Christmas Charades Complete!

So a belated Merry Christmas, dear readers!

I'm writing this after coming home from spending Boxing Day / St. Stephen's Day with my family at my Dad's house. We had so much fun! There was (as usual) a lot of food but the thing that I enjoyed the most about the day was playing charades with the family! We have never done that before and I felt as though we really bonded and spent some proper, quality time with each other, rather than just sitting limply in front of the television, ignoring each other. 

I love my family and I am loving growing closer to the Lord. The closer I grow to the Lord, the closer I become with my family. We are going to be a family forever, so I am looking forward to forging stronger relationships with my God and my family over the coming year. 

How the Gospel is Changing My Life

This past Sunday I was asked to give a talk during Sacrament meeting about how the gospel is changing my life. The spirit has prompted me to share my talk with you here too, perhaps someone reading will gain some inspiration from it. 

When I was first asked to give a talk about how the gospel is changing my life I really didn't know that I had a lot to say, but then I got down on my knees and prayed to Heavenly Father to ask Him to allow the Spirit to be with me and to lead me to prepare a talk which someone in the ward needed to hear. Almost instantly things started flying into my mind, beginning with a very obvious one: PRAYER!

When I was first being taught by the missionaries, I openly admitted that I really struggled with the act of prayer. Praying to Heavenly Father just wasn't something that came naturally to me. When I was growing up my family rarely went to Church - only for weddings, christenings, funerals etc., yet we used to bid each other good night and God bless every evening! The fact that I now pray repeatedly to Heavenly Father throughout the day is a big change for me.

Over time, I have come to realise that prayer is the tool that Heavenly Father gave us to communicate with Him. He is our Father in Heaven and He is our family. I would like to think that we talk with our families regularly - that we ask them how they are doing, we share our ups and  our downs, ask for advice or ask for someone to listen to us - that's what Heavenly Father wants from us - He wants us to communicate with Him - that's how we build our relationships spiritually and temporally. Prayer is so very important!

In 3 Nephi 18:19-20 Jesus tells us:

"Therefore ye must always pray unto the Father in my name; And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you."

We must always pray unto the Father and we must have faith and believe that we will receive an answer from Him, even if it may be an answer that we didn't want to hear!

So, we are commanded to pray - but more importantly, we need to want to communicate with Heavenly Father, even though He already knows what's in our hearts, He needs us to counsel with Him each day and to spend time with Him. Of course, I'm still very much a "baby Christian" - I'm still learning and I'll forever be learning but praying each day to my Father in Heaven is a big change for me, even if I'm taking baby steps each day, I'm pleased to be building my relationship with the Lord my God.



Every day I'm learning a little bit more about what it means to be a woman of God. I'm learning about obedience to the Lord; that I am a strong-willed and sometimes ridiculously stubborn individual, yet I am slowly coming to realise that I must learn to exercise patience; that things will be done in God's own time, not necessarily when and by what means I want them to happen. 

If I miss Church due to illness, or travelling, it now feels strange: my week just doesn't feel complete without taking the Sacrament, which is like my weekly spiritual recharge. 

I'm learning that my scriptures are my best friend and counsellor - they are the first place I should seek guidance and comfort (as well as through prayer to Heavenly Father). 

Finally, the biggest change is taking place in my heart. I just need to learn to trust more in the Lord. He knows where I am going and what lies ahead. I can take my struggles to Him as well as my gratitude for my blessings and He will always guide me. I'm so grateful that He softened my heart enough to receive the gospel into my life. 

In just over a week we will be celebrating Christmas. This will be the first CHRISTmas for me in a long time and I am so excited to be learning about my Saviour and building upon my relationship with Him. Having a Christ-centred Christmas is a big deal for me and I'm also a little bit nervous but as my husband recently reminded me: there's no need to be nervous when you know that God's backing you up.

There are so many other lessons I'm learning every day as my testimony grows but I will leave those for another time. 

I know that this Church is true, that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, lives as the Head of the Church and that through Jesus' Atonement, we can all have eternal life with Heavenly Father and our Saviour. I'm so grateful for the restored gospel, so grateful to Joseph Smith who I know was a prophet of God and I'm grateful to our living prophet, Thomas S Monson for his guiding and leading the Saints to salvation. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Amen.

Blessings of the Temple

I'm writing this at almost midnight having returned from my first ever trip to the Preston Temple! I have been literally blown away!!! I cannot explain the level of spiritual calm and spiritual peace that I am feeling at the moment and that I've felt ever since I set foot in the Temple earlier this evening. 

LDS Temple in Chorley, near Preston, England

I received my Limited-Use Temple Recommend from the Bishop this last Sunday and was very excited as a result. Our Stake President, President Marshall, set Liverpool Stake the challenge of indexing at least one batch of names and to work on our family histories and take at least one name to the temple with us during this week; our Stake Temple Week.

I have been doing some indexing since I joined the Church and try to do a couple of batches each week but I had hit a brick wall with my family history. I realised that I didn't really know what I was doing and I mentioned this to one of my companions from the church when we were manning the local Poppy Appeal table last week. Sister Kopecna generously offered to help me with my Family History work and help me she did! With her assistance, I was able to track down 14 people from my family to add to my Family Tree and for whom Temple work could be completed, where appropriate.

I didn't realise how much this meant to me, but before I left for the Temple this evening, I prayed to Heavenly Father to ask His help at the Temple tonight and I asked for His guidance and to for me to act in the way that He wants me to act and what He wanted me to do. I was overcome with emotion and ended up sobbing my heart out. It was entirely unexpected. Then, I was suddenly embraced by a feeling of warmth and the tears stopped as quickly as they started. I had to go to the Temple and do what I was asked. So I did and I feel so so blessed as a result. Both when I was being baptised and when I was being confirmed, I felt the Spirit with me very strongly and I was again overcome with emotion. It was as though I could hear my ancestors. I could feel them. It was a beautiful and very moving experience and I was pretty sad when we had to leave. I didn't want the feeling of peace to end - and it hasn't.

I have a testimony of the peace of the temple and I'm looking forward to doing more work on my family tree and reconnecting with my ancestors. I now understand what President Monson meant when he said:

"As we go to the holy house, as we remember the covenants we make therein, we will be able to bear every trial and overcome each temptation. The temple provides purpose for our lives. It brings peace to our souls - not the peace provided by men but the peace promised by the Son of God when He said, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid'".

In 1995, President Boyd K Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, counseled:

"The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all our affairs" (The Holy Temple, Ensign, February 1995).

I always want to have a valid Temple Recommend because I do not want to never be able to experience the peace that I'm feeling now. I want this peace to be with me always. How about you?

Finding Joy Through Loving Service

The Church pamphlet "For the Strength of Youth" counsels us that "Service to others is an important characteristic of a disciple of Jesus Christ". I want to be a good disciple of Jesus Christ, after all, when I was baptised at the end of August, I covenanted with Heavenly Father to take upon myself the name of Jesus Christ, to always remember Him, keep His commandments and to serve Him to the end. Regardless of all that, I also really enjoy helping people, so I'm keen to perform acts of service whenever I can. 

Today, I have another opportunity to serve in my local community - helping the Royal British Legion to raise money for the 2014 Poppy Appeal. The Legion are aiming to raise £40,000,000 for the Armed Forces through this year's appeal. You can read the story of the poppy here.

Church members have been helping our contact at the Royal British Legion sell paper poppies (donation only), commemorative wooden crosses (donations only), wristbands, car stickers, car bumper poppies, money boxes, etc at our local Tesco Supermarket for a couple of each hours each day for the past week. It's really not a difficult task - if you consider the number of men and women who gave their lives in both World War I and World War II, to allow us to now live in peacetime, you realise what little sacrifice a couple of hours once a year really is. 

There are so many ways to help out! You can volunteer and give a couple of hours of your time to the Royal British Legion, raising money to support their welfare work for the families of the armed forces past and present, or you can make a one-off or a regular donation. You can even donate online. There really are plenty of way to help out. 

Remember the commandment we were given in John 13:34-35:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Christmas Truce ~ Do not hide your talents

I was reminded last night of the instruction given to us in Matthew 5:16:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

We should not hide our lights under bushels, rather we should open our mouths, not hiding the talent given to us by Heavenly Father (Doctrine & Covenants 60:2).

Last night, I attended the first rehearsal for Liverpool Stake's performance of The Christmas Truce. Almost 100 years ago to the day, the troops involved in the 'Great War' took part in a series of unofficial ceasefires. Each stake across the United Kingdom is putting on a concert to commemorate the Christmas Truce and to commemorate those who fought in the First and Second World Wars.

The event will be free of charge and we are inviting as many people as would like to come. If you're interested in coming to see the performance at Liverpool, our performance will be at the Liverpool Stake Centre on Saturday, 6th December, 7.30pm. If you can't attend the performance on 6th December in Liverpool, then you can find a list of locations and times here.

The performance is really going to be top notch and I wholeheartedly recommend attending the performance in your local stake. You can see the trailer for the performance below:



The Christmas Truce 2014 - The Trailer from christmastruce2014 on Vimeo.

So, if you are looking for a wholesome, family activity and an evening out, then make sure to support your local stake and attend the Christmas Truce - it's going to be a night to remember!

If you would like to get involved, then contact your local stake or click here for more information.  

Liverpool Stake Conference ~ 26th October 2014 ~ Families Can Be Together Forever

On Sunday, I was lucky enough to attend my first Stake Conference. I was even fortunate enough to sing in the dedicated Sisters' Choir. I felt so inspired throughout the meeting; there was a strong focus on Family History, Temple Work and Indexing, which are three activities about which I'm quickly becoming very passionate!

I'm hoping to be able to take part in Liverpool Stake's Temple Week in November and to go to the Temple for the first time. I'm quite excited. I visited the Temple Grounds with Sister Haskins and Sister Nemec at the beginning of August before I was baptised and, as you can see from the photographs, the grounds are very beautiful. However, I've never actually entered the Temple before. I'm very fortunate that I only live a short distance from the Temple, so I should be able to visit often once I receive my Temple Recommend.

Temple: Preston, England

Sister Haskins (left) and Sister Nemec (right) at the Temple in Preston, England

Our Stake President, President Steven Marshall, set us a few challenges at Conference. He has asked for us to all register on Family Search as Indexers and for each of us to index at least one batch of records. You do not have to be a Church Member to register as an Indexer. Indexing is simply the process of entering information from historical records into an online searchable database. It makes the process of Family History that much more straightforward. You can learn more about Indexing by clicking on this link. Liverpool Stake has pledged to index 1000,000 names in 2014, so we need to give a big push in the last two months of the year (where has this year gone?)!

President Marshall also challenged us to work on our Family Histories and to find one more name in our family tree. As I have only just started to delve into doing Family History, I'm hoping that I can find several new names and get their records. I'm so grateful that I can use the Family Search website. Again, you don't have to be a Church Member to register (for free) and to access genealogical records. The family is the most important unit in time and eternity. We are all spirit children of Heavenly Father and He organised us into families. Families are central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children. This is why there is so much focus on the family within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

I would like to accept President Marshall's challenges to index more batches of records so that more people can link up their family members and I will accept the challenge to find out more about my family tree and find a new name which I can take to the Temple. 

I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for the inspired words for our Ward, Stake, Temple and Church leaders and I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for welcoming me back into His eternal family.

Blame It On The Weatherman... A Lesson About Being Prepared

This week's weather has been wet. Wet and miserable. We're not talking usual United Kingdom wet weather, here. We are talking, really wet and windy, thanks to the tail end of Hurricane Gonzalez. 

Source: BBC Weather, 22nd October 2014

Of course, in the United Kingdom, we are used to it being a bit wet and wild out there, but this has been something new and yesterday, the weather was so bad, I couldn't bring myself to leave the warmth and safety of my home. DISCLAIMER: I'm fending off some sort of flu-like lurgy and the thought of being blown down the street was a little less than appealing. I thank Heavenly Father that I'm not a missionary out tracting in this weather! Let's spend a little moment to pray for them, shall we? Keep safe, elders and sisters!

Source: Telegraph Online, 21st October 2014

My lack of enthusiasm for the weather yesterday has left me with a quandary today: I must leave the house today in order to get in the shopping, otherwise we are going to run out of supplies rapidly. This exact situation is why the Church teaches Members to prepare every  needful thing. Never mind zombie apocalypses, bog-standard poor weather, sickness or even a dud car can mean that you are quickly stranded and supply-less in a short amount of time. Now, I understand, why the Church is so keen to have us prepared. As Benjamin Franklin keenly pointed out: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail". 

So, what does a new Church member do to 'be prepared'? 

LDS.org has some great advice about Emergency Preparedness as well as a Stake and Ward Emergency Planning Guide. Make sure that you and your loved ones are familiar with both of these.

Church members are counselled to become self-reliant. That means that if anything does go wrong, (and things so often do), there will be minimum stress and anxiety! 

Let's not sit on our laurels any longer, let's make sure that we are prepared! I will be posting updates about things my family is doing to help become more prepared and I hope that these updates will help anyone out there, who (like me) is feeling a little overwhelmed! Let's build our castles to be safe and prepared ones. 

In 2005, President Gordon B Hinckley gave us excellent counsel about being prepared in the Priesthood Session of General Conference October 2005. Let us heed this counsel and begin making preparations for our own families and personal situations.