Relief society and Priesthood were combined this week with the Young Men and Young Women as Bishop Smith taught us about goals.
The Stake Presidency receive directions from the Area Presidency on a particular area of focus, and the world wide focus this year is Saving the Rising Generation.
The Ward Council then discuss other goals that they would like the ward to achieve and this becomes the Ward Mission Plan.
2011 Stake/District Goals
Save the Rising Generation
a. Teach them to be Virtuous
b. Increase the number of young men/young women serving missions from * 2 to 4.
c. Increase YSA attendance from *25 to 40.
Strengthen the Family
a. Strengthen Husband/Wife relationships and teach daily prayer, scripture study, and family
home evening.
b. 3 Couples sealed in the temple
c. Increase number of temple recommend holders from *72 to 80.
Save the One
a. Every leader and member rescues in 2011
b. Increase the number of active Melchizedek Priesthood holders from *31 to 41
c. Increase sacrament meeting attendance from *143 to 155.
Share the Gospel
a. Every member prepares someone to be taught by the missionaries.
b. Every ward council prepares and maintains 15 names for the missionaries to teach.
c. Increase number of convert baptisms from *9 to 20.
How to Accomplish These Goals
Save the Rising Generation
a. EQ lessons on serving missions and teaching the Gospel.
b. Bishopric Youth firesides on Virtue and For the Strength of Youth.
c. Encourage Priests to teach with Missionaries.
d. Positive Home Teaching experiences for Young Men.
e. Quality YSA activities.
Strengthen the Family
a. Well planned Sacrament Meetings.
b. PPI's
c. Specific questions asked to support and encourage families
during home teaching visits.
d. All families have and use church magazines.
e. 15 names maintained in Ward Council.
Save the One
a. Review Ward Goals regularly in presidency meetings, speaking assignments and lessons.
b. Home Teaching Interviews.
c. Priesthood service and activities.
Share the Gospel
a. Families to plan Family Mission Plans.
b. All members to pray for missionary experiences.
c. Families to have and use Preach My Gospel in the home and individually.
d. Maintain a monthly missionary focus.
________________________________
The assistant Ward Mission Leader Aaron then discussed the importance of a Family Mission Plan 2011 and we were given a template
Family Mission Plan (Template) - 2011 & Ongoing
1. Family Mission Goals (These are the goals your family chooses to set)
• (Example only) Number of friends to refer to missionaries: .
• ..............
• ..............
2. Areas of Focus
a. Faith - to receive opportunities & assistance from the Lord
b. Desire - to share the gospel
c. Courage - to open our mouths
d. Skills - in how to share effectively
e. Community Involvement - to meet new people
3. Monthly Focus
Monthly Focus:
Month and Year:
Pick a focus from section 2 and write it in the "Monthly Focus" box above. Fill out
the specific things you will do to fullfil that focus in section 4 below (e.g. if your
focus is "Faith," a specific action might be "Pray for opportunities to share the
gospel"). This focus should be reviewed monthly, but does not necessarily need to
change every month.
4. Specific Actions
A. Faith:
...................
B. Desire
..................
C. Courage
.................
D. Skills
.................
E. Community Involvement
..................
(ask your home teachers for a copy if you need).
Aaron suggested we keep it on the fridge so we can see it often.
The Relief Society President Blanche suggested ways Relief Society would contribute to achieving the ward goals. Sisters would do this through working together on activities and lessons. This would filter down and strengthen our families. Individually we can do things to help by prayer and scripture study this should also help strengthen our families.
Bishop Smith finished by telling us that this is a good and honourable thing to do as it benefits other people and is a benefit to us. We become better people and the Lord's Gospel is spread further.
February Announcements
4th-6th Single Adult Weekend Activity
11th Stake Activities evening at Cornelian Bay Soccer Ground
11th-13thth Stake Conference
Monday, January 31, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Sunday Snippet
Emi taught our lesson this week from the Gospel Principles manual chapter 24 "The Sabbath Day".
We began by reading and discussing Exodus 20:8-11. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it."
It was mentioned that we should not focus on what we cannot do on the sabbath but on what we can do.
Joy, Amy, Mary and Nicole read from the manual the section on "Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy"
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1831, the Lord commanded the Saints to go to the house of prayer and offer up their sacraments, rest from their labours, and pay their devotions to the Most High( see D&C 59: 9-12)
He asks us to rest from daily work. Our prophets have told us that we should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events or participate in similar activities on the sabbath.
President Kimball cautioned that if we lounge about doing nothing we are not keeping the day holy.
The Sabbath is a time to attend church, perform church service, visit extended family members, and the sick and house bound, also to visit with our friends in the gospel. It is a day to listen to uplifting music, to read the scriptures and church magazines and to write letters to loved ones and missionaries. It is a time to appreciate nature and the beauty of the world.
The Sabbath is a state of mind.
In deciding what activities we could engage in on the sabbath we could ask: Will it uplift and inspire me? Does it show respect for the Lord? Does it direct my thoughts to Him?
If we are required to work on the Sabbath we should still maintain the spirit of the Sabbath in our hearts as much as possible.
"If we honour the Sabbath Day, we may receive great spiritual and temporal blessings. the Lord has said that if we keep the Sabbath day with thanksgiving and cheerful hearts, we will be full of joy. He has promised: D&C 59 :16 "Verily I say, that in as much as ye do this, the fullness of the earth is yours..."
Thank you Emi for this wonderful lesson.
In five minute music we listened to Ave Maria by Caccini played by David Stanhope
We began by reading and discussing Exodus 20:8-11. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it."
It was mentioned that we should not focus on what we cannot do on the sabbath but on what we can do.
Joy, Amy, Mary and Nicole read from the manual the section on "Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy"
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1831, the Lord commanded the Saints to go to the house of prayer and offer up their sacraments, rest from their labours, and pay their devotions to the Most High( see D&C 59: 9-12)
He asks us to rest from daily work. Our prophets have told us that we should not shop, hunt, fish, attend sports events or participate in similar activities on the sabbath.
President Kimball cautioned that if we lounge about doing nothing we are not keeping the day holy.
The Sabbath is a time to attend church, perform church service, visit extended family members, and the sick and house bound, also to visit with our friends in the gospel. It is a day to listen to uplifting music, to read the scriptures and church magazines and to write letters to loved ones and missionaries. It is a time to appreciate nature and the beauty of the world.
The Sabbath is a state of mind.
In deciding what activities we could engage in on the sabbath we could ask: Will it uplift and inspire me? Does it show respect for the Lord? Does it direct my thoughts to Him?
If we are required to work on the Sabbath we should still maintain the spirit of the Sabbath in our hearts as much as possible.
"If we honour the Sabbath Day, we may receive great spiritual and temporal blessings. the Lord has said that if we keep the Sabbath day with thanksgiving and cheerful hearts, we will be full of joy. He has promised: D&C 59 :16 "Verily I say, that in as much as ye do this, the fullness of the earth is yours..."
Thank you Emi for this wonderful lesson.
In five minute music we listened to Ave Maria by Caccini played by David Stanhope
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday Snippet
Happy New Year
Fiona Rea taught us this week from a talk of elder Jeffery R Holland, "The Best is Yet to Be", Ensign Jan. 2010,
The start of the new Year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives. In Luke 17:32 the Saviour cautions us to "Remember Lot's wife". We discussed who Lot's wife was and what she did that was so wrong. Lot's wife was reluctant to leave her home and it is possible that she looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind ... so it isn't just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. Her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.
"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterday, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."
Lot's wife did not have faith to know that the future could be as good if not better than the past.
"There is something in many of us that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life -- either our mistakes or the mistakes of others. It is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ."
We need to be gentle on ourselves and on others and take advantage of the Saviour's atonement.
"Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. ... Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. In some ways it is worse than Lot's wife because at least she only destroyed herself. In cases of marriage and family, wards and branches, apartments and neighbourhoods, we can endup destroying so many others."
"Perhaps at the beginning of a new year there is no greater requirment for us than to do as the Lord Himself said He does. 'He who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.' (D&C 58:42)"
Fiona gave out paper and we wrote down the things we didn't want to take with us into 2011; things like impatience, lack of understanding, inability to use computers etc. and we played Jenga as we shared what we had written. (Fiona was expecting the structure to come crashing down but it had been built into an extraordinary thing.)
Elder Holland counseled us to keep our eyes on our dreams. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform our lives today, tomorrow and forever. That is a new years resolution to keep.
Thank you Fiona for our lesson.
No Announcements this week
I have included the poem from Fiona Cluff's lesson a couple of weeks past if you are interested go to that Sunday Snippet.
Fiona Rea taught us this week from a talk of elder Jeffery R Holland, "The Best is Yet to Be", Ensign Jan. 2010,
The start of the new Year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives. In Luke 17:32 the Saviour cautions us to "Remember Lot's wife". We discussed who Lot's wife was and what she did that was so wrong. Lot's wife was reluctant to leave her home and it is possible that she looked back with resentment toward the Lord for what He was asking her to leave behind ... so it isn't just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. Her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.
"As a new year begins and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone nor to yearn vainly for yesterday, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."
Lot's wife did not have faith to know that the future could be as good if not better than the past.
"There is something in many of us that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life -- either our mistakes or the mistakes of others. It is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ."
We need to be gentle on ourselves and on others and take advantage of the Saviour's atonement.
"Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. ... Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. In some ways it is worse than Lot's wife because at least she only destroyed herself. In cases of marriage and family, wards and branches, apartments and neighbourhoods, we can endup destroying so many others."
"Perhaps at the beginning of a new year there is no greater requirment for us than to do as the Lord Himself said He does. 'He who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.' (D&C 58:42)"
Fiona gave out paper and we wrote down the things we didn't want to take with us into 2011; things like impatience, lack of understanding, inability to use computers etc. and we played Jenga as we shared what we had written. (Fiona was expecting the structure to come crashing down but it had been built into an extraordinary thing.)
Elder Holland counseled us to keep our eyes on our dreams. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform our lives today, tomorrow and forever. That is a new years resolution to keep.
Thank you Fiona for our lesson.
No Announcements this week
I have included the poem from Fiona Cluff's lesson a couple of weeks past if you are interested go to that Sunday Snippet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)