Forget Not...

(poster made by the very clever 'Cocoa' ofChocolate on my Cranium - an outstanding blog for you to follow!)

The Greatest Story - a school play

Every 2 years the school puts on a big production, and this year they did

"The Greatest Story"

The Nativity with a few bonus numbers

Turtle is a Roman soldier

Little Possum and her friends getting some last minute instructions before going back stage before their number. They performed "Money, money, money" by Abba as a special song and dance number.
Wondering how it fits in with The Greatest Story? I did too..... but the reference was to

Caesar and his greed, wanting to do a census to find everyone he could tax.

Caesar and his devoted servant....  Doodlebug

Meanwhile, in downtown Bethlehem, these 'men' were dancing to the Havah Nagilah

(Turtle having transformed from Roman soldier to Jewish man)

Feasting on the word

I loved Pres Uchtdorf's message in the Ensign this month about General Conference, particularly the story he relates in the first part: A member talked to his neighbour about how God speaks to us through His prophet and apostles, and how at General Conference we get to hear these special messages. When asked what God had communicated through the prophet at the last conference, the member couldn't remember. 

(I had to admit to myself that I also cannot remember what was said. I remember how I felt, but not the particular message.)

The neighbour was shocked - "You mean to say that God speaks to man today, and you can't remember what He said?!?"  

---

Oh yeah, it sounds bad when you say it like that, doesn't it?

"I've found... that when you're trying to learn from the Lord and you feel an impression from the Spirit... it's important to make a note so it will note be forgotten. The more you not only hear but abide by what you've been told, the more the Lord will give you. It will come more and more rapidly and you will begin to hear and feel those impressions of the Spirit more quickly than you have previously done"
Elder Gene R Cook


"The prompting that goes unresponded to may not be repeated. Writing down what we have been prompted with is vital. A special thought can be lost later in the day through the rough and tumble of life. God should not, and may not choose to repeat the prompting if we assign what is given such a low priority as to put it aside"
elder Neal A Maxwell
("Press Forward" p 122)

I am going to Feast on the Words of Christ when I attend conference.... in fact I am going to use it as a value project for My Personal Progress, and I have made myself a notebook. Normally I would scribble in my journal, but I have thought that if I have a separate notebook, it will be easier to refer back to over the next 6 months until the next Conference.

And then, as I prepared for my YW lesson on Scripture Study today, I felt the Spirit teaching me several times, bearing testimony to me and guiding me in my preparation. One of the things I felt strongly about is the need for a scripture journal for the girls, somewhere for them to write down their questions and impressions. So I while in notemaking mood, I covered some exercise-books with scrapbooking paper.

They proved popular in the lesson. I hope they get put to use!

I believe

YW M3 L29 A Change of Heart handout

I had a lot of fun making these. I used the same tutorial as for the heart in the post below, but I changed the dimensions of the paper ever so slightly to a 8x4 cm rectangle. I made 2 different handouts, haven't quite decided which one to use yet. Instructions can be found here.

The first handout has a quote by Marvin J Ashton:
"An honest heart will lead to a change of heart. Spiritually speaking, a change of heart is not only desirable, but essential for eternal life. The Book of Mormon describes the conversion experience, which all of us must have, as a "mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to good continually (Mosiah 5:2)"

The second handout has a quote by elder Dallin H Oaks: "Testimony is to know and to feel. Conversion is to do and to become"

YW M3 L 30 Scripture study

I have been looking forward to teaching this lesson for ages. If there is one thing I would love for my YW to have, it would be a love of the scriptures - to have them come alive and to be a source of testimony, knowledge, guidance, strength and comfort.

My focus in the lesson will be on Feasting on the Word -  I will be bringing in some truly scrumptious triple choc fudge brownies to illustrate as well as this cartoon by Snoopy - someone who seems to do 'feasting' really well! I am planning to discuss ways to get the most out of scripture study, questions to ask ourselves while reading so that we truly understand and liken the scriptures to ourselves.

Still pondering  the details...

For another handout I will use the one above (from LDS Handouts). Quite a few of the girls have notebooks where they are gluing in the handouts from the lesson to save them so I am happy to provide.

Waffle Ninjas and Heart Attacks

(hmm... still haven't quite worked out the knack of photgraphy in the dark with my new fancy camera....)

I'm trying to instill a love of service to others in the kids. A good time to do a little service project is FHE,  so one Monday a month is dedicated to this. Last night the "waffle ninjas" sprung into action, and armed with a rainbow of hearts and a plate of waffles, they very excitedly but quietly decorated someone's garden and left a plate on their doorstep which would hopefully cheer that person's heart and feel the love that we were trying to share.

 I love this origami heart..... learned to make it here

Thoughtful Friday

monkeying around

 Little Possum turned 9 and what better way to celebrate than to go to the TreeTop Adventure Park?

 (no words required..... face said it all!)

 sometimes a helping hand was required

 the Big Boys were on the more advanced tracks

 Peter coming down the zipline of the "Black course"

A fantastic day out!

We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ!

October's Ensign will be dedicated exclusively to the Book of Mormon, its origin and its purpose.
I have been wondering and pondering what to do with my blog and when I stumbled across this blog and the above inspired forum coming up in the month of October, I have decided that I will participate. Will you?

obedience and airplanes

Lucky me, I get to teach the Young Women in our ward! My special group is the 'Beehive-class', the 12-13yr old girls. This week's lesson was on obedience (to the commandments) and as always they impressed me with their thoughtful comments and questions.
There was a doozy of a question of whether I would sacrifice my children if God required it of me....   obviously inspired by the story of Abraham and Isaac.

For a handout I used this idea here . I loved the quote by elder Robert D Hales using airplanes as an example:

"Just as aircraft pilots must obey certain rules to avoid disaster, there are laws, ordinances and covenants we must understand and keep as we go through earthly life if we are to reach our goal of eternal life. As important as it is for an airman to develop an automatic response to warning indicators on the instrument panel, it is even more important for us to learn emergency procedures to the warning lights that go off in our personal lives".

("Return with honour" Ensign Nov 2001)

I'm grateful for all the preparation that pilots do in the simulators preparing for worst-case scenarios. (Hopefully) you'll never see pilots in an emergency situation completely unprepared, frantically flicking through the manuals trying to find a way to avert disaster... a great lesson in how it is better to Prepare and Prevent than to Repair and Repent.

My little squadron of airplanes ready to take off......   so much fun to make.

Thelma & Louise (minus the cliff bit)

Little Possum and I took a roadtrip to Canberra for a few days last week as a little adventure while the boys and MOTH had "guy time" (lots of movies and pizza)

We had a lovely time staying at Last Stop Ambledown in one of the 3 converted train carriages. The owners Jenny and David made the best cooked breakfasts, and made sure we were looked after in every way.

 Nearby Cockington Green Garden miniature village.

 Our converted train carriage accommodation was fantastic!!

The neighbours were nice

This trip had a science and discovery feel to it...

First the CSIRO Discovery Centre

And then Questacon....

 Dressed up for dinner at the Green Herring Restaurant.

Views across the lake to the War Memorial