12 year old prodigy

Sister Gallagher, our former RS President forwarded me this incredible story today. It is a CNN news article about a 12 year old prodigy who's paintings are inspired by visions from Heaven. Most remarkably, the girl grew up in an atheist home...

Lift me up

Scriptures for Kids

If you have kids (or plan to have kids) there is a New Zealand website you really need to check out. It's called Scriptures 4 Kids, and is a fantastic resource for parents, children and the whole family. Here's some info from their website:

Mission

The mission of Scriptures 4 Kids is to provide parents with tools that will help them teach their children to love the scriptures and to help children gain a testimony of Jesus Christ.

Scriptures 4 Kids currently offers:

• 71 stories on 4 different reading levels including audio narration
• 71 original illustrations
• 71 thought provoking questions
• 71 coloring pages
• 71 original games that teach a gospel principle (2 games currently live, 30 to be released Summer 2010)
• 71 Family Home Evenings (released weekly)

Join the Daily Scripture Reading Challenge!

Scriptures 4 Kids is challenging children to read their scriptures every day, starting with one month. Oh, and we are not talking about Family Scripture Study (you are probably already doing that)! We want kids to learn the value of individual scripture study. But with Scriptures 4 Kids, individual scripture study is possible even if you are only three years old and even when mom is too busy to squeeze it in! Each month, extend the challenge for one more month and shoot for an entire year! Teach your children the importance of establishing habits while they are young. Help them to understand that if they start now with Scriptures 4 Kids, that someday they will be able to be partakers of the blessings that come with life long daily scripture study.

I love this site! There are Sacrament Activity Packs for Junior and Senior Primary kids, General Conference Activity Packs, Colouring Pages, Family Home Evening Lessons....and a ton of other resources. Go check them out. You can download everything for free, or make a voluntary donation if you like.

Scriptures 4 Kids Website

Scriptures 4 Kids Facebook Page

Follow the Prophet

Next weeks lesson (May 9th) is taken from Chapter 9 in the Gospel Principles Manual, entitled "Prophets of God". I found this inspiring talk by President Ezra Taft Benson on You Tube titled "Follow the Prophet". It's not the same lesson we'll get next week, but it is a wonderful complement to it, and I highly recommend you take a moment to sit....breathe....and listen.....



Wasn't that great!

On another note, the Relief Society is often called to help feed families-in-need in our ward. Since we don't have a Bishop's storehouse to use, we as a Presidency felt impressed upon to start a Relief Society store cupboard to use in emergencies. We humbly encourage each sister to bring one can of food to donate to the store cupboard each month. Just one can. It can be soup, baked beans, meat...whatever you like. By little things, great things happen. We hope this will help spread the responsibility for welfare among everyone, relieving the pressure off the same sisters who always respond to the call from our Bishop. Thank you so much.