April Visiting Teaching Message

I am so grateful for the thoughtfulness of a visiting teacher. Being a visiting teacher is a gift from our heavenly father. It not only enriches the lives of those we serve but it also gives us a chance to enrich our lives through service. I think back to my first semester of college. I had just moved into a new apartment, and realized that it housed primarily graduate students who were understandably not excited about hanging out with hyper 18 year old. I was working a lot hours, and as a result, was having a hard time keeping up with my course work. To top it off my father was suffering from a chronic illness that had taken a turn for the worse, and he was spending a great deal of time in and out of the hospital. I was worried about his welfare as well as my mom’s, who was still taking care of four kids at home. While at school and at church I was a happy content freshman, but the reality was I was lonely, homesick, and overwhelmed. I can remember lying on the couch praying to my heavenly father that I could have the strength to face the day. It was at this precise moment when I heard a knock on the door. It was my visiting teachers. They had dropped by to introduce themselves and give me a copy of the recent general conference that they had so thoughtfully had bound into a book for me. They only stopped by for a minute, but their wonderful act of thoughtful service had helped ease my burden. After they left I dropped to my knees and thanked my Heavenly Father for these wonderful sisters who had unknowingly given me the strength to continue on. I know that if we think back on our lives over the past few years we can all think of time where we have felt overwhelmed by a trial. I also know that there are times that we have let others know what is troubling us and then there are those times in which we decide to keep it to ourselves. As visiting teachers we have the awesome opportunity to serve the women that we visit teach during the good times, the difficult times, and even during the difficult times that we may not even know about. I pray that we may all strive to magnify our callings as visiting teachers. We will never know how a smile, an act of friendship, a kind note, or in my case a quick stop by can change the lives of the women that we visit teach. Sister Julie Beck sums it up perfectly, “ I feel a certainty that as each sister does her part to ensure that the purposes of Relief Society are fulfilled, angels will be our associates and we will be participants in amazing miracles.”


Jane M.

9-Generation Fan Chart

This link,  https://createfan.com/,  will create a 9-generation fan chart from the information in your new.familysearch.org account.  To use, you need to enter in your LDS account login information and then press the button "create."  It's done in a matter of seconds and is displayed in a PDF format - which you can save.  It also includes information on different ways to print it out if you should so desire.  


It is critical to keep in mind that this will only draw information from YOUR new.familysearch account.  If you haven't started your family tree in new familysearch, you won't come up with anything, even if your mother, cousin, uncle or whomever has oodles of info.  To start, you can enter your information, and those for your parents, etc.  For all people no longer living, you should search for an existing record in new.familysearch before you enter in your own.  By adding an existing record for that person (instead of creating one), you will be able to tap into the family work that other relatives have already done.


Thanks Molly for this wonderful information!!!

April 20 - Announcements

Spiritual Thought:  "Don't be limited in your views with regard to your neighbors' virtues....You must enlarge your souls toward others if you would do like Jesus....As you increase in innocence and virtue, as you increase in goodness, let your hearts expand - let them be enlarged towards others - you must be long suffering and bear with the faults and errors of mankind.  How precious are the souls of men!"  - Sylvia Allred quoting Joseph Smith in her talk "Charity Never Faileth" (this week's lesson)

Sunday Lesson: Patti P. will be teaching from the Teachings for our Times curriculum on the topic of charity.  The talks are from October 2011 Conference and include: President Eyring's "A Witness" and Sylvia Allred's "Charity Never Faileth"

Announcements:

Tonight, April 20, Friday, 7:30 pm - Mt. Vernon Stake Women's Conference at the stake center.  President and Sister Swinton from the DC temple will speak 

 

April 25, Wednesday, 10:00 am Play group at Fort Scott Park - 2800 S. Fort Scott Dr., Arlington
 
May 3, Thursday,  7:30 pm - Relief Society Meeting - Emergency Preparedness

May 6, Sunday,  10:00 am - There will be a special Stake Conference.  The conference will be at the stake center and will be broadcast at the Mt. Vernon and 23rd St. buildings.  Consequently, we will observe fast Sunday April 29th.

2012 Mount Vernon Stake Women's Conference

2012 Mount Vernon Stake Women’s Conference

Friday, April 20, 2012

7:30 p.m.

Mount Vernon Virginia Stake Center

(Refreshments will be served.)

What you can do to prepare and participate:

• Attend the temple on Saturday, April 14 (Stake Sisters Day)

on Thursday, April 19, 8:00 p.m. session (Stake Temple Night)

or anytime during the week prior to the conference

• Do gardening on temple grounds starting at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 14 (contact your RS president)

• Prepare names for the temple

• Do indexing

• Write personal or family history

• Get your recommend renewed

• Do genealogical research

• Donate to the General Temple Patron Assistance Fund or to the Temple Building Fund

See you there!

BYU Womens Conference 2012

The BYU Womens Conference is coming up.  It will take place April 26-27.  For more information and to register go to http://womensconference.byu.edu.