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.