Temple Terrace RS Sister is Now an Author

Did you know that Emily Mitchell (the sister that plays the organ in sacrament meeting) is now an author and her book is available on Amazon for Kindle?  The book is called The Acquisition.  

Take a minute and read the reviews by people who have already read the book; they can't wait for more.  Congratulations Emily.

Here is a brief synopsis of the book:
Today, Emma Bauer could lose everything.  
All fifteen-year-olds must attend the Acquisition, the event that determines whether a person is good enough to live in the Harvest as one of the elite Endorsed. If not, they are condemned to live in the Barren as a servant of the Assembly. All servants of the Assembly are sterilized on their eighteenth birthday to prevent their compromising genes from being reproduced. Upon her day of reckoning, Emma knows there is a chance of becoming Sterile because of something tragic in her past. She also believes the past is the past. When the decision is made, lives change forever.  
The life Emma tried so desperately to leave behind still haunts her, a life that is soon to be ripped apart by hate, jealousy, lies, and murder. If something doesn't change, it won't only be Emma's life hanging in the balance.

Scout Yard Sale & Bake Sale - Mark Your Calendars Now

We are going to be having a yard sale/bake sale/car wash on Saturday March 2nd from 8AM to 1PM to raise money for scout camp at 5201 E. Busch Blvd in Temple Terrace. (West of Lupton's restaurant across the street from K-Mart).  We are asking for donations in the form of items to sell at the yard sale or the bake sale.  We are asking all to bring donations to the above address on Friday March 1 between the hours of 4PM to 8PM.  Obviously we would like all possible donations, so if we need to be available at different times we will be. 

Ideas for yard sale donations: 

Items that are usable and clean

Furniture 

Clothing

Appliances

Books/DVDs

Sporting Equipment

Kitchen items

Collectibles

Tools

Craft supplies

Game consoles and games

The scouts are going to an LDS Jamboree at Camp Shands in Gainesville this year.  The cost is $270 per scout and we have about 10 boys that want to attend.  The young men are working very hard over the next month to try to earn money to put towards camp.  Any help you can give is greatly appreciated. 

February 24 RS Lesson

Bishop Knight will teach RS once a quarter this year and this Sunday we will have the pleasure of hearing from him.  His lesson will be from Elder Anderson's October General Conference talk.  Trial of your Faith.  Please follow the link to read this talk ahead of time as you prepare for the bishop's lesson in RS this week.

Study suggestion:  Look up the scriptures that are references for this talk.  At the bottom of the talk there is a link called 'show references'.  You can quickly click on the link for each scripture, read it, and then come back to the talk to finish studying it.

Pursuit of Excellence Achievement

During the month of February we have been working on the value of Faith.  We hope you have chosen at least one goal to work on, if you are feeling like you need more of a challenge, then by all means choose more goals.

We want to continue to encourage you to be reading daily in the Book of Mormon and to check it off in your Pursuit of Excellence booklet.

Also, don't forget the Walk to the Temple Challenge, which is a way to achieve some physical activity goals as well.

If you complete your goals, we have a small token to show your achievement.  We have painted wooden hearts that can be strung on a necklace.  Each color represents one of the eight values we will be working on this year.  Remember that this month the value is Faith and the color is white.  The necklace hearts will be given to those that accomplished their Faith goal(s) and it is on the honor system.  We don't ask you to report it to us.

Donna Dorough is our beautiful model with the necklace shown.

Angels Among Us

Please join us for a Special Evening

February 21, 2013 @ 6:30 pm

Angels Among Us

Dinner will be provided

Church Dress

Come early to reserve your "chair"

Feb 17 - RS Lesson Link

From the Lorenzo Snow manual - Lesson 4: Strengthened by the Holy Ghost

In his first general conference address as President of the Church, Lorenzo Snow taught, “We are dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord to aid us and to manifest to us from time to time what is necessary for us to accomplish under the peculiar circumstances that may surround us.” President Snow might not have been alive to make that statement if two of his friends had not depended upon the Spirit of the Lord in a peculiar circumstance 34 years earlier.

Click on the link above to read more and to prepare for Sunday's lesson.

January 13 RS Lesson

This year we are studying from the teachings of Lorenzo Snow.  Our first lesson is on Learning by Faith.  This will be a great lesson to go along with the talk the bishop gave to us in sacrament meeting last month.  That we need to exercise our faith to learn by faith.  Please take the time to read this lesson, ponder on the doctrinal principles and then be prepared to participate and learn together in Relief Society this Sunday.

Other resources to use this year to learn about Lorenzo Snow:

• Within These Prison Walls - BYU Studies
• The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, by Lorenzo Snow (available at Amazon (for Kindle), Barnes & Noble (for Nook), Deseret Book (for Bookshelf e-book))
• Lorenzo Snow at LDS.org
• Lorenzo Snow, from Institute Student Manual
• Lorenzo Snow, BYU Religious Studies Center
• Learning from the Spirit of Lorenzo Snow - Deseret News
• Life and Ministry of Lorenzo Snow at LDS.org
• Lorenzo Snow - LDS Church News

Are you a straight 'A' Sunday School Student?

How well do you prepare before arriving to Sunday School class?  Have you read the lesson, pondered on insights and questions that arose while reading the scriptures that will be covered in class that day?  Do you bring your scriptures with you and are in other ways prepared for class?

This is a question asked on LDSLiving.com and has a poll for you to answer for yourself and see how others answer these things as well.  Go here and see what you might be able to do to improve your experience and to be responsible for your own learning of the gospel rather than relying on the teacher to do all of the work.

Pursuit of Excellence 2013

Did you really take the time on Sunday afternoon to look at the booklet that was passed out to all RS women that attended church on Sunday?  We will be focusing on truly being converted.  The Pursuit of Excellence booklet is to help us do that.

There is an introduction in the front of the booklet about what we want to accomplish.  We also have two challenges.  Read the entire Book of Mormon this year, and we gave you two charts you can track your progress on.  The second challenge is an easy fitness challenge we call A Walk to the Temple. For every 10 minutes of physical activity (and this can be different for each individual) you can check off a box.

Each month in our RS Additional Meetings held on the third Thursday of the month, we will continue to focus on the theme for that month as outlined in the Pursuit of Excellence booklet.  We will be reviewing the Young Women Values as well as some other great goal setting ideas to help you continue to be converted unto the Lord.  So keep your Pursuit of Excellence booklet handy and make some goals that are personal to you to help you become more converted.

Please also refer to this talk, Converted unto the Lord, by Elder Bednar from October 2012 General Conference.

Welcome to 2013

Lots of changes in store for our ward this year.  First thing is that our Sunday meetings now begin at 11 am instead of 9 am.  You can sleep in a little bit more, but the kids (and husbands) are going to be getting hungry because we won't be done with church until 2 pm.  We suggest you make good use of your Crock-Pots so that as soon as you get home you can feed your starving family.

That brings me to the next topic, this Sunday is Fast Sunday.

Our youth have a new Sunday School and Young Women/Aaronic Priesthood curriculum this year.  It is called Come, Follow Me.  They will be focusing on 9 Basic Doctrinal Principles this year, both in their Sunday school lessons and in their youth meetings.  The topic for January is The Godhead.  By the end of this month, they should have a better understanding of the doctrine of The Godhead.  Ask them about it.

Our focus in Relief Society this year will be a Pursuit of Excellence.  This week's lesson will introduce you to this goal setting program as well as reemphasize that as sisters in the gospel we truly are Daughters of God.  Knowing that helps us make better decisions in our lives and helps us in our mortal journey.

We have some monthly goals that you can make as well as some bonus challenges.  One challenge will be to read the Book of Mormon this year and another one is a simple program to encourage physical activity, even for the most challenged sisters in this area.  We will be providing you with a little booklet for your Pursuit of Excellence this year.  Stay tuned for regular updates and encouragement.

Lastly, our Relief Society and Melchizedek Priesthood lessons on the 2nd and 3rd Sundays will be from the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church - Lorenzo Snow.  You can purchase your own copy of the manual at store.lds.org as well as read it online for free, or download a copy to your computer.

January 2013 Book Group

We would love for anyone new to join us for our Book Group on January 8th at Caryl Ockey's home.  Our book this month is a Barnes and Noble's Best of 2012 pick The Light Between Oceans.

You can find out more about Book Group, this book, and the hostesses for Book Group over the next few months by clicking on the Book Group link on our blog, in the ribbon menu bar, at the top of the blog page.

December 23 RS Lesson

I Know It! I Live It! I Love It!  Ann M.(Monson) Dibb