Ponderize: 2 Nephi 25:26

Elder Devin G. Durrant spoke about ponderizing last weekend during the October 2015 conference in his address My Heart Pondereth Them Continually.  I used the made up phrase to mean when you reflect on a scripture by pondering it 80% of the time and memorizing it 20% of the time.  I chose to study 2 Nephi 25:26.  I took one of Elder Durrant's suggestions by taking a screenshot of the scripture and then placing it on my phone's lock screen.  It really forced me to look at it multiple times through my day.

In General Conference last weekend we, as a church, sustained three new apostles.  In the press conference that followed one of the new apostles, Elder Ronald A. Rasband kept saying that an apostles job was to be a special witness of Christ and to take the Gospel message all over the world.  That really stuck with me, and has probably been the greatest message I could take from this scripture as I have pondered it this week.  When I read this scripture I envision taking the name of Christ all over the world, so everyone may come to know Him.  I also think of making it a part of my every day life.  In everything that I do I make a conscience effort to remember Christ.  This not only blesses my life as I come closer to the Spirit, but as this scripture promises our children will know that Jesus Christ is there for them.  So in the end, just like everything else we do in the Gospel, the message of this scripture is about love and service.  As we do all that we can to share Jesus Christ's names others will be blessed.

Primary Lesson: Following the prophet will help us come unto Christ

Since we just had General Conference last week, I began today's primary sharing time lesson by asking the kids what their favorite General Conference traditions are.  Then I asked them what was special about this General Conference.  That were right on the money when they said that we sustained three new apostles.  Then I explained that prophets and apostles' jobs are to be special witnesses of Christ.  The prophet teaches us the will of the Lord.  I then had the kids play pictionary.  I showed a volunteer the pictures on the following quotes.  Then I would have the volunteer draw the picture for the class. The rest of the class would then guess the picture.  I then showed them the picture and the quote and we discussed what the quote meant, emphasizing how we learned these special messages during General Conference.  It was really a special lesson, and I felt the Spirit strongly testify that these messages are meant to bring Heavenly Father's children unto Christ. The challenge at the end is because our Primary does a challenge every sharing time to go along with the lesson.  We didn't get through all of the quotes, but the activity was such a hit that I plan on finishing them up if I have free time the rest of the month at the end of sharing time.

Reel Bros Talk

My husband and his Bros have put together a blog where they discuss the movies they have seen and rate them. Check out Reel Bros Talk to learn more about a movie before you go to see it or too find out how your opinion stacks up to theirs.

My Husband the Filmmaker

Today I have to share how creative and talented my husband is.  Making movies has always been his passion, and I am so proud of him for pursuing it and making it a regular part of his and our life.

In his recent History of Creativity class at BYU he was assigned to do a creative project that related to a topic the class covered and contributed in someway to society.  My husband realized he loves watching Shakespeare (a topic covered a lot in the class) on stage, but when it came to recently watching a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet for the class on film he found it to be less than amusing.  He felt there was something about watching long drawn out monologues on screen that was not the same about watching them on stage, so he set out to create a monologue within a film that was entertaining for all.  I think he succeeded quite well in doing that.

Check out Matthew Siemers' latest film to see how he effectively makes a monologue work in a short film.  While you're at it and feel free to check out his other films from his very beginnings as a filmmaker.

Creative Project TECH 202

Films by Matthew Siemers

P.S. And yes, that is me in a cameo role as myself as his loving, supportive wife. ;)

The Latest and Greatest

It's been a little over three months and us newlyweds are as happy as ever! We have been all settled into our new place in Provo for a little less than two of those months, and we really like it here.  We have great upstairs neighbors (we live in a basement apartment), the Heylands.  They couldn't be any sweeter, and they have the cutest little girl that we just can't get enough out of.

Matt is wrapping up his summer term at BYU. He is looking forward to this semester being over.  He took an accounting, humanities, and Portuguese class this term and he worked his tail off.  I am so proud of him for hard he worked after a hiatus from school. He's awesome.  He makes everyday the best.  He is so kind, caring, and loving, and to boot he's a man's man according to our neighbor who is impressed by his tool and gun collection.  Yep, I've got a keeper!

School is just around the corner to me. I am so blessed that I found a job.  After having an interview for a half time 6th grade position right around the time of the wedding and not getting it because I had mentioned in the interview that I was hoping the position could turn into full time because that would be what was best for our family at this time, I was pretty bummed.  However, while on our honeymoon I got a call asking if I could be interviewed for a full time 5th grade position. I was so excited and come to find out the principal of the 6th grade position I interviewed for earlier was the one who recommended me to the principal of the 5th grade position because she knew how much I wanted to find a full time job. Then you can only imagine my excitement when only a day after the 5th grade interview I found out I got the job.  Now I'm busy working away in my new classroom with my new colleagues, getting ready to start school on the 20th.  I am really getting so excited.  I'm going to be working with great supportive people.

Our ward (a ward is the local unit of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints closest to a person or family's home) recently put us both to work in new callings (a calling is an appointment or invitation extended by church leaders from God to help build the kingdom of God here upon the earth).  I have been called to work in the Primary (“The Primary is an organized program of religious instruction and activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for children from eighteen months of age until their twelfth birthdays. Its purpose is to teach children the gospel of Jesus Christ and help them learn to live it” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism [1992], 3:1146) as the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency.  I'm excited to learn and grow as I serve the children of my ward.  This is one thing that is so awesome about being a member of this church is that everyone gets the chance to serve, and I am really grateful to be a part of a church that values me as God values me that it trusts me enough to serve others.

A couple of other quick updates.  Last night we had a young woman that Matt met in Brazil over for dinner.  She is so sweet.  I can see why Matt loves the people he met in Brazil when he served as a missionary.  Also, if everything goes to plan we will get to go the Mt. Timpanogos and Salt Lake Temples this week, and then next week Provo Temple.  We realize that these plans could fall through, but that's okay.  It's just awesome to have something as great as serving in the Temple to look forward to.  It really fills you with great joy and peace all week.

 

Come Follow Me Lesson April 2013 The Apostasy and Restoration: How was the priesthood restored?

Even though I'm the time is drawing near that Matt and I will be married (only 5 more days) and moving to Provo and I'll no longer be the Young Women's president of the Alturas Branch I was told I should still share my ideas about how I teach my lessons.

Today's lesson was "How was the priesthood restored?"  None of the materials in this lesson were original, so I've of course will give credit to all sources and the link so you can find the materials for yourself.

I began this lesson the same way I began last week with quotes from General Conference pinned on the wall.  I asked each girl and leader to choose any quote they want and do a quick write of what the prophet/apostle/general authority was trying to teach us and why it is important to follow this counsel.  I decided to start doing this because I wanted to keep conference fresh and all still get the messages across to the girls who didn't watch conference. Thanks to My Computer is my Canvas I got the quotes here and here.


Last week's lesson was on why was a restoration necessary.  Since one of my Young Women were gone last week and may not know a whole a lot about the apostasy and restoration I decided to use the first page of this worksheet from The Red Headed Hostess as a fun review.  It ended up taking quite a bit of time but it was apparent by the end how much everyone knew about the restoration. I wanted to do this object lesson, but forgot to buy cups the night before.  It worked out because we wouldn't have had enough time anyway.  I explained the object lesson to the girls anyway and that seemed to make the apostasy and restoration more clear for those who were still having a hard time understanding.



From there we related what we knew about was lost as part of the apostasy, including the priesthood.  I handed out these handouts to make sure the girls knew what priesthood is (I really try to focus the beginning of my lessons on understanding Gospel vocabulary because not everyone knows what certain words mean) and how it was restored.

 

After that we watched this video about how the priesthood was restored. I really love this video. I love that scripture helps narrate it.  It helped me understand the events of the restoration of the priesthood so much better.

We then had a priesthood holder come in and share his priesthood line of authority with us.  This was really cool and I emphasized how the priesthood that is held by worthy priesthood holders today has a direct line back to Christ.

We ran out of time today, so we didn't get to do what we normally do. We normally right the questions from each lesson on a large piece of sticky paper and answer them at the end of the lesson.  It gives the girls the chance to show what they know and help the teachers see if the lesson was effective and what touched/inspired the girls.  Next Sunday each girl will answer the question "How was the priesthood restored?" at the beginning of the lesson.  So the girls' assignment is to retain that information for next week and be prepared to share by writing the answers on the large piece of sticky paper.  Not the most original assignment but it works for us because it meets the needs of the girls and the lesson for the day.

Reflection on a General Conference Talk April 2013 #1

What difference will General Conference really make in our lives if we just leave it as a first weekend in April or October that we watch or listen to prophets and apostles speak inspired messages to us?  If we just leave them to be as memories of those weekends and not ponder, pray, and incorporate them into our daily lives, they will simply be just that memories rather than the guidance we need to help us live a happy, productive life.

Having said that I bring you a reflection on President Boyd K. Packer's talk "These Things I Know."  This will be an ongoing post as I feel inspired to carefully pay attention to his words and record my thoughts to them, so this may take awhile.