The Animal Odd Couple

Sister Annie Fan

On 7 July 2010, Sister Annie wrote:

I joined the mom's team last month. I got a baby boy. I am really happy. I am trying to be a good mum. He is not easy but I love him!

All my love,
Annie

On 16 August 2010, Sister Annie wrote:

My baby is 3 months old. He grows really fast and laughs a lot.

I bought a baby carrier yesterday because he has not gone outside yet. He is 8kg. It is really not easy to carry him for long time .

His first 100th day is coming. That is the second most important day for a Chinese baby. The first month is the most important. After the first 100 days, he is strong enough to go outside and do something.

The Chinese say the baby "3fan 6zuo 8pa". it means a 3-month old baby can turn the body over, a 6-month can sit properly and an 8-month old can crawl. Ha ... Have you ever heard of that?


Miss all of you.

All my love,
Annie

E-mail from Sister Annalee Little

How are you guys?! Malaysia feels like a dream...that it was so long ago, but it really wasn't. We miss you all and that little branch. Such a loving group of people. What's the update of folks? Game night at the McKinley's? The missionaries? I'm sure a lot has changed. I saw that Elder Maddox is home now. He is posting stuff on facebook every day, so I assume he's home :)

All is well here. We are now in Texas, believe it or not. I seriously never thought I would travel so many places...and definitely not in my first year of marriage. We're just finishing up this training for Jeremy's work. I'm taking leave from my work. We'll return late June and be there for one month. I'll finally finish working at my job and we'll take off for Vienna on July 19th. We'll be there for a month. Hopefully, by that time, Jeremy will have a new job and we will be able to settle down in one place for a season. The pressure is on though. We're trying to find work for him and feel a little stressed about getting one and being ok financially. Everything always works out though. It's just a little different when you're married. More people involved.

We're headed to Utah today for Jeremy's brother's wedding tomorrow. It's his last sibling to get married - the oldest of 7. He's 31 and we're really happy for him. I'll stay an extra week with my parents and siblings. I'm really excited to be with them.

Much love,

Annalee

Prioritize pursuits, Sister Beck says

"We have to know what our responsibilities are and how to fulfill those," Sister Beck said. "We know that as women of God, this is a time that we need an increase of faith and personal righteousness."

Temple attendance, prayer, daily scripture study, making and keeping covenants, missionary work, visiting teaching and service are some of the essentials Sister Beck shared.

Although the nice-to-do things add variety and light to life, they are not the things that save, Sister Beck said. "Remember, influence and power come when we prioritize correctly."

(To read the entire article, click here)

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!

E-mail from Sister Cathy

Dear Sisters,

Greetings from Salt Lake City!

Today marks exactly 1 month since I arrived here. It had been a wonderful, interesting & spiritually uplifting first month.

When I arrived on 1st October, it was simply wonderful to have the Merritts & the Millers welcome me at the airport - something that I truly appreciate. That very same evening, I joined President Larkins missionary reunion dinner where I got to meet the couple missionaries who used to serve in Singapore Mission. It was a great pleasure to meet up with the Reddishes, the Lunts, the Millers & the Merritts who send their love to all the members of KL Branch (They cared so much for our members for they remember each & every one of you & asked about you!). The next day was another missionary reunion for all the missionaries who were in Singapore Mission. This time, I got to meet with the elders & their wives & babies! Elder Hancock has twin babies & Elder Stubbs has an adorable year old boy. Among some of the others I met were Elder Woo, Elder Lamb, Elder Fox & their wives. The one who has changed the most was Elder Stubbs - I almost couldn't recognise him; he's put on a lot of weight & looking very well, thanks to his lovely wife who happens to be an excellent cook!

Oct 3rd & 4th were indeed memorable dates as I got to attend General Conference live for the first time & it was an uplifting experience for me to listen to the Prophet & General Authorities!

The following weekend was spent with the Merritts & I got to attend Sacrament Meeting at their ward. Johann & I were truly pampered by the love, kindness & generosity of the Merritts :-). They are always so loving & full of charity for everyone.

I also had the opportunity to go to 2 stake conferences on 2 consecutive weekends & heard President Monson speak for the 2nd time in one month :-).

The Millers invited me to a fireside by the BYU football team at Springville Chapel where I got to listen to one of their grandson speak. It was indeed an enlightening fireside where I gained much spiritual food!

The neigbourhood where I live in is indeed a wonderful one & I managed to get to know my neighbours within the first week of moving here. My home is less than 100m from the church & just a block or two away from the Conference Centre & Temple! The ward here is so caring & I got my first visit from the sisters within 2 days of moving here :-). The Ward Activities Chairperson lives next door & I had much pleasure helping her with the ward halloween party last evening, doing what I truly enjoy!

An amazing discovery is that Josephine (an Indonesian) who lives about 3 houses away knows members from our district & she's none other than the aunty of Lukas Subandriyo (who's Neena Ramachandram's husband). Josephine's sister is Elder Subandriyo's wife. How small the world is!

Before I moved to my own place, the Ohs (Chong Keat & Windia) made my first week's stay very comfortable with their family, & having Windia show me the ropes by taking me to the places for my grocery & necessities shopping! I certainly can never thank them enough for their hospitality!

This last week of October ended beautifully with a trip with the Millers to the Bountiful Temple yesterday afternoon & in the late evening, a performance at Temple Square. The performance at Temple Square was the Church Relief Society Music Festival which featured works from the annual Relief Society music submissions. It was indeed awesome to listen to the Relief Society choir members from the Bountiful Utah North Stake sing & to see in person great composers like Sister Sally DeFord & Sister Janice Kapp Perry (who wrote many songs like "A Child's Prayer", "I'm Trying to be like Jesus', "I Love to See the Temple" & "Love is Spoken Here") among the other Relief Society sisters who wrote beautiful songs for the Relief Society, Primary & the Church in general. What a great way to end my first month stay in Salt Lake City!

Of course, other fun things I did were to meet up with Miow Lin & her wonderful husband-to-be James (yes, he proposed to her about 3 weeks ago) & the Weists, & attending all the uplifting devotionals with Johann at LDS Business College every Tuesday.

I'm enjoying every minute of my stay here but I still think of all of you all the time!

Love,

Cathy

Ask The Geese

Dear Sisters,

Reminds me of the sisters of Relief Society!

Love,

Cathy

Charity in Action - Sister Cathy

Being with the sisterhood of Relief Society has been a wonderful blessing in my life. When I was expecting my first child 19 years ago (and a new convert then), the sisters willingly shared with me their experiences and pregnancy tips.

I'm especially thankful to Sister Susie How, who constantly called me up to check on my progress when she found out that my baby was due. As a first time 'mature' mother-to-be (and being far away from my own sisters), the thought of going through the birth process was rather worrying and Sister Susie's calls had certainly been reassuring and comforting to me! And especially so when I went beyond the due date and she kept up with me every day till my baby was born. After the birth of Johann, she shared with me parenting tips and gave me a book that I still treasure till today!

Sister Joyce Yong's help for the first year of Johann's life will always be remembered with much fondness as I've learnt so much from her in the area of child discipline for her children are a great reflection of her mothering skills!

By the time Eriene, my second child came along, I no longer needed the services of a confinement lady as Sister Jenny Han was around to take my maid to the market every morning and taught her the dishes to cook for me to help me recover fast from the rigours of child-birth! Sister Jenny is one sister who is ever ready to give her time and energy at a moment's notice and I will always be appreciative of her.

I have always enjoyed Sister Geok Lee's sharing of her children's milestones with me and from her, I learnt about academic excellence and multiple talents. When my children excel, she deserves the credit too for she showed me the way!

Of course, there are many other sisters (too many to name them all but they know who they are :-)) who came bearing gifts for my babies and generously shared with me their experiences about children in particular, and life in general. To all these sisters who have touched my life with charity, kindness, generosity, and patience, I will be eternally grateful to you :-).

I know that I have not been able to return the favour to them; so to show my appreciation and gratitude, I'll make myself available to other sisters who are in need of my listening ears and companionship.

So Sisters, just remember that I'm on call for you. This will help me return the favour to all the wonderful sisters who have done much for me :-)

Charity in Action - Sister Hui-Lian Liew

My mission has been one of the best things I have ever done, I think for my life. I learnt a lot and grew to love everyone I was able to meet, teach and associate with.

One of the highlights of my mission is definitely the companions that I had. Companions are definitely a God-sent because there's no way we can be as effective being solo missionaries. We are with them 24/7 and we have to do almost everything together. So of course, it's not all great. There are times when we have to work out our differences since we are all different and we each came from different backgrounds.

One companion I had was very strong-willed and having two strong-willed missionaries together, we were bound to head butt. She wanted a lot of control and so did I. But being the newer one in the mission at that time, I figured I'll back down and let her "run the show." It was frustrating and I found it difficult to enjoy our missionary work. Yet, we were taught that having the Spirit is important in every aspect of our work and I badly wanted it to work between us.

My companion had a scripture quote on charity, found in Moroni 7:47 which says, "But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." She stuck it on her bedside and said she reads it every day to help remind her.

I thought a lot about it and thought to myself, I surely needed it, badly. I made a point in every personal prayer throughout the day, to pray for charity. To have the pure love of Christ so I could rid of this discontentment filling up inside. Things slowly turned out better. I began to see qualities in her that I never noticed before. I learnt to see her, as one specially chosen by Heavenly Father to be my companion and to be in this mission, the lives that she touched, the amazing teaching skills that she had, all the things that I wanted to have in my own self.

By the end of the transfer (6 weeks), she got ready to go home and I felt like the time we had was not enough. It was not fair. We have grown to love each other and worked really well together.

But life is such, that Heavenly Father shuffles things around a lot so we get to grow even more with different events in our lives. In this case, I had the opportunity to serve with more amazing sisters and meet so many wonderful people that touched my life even more.

Charity not only brings about the pure love of Christ, but also opens up to more opportunities to catch a glimpse of what the Lord feels for each of us. I love it! :)

Relief Society: Divine Organization of Women

• The Relief Society, organized under the priesthood and after its pattern, is an essential part of the Church.
• The Relief Society enables women to act according to their benevolent natures, giving care to those in need.

Willard Richards reported: "The [Female Relief Society] meeting was addressed by President Joseph Smith, to illustrate the object of the Society--that the Society of Sisters might provoke the brethren to good works in looking to the wants of the poor--searching after objects of charity, and in administering to their wants--to assist by correcting the morals and strengthening the virtues of the community."

• The Relief Society encourages women to practice holiness and to instruct one another.

"You must put down iniquity, and by your good examples, stimulate the Elders to good works."

"If you live up to these principles, how great and glorious will be your reward in the celestial kingdom! If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates. Females, if they are pure and innocent, can come in the presence of God; for what is more pleasing to God than innocence; you must be innocent, or you cannot come up before God: if we would come before God, we must keep ourselves pure, as He is pure.

• The Relief Society encourages women to follow the example of the Savior in showing mercy and avoiding strife.

"If you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another....We are full of selfishness; the devil flatters us that we are very righteous, when we are feeding on the faults of others. We can only live by worshipping our God; all must do it for themselves; none can do it for another. How mild the Savior dealt with Peter, saying, 'When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.' [Luke 22:32.] At another time, He said to him, 'Lovest thou me?' and having received Peter's reply, He said, 'Feed my sheep.' [John 21:15-17.] If the sisters [love] the Lord, let them feed the sheep, and not destroy them....

"Sisters of the society, shall there be strife among you? I will not have it. You must repent, and get the love of God. Away with self-righteousness. The best measure or principle to bring the poor to repentance is to administer to their wants."

Eliza R. Snow reported the following words of the Prophet: "notwithstanding the unworthy are among us, the virtuous should not, from self importance, grieve and oppress needlessly, those unfortunate ones--even these should be encouraged to hereafter live to be honored by this society, who are the best portions of the community. Said he had two things to recommend to the members of this society, to put a double watch over the tongue: no organized body can exist without this at all....The object is to make those not so good reform and return to the path of virtue that they may be numbered with the good....

"...Search yourselves--the tongue is an unruly member--hold your tongues about things of no moment--a little tale will set the world on fire.

"The little foxes spoil the vines--little evils do the most injury to the Church. If you have evil feelings, and speak of them to one another, it has a tendency to do mischief."

"Do not injure the character of anyone. If members of the Society shall conduct themselves improperly, deal with them, and keep all your doings within your own bosoms, and hold all characters sacred."

(For the full lesson, click here)

Charity in Action - Sister Susie How

Many years ago, when I was staying in Taman Supreme, Cheras, I seldom had visiting teachers who would come to my house to visit me. My house was up on a hill with a long and very steep slope. The angle of the slope was more than forty-five degrees and the distance more than one kilometer. Of course, there was no bus service and unscrupulous taxi drivers charged extra to go up the hill. As I lived there, I constantly walked up and down the hill but for others, it was quite a trek uphill to visit me unless they had a car. My own brothers complained that going uphill there daily would put a toll on their cars!

Later, I had a set of visiting teachers who made no excuses when visiting teaching and no hill was going to deter them. Sister Lillian Lim and Sister Annie Teh were the two faithful sisters who were obedient and diligent to their callings as visiting teachers and who loved me enough to visit me faithfully every month. They would come together after work by bus to the foot of the hill, then walked up. After a whole day of sunny weather, the road up the hill would usually be hot and the soles of their feet would also be heated up. Naturally, the first word they would utter when they saw me was always, "Water!" After drinking, then only would the greetings and message given. Theirs were the visits I've always treasured!

Conversion Stories

Hi Sisters,

Remember last week I asked all of you to write down your conversion stories so that I can post them on our blog? Well, I've started the ball rolling by posting my own.

I hope you will be able to e-mail me or give me your handwritten ones to post. I've been inspired to ask this of you so I hope you will try.

I know we can strengthen ourselves as well as one another if we can share this.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve you and as I begin to get to know you better, I can see just how wonderful and unique you are. I know the Lord must be so pleased to see all the efforts you are putting in to live by His commandments, despite any challenges you may have.

We: Sister Claire, Sister Sharon, Sister Cathy and I love you and respect you.

So wear a smile and have a great week!