In Transit

The Relief Society Fireside tonight was beautifully presented. The theme was "In Transit", and was focused on helping the Young Women transition into Relief Society. The music was beautiful, the talks were well thought out and delivered, and the activity was lots of fun. All the things you want in a fireside.

A couple of points that really stuck with me were:

1. Relief Society is more than just a class you ATTEND. It is an organisation you BELONG to. Get involved.

2. It is not just up to the Presidency to make new sisters feel welcome. It is up to every single sister in Relief Society to open their arms, welcome the new sisters and make them feel at home.

3. We need to get to know the Laurels BEFORE they walk in the door to Relief Society.

4. We need to watch over the new sisters and show our love for them for as long as it takes them to really settle in. This may be a few weeks, a few months, or a few years. Everyone is different, but everyone needs to feel loved and wanted. (This goes for all new sisters to the ward, not just the young women).

So with those points in mind, I got to thinking. What can we do in Mountfort Ward to help our Young Womens transition easier? Can you remember back to your first time in Mountfort Ward Relief Society? What would have helped you? What would you like to have happened? What do they do in other wards that you think might work for us? What could you do now to help someone else? If we had a welcome pack, what would you like to have in it?

I would LOVE to get some thoughts/opinions/suggestions from you all. And from the Young Women. We're all for new ideas here. I have enabled the post comments option (at least I think I have), so you can reply below.

The Influence of Righteous Women

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, gives a wonderful talk on the influence of righteous women in this month's Ensign. It is the First Presidency Message for September and I have quoted a small part of the talk in our monthly Relief Society newsletter, but you should really read the whole thing - it's so uplifting and I just know you will love it as much as I do. Here are a couple of my favourite parts:

"As we look at the history of this earth and at the history of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, it becomes obvious that women hold a special place in our Father's plan for the eternal happiness and well-being of His children. Though we often speak of the influence of women on future generations, please do not underestimate the influence you can have today. President David O. McKay (1873–1970) said that the principal reason the Church was organized is "to make life sweet today, to give contentment to the heart today, to bring salvation today. . . . Some of us look forward to a time in the future—salvation and exaltation in the world to come—but today is part of eternity."

"May I invite you to rise to the great potential within you. But don't reach beyond your capacity. Don't set goals beyond your capacity to achieve. Don't feel guilty or dwell on thoughts of failure. Don't compare yourself with others. Do the best you can, and the Lord will provide the rest. Have faith and confidence in Him, and you will see miracles happen in your life and the lives of your loved ones."

"We are living in a great season for all women in the Church. Sisters, you are an essential part of our Heavenly Father's plan for eternal happiness; you are endowed with a divine birthright. You are the real builders of nations wherever you live, because strong homes of love and peace will bring security to any nation."

Click HERE to read the whole message.

Friend online

For those of you with Primary Children, did you know the Friend magazine is now online too? There are games, stories, music, interactive activities, colouring pages.....you really have to check it out. A nice little touch I liked was that Primary Songs play in the background while the child does the activity. Click HERE to be taken to the site.

How cool was that!

Are you still buzzing about our activity on Tuesday night? I know I am! I couldn't believe how much laughter there was, and it was so wonderful to see all the smiling faces and happy sisters. For those who couldn't make it, you really missed out on a fantastic evening. We started off with an M&M game. We each chose several M&Ms, then had to answer get-to-know-you questions depending on what colour we held up. Once the question was answered, the M&M got eaten. You should've seen how fast our group whizzed around the questions so we could have more M&Ms! LOL - it was so hard case.

The second activity was a service swap. We randomly got given a sister's name and some info about them, and had to come up with a service that we would personally provide them within the next 3 months. It was completely up to the individual as to what that service would be. What a great way to get to know someone, and at the same time receive a blessing for providing an act of charity. We will get feedback on this activity at the Home, Family & Personal Enrichment Activity in November. I'm really excited to serve my nominated sister (though she may have second thoughts once she actually TASTES my baking! Hahaha).

The third activity was conducted like Speed Dating. The sisters were given a list of topics, and 60 seconds to ask/answer them with the person opposite. After 60 seconds they had to stop, move one seat to the right, then speak on the next topic on the list, with a new person. This continued on until you had spoken with everyone in the room. Now most of these questions were quite serious get-to-know-you questions, but you wouldn't have known from the laughter and hysterics echoing around the room. This was SUCH a fun activity, and you just KNOW every single sister came out of it knowing a whole bunch more about each person there. Here are a few photos from that activity:

The photos don't do it justice I assure you. After all that fun we followed up with a delicious supper, milo & marshmellows. Absolutely no good for anyone dieting, but hey everyone needs a sweet reward now and then don't you think? Thankyou to everyone for bringing along such tasty goods - I know next time not to have dinner first :D

We have more activities in the works, and will let you know of them very soon. Until then, keep the 2nd Tuesday night of every month free - that's our big activity night. We will have a variety of smaller daytime activity groups throughout the month as well - watch out for those details here and in next month's newsletter.

Midnight Madness

Bring along your friends and inactives too - the more the merrier. We as a presidency feel that the better we get to know each other, the closer we will grow and the better we can serve one another. So with that in mind, the evening is all based around getting to know each other and having fun in the process. All you need to bring is yourselves, and a small supper plate to share. Can't wait to see you there.