Ward Conference March 25, 2018

Become and help others become true followers of Jesus Christ. The stake Relief Society Presidency. We discussed four points: (1) To live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will strengthen ourselves and us families by receiving the ordinances of salvation and sxaltation and keeping the associated covenants. We will strengthen our faith in Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ and His Atonement by regularly studying the Book of Mormon and by honoring the Sabbath Day. (2) To gather Israel through missionary work we will teach repentance and baptize converts and rescue less-active members. (3) To care for the poor and needy, we will build spiritual and temporal self-reliance and live the law of the fast and serve others. (4) To enable the salvation of the dead, we ill find family names and take names to the temple for ordinances and teach others to do the same. What are your goals? We discussed #2 and how to make people feel included, to be a friend first, not be afraid to show love. w can’t put everyone in the same category We are all sisters in the gospel, which means we take care of each other. Friendship and love are the important things we can share as we reach out to others. What can we do to reach out to others? Being friendly to each other can help more than you know.

Lesson for March 18, 2018

Today our lesson was given by Camille Maynard on a talk by Elder W. Craig Zwick, “Lord, Wilt Thou Cause That My Eyes May Be Opened.” Camille started the lesson by discussing what we learned from past weeks abut inviting the Spirit and seeing good in others and how previous lessons relate to this lesson. Sometimes if we only see things from our point of view, we don’t see things as they truly are. We must see things through the eyes of our Savior, because we rarely have the knowledge of everything as they are. It can be difficult to see all we should be seeing. When we have the eternal perspective we have the chance to see things more as they are. People are on different spectrums. God made us all that way and there may be certain things that are valued by God that we don’t possess. They look at commandments in different ways, not necessarily wrong. The way we can creatively look at each other is good for all of us. We want to value others and find the good in them. Perhaps there are valid reasons. It might be good to try to understand the backstory. The times that we are filled with anger, it might be ourselves that is at fault. If we can approach others with love, we can feel more love. Sometimes it is pride that makes us feel others need to get on board with what we think is right. We can ask them what they’re going through. Sometimes we think we know what is going on with someone, yet there may be other things going on. Elder Zwick said he interviewed a young man on his mission who wanted to go home. Each weekly interview brought up the same problem. Elder Zwick said he asked the young man what was wrong and found that the missionary didn’t know how to read. Elder Zwick found he needed to listen. Maybe we may think we know what is going on and we need to ask. If you feel like a judge, take the opportunity to serve that person. Help instead of judge. Then you’ll learn to love the person and serve others. Serving people helps you love them. We can choose to serve. We can’t get to know everyone, so if we can get to know people who are different from who we are we will have the experience necessary to help more people. What a blessing it is to learn what God wants us to do. Elisha woke up one day to find an army surrounding their city. Elisha said not to worry for those that were with them were more than those that were attacking. He could see the people they had to help. When we’re helping others, we should assume people are doing the best they can. Elder Zwick discussed differences. He said that loving others does not mean to accept the things that are wrong that they believe. Accepting other people who believe something other than what we believe means we can be loving and kind to them. We can accept people without condoning what they do. We can be kind to others, eve if we’re not alike. We can all love each other and learn from them. Experience the fun things and understand that the strange things they do are their choice. The scripture in 1 Samuel 16 when it says that the Lord looks upon the heart and not with what people look like. When we have Jesus Christ in our lives, our eyes can be opened. If we do keep Christ-centered, we can be blessed with the ability to treat people better. When the Lord talked with the woman who committed adultery, he was kind. He didn’t want her to sin again, but he was kind. elder Zwick told about a boy who died when the all-terrain vehicle flipped over on him. The boy’s family got his cell phone and a reminder popped up on the phone to remember to make Christ the focus of his day. What a blessing for his family to know he felt that way. A sister wrote down everything negative about her husband, but when she took the sacrament, she felt like she should delete all those negative feelings. It took some fort, but she did and realized that those feelings didn’t matter.Sometimes it comes down to letting go, even if we recognize what the problem is. We do have the ability with the Lord’s help to we people as the Lord sees them if we ask for the Lord’s lessing.

Lesson for March 11, 2018

Our lesson was taught by Lana Horrocks based on the talk by Jeffrey R. Holland, “Be Ye Therefore Perfect—Eventually.” Lana began the lesson by saying she was a recovering perfectionist and she forgot it was Daylight Savings today. She believes that we should focus on positive things so they can be embedded in our minds. She quoted Elder Holland about how the command to be perfect is the final nail in the coffin and beyond our reach, but surely we can at least work on it. We discussed examples of being perfectionists. Some of us are perfectionists and get anxious and teaching our children about being organized. We should focus on “People are more important than stuff.” While we’re all focusing on perfectionism, we need to remember that being perfect is related to being whole and complete. Sometimes in our lives we need to start in the corner and work out. When we move into times when we have to do harder things, we have to remember not to feel bad about ourselves. Our self-esteem can be damaged, so we put things off when we don’t think we can be perfect. We can pray to Heavenly Father to help us with what we have to do. Lana told the story of a little boy whose father told him to move a huge rock and do it using every resource. The boy struggled and went back to his father who said have you used every resource? The boy said he had and his father said, You haven’t asked me for help. Young people sometimes thin of commandments are curses, but every commandment comes with blessings. For example, tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and Family Home Evening bring us blessings. Elder Holland said the willingness to repent can help us achieve perfection. We discussed issues with body image. We can help each other feel good about ourselves and love ourselves. We should remember that our bodies can help us serve others and do many other things. We need to focus on the positive aspects of our bodies and know how capable and worth loving. We should not be ashamed. Exercise and eating healthy are not a punishment, but should be how we treat a valued body. As a Mormon society we have perfection issues. God intended how we treat out bodies, it is a tribute to God and the bodies He gave us. W need to not treat God and His Son despitefully. The Atonement of Jesus Christ speaks to our peace. Lana showed a part of the video of Elder Holland’s talk—the part about the servant who owed some money and who then would not forgive another dead. Elder Holland said the larger debt was supposed to be incomprehensible and that story is supposed to be about us and the debt we owe to God. We would have remained in debt and prison forever but for the Atonement. It is an unfathonable debt for an incomprehensible amount, just as our debt is to Jesus Christ who has made the point that it is doable. Christ paid a billion dollars to our hundred dollars, but it is doable. We can speak a little bit more God-like. What change could you make as you speak to your family, friends, co-workers. If we approached each other acknowledging that we really don’t know everything about each other we can understand more about how you can. We can be more friendly with our faces to uplift others. We can be courteous. Lana gave us a handout about how we can be more Godlike. We all want to be better than we are. We should refuse to let these desires make us cynical. Instead, we should work on being complete. Many of the negative thoughts are in our heads, but not in our thoughts. If we say our thoughts alone in prayer, we can partner with the Spirit to help us address our negative thoughts. Every thought we say may not even be from ourselves, but it may be from Satan. In a talk from the last April Conference on weakness, we can get inspiration. If you have the desire to improve, we can glory in our magnificent God-like heritage.

Lesson for March 4, 2018

Today our lesson was given by Andrea Gerber on “Strategies for Better Relationships.” Andrea is a counselor in the Relief Scoiety Presidency. Andrea started by giving handouts about better relationships. She said one of her hobbies is studying audio books about relationships. We need strategies based in gospel principles so we know what to do. The Marriage and Family Relations Manual. Andrea talked about being a “content communicator.” A lot of us are hint droppers rather than communicators. It means meaning what you say and saying what you mean. Find a kind and tactful way to say what you mean. Otherwise you are not being fair and you are setting yourselves up for frustration. No one is going to fulfill all our expectations in life, so don’t expect someone to read your mind. Stop withholding praise. Perhaps the other person didn’t do a perfect job. Joseph Smith said that if we withhold praise we can’t expect improvement. If you praise the good the other person is going to gravitate toward the good. Notice the good. Saying why something needs to be done, it helps the other person understand the true need. When we have built up resentment toward someone we will need to be worked on even harder. Especially in a marriage, there is a language of equals when you don’t tell people what to do, but you ask with respect. That kind of language is what we should use. Soften how you start a conversation where there is a disagreement. You need to step back and soften how you talk to the other person. 1. Be a content communicator 2. Stop withholding praise 3. Use a language of equals 4. Soften your “startup” in disagreements 5. Complain but don’t criticize 6. Remember the 5:1 positive/negative ratio 7. Edit Yourself 8. Be consistent We broke into small groups and talked about these principles. We discussed some successful tips on how to handle difficult situations. We wondered if we have trouble knowing why we’re upset. If we don’t communicate well, our people won’t know. We also need to be clear about reasonable expectations. using praise and hugs can be major motivations. We can express gratitude for what they do right. Praying together can be a form of communication. To wrap up we went over some quotes, suc as “Keep your heart in wonder of the daily miracle that is your partner, family, and friends.” The Holy Ghost is our best teacher.