General Relief Society Meeting

Saturday, September 27th, was the 2008 General Relief Society Meeting. It was awesome! I always look forward to it every year. My mom and sisters and I attend it together, and it is always so inspirational. This year it seemed even better than usual. Here are some of the points I got out of the meeting:

Sister Julie B. Beck, General R.S. President, talked about the 3-fold mission of Relief Society, which is to, 1) Increase in personal faith and righteousness, 2) Strengthen families and homes, and 3) Serve the Lord and His children. She spoke of the need to "be still" and listen to the Spirit, and that if we heed the Spirit, we cannot fail. The power of Relief Society has not been fully tapped, and the Lord expects us to increase our offerings. I think Sister Beck is a very powerful speaker, and I really admire her.

Sister Silvia H. Allred, 1st Counselor in the General R.S. Presidency, spoke about the importance of temple worship. 1) Get and stay worthy, 2) Go, and 3) Return often. A good reminder that we are surrounded by temples in many places throughout the world and that we should not take that for granted.

Sister Barbara Thompson, 2nd Counselor in the General R.S. Presidency, spoke about how Relief Society should be a haven for us, our safe place in this crazy world. It is not just a class on Sunday, but a united sisterhood that should be ministering to all. We need to step up and be strong and be anxiously engaged in a good cause. If we live up to our privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from helping us.

The highlight of the meeting was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, 2nd Counselor in the First Presidency. What an amazing apostle! He really touched all of our hearts. He talked of how many, probably most, women undervalue their abilities. We feel inadequate, discouraged, and worried. He said that the path to peace, hope, and joy lies in our inherent desire to CREATE and BE COMPASSIONATE. 1) We all have a desire to create things because we are spirit daughters of God. We have beauty and capacity, talents and gifts. He was not talking just about being mothers and having children, but creation in all forms. A key point was to remember that what we create does not have to be perfect. Start small (for example, create smiles or beautify a small space). The more we rely on the Spirit, the greater our capacity to create becomes. 2) "Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves." We are blessed when we serve. He spoke of one woman who was sad about the loss of her husband (I can't remember who it was), but someone told her, "Work will cure your grief; Serve others." Of course the Savior taught that we should think more about others than ourselves. One thing President Uchtdorf said that really struck me is that the prayers we answer may be more important than the prayers we say. He promised us that by creating and being compassionate, our feelings of inadequacy, discouragement, and worry will be changed to meaning, grace, and fulfillment. We will be "encircled in the arms of [Our Savior's] love".

It was an incredibly uplifting meeting, and I am so glad that I took the time to attend. There is so much power in the Relief Society, in womanhood and sisterhood. We change the world every day! If you missed it, make a goal right now to be there next year, and every year after that. It is every September on the Saturday before General Conference. You won't regret it!!!

Exercise: It Does a Body Good!

This is Rebekah proving that where there's a will, there is definitely a way!

Our Little Angel

Roy's family surprised us with this beautiful drawing of Samuel (as an angel with wings). The picture was drawn by Julie Lawhead, who works with our sister-in-law DeAnn in North Dakota. Brent (Roy's youngest brother) and DeAnn are the ones who instigated the project and asked her to do the picture. It is absolutely beautiful, and we love it! THANK YOU, McCluskey Family!!! We miss our baby boy so much. I wish I could hold him again, even if only for a minute. But I don't think I would be able to let go again.

Update to "G O A L!!!" Post Below

I think I fixed the video clip on the soccer post I did on September 14th (see "G O A L !!!" below).

Funny...

So I was telling some women at Enrichment Mtg. tonight about how Roy threw his stinky work shoes up over the power line above Cracker Barrel as he was leaving last Friday (see pictures in his earlier post), and one of the ladies told us that that is actually something gangs often do to mark their territory. Yikes! Who knew?!? (...hopefully not Roy...)

EEEEEK!

I (Laura) was just called to be the 2nd counselor in our ward's Relief Society Presidency (which will be the Education Counselor). Yikes!!! I look forward to serving; it's just so much bigger than I am.
I guess it's time to GROW!!!

Time to Dance...

We decided to let Elisabeth and Rebekah try dance. We chose Jump-n-Jive Dance in Lehi. That means two trips to Lehi on Thursdays (...yeah, Laura is crazy). But so far, they really like it. Bekah asks every day if it's time to go to "dance class".

Preschool

Rebekah started preschool right after Labor Day. We are doing it with some of the other families in our ward, and it is really great! Bekah is the youngest of all the kids, and the least potty trained (meaning...she isn't potty trained at all). We take turns teaching, but there are enough of us that it won't be too stressful (I hope....my turn is this week). On September 2nd we went to the Thanksgiving Point Farm for a field trip. September 5th was the official "first day" of teaching. Rebekah loves it!

G O A L !!!

Elisabeth really tore it up at soccer on Saturday! It is so fun to watch her play, and we lost count of how many goals she made during this game. She is really getting the hang of it. She has a lot of talent!

The End of Cracker Barrel

Yes the time has finally arrived after eight years of being a manager for the Cracker Barrel in Springville UT, I have hung up my work shoes (yes thats them) and left them for all to see and remember. It was a fun day my aunt and uncle (Brenda and Keith) came in for lunch, Wayne and Ginger came in for an early dinner, Lorin and Janice (and family) and my family came in later for dinner. Things got a little exciting later in the day when the employees threw a little good bye party after which all the equipment in the kitchen decided to shut down. Yep no power for anything that was plugged into the center wall, which included all the grills, fryers, ovens, kettles and timers. It took us about 30 min. to figure out that the magnetic breaker controlling the center wall breaker panel had tripped. Everything ended up good in the end and all the goodbyes were said.

During the day while I was out back letting the employees smoke we talked about throwing my shoes on the roof for the managers to find and then we figured who ever found it would just throw them away and nothing would be said, so I decided to tie my shoe strings together and throw them over the power lines that run over the south parking lot. So before I left after my shift I took off my shoes tied them together and started throwing them up and after about 6 attempts and hitting some ones car two or three times(sorry about that) I finally hooked them up. They will be there until the wind knocks them down and hopefully that will be a while.

HAPPY FALL!

I really love this time of year! I took this picture of a sunflower the other day, and I just had to share it. Sunflowers are some of my favorite happy flowers.

P.S. I have a lot of blog updating to do this weekend so stay tuned...