God's Creations

Congratulations to the Weists!

Sisters, do you remember the Weist family? Michael, Erin, John and Emily? Well, this is their newest addition: David Edward Weist. Hope we'll get to meet him some day!

First Presidency Appeals to Church Members to Help People in Haiti

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appealed today to the worldwide membership of the Church to help relieve the suffering in Haiti.

In a statement published on the Church’s official Web site, Church President Thomas S. Monson and counselors Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf said they are “keenly aware that many in America are dealing with economic challenges brought on by the recent recession.” Many Church members have made substantial contributions to Church Humanitarian Services, but more is needed. Church members and others wishing to contribute to the aid efforts may do so by using the Donation Slip they normally use for Church donations or by logging onto lds.org and clicking on Humanitarian Services Emergency Response.

(To read the entire article, click here)

Moral Discipline

Sisters, this talk was the basis of the lesson we had in Relief Society yesterday. I felt impressed to upload these videos (Part 1 & Part 2) instead of posting it in the written form. I hope all of us will watch and listen again to Elder Christofferson's message so that we can strengthen ourselves as well as our family members, especially our children in this ever-increasingly wicked world.

Quote - Integrity

"In all the world there is no substitute for personal integrity. It includes honor; it includes performance. It includes keeping one’s word. It includes doing what is right regardless of the circumstances."

--Gordon B Hinckley

"Integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences. It means being righteous from the very depth of our soul, not only in our actions but even more importantly, in our thoughts and in our hearts. Personal integrity implies such trustworthiness and incorruptibility that we are incapable of being false to a trust or covenant,"

--Joseph B Wirthlin

3rd Annual Associated Sisters in Asia Women's Conference

March 11 – 13. 2010

Hong Kong

To be held

Thursday evening

through

Saturday noon

at the

Wan Chai Church Office Building.

Guest speakers from Asia Area

Registration

from January 11 - February 20, 2010

Registration Fee - HK$150 (approx. US$20, including lunch on Friday)

To register copy the following in an email and send to

ASIAConference@gmail.com

Name:

E-mail Address:

Ward or Branch you currently attend:

Country in which you reside:

Cell Phone Number (if your phone will receive calls in Hong Kong):

Dates you plan on being in Hong Kong:

Would host housing be necessary? ___ yes ___ no

Hotels - Do you need information about hotels in Hong Kong? (If there are enough sisters who are planning on staying at hotels, we will try to negotiate with several hotels for the best rates.)

____ YES ___ NO

Any questions please contact us at ASIAConference@gmail.com

or by phone at 9108 3219 or 801 805 2512 (vonage line)

or go to the website http://asiaconference.googlepages.com/conference2008

Sisters, our very own Sister Karen McKinley will be speaking at this conference!

Quote - Moral Courage

"The face of sin today often wears the mask of tolerance. Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness and pain. .. YOU be the one to make a stand for right, even if you stand alone. Have the moral courage to be a light for others to follow."

--Thomas S Monson, "Examples of Righteousness", Ensign, May 2008, 65-68

Our Heavenly Family

• We Are Children of Our Heavenly Father

God is not only our Ruler and Creator; He is also our Heavenly Father. All men and women are literally the sons and daughters of God. “Man, as a spirit, was begotten and born of heavenly parents, and reared to maturity in the eternal mansions of the Father, prior to coming upon the earth in a temporal [physical] body” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 335).

• We developed Personalities and Talents While We Lived in Heaven

We were not all alike in heaven. We know, for example, that we were sons and daughters of heavenly parents—males and females (see “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102). We possessed different talents and abilities, and we were called to do different things on earth. We can learn more about our “eternal possibilities” when we receive our patriarchal blessings (see Thomas S. Monson, in Conference Report, Oct. 1986, 82; or Ensign, Nov. 1986, 66).

• Our Heavenly Father Presented a Plan for Us to Become Like Him

Our Heavenly Father knew we could not progress beyond a certain point unless we left Him for a time. He wanted us to develop the godlike qualities that He has. To do this, we needed to leave our premortal home to be tested and to gain experience. Our spirits needed to be clothed with physical bodies. We would need to leave our physical bodies at death and reunite with them in the Resurrection. Then we would receive immortal bodies like that of our Heavenly Father. If we passed our tests, we would receive the fulness of joy that our Heavenly Father has received. (See D&C 93:30–34.)

(For the full lesson, click here)

The Best Is Yet To Be

The start of a new year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives and see where we are going, measured against the backdrop of where we have been. I don’t want to talk about New Year’s resolutions, but I do want to talk about the past and the future, with an eye toward any time of transition and change in our lives—and those moments come virtually every day.

...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 yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but 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.

...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. To be tied to earlier mistakes is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist.

...That also happens in marriages and other relationships. I can’t tell you the number of couples I have counseled who, when they are deeply hurt or even just deeply stressed, reach farther and farther into the past to find yet a bigger brick to throw through the window “pain” of their marriage. When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died to heal.

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. Don’t keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, “Hey! Do you remember this?” Splat!

Well, guess what? That is probably going to result in some ugly morsel being dug up out of your landfill with the reply, “Yeah, I remember it. Do you remember this?” Splat.

And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what our Father in Heaven pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.

...Perhaps at this beginning of a new year there is no greater requirement 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).

The proviso, of course, is that repentance has to be sincere, but when it is and when honest effort is being made to progress, we are guilty of the greater sin if we keep remembering and recalling and rebashing someone with his or her earlier mistakes—and that someone might be ourselves. We can be so hard on ourselves—often much more so than on others!

Now, like the Anti-Nephi-Lehies of the Book of Mormon, bury your weapons of war and leave them buried (see Alma 24). Forgive and do that which is sometimes harder than to forgive: forget. And when it comes to mind again, forget it again.

...This is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year—and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life. Such is the wonder of faith, repentance, and the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

...Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

...Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year’s resolution I ask you to keep.

--Jeffrey R Holland

(To read the full article, click here)

Prayer

Our Heavenly Father

God is the Supreme and Absolute Being in whom we believe and whom we worship. He is “the Great Parent of the universe,” and He “looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith [2007], 39).

The Nature of God

All good things come from God. Everything that He does is to help His children become like Him. He has said, “Behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Coming to Know God

We can know God if we will:

• 1. Believe that He exists and that He loves us (see Mosiah 4:9).

• 2. Study the scriptures (see 2 Timothy 3:14–17).

• 3. Pray to Him (see James 1:5).

• 4. Obey all His commandments as best we can (see John 14:21–23).

  (For the full lesson, click here)

  
  

Just Married

The beaming bride and groom: Miow-Lin and James Willis! Our heartiest congratulations!

Cebu City Philippines Temple

Public Open House: from Friday, 21 May 2010 to Saturday, 5 June 2010, excluding Sundays

Formal Dedication: Sunday, 13 June 2010 (3 sessions)

Formal Temple Work Commencement: Monday, 14 June 2010

Cultural Celebration of Music and Dance: Saturday, 12 June 2010 at the Cebu Coliseum

Old Testament Flavor is Unique

Russell T. Osguthorpe, Sunday School general president, center,

and his counselors, David M. McConkie, left, and Matthew O. Richardson

"Everything points from the Old Testament to the New Testament," observed Russell T. Osguthorpe, who, with his two counselors in the Sunday School general presidency, discussed this year's course of study in a recent Church News interview.

Added David M. McConkie, first counselor, "We're in a unique position, because as members of the Church, we get to study the Old Testament with the light and through the lens of the Restoration. We can understand things in the Old Testament that can't be understood by the world generally, and if we're teachers, we'll teach it with that in mind."

Teachers should ask themselves, "Is what we're teaching different from what the world could teach," Brother McConkie suggested. If the answer to that question is no, perhaps some rethinking is in order pertaining to approach, he said.

Building upon Brother Osguthorpe's comment, Matthew O. Richardson, second counselor, said, "There is a flavor in the Old Testament that is quite unique. You have over 3,500 years of great anticipation for the Savior's coming. You have a story line of the covenant people looking forward to the Savior, and I think that comes out in the text."

(For the full article, click here)

Becoming Self-Reliant

What Is Self-Reliance?

" 'Self-reliance means using all of our blessings from Heavenly Father to care for ourselves and our families and to find solutions for our own problems.' Each of us has a responsibility to try to avoid problems before they happen and to learn to overcome challenges when they occur. . . .

"How do we become self-reliant? We become self-reliant through obtaining sufficient knowledge, education, and literacy; by managing money and resources wisely, being spiritually strong, preparing for emergencies and eventualities; and by having physical health and social and emotional well-being."¹

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president.

A Gospel Responsibility

"As we live providently and increase our gifts and talents, we become more self-reliant. Self-reliance is taking responsibility for our own spiritual and temporal welfare and for those whom Heavenly Father has entrusted to our care. Only when we are self-reliant can we truly emulate the Savior in serving and blessing others.

"It is important to understand that self-reliance is a means to an end. Our ultimate goal is to become like the Savior, and that goal is enhanced by our unselfish service to others. Our ability to serve is increased or diminished by the level of our self-reliance."²

Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

"Self-reliance is a product of our work and undergirds all other welfare practices. It is an essential element in our spiritual as well as our temporal well-being. Regarding this principle, President Marion G. Romney [1897–1988] has said: 'Let us work for what we need. Let us be self-reliant and independent. Salvation can be obtained on no other principle. Salvation is an individual matter, and we must work out our own salvation in temporal as well as in spiritual things.' . . .

"President Spencer W. Kimball [1895–1985] further taught concerning self-reliance: 'The responsibility for each person's social, emotional, spiritual, physical, or economic well-being rests first upon himself, second upon his family, and third upon the Church if he is a faithful member thereof.' "³

President Thomas S. Monson.

Quote - Gratitude

"May we be found among those who give our thanks to our Heavenly Father. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Despite the changes which come into our lives and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days—as much as we can—with those things which matter most. May we cherish those we hold dear and express our love to them in word and in deed."

--Thomas S Monson, "Finding Joy in the Journey", Ensign, November 2008, 84-87