Relief Society Christmas Party

Your Invited to the 

Relief Society Christmas Party!

Date: Thursday, December 1st

Time: 7:00pm

Place: Terry's home

           

Bring a White Elephant Gift 

 

*A white elephant gift is a "don't want it item".

Find something in your home you don't want anymore, 

wrap it up to bring it to exchange. 
The funnier the better!

Bring your visiting teaching sister's and your neighbors.

Plan on an evening full of fun and laughter!

A Heart Like His

Visiting Teaching Conference

Given by Sue G.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, "In contrast to institutions of the World which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something. The gospel of Jesus christ is the plan by which we can become what children of God are supposed to become. Charity is something one becomes".

Charity is the pure love of Christ - we want to be like him, therefore we should strive to have a heart like his.

To have a Heart like his, we need to do our visiting teaching. We shouldn't just "do" visiting teaching, rather we "are" visiting teachers. As we fulfill this precious assignment, we will become like our Savior. Visiting teaching is an unselfish work, a measure of the heart and a sacred trust that will bless the life of both the giver and the receiver.

It is vital to be filled with His love. It doesn't just make life nicer or more pleasant and comfortable. Being filled with the love of God actually changes everything because it has the power to completely change us inside. You see, over time, it changes us from the natural man into a true son or daughter of God, a sanctified being - one who has finally become like Him and that's what we are here on Earth to do, to become like Him and help others do the same.

             I want a heart like His. What about you?

The Relief Society Presidency wants you to know how much you are loved and appreciated. All the effort you make to reach out in love and friendship to the Sister's that you visit is showing a "Heart like His". We all need to have friends and to be a friend. Our calling to be a visiting teacher is not solely to give the visiting teaching message, it is first and foremost about watching over one another, lifting and caring for each other, and sharing each others burdens and joys.

The comment was made in the lesson that some of the best friends they had ever had, were made from a visiting teaching partner and from those they visit teach. For some it may be hard in the beginning to visit or to have as a partner, but as you pray about and get to know them no matter your differences, you will gain a deep love for them. Your life will be enriched and blessed in ways you may not have expected.

These fun hearts, made by the Relief Society board, were given out to 
Thank You 
for your serving as a Visiting Teacher!

They also serve as a visiting teaching reminder to stick on your fridge to have a "Heart like His" and not only "DO" your visiting teaching, but "BE" a Visiting Teacher", by sincerely getting to know and love your sisters.

They were accompanied with heart stickers to put on your calendar each month when you visit teach.

  

*ps - If you did not receive a Heart contact Terry or Nancy

Powerful Promises of the Book of Mormon

Book of Mormon Class #40

Taught by Sue G.

We are continuing our discussion of the "bad guys" of the Book of Mormon.

One of the "bad guys" we talked about was Omni. Being obedient for any reason at all is better than nothing. It's certainly better than being openly rebellious and disobedient, but doing things begrudgingly and half-hearted is not what the Lord expects from us.

Do we have an "omni" attitude about church? Do we get credit for just being at Church? If it's boring, whose fault is it?

President Spencer W. Kimball taught where the responsibility lies. He said, "We do not go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. If the service is a failure, you have failed. No one can worship for you, you must do your own".

Elder Quentin L. Cook testified that "Sacrament Meeting is the most sacred and holy of all the meetings in the Church". Whenever I sense an "Omni-attitude" growing in my own heart, I can't help but think of the words Jesus said to his sleeping disciples during his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, "What, could ye not watch with me one hour?". What sort of message are we sending to our Savior if we would rather be playing with our cell phones or sleeping during that sacred hour of sacrament meeting?

Thanksgiving Prayer

Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day 


We bow our hearts to You and pray.


We give You thanks for all You've done


Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.


For beauty in nature, Your glory we see 


For joy and health, friends and family,


For daily provision, Your mercy and care 


These are the blessings You graciously share.


So today we offer this response of praise 


With a promise to follow You all of our days.

--Mary Fairchild

Some fun ideas to teach your Kids to be Thankful

Giving Thanks Placemats

The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines, or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and the year on it.

If you make this collage from two standard letter size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a placemat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.

Thankful Paper Chain

Another way to remind your children of their blessings is to create a paper chain. This is similar to a regular paper chain – where you cut strips of paper and connect them together as loops, but there’s one difference. You write on the strips of paper before you connect them. Write the things you are thankful for with your children. For instance, “Grandma plays games with me” or “My teacher is nice.” The fun part of this activity is to make the chain as long as possible – showing all your blessings. If you’d like to keep this up during Christmas, just use green and white paper.

Thanksgiving Tree

This is another take on the idea above and works really well if you have several kids in the family. Get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red, or brown construction paper. Cut out the hand shapes and write (or have the child write) what they are thankful for on the hand shape. Cut a tree trunk shape out of brown construction paper. Glue it on a large piece of poster board. Let the kids add their hand shapes as leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful fall colored tree.

Thankful Book

This idea is similar to the others, except it’s more of a keepsake. Purchase a photo album or scrapbook kit and make a “blessings” theme. Add photos of loved ones, including stories about why they are special to you. Also, include pages of your favorite foods, favorite stories, favorite movies and all the other things that make you happy. Any time your kids feel down, you can open your blessing book to see all the reasons you have to be happy – and thankful for the blessings in your life.

We wish all of you Sisters a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We are truly blessed

Sunday Lesson #37- Signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ

For thousands of years, followers of Jesus Christ have looked forward to the Second Coming as a time of peace and joy. But before the Savior comes, the people of the earth will experience great trials and calamities.

Our Heavenly Father wants us to be prepared for these troubles. He also expects us to be spiritually ready when the Savior comes in His glory. Therefore, He has given us signs, which are events that will tell us when the Savior’s Second Coming is near. Throughout the ages God has revealed these signs to His prophets. 

He has said that all faithful followers of Christ will know what the signs are and will be watching for them (see D&C 45:39). If we are obedient and faithful, we will study the scriptures and know of the signs.

Some of the signs foretelling the Second Coming of Jesus Christ have already been or are now being fulfilled. Others will be fulfilled in the future.

Many of these signs are being fulfilled. Wickedness is everywhere. Nations are constantly at war. Earthquakes and other calamities are occurring. Many people now suffer from devastating storms, drought, hunger, and diseases. We can be certain that these calamities will become more severe before the Lord comes.

However, not all the events preceding the Second Coming are dreadful. Many of them bring joy to the world.

The lesson outlines the following signs 

The Restoration of the Gospel

The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon

The Gospel Preached to All the World

The Coming of Elijah

Lehi’s Descendants Will Become a Great People

Building of the New Jerusalem

The Lord gives these signs to help us. We can put our lives in order and prepare ourselves and our families for those things yet to come.

Thanks Linda W. for substituting and teaching this lesson for Mary!

Know Your Neighbor! Nate and Malerie W. and kids!

Malerie and Nate W. have moved into the ward.  They are staying with Nate's Parents Brian and Linda W. 

Nate and Malerie both grew up here in Centerville.  Malerie's parents have lived on Chase Lane for over 12 years.  Both Nate and Malerie went to Viewmont High School.  Malerie graduated in 2005. 

Malerie grew up taking gymnastics and was a Cheerleader in high school.  Go Vikings!   As with most teenagers her hobbies included mostly hanging out with friends.  She liked playing soccer and basketball.  Her brother taught her to play basketball.  She shoots the ball like a guy.  She likes to bowl but bowls like a grandma with both hands "granny style".  She owns shot guns and knows how to shoot them.  She has gone pheasant hunting mostly with her dad.  Hunting was her Dad's hobby and if she wanted to hang out with him she had to learn to shoot.  Nate however, has never shot a gun...maybe Malerie will teach him. 

Malerie also grew up with horses and is deathly afraid of them.  She is also extremely afraid of spiders.  Nate quickly learned that when he comes home and there is an upside down cup on the floor there is a spider or bug he needs to dispose of. 

Nate likes sports.  He grew up playing basketball.  In High School he was on the Lacrosse Team the first year it was played at Viewmont.  Malerie says that one of his hobbies was driving around town with the jeep top down listening to what did she say "the Back Street Boys...But Nate is sure it was actually Usher or some other music".  Speaking of this hobby Nate admits that he has been pulled over 36 times!  Once he was pulled over at 10:00am in the morning for having the music too loud and disturbing the peace.  He has actually only received 9 citations.  Hey 9 out of 36 isn't too bad. 

One of his favorite hobbies aside from sports is Off-roading with his jeep.  With the family that hobby has been placed on hold.  He likes fantasy football and basketball.  He is also a huge Utah Jazz fan.  He is a Viking football fan too....That's the Minnesota Vikings not the Viewmont Vikings.  Nate loves to golf.

The two met for the first time when Malerie was 15 and hanging out with Jason at the Walkers home.  They did not start dating until Malerie was 19.  They dated for 4 months and got engaged.  4 months later they were married.  They have two children, a daughter Oakley who is 2 1/2 and a son Owen who is 7 months old.  Owen was 9"11oz when he was born.  Nate says he will be a football player.  Oakley is a country girl at heart.  She loves her Grandpa's horses and chickens.  She also "Loves Grandma Linda W"  Linda told me.  Linda states, if she is not sure of anything else she is always sure the Oakley loves her.  Oakley is also a bit of a tomboy.  She loves cars and dinosaurs.  She wants to be a blue dinosaur for Halloween and wants Owen to be a pink one.  As a family they like to be at the beach...good thing they live in Utah, huh.   They love to go get ice cream and to watch movies.  They especially like DVDs and Netflix.

Nate is currently working in sales.  He started in a sales job and got laid off.  He has always talked about Air Traffic Control School.  After the lay-off he got another sales job and after a year of working he felt he need to be in air traffic control.  The family moved to Florida to go to school there.  Nate left 2 weeks before the family to find a apartment.  The moving van was loaded and left before they even had a place to live.  Nate got the apartment on Friday and the truck arrived on that Monday.  Nate has completed the schooling and the testing.  They are in Centerville waiting for FAA to offer him a job.  It takes 6 to 18 months usually for the offer.  Right now Nate is working during the week at Clear Link selling Dish Network and Direct TV.  On the weekends he works at the Cheesecake Factory...Just around 60 hours total a week for both jobs.  There is a good chance that when he is offered a job from the FAA they will have to move out of state... We hope you can stay here.

Malerie has a photography business.  Nate says "She is Amazingly Talented".  She does weddings, family photos, and new born pictures to name a few.  She just launched her website about a month ago.  It is malwalkerphotography.com.  She also works at Old Navy.  Only about 1 day every 2 weeks.  Just enough working hours to get the discount.

Welcome to the ward Nate and Malerie!  We hope you feel welcome and enjoy your time here.  We are so happy to get to know you and have you in our neighborhood! 

Relief Society Nursery Shower

We can already tell those new toys are going to be a hit!  Cute Lilly is showing a doll some love!

Thanks to all who came out for the nursery shower last week!  We had a great turnout and got some much needed new items for the nursery. 

Refreshments were tasty with italian cream sodas, yum! And Leslie M did a great presentation on new children's books for the holidays! 

Great times!

Tortellini Soup Recipe

from Lindsay Bunker

Tortellini Sausage Soup

1 pkg italian sausage, jimmy dean
5 cloves pressed garlic or 5 Tbsp of canned garlic
1 onion, diced
2 c. water
4 cans chicken broth
1 c. apple cider (don't leave this out! I did once and it wasn't the same...)
2 16-oz. can diced tomatoes
4 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 c. sliced carrots
2 tsp. dried basil
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 medium zucchini, grated (optional, I don't use zucchini but some really like it! )
1 large package cheese tortellini. . . I like barilla
4 Tbsp. dried parsley

Begin by crumbling up sausage and browning it in a skillet with diced onion and garlic.  Do so until sausage is cooked and onions are clear. 

While this is happening, in a separate large soup pot mix together the tomatoes, tomato sauce, juice, apple cider, chicken broth, oregano, basil, carrots.  You will add the zucchini later so don't add it yet! 

Cover and bring to a boil.  Once it is boiling add the sausage, garlic and onion, bring to a boil again, and cover and simmer for a half of an hour. 


Then add parsley and zucchini and simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Add the tortellini and cook until tender, and then serve with bread and we like cheddar cheese and sour cream on ours.  Or you could have Parmesan which is delicious also!

Some like this chunkier and some like this more soupy.  This is the recipe for how I like it :)  You can play with the liquids and add more or less to achieve the desired consistency!

Enjoy!  This is our favorite fall soup!