Christmas Break Schedule

Just a reminder to everyone who will be here over the Christmas break, the Sunday meeting schedule will be different. Only sacrament meeting (no Sunday school or Relief Society/Priesthood meetings) will be held on the 21st and 28th of December from 12:00 to 1:10 in the Multipurpose Building.


Have a wonderful Christmas!

New Stake English Class Schedule

The Stake recently announced the new English class schedule. The classes are divided up into different levels and you may attend whichever level is most comfortable for you.

Basic:Tuesday 9:30am-11:00am
Thursday 9:30am-11:00am
Intermediate:Tuesday 10:00am-11:00am
Advanced:Monday and Wednesday 5:30pm-6:30pm

If you have any questions please call Kelsey Ross or Diane Estrada.

Voting Activity: October 2

The Presidential Election is coming up, and it's an exciting one! So make your voice heard!

Come to the B-basement at 7:00 to register to vote, learn about the voting process, where to find information on candidates, and get answers to any other questions you have about the political process.

Sunday August 31st

This Sunday there are a few changes to our regular meeting. Because Stake conference is the first Sunday in September, this next Sunday will be fast Sunday. Also it is our first week with the new schedule. Sacrament meeting starts at 2pm.

July Jumpstart 2- Tomorrow

At 8pm tomorrow in the B-basement, we'll be making baby headbands sort of like the one to the right. Cute, huh?

If you haven't had a chance to get the supplies you need, don't worry about it. I have some extra supplies that I won't be using, so come even if you haven't had time to shop. See you there!

New Teachings For Our Times Lessons

Since the Teaching for our Times lessons have now moved over to the most recent conference talks, the bookmark is now outdated. The literacy committee will be working on a new bookmark shortly. Until then, the schedule for these lessons will be posted here on the blog (to your right).

Summer English Classes

English classes are changing up for the Summer. They will still be on Wednesday nights in the B Basement at 8:30, but instead of every week, they will be every other week. So we will be having English class on this Wednesday (May 21) but not the following Wednesday (May 28), we will be having it on June 4, but not on the 11th, and so on, until further notice. As always, everyone is welcome!

Update on Book Review

Since things have slowed down over the Summer, we have decided to cancel the book reviews for the Summer or at least until further notice. Please continue to enrich your lives by reading good literature in your families and on your own if you find the time. If you have any questions about this or need an idea for a good book, call Diane Estrada 378-5226.

English Classes

"Where's everybody?"
(These guys are sad because they wish
more people would come to the English classes)

English Class is every Wednesday night (except the last Wednesday, that's the book review) at 8:30 in the B basement. EVERYONE is welcome! We have a nice group come every week to learn about English Idioms and other fun things about our crazy language. It's good to see so many familiar faces every week. It also would be nice to see some new faces too. Please come and join the fun!

Free Yoga Classes at BYU

The BYU Women's Services is doing a free Yoga class every Monday and Wednesday at 10 am in the MOA sculpture courtyard. For more information contact Women's Services and Resources:
Phone: 422-4877
Website: wsr.byu.edu
Office: WSC 3326
Email: wsr@byu.edu

May Book Review: Pride and Prejudice

Our new book for May is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. If you need a copy we will be handing them out on Sunday. Also you can contact Jen Bailey (apartment #88) who can give you a copy. The book review for this book will be the last Wednesday of the month. (May 28) The book is even better than the movie, so good luck and happy reading!!

Also if you don't have time to read it, you can listen to it by getting a Provo Library card and setting up an online account with their e-audio books. It's very handy! You can do the dishes while you listen! (If you have questions about this, call Diane Estrada 801.669.1601 or 378.5226)

Announcement: Book Review - Little Women

Book Review will be April 30 at 7:30, at Diane Estrada's house (#102). We will be reviewing the book Little Women, having treats, and even watching a clip from the movie. It's going to be a lot of fun! Come even if you didn't read the book, or haven't finished it yet, or have only seen the movie; we would love to have all of you there. It's a good break from the normal routine of everyday life. There will be no English class that day, so ESL sisters should feel free to come join us as well.

Cake Decorating by Jenn

Thanks to Jenn A., we learned how to decorate cakes last week! We are grateful to Jenn for sharing her talent, and also for sacrificing a lot of time and butter to make the sample cake and frosting! Here are some photos from the event:


The "practice" cake... half eaten!

Whitney S., Cathy, Kelsey, Kiersten, Elisabeth.

Jenn teaching Trudy, Evelyn, and Shannon.

cute Sunny and Hyo Suk.

Looking for a job?

Monica H. wanted to get the word out that a job has opened up where she works. She says, "It's a pretty simple receptionist, data entry and shipping job. The hours are noon to 5, Monday through Friday."

If you're interested, call or email Monica, or post a comment and we'll email you her information.

Announcements

Yesterday was a combined 5th Sunday meeting, so you may have missed our flier of announcements. Here they are:

• Because it is General Conference this weekend, we will NOT be having exercise group this Saturday.
• There WILL be Mom's Group this Thursday at 11:00 a.m. in the B Basement.
• Book Review will be Wednesday, April 30. We will be discussing Little Women, so start reading! Jen Bailey has several copies of the book, so contact her to borrow one.

(This girl is sad because she didn't know about the Stuff Swap.)

• The Relief Society will be having a Stuff Swap!! This is a great opportunity for you to eliminate some excess "stuff" while you are spring cleaning or packing to move. Please bring any clothes or other small household items that you no longer need to the B-Basement on Friday, April 11th between 7 and 9 p.m. Then, come back on Saturday, April 12 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to pick up someone else's "stuff" that you want or need. Anything left at will be taken to DI, so if you do not want your things donated, be sure to pick it up at 1:00.
  

Enrichment Meeting Report

Sarah took much better pictures of the Relief Society Birthday Dinner, but here's what we have for now. The Enrichment Committee did a fabulous job with the decor, the dinner, and the entertainment! The Compassionate Service Committee also needs to be thanked for their amazing salad...(the recipe will be posted soon...), and also thanks to Kaori, Mercedes and Alice for their inspiring words.
Thanks for coming and making it a wonderful evening!

Becki, Melinda, Stormie, Emily and Bonnie chatting before the dinner begins.

A BEAUTIFUL musical number by Emily, Bonnie, Melinda and Sarah.

Alice's talk.

Kaori's testimony.

Attention Young Mothers

Aubrey Kiene, a BYU student from the 44th ward in our stake is conducting a study and needs our help. She says, "We are conducting a study that compares the leisure satisfaction of young LDS mothers (ages 20-30) to the leisure satisfaction of young mothers (ages 20-30) of different religions. The survey is on-line and will take about 5-10 minutes to complete. It is completely anonymous and your name will not be associated in any way with the results of the study. My partner and I really appreciate your willingness to fill this out and help us with our project. If you are a young mother, please fill this out as soon as you can. Thank you for your time."

The link to the survey is: http://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE?SID=SV_85FkOYOhBijWfXe&SVID=Prod

Happy Birthday, Relief Society!!

Today, March 17th marks the Relief Society's 168th birthday! Aren't we so glad that Joseph Smith decided to start this great organization?? To the first LDS women who wanted their own society, he said, “I will organize you … after a pattern of the priesthood,” Later, he added, “The Church was never fully organized until the women were thus organized.”

Latter-day Saint women everywhere were united in a sisterhood, and today the Relief Society blesses every woman who accepts the gift of activity in that sisterhood.

We will CELEBRATE this special birthday this Thursday evening!!

Please join us for a catered dinner, a fun trivia game featuring your very own BYU 37th ward Relief Society sisters, and uplifting testimonies.

Multi-Purpose Building
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Babysitting in the nursery rooms.

Repent!

On Sunday, we had a wonderful lesson from the Joseph Smith manual on repentance. Lauren led a great, thought-provoking discussion, which may be what Elder Holland was talking about when he said, "It's better to take just a few good ideas and get good discussion—and good learning—than to be frenzied, trying to teach every word in the manual.”

Our discussion focused on daily repentance. Lauren asked what we thought the phrase in the manual meant that reads, "Repentance is a thing that cannot be trifled with every day." Questions were also raised like, "Do I need to kneel down every night and really repent of something that I did that day?" "What if I'm repenting daily and have the desire to change, but I keep on making the same mistakes?"

The realization that I came to during this discussion was that repentance is a change of heart and mind; a change of the way one views God. This made me stop thinking of repentance as a one-time event when I kneel down at night and repent of a mistake I made during the day, resolving to stop doing it the next day. It made me realize that maybe every day I can have a little softening of my heart, a little more humility or a slight change of my mind in the direction of God's will, and that that "counts" as my repentance for the day! I had never thought of it that way before! Brigham Young said, "Most of the time, repentance does not involve dramatic changes. Rather, it involves small, often daily changes that move us in the direction of godliness."

I am grateful for the enlightening discussion we had on Sunday. Did anyone else have a realization during the lesson? Any comments that were missed? Feel free to comment.

March's Book Review focuses on the Savior

We hope that you are all finding inspiring things to read (and to share) for this month's book review. If you haven't started anything yet check out March's Ensign which completely focuses on Christ. Also, the church has a wonderful new website that would definitely be worth looking into...www.jesuschrist.lds.org

What's new for all of you?

Here is a spot where you can give us updates on you and your family.

Do you have any...
...good news?
...ideas for activities?
...thoughts from your studies (scriptures, featured conference talks, etc.)?

Feel free to add a comment and let us know what is new for you.

A Great Resource

This brochure may be too small for you to read here, but we wanted to let you know about the great things that BYU's Women's Services and Resources offers. Those who know about the resource assume it is more for single women, but it is also for those who are married. They offer services for infertility, coping with relationships, being a student and mother, spouses with pornography addictions, etc.

Check it out! wsr.byu.edu

And here's another really informative website about infertility that I found while perusing the Women's Services and Resources website.

First Book Review

Our first book title for the book review was, "Confessions of an Unbalanced Woman." Thank you for everyone that came and took part. The next title will be announced soon!

Worldwide Leadership Training Broadcast

Schedule located at the following link: http://www.lds.org/broadcast/misc/AV_Feb2008_WorldWideTraining_06698_eng.pdf

Apostle Urges Students to Use New Media

Two hundred graduating students at Brigham Young University-Hawaii were urged today to use the Internet — including blogs and other forms of “new media” — to contribute to a national conversation about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Elder M. Russell Ballard, an apostle in the Church, told the mostly Mormon student body that conversations about the Church would take place whether or not Church members decided to participate in them.

Rest of article - http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/apostle-urges-students-to-use-new-media#continued

A Mother Heart

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president: “As spirit daughters of God, women ‘received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth’ (D&C 138:56) on the earth. They were among the ‘noble and great ones’ (D&C 138:55) who ‘shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7) at the creation of the earth because they would be given a physical body with the opportunity to be proven in a mortal sphere (see Abraham 3:25). They wished to work side by side with righteous men to accomplish eternal goals that neither can attain independently.

“Female roles did not begin on earth, and they do not end here. A woman who treasures motherhood on earth will treasure motherhood in the world to come, and ‘where [her] treasure is, there will [her] heart be also’ (Matthew 6:21). By developing a mother heart, each girl and woman prepares for her divine, eternal mission of motherhood. …

“In my experience I have seen that some of the truest mother hearts beat in the breasts of women who will not rear their own children in this life, but they know that ‘all things must come to pass in their time’ and that they ‘are laying the foundation of a great work’ (D&C 64:32–33)” (“A ‘Mother Heart,’ ” Liahona and Ensign, May 2004, 76).