Check this out!!!!!
http://www.lds.org/church/news/first-presidency-announces-new-general-womens-meeting?lang=eng
So. Super. Duper. Excited. About. This!!!!
I loved General Conference, but I believe the RS Broadcast spoke more to my heart than anything. I particularly loved Sister Burton’s talk. It can be viewed here: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/general-relief-society-meeting/2013/09/the-power-joy-and-love-of-covenant-keeping?lang=eng
My favorite part of her whole talk?
“Oh, sisters, we all have burdens to bear and burdens to share. An invitation to bear one another’s burdens is an invitation to keep our covenants.”
Love, LOVE, L-O-V-E this!
So….Sunday I was released as the Primary president and called as the RS president of my Ward. I’m not so sure about how this is gonna go, but should be a fun ride! Just had the scripture Jacob 4:7 sent to me – very timely!!
Tonight, just before scriptures, my five and six-year-old were having their own little conversation:
Five-Year-Old: I want to go first. And it came to life….
Six-Year-Old: ______ (name of five-year-old), we’re in helium!
I love how children interpret the scriptures!!
President Hinkley challenged everyone in the church several years ago to pray for an missionary experience. I prayed. Nothing happened. I prayed. Nothing happened. Over two years ago I was reminded of this challenge and decided to start praying for one again. I could feel that Heavenly Father was preparing someone to be baptized and I felt I was supposed to be involved somehow. The Spirit impressed upon my mind at this time that I had lots of missionary experiences and I just couldn’t see them so I started to change my prayers from “please bless me with an opportunity to share the gospel” to “please help me to recognize when to share the gospel”.
Enter my neighbor, Kevin. We just started having conversations. He would come over and talk to me while I was sitting in the yard watching the kids play and we’d just visit for an hour or so. He did this with a lot of the neighbors. We talked about all sorts of things and I always paid attention to the promptings of the Spirit so I would know what to say when it came to the Gospel. I would find opportunities to tell Kevin that he was a child of God or that Heavenly Father knows him and loves him. Those kind of comments were far and few between.
BUT….the conversation that changed it all was when he wanted to know if there were any girls in the neighborhood that his daughter could get to know better. She goes to a different school than the children in our neighborhood so she wasn’t really meeting anyone. I happened to know about the activity days program and I knew who the leaders were and I could put him in contact with all of them. This slowly led to more conversations about the church and one day the sister missionaries stopped by his home and he let them in.
He took the discussions in two phases. The first phase was with his daughter and he really wanted this for her. He seemed to want her to get baptized and then he would follow. His daughter wasn’t really excited about the idea and then the discussions just completely fizzled out. The second phase happened when Kevin chose to just come to church and decided he needed this in his life. He called the missionaries and started taking the discussions for himself and then was baptized – all within a month. Apparently he was ready!
I’m so excited for him and our family loves him and Savannah. We look forward to getting to know him and his daughter. Just had to share. This is my first experience (from beginning to end) and I look forward to many more.