Hi friends! Welcome to the new blog. New year, time to try something new. I'm hoping this will be a place that we can let those who aren't in our Sunday Relief Society meeting know what's going on. The Church has asked us to be more involved in the Sunday lessons and in our communities. So here it goes. I'll try to give as close to a reproduction as I can, but I'm not perfect, and it is coming from my point of view. If something needs to be changed or added to, let me know. Please feel free to comment, but please keep it kind. 


NEWS (where I'll pass on the good or bad news that was shared by others -- not gossip! And if you have news to share, I can post it here for you, or you can add it in the comments)

• My house was broken into on Friday! They came in through the back door, during daylight hours, and took what they could quickly! Please make sure your homes are safe, watch out for your neighbors, and pass the word along!
• Karin Cooper told us that her son, Cole, was able to receive his Endowment yesterday in preparation for his mission.

LESSON (where I'll let you know who taught and a semi-quick review of what the lesson was on and what was discussed)

Marilyn Christensen led our first community council today. She gave us a quick review on what the new curriculum will be like -- much more discussion -- and how Visiting Teaching is changing -- less stress, basically make sure everything is okay with your assigned sisters. But the main topic of discussion today was on unity. My favorite description of unity is "to become one in thought, desire, and purpose." 

So the first part of the discussion was on how to unify as a Relief Society, as sisters. The Church has recently changed the purpose of Relief Society. It now states, " Relief Society helps prepare women for the blessings of eternal life as they increase faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and His Atonement; strengthen individuals, families, and homes through ordinances and covenants; and work in unity to help those in need." The question was asked, how? How do we gain more unity with each other? Some of the suggestions include: 

• making time for others
• serving (of course)
• humble yourself enough to ask each other for help
• focusing the individual. Frances Johnson shared the quote by President Monson, "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." 

From here, the discussion was broadened to unity in our neighborhood. Ideas for unity with our neighbors include:

• getting to know your neighbors (which is also helpful for safety reasons) by having a party, taking treats, etc. 
• be sure to be inclusive of all religions
• encourage friendships between your children

We are asked to have an action plan after these meetings and to follow up on them next month. I probably won't always share my own action plans with you, but I'm going to this time to give you ideas for you own action plans. So, here come some more tabs for you:

• first, I'm going to invite the little boy across the street, who likes to play with June, to come to the Planetarium with us. June was invited to his birthday party, which was today, so we told his parents she wasn't able to go. I want to make sure they know how much June loves playing with their son, so we'll take him on an outing since the party was a no-go.
• second, Joyce Sampson brought up the possibility that as a Relief Society, we are not given enough opportunities to be together. I'm the counselor over the RS activities, and currently we are scheduling activities for every other month. But as a RS presidency, I'd like to re-evaluate the needs of you all. So feel free to comment, do you think we have too many activities, or not enough? I'd love your input.

Whew, that was long. Sorry. We'll see what I can do to make it more concise in the future. Please let me know what you think. 

NEXT WEEK

Elder Osguthrope is coming to give a combined RS/Priesthood lesson about the new lesson curriculum. Stay tuned!