Children

We love this talk. And it makes us sad when we see so may couples choosing to delay having children for worldly reasons- education, money, self satisfaction. Difficulty having children, like so many others in the church, has made us appreciate the children we've been so blessed to have and to have adopted.

The Hearts of the Children Shall Turn

This is a topic so very close to our family's hearts. We love doing Family History. We now have two kids who can help us by doing baptisms for our ancestors and they have committed to go at least once a month to do our own family names. That means my husband and I have to really search out for names they can take. It was easy in the beginning of our marriage. My husband is a convert and he had all of his ancestors to gather together. Now after 17 years of searching we are finding less and less the further we go back, which is a great thing! But what can we do to ensure that our children enjoy the Spirit of Elijah? We've introduced our oldest to Indexing and when he has time (which is rare now that he's in high school) he loves to help in this endeavor.

But how can I use this talk in my own life? I can more diligently use my time to do more indexing and more searching of family names. I can go back in each family and find them in the census records and make sure all the children have been recorded. A lot of times we simply focus on the direct ancestors and not their brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles.

I'm going to use this talk in a Beehive activity later in the year to get my Beehives interested in indexing and searching out their family names.

You Matter To Him

This is a great confidence building talk. I love Pres Uchtdorf, as I'm sure many church members do. He inspires others to be their best, do their best, and think their best. He constantly uplifts those who hear him.

Disciples of Jesus Christ understand that compared to eternity, our existence in his mortal sphere is only "a small moment" in space and time. They know that a person's true value has little to do with what the world holds in high esteem."

Counsel to Youth

Chris used this talk in FHE. He shared some thoughts from a Seminary devotional where this talk was also used. Chris did a nice job. It was a great talk about what to do and what not to do- thing to do and things not to do.

"With all that is going on in the world, with the lowering of moral standards, you young people are being raised in enemy territory."

Pres Packer says this twice, about the youth being in enemy territory.

"Dress modestly; talk reverently; listen to uplofting music. Avoid all immorality and personally degrading practices. Take hold of your life and order yourself to be valiant."

Doing the Right Thing, At the Right Time, Without Delay

Our 8 year old gave this lesson in FHE a few weeks back and he did a fabulous job! I loved this talk because it was all about looking for ways to serve without making it into a big project or forming another big committee.

"...it is not necessary to create new programs or take actions which are complicated and costly. They only need our determination to serve- to do the right thing at the right time, without delay."

I loved his quote from Pres Monson, "The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion."

I was asked to serve on a Ward Compassionate Service Committee. There are about 16 of us, but things are so crazy! We're the only one that are called on to make meals, which is hard for me because I work off a menu and when I go shopping I only buy groceries that are on the menu. Our budget is really tight. When we moved here last summer we lost nearly $2000 a month so we've had to cut back on our wants and focus more on our needs.
I had a hard time accepting email requests for meals and couldn't understand why they couldn't ask other RS members to help out- knowing they are in much better circumstances than we are. But I finally made it a goal to do better. I've tried to add an easy meal to my menu each month. And it's not been as hard as I thought it would be. And I take the kids with me when we go drop off meals and it is a great teaching tool.