Family Home Evening Help

I just happened to see that the church has released a new Nursery Lesson Manual. It is called Behold Your Little Ones and I'm sure you can find it at Distribution if you want to purchase your own copy. Of course you can also access the manual on the LDS web site and print off pages you want to use as you use them. Go to www.LDS.org and then click on Gospel Library. From there click on Nursery Manual and you can download the lesson you want in PDF or HTML. It also has the option to download just the pictures and print them off. I've been frustrated because I've been unable to find a really good FHE help that was geared towards toddlers and have just been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to make up lessons for James to keep his attention and hopefully teach him something. But this new manual is full of lesson plans designed for toddlers that could easily be adapted to Family Home Evenings. Hope this helps!

We are all Followers

Tonight in my scripture study I came across a scripture I just love. It's found in Alma 3:26, "And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one." Here's why I like that scripture: sometimes, people of our faith are criticized for following blindly like sheep. We are accused of not being free to think, choose or act for ourselves but are merely following strict rules meant to control and restrict us. This of course is not true. I could go off on that for quite a while but it isn't the point tonight. The point is, as the scripture clearly states, everyone obeys one spirit or another. Whether they obey a good spirit or a bad is up to them. We are all followers.
I for one am thankful to be a member of a church which has given me rules and regulations governing every aspect of my life which have been designed to provide me with safety, peace, happiness and ultimately exaltation. I have the opportunity countless times every day to choose which spirit I want to obey and then recieve the rewards or consequences of that choice. The important thing to me is that I am now aware that when I choose not to follow the Savior and the council of his prophets, I am choosing to obey Satan and his servants. In 2 Nephi 2:11 we read "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things" and then in verse 16 "Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other." And so we see that we are acted upon by opposing spirits who try to entice us to follow them.
Ultimately, we are given more freedom when we choose to follow the Savior. What some "free thinkers" seem to miss about sin is how much more restrictive sin is compared to the freedom that comes with following the rules. For instance we only have to look at addiction in its numerous varied forms to see how sin eventually leads to loss of will and ability to choose for one's self. In John 8 the Savior told the Jews "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And conversely, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin", (Verses 32 and 34). So there you have it. You can choose to follow the Savior and be free or you can choose to follow a different spirit and be in bondage. But the point I want to make tonight is that we are all followers - our agency simply allows us to choose who we wish to follow.

Now as an addendum to the side note in my previous post I am happy - thrilled - to announce we didn't lose any families in our ward boundary change tonight. We gained about 15 or 20 new families. I'm excited for the growth. It will be such a nice change to teach to a Relief Society congregation of more than a few dozen sisters.

Every Member a Missionary

I have to admit I feel a little hypocritical writing this post. I'm not the best member missionary, or really a missionary at all. I could give you a hundred reasons for why I am not but I won't waste your time or mine with excuses. The missionaries in our area spoke in our Sacrament meeting today and one of the elders gave us some very interesting statistics (which a have no source to verify, but no reason to doubt). He said that only about 1 in 1000 converts who came to the gospel by way of proseletysing remained active in the gospel but about 1 in every 3 converts who were referred and welcomed by a member missionary (a friend, neighbor, family member, co-worker, etc.) remained active. He then shared a personal experience to illustrate the point. He and his companion had a referral in North Ogden and when they approached her, she became extremely angry at them, yelling and telling them never to come to her home again. So they approached her neighbor who was a member. The neighbor said she would invite the friend into her home to recieve the discussions from the missionaries, which she did. The friend accepted the invitation, recieved the discussions, and was baptised three weeks later. I don't get out much and probably 99.9% of the people I see on a regular basis are already LDS but I'm sure there are other things I could be doing to share the gospel.

On a side note, they announced in my ward this afternoon that they will be creating a new ward in our stake and as a result, every ward in the stake will be having their boundries realigned. I'm terrified. I hate change and I LOVE my ward. They will announce the change next week. It will be a long week for me. :(