots of fun so make sure you don't miss out. New or old in our ward, this is a great opportunity to get to know each other better. We will start promptly at 6:30p so be on time if you want an extra special treat! And don't forget to invite those you visit teach so they don't miss out either:)

There will be a children's class for those mothers who need babysitting help with little ones.

Hope to see everyone there!  

Marriage between a man and a woman is a vital part of God’s plan

Dear Sisters,

Thank you Lexy Perry for teaching a great lesson on Eternal Marriage.  Here is a brief summary of the lesson:

Gospel Principles lesson #38  Eternal Marriage. 

What are the blessings of an eternal marriage in this life and in eternity?

1. Our marriage can last forever: Death can part us from one another only temporarily. Nothing can part us forever except our own disobedience. This knowledge helps us work harder to have a happy, successful marriage.

How can an eternal perspective influence the way we feel about marriage and families?


2. Family Relations can continue throughout eternity: This knowledge helps us be careful in teaching and training our children. It also helps us show them greater patience and love. As a result, we should have a happier home.
3. An Outpouring of the Spirit on our marriage as we remain worthy: As long as we were married in a temple by the proper authority.
4. We can live in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom of God.
5. We can be exalted as God is and receive a fullness of joy. 

What can we do to help youth prepare for eternal marriage?

President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “Marriage is perhaps the most vital of all the decisions and has the most far-reaching effects, for it has to do not only with immediate happiness, but also with eternal joys. It affects not only the two people involved, but also their families and particularly their children and their children’s children down through the many generations. In selecting a companion for life and for eternity, certainly the most careful planning and thinking and praying and fasting should be done to be sure that of all the decisions, this one must not be wrong” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball [2006], 193). 

What can we do to encourage young people to set a goal to be married in the temple? How can we help them prepare for this?

An eternal marriage should be the goal of every Latter-day Saint. This is true even for those already married by civil law. To prepare for an eternal marriage takes much thought and prayer. Only members of the Church who live righteously are permitted to enter the temple (see D&C 97:15–17). We do not suddenly decide one day that we want to be married in the temple, then enter the temple that day and get married. We must first meet certain requirements.

When you ask for a temple recommend, you should remember that entering the temple is a sacred privilege. It is a serious act, not something to be taken lightly. We must seek earnestly to obey every covenant that we make in the temple. The Lord has said that if we are true and faithful, we will enter into our exaltation. We will become like our Heavenly Father. Temple marriage is worth any sacrifice. It is a way of obtaining eternal blessings beyond measure.

Trek to Salt Lake - Fitness Challenge

Our stake is doing a Trek to Salt Lake Fitness Challenge to encourage members to get out and be active. Wards will be competing to see how many individuals they can move the 1,297 mile distance from Nauvoo to Salt Lake. The challenge will conclude in October when we will be doing a Stake 5K fun run.

Trek to Salt Lake miles can be earned as follows:
1 mile point for each mile run/walked
1 mile point for each 3 miles cycling
1 mile point for each 10 minutes of hiking
1 mile point for each 15 minutes of aerobic class or cardio machine
1 mile point for each 10 minutes lap swimming


Members should individually report by emailing their miles to trektosaltlake@gmail.com.  Each week we will add up the miles reported from each ward and post the standings on our Glendale North Athletics Facebook page. Which you can access here.

Moments Make Up Eternity

Dear Sisters,

Thank you Laurie Martin for teaching a great lesson on Precious Moments and Relationships.  Here is a summary of the lesson:

The longer we live the more we realize Life is Precious and Fleeting…

We need to try to pay attention to those moments and actively enjoy, create, participate in the moments that build closeness to others and bring us nearer to God.

President Monson gave a talk entitled………. Finding Joy In The Journey …… President Monson talked about the things that matter most as we go through life and it boils down to relationships.

Relationships:  the heart of our lives,,,Life is so much happier when we enjoy the relationships we are blessed with and that are a part of our lives.

Situations and stages in our lives have an impact on our relationships……we have these relationships and then we have these situation and stages that often result in feelings (Positive or Negative)

Feelings…….sometimes we let ourselves be defined by our feelings : loved, offended, hurt, angry….In general conference in his talk Desire  Elder Oaks said to being with a desire for Christ like attributes and then ask God for help with our “feelings” .  I believe this affects our relationships too. The Lord will refine us if we allow Him to. 

He will help us ask ourselves the proper questions to view the situations that happen with an eternal perspective giving others the benefit of the doubt instead of stewing over a situation for days.

“Have you ever noticed that people can usually find whatever they are looking for? Look hard enough and you can discover both good and bad in almost anyone and anything. “

Looking For The Good  - President Uchtdorf

In the quote from President Uchtdorf’s talk, is basically “what we look for we find”…. So if 95% of relationship is good don’t obsess on the 5% that is bugging you.

Give others the benefit of the doubt……..when we consider them as people with similar thoughts, feelings, insecurities, needs, like ourselves…..we are able to think about the situations differently.

We enjoy the relationships in our lives more when we are secure enough in ourselves to know we are of worth and  when we believe we are strong enough to reach out to others, to forgive, to overlook, to help.

We are not mortal beings having spiritual experiences but spiritual beings having mortal experiences….

….we don’t have to “prove” or “defend” how wonderful we are …….because we are automatically of great worth…….Every sister in this room has wonderful qualities and gifts…..I could take the next hour and go around the room telling you the wonderfulness I see….even in those of you I don’t know well.  If you are brand new……I can still see great 1^st impression wonderfulness….we also each have quirks about us too….hopefully we can overlook each other’s quirks and focus on the wonderfulness.  Our wonderfulness is not diminished by how others treat us!!

…..are you living in harmony with your values and the things you have learned in life? …..self-esteem comes from doing what you believe to be right or important…….no one else can give it to you…….

Look for the good in your relationships and enjoy the moments that makeup eternity!

“Diligently doing the things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the world”… Of Things That Matter Most President Uchtdorf

As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten

Dear Sisters,

Thank you Tara Larsen for leading a great discussion on this lesson.  Here is a brief summary:

"As Many as I Love, I Rebuke and Chasten" by Elder Christofferson 

^{Story of the Currant bush:}

God uses another form of chastening or correction to guide us to a future we do not or cannot now envision but which He knows is the better way for us. President Hugh B. Brown, formerly a member of the Twelve and a counselor in the First Presidency, provided a personal experience. He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:

“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”

President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”

Years later, President Brown was a field officer in the Canadian Army serving in England. When a superior officer became a battle casualty, President Brown was in line to be promoted to general, and he was summoned to London. But even though he was fully qualified for the promotion, it was denied him because he was a Mormon. The commanding general said in essence, “You deserve the appointment, but I cannot give it to you.” What President Brown had spent 10 years hoping, praying, and preparing for slipped through his fingers in that moment because of blatant discrimination. Continuing his story, President Brown remembered:

“I got on the train and started back … with a broken heart, with bitterness in my soul. … When I got to my tent, … I threw my cap on the cot. I clenched my fists, and I shook them at heaven. I said, ‘How could you do this to me, God? I have done everything I could do to measure up. There is nothing that I could have done—that I should have done—that I haven’t done. How could you do this to me?’ I was as bitter as gall.

“And then I heard a voice, and I recognized the tone of this voice. It was my own voice, and the voice said, ‘I am the gardener here. I know what I want you to do.’ The bitterness went out of my soul, and I fell on my knees by the cot to ask forgiveness for my ungratefulness. …

“… And now, almost 50 years later, I look up to [God] and say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me.’”⁵

God knew what Hugh B. Brown was to become and what was needed for that to happen, and He redirected his course to prepare him for the holy apostleship.

If we sincerely desire and strive to measure up to the high expectations of our Heavenly Father, He will ensure that we receive all the help we need, whether it be comforting, strengthening, or chastening. If we are open to it, needed correction will come in many forms and from many sources. It may come in the course of our prayers as God speaks to our mind and heart through the Holy Ghost (see D&C 8:2). It may come in the form of prayers that are answered no or differently than we had expected. Chastening may come as we study the scriptures and are reminded of deficiencies, disobedience, or simply matters neglected.

In all of this, God’s purpose is that we, His children, may be able to experience ultimate joy, to be with Him eternally, and to become even as He is. Some years ago Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained: “The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts—what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts—what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”1