October 11 weekly email

Birthdays:
1 Linda
2 Amy
14 Johnelle
21 Lorna
24 Kim
29 Karen

October Lesson Schedule
4 General Conference
11 Joseph Smith #42 Family: The Sweetest Union for Time and Eternity
18 Joseph Smith #43 ”He Was a Prophet of God” Contemporaries Testify
25 TFOT:
Nov 1st Stake Conference


Announcements/activities:
VT/HTing – the stake wants us to have 100% this month. We are asking that everyone get their VTing done/reported by October 15th. This will allow the presidency to VT those who have been missed. If you are unsure about your route, please call/email Irene. 281-360-4608 musicmom54@embarqmail.com
Thanks!

Thurs 15 - 7:00 PM Auxiliary Leadership Training (Pri, SS, YW, RS)

Friday Oct 16th Ward Temple Night

Sat Oct 17th Special Needs Carnival

Oct 20th HAAM assignment - wooters1@earthlink.net if you able to go, we are still looking for a few people to fill the slots.

Tues Oct 20th Book club 7:30 at Jamie’s, kids welcome, this month’s book: choose your own book about moms/strength of women to share. Some suggestions: :I Am a Mother by Jane Clayson Johnson / The Price of Motherhood

Sat. Oct 24th Ward Exchange 8:00-noon. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure! Clean out your house, bring your stuff, find some to take home… bring a picture of hard to move items, everything that is left over at the end will be donated to HAAM. Hope to see you there!

Oct 31st – Nov 1st Stake conference.

Nov 5th Enrichment – let Joanne know if you would be willing to fix up one of the tables with a tablecloth/fun dishes to make the activity festive.

Nov 7th Peanut Butter Assignment – please let Kay know if you can fill in this assignment.

Choir practice 5:00 every week after church

Kay’s Monthly Preparedness moment: Oatmeal 101
Amongst the items available for long term storage are rolled oats, either quick cooking or regular. Rolled oats are the whole hulled oat grains which have been steamed and flattened by rollers into flakes. Regular rolled oats take 5 minutes to cook; the quick oats only 1 minute. They are interchangeable in recipes though regular oats add more texture. And, as with any food storage product, our households need to learn to use and enjoy the things we store.
Perhaps now that fall is here, even children can be persuaded to try hot cereal. You could ease them into the process by letting them fix their own choice of instant packets of oatmeal. Then they could try the cooked oats --- and add their own extras to taste.

Oatmeal is easy to make, but it needs some attention to be its very best. Use a heavy pot. Light flimsy bottomed pans tend to scorch simmering cereal. Don’t stir too often, just enough to mix the flakes into the boiling water & once more to check for sticking. Constant stirring breaks down the grains and makes them gluey. Cereals like to sit and absorb the hot liquid they are simmering in, not boil wildly. Add salt to the cooking water to bring out the flavor. Be sure to measure the water; too much allows grains to overcook and become limp. You can use milk in place of half the water for a creamier porridge. Using only milk is more difficult; it tends to stick or boil over.

The recipe on a box of Quaker Oats works fine. ½ cup of oats to 1 cup of liquid (try milk & water) and a dash of salt, 1/8 tsp or less. Bring the liquid to a boil, sir in the oats and simmer on low uncovered for the recommended time. Use a timer. Remove pot from heat and let it sit a minute. All the liquid will not have been absorbed & this is fine. Stir in gently: nuts, dried fruit, a slice of butter, honey or brown sugar, cinnamon or nutmeg (this is the fun part for kids). Serve and enjoy.

Today's RS lesson: Chapter 42: family: the Sweetest Union for time and for Eternity
taught by Paulette

Paula started by asking us what makes a family, noting all the different ways that families are defined.

• we talked about being sealed to our family for time and all eternity, and how that changes how we view one another.
  
  Quote Elder Parley P Pratt: "I had loved before,. but I knew not why. But now I love-with a pureness-an intensity of elected, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul fro the transitory things of this groveling sphere and expand it as the ocean... In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also. "
  
  
• We talked about what makes great parents, and how we can show honor to our parents. What we have learned from our parents.
  
  Annette Allen - you can't choose who your parents are, and you can't choose who your children are, but you can choose who the parents of your children are.
  
  Memories of not having a lot of money, of a dad who liked to fix up cars, having a car that was all pieced together with all different colors, being embarrassed as a kid about it, but loved their humble father.
  
  Paulette said that after her family joined the church, her parents never went inactive, that they always went to church, and lived up to their vows, how much that meant to her.
  
  We talked about Prophet Joseph Smith's family, and how close they all were to one another. How Joseph was able to tell them about his experience in the grove, that they believed and supported him. They prayed for and with one another:
  
  Near the end of the march of Zion's camp, Joseph and Hyrum were afflicted with cholera. After praying, Hyrum sprang to his feet and exclaimed, "Joseph, we shall return, for I have seen an open vision in which I say Mother on her knees under an apple tree praying for us, and she is even now asking in tears for God to spare our lives that she may behold us again in the flesh. And the Spirit testifies to me that her prayers and ours shall be heard."
  
  "Every evening we gathered our children together. I think that we presented the most peculiar aspect of any family that ever lived upon the earth, all seated in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters listening in breathless anxiety to the religious teachings of a boy seventeen years of age..."
  
  
• we talked about siblings, brothers and sisters, and how important they were. How to be close to them, how to raise up children who loved one another...
  
  Jenkins - FHE, ask the kids who their friends are. Younger kids would answer giving some name from school, the older kids knew better than to list someone from school. They were taught that their best friends were each other, those in their family. Also said her father was raised without a father. That she never saw her father say any unkind things about her mother, that he always showed the utmost respect, love, and devotion.
  Rose talking about all her girls, that she grew up in a family of girls who were not so close to one another, did not want that for her girls. Every time there were bad thoughts in the air, Rose would make them do a good deed for one another, and they had to come up with their own good deed to do.
  Karen R. said she was so grateful that there were no squabbling among siblings, that they could come together for the holidays etc. without having to walk on eggshells, that everyone enjoyed being together.
  Debbie said how grateful she was for her brother, how we was taking care of their parents right now, how important that was to her and everyone.
  
  Joseph Smith talking about a few of his brothers:
  "Alvin, my oldest brother, I remember well the pangs of sorrow that swelling in my youthful bosom and almost burst my tender heart when he died. He was the oldest and the noblest of my father’s family. He was one of the noblest of the sons of men.. In him there was no guile. He lived without spot from the time he was a child… He was once of the soberest of men, and when he died the angel of the Lord visited him in his last moments…
  My brother Don Carlos smith… also was a noble boy; I never knew any fault in him; I never say the first immoral act, or the first irreligious or ignoble disposition in the child from the time that he was born till the time of his death. He was a lovely, a good natured, a kind-hearted and a virtuous and a faithful, upright child; and where his soul goes, let mine go also.

It was a wonderful lesson, everyone reminiscing about their parents and other family members. I’m sure I did not remember all of the stories that were shared. With Thanksgiving and the holidays coming up, I think it put all of us in the mood to see everyone again, made us all want to go home and give everyone a big warm hug on this cold rainy day. Thank you Paulette for a great lesson, for reminding us how precious our family really is!