Kearney 1st Ward
Young Womens
Announcements
Wednesday Night Activity: The Young Women are combining with the Young Men for Dinner and games - Human Battleship. Meet at the church at 7:00 - 8:00. You will likely get wet in the games so be sure to wear a darker color shirt and something you don't mind getting wet!
Temple Trip: The YW & YM are attending the temple August 21st. We will be meeting at the church at 4:30 to carpool down to the KC Temple for our 5:00 appointment. If you do not already have a temple recommend you need to set up an appointment to see Bishop Myers with Brother Tanner before August 21st (no same day recommends.)
Stake Youth Dance: On Saturday, August 17th from 7:00 - 8:00pm there will be a Stake Barn Dance for all youth and friends of other faiths ages 14-18! The Dance will be held at Bishop Bart Walker's barn at 16820 Country Hwy CC in Holt. Dress is cowboy/cowgirl theme... so dust off your boots! Details are not finalized, but there will be a costume contest and the Stake Youth Committee is in the process of planning activities such as a bonfire.
August Calendar Dates
August 7: Young Women Combined activity
August 14: YM & YW combined activity: BBQ & Human Battleship
August 21: Temple Trip
August 28: Class Activities
Come Follow Me & Personal Progress
August: Marriage and Family
“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and ... the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,”Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 129).
The lessons this month will help the young women understand the importance of the family in their own lives and in Heavenly Father’s plan for His children. The truths you will discover this month will help you to defend marriage and family against the adversary’s attacks and deceptions. These truths will also help you strengthen your own family now and help you to prepare to raise righteous families as righteous wives and mothers in Zion.
Prepare yourself spiritually for next week's lesson August 18: (Laurels)
How can I prepare now to become a righteous wife and mother?
Proverbs 31:10–31; Alma 56:47–48; Moroni 7:45–46; D&C 88:123–25 (Characteristics of righteous women)
D&C 88:78–80, 118; 90:15 (Seek learning)
L. Whitney Clayton, “Marriage: Watch and Learn,” Ensign orLiahona, May 2013
M. Russell Ballard, “Mothers and Daughters,” Ensign orLiahona, May 2010, 18–21; see also the video “Mothers and Daughters”
Mary N. Cook, “Seek Learning: You Have a Work to Do,”Ensign or Liahona, May 2012, 120–22
“Education,” For the Strength of Youth (2011), 9–10
Video: “Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God”; “Loving God’s Children”; “A Mother’s Hope”
Prepare yourself spiritually for next week's lesson August 18: (MiaMaids)
What are the Church's standards regarding dating?
Deuteronomy 7:3–4 (Do not marry outside the covenant)
Doctrine and Covenants 46:33 (Practice virtue and holiness before the Lord)
Articles of Faith 1:13 (Qualities we should develop in ourselves as we look for an eternal companion)
Thomas S. Monson, “Preparation Brings Blessings,” Ensignor Liahona, May 2010, 64–67
Elaine S. Dalton, “Guardians of Virtue,” Ensign or Liahona,May 2011, 121–24
“Dating,” For the Strength of Youth (2011), 4–5
Video: “Brand New Year 2010: Dating”
Prepare yourself spiritually for next week's lesson August 18: (Beehives)
How can I strengthen my family?
1 Nephi 8:12 (Lehi wanted his family to partake of the fruit of the tree of life)
1 Nephi 16:14–32 (Nephi strengthens his family)
D&C 88:119 (Pattern for a righteous home)
“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign orLiahona, Nov. 2010, 129 (see also True to the Faith [2004], 59–61)
David A. Bednar, “More Diligent and Concerned at Home,”Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2009, 17–20
Mary N. Cook, “Strengthen Home and Family,” Ensign orLiahona, Nov. 2007, 11–13
“Family,” For the Strength of Youth (2011), 14–15
“Home Can Be a Heaven on Earth,” Hymns, no. 298
“Love Is Spoken Here,” Children’s Songbook, 190
Video: “Through Small Things”
Personal Progress
The following activities from Personal Progress relate to the lessons in this unit:
Divine Nature value experiences 3 and 5
Individual Worth value experience 4
Virtue value experiences and value projects
New Era Message: Four Words to Guide you by President Monson
I made a few resolutions I’d like to share with you, hoping that you too will join in making the same choices. First, I will listen. Second, I will learn. Third, I will labor. And fourth, I will love. These four words can well determine our destiny.
Listen
I would hope that you would listen to your mother and listen to your father, each of whom is upon his or her knees each morning and each evening, praying for you, asking our Heavenly Father to watch over you and to guide you in your choices, to be cautious, as it were, in your conduct. I believe that when we recognize our parents and the fact that they are concerned for you and for me, then we honor them, and the words echoing from Mount Sinai have a personal meaning: “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12).
I trust that we will listen to the words of the prophets. I hope also that we will listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. I promise you that if we have an ear attuned to the Holy Spirit, if there is a desire for righteousness within our heart, and our conduct reflects that desire, we shall be guided by that Holy Spirit.
I hope that I shall ever listen for the whisperings of that Holy Spirit, that during each day of the year you and I may have the opportunity to respond to these promptings and the directional influence of our Heavenly Father. Therefore, I promise to listen.
Learn
Number two, I will learn. It isn’t enough simply to listen if we don’t learn. I make a pledge that I will learn more from the scriptures and, hopefully, that you too will have that privilege. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we could take into our hearts that counsel from the Lord, “Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118). Let us learn from the standard works, but let us also learn from the lives of the Church leaders and the lives of those who are closest to us.
For example, I believe that I can learn patience by better studying the life of our Lord and Savior. Can you imagine the disappointment which He must have felt, knowing that He had the keys to eternal life, knowing that He had the way for you and for me to gain entrance into the celestial kingdom of God, as He took His gospel to those people in the meridian of time and saw them reject Him and reject His message? Yet He demonstrated patience. He accepted His responsibility in life, even to the cross, the Garden of Gethsemane preceding it. I would hope to learn patience from the Lord.
I would urge that you join me with a pledge, I will learn.
Labor
Then, number three, I will labor. It’s not enough to wish, it’s not enough to dream, it’s not enough to promise. We must do. The Lord said, “He that thrusteth in his sickle with his might … layeth up in store that he perisheth not” (D&C 4:4; emphasis added). And Nephi declared, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded” (1 Nephi 3:7). It was James who summed up this lesson: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
One summer years ago, for example, I had a weekend free. Yet the Spirit prompted me to fulfill a responsibility. I boarded a plane for California. As I sat down, the seat next to me was empty. However, there occupied that seat eventually a most beautiful young lady. I noted that she was reading a book. As one is wont to do, I glanced at the title. It was by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I said to her, “Oh, you must be a Mormon.”
She responded, “Oh, no. Why would you ask?”
I replied: “Well, you’re reading a book written by a very prominent member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
She said, “Is that right? A friend gave this to me, but I don’t know much about it. However, it has aroused my curiosity.”
Then I wondered. Should I be forward and say more about the Church? And the words of Peter came: “Be ready always” (1 Peter 3:15). And I decided that this was the time when I should bear my testimony. It was my privilege to answer her questions relative to the Church—intelligent questions that came from a heart that was seeking the truth. I asked if I might have the opportunity to have missionaries call upon her. I asked if she would like to attend our branch of single adults in San Francisco. Her answers were affirmative. Upon returning home, I wrote to the stake president and passed along to him this information. Can you imagine my delight when I later received a call from the stake president, in which he said that she had become the newest member of the Church. I was overjoyed.
I realize that I have a responsibility to labor.
Love
And then that final pledge: I will love. Do you remember the answer which the Savior gave to the inquiring lawyer who asked, “Master, which is thegreat commandment in the law?”
And He replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:36–39).
It was the English playwright William Shakespeare who wrote, “They do not love that do not show their love.”1 How might you and I demonstrate our love for God and love for our fellowmen? Through obedience to God’s commands and the counsel of His servants. We have the privilege to obey the law of tithing, to obey the code of morality, to obey in each facet of our lives the word of our Heavenly Father.
Our Heavenly Father can appreciate our love for Him by how well we serve Him and how well we serve our fellowmen.
The Choice Is Yours
Four pledges: I will listen, I will learn, I will labor, I will love. As we fulfill these pledges, we can have the guidance of our Heavenly Father and experience true joy in our own lives.
The choice is yours, and the choice is mine, remembering that our choices, our decisions, determine our destiny. God will guide you in your determination to serve Him and keep His commandments as you listen, as you learn, as you labor, and as you love.
New Era, August 2013
Contact a member of the Young Women Presidency
Xio Freestone President 824-1480 xiomarafreestone@yahoo.com
Amanda Lopez 1st counselor 401-7122 jass4ever@sbcglobal.net
Maggie Anderson 2nd counselor (801) 793-8038 maggieande01@gmail.com
Aimee Patterson secretary 678-8453 aimeeportie@gmail.com or apatters@nkcschools.org