Friday, May 29, 2009
June 2009 Visiting Teaching message
Why am I mentioning this? Good reason.... with all that you have going on in your life, how in the world do you find the time to go Visiting Teaching? That is something that I would like you to think about for a moment. How do you carve a few hours out of your already filled up and busy family schedule to go visiting teaching. There are lots of reasons why not to go such as.."We can't seem to find a minute that is mutually available for us to meet." "Vacations are planned and nobody is going to be home for a visit." These are valid reasons, but there has to be a way to accomplish what you have been asked to do.
Remember the scripture found in Nephi that says, and I am quoting from memory, so if I miss something, forgive me..... "I will go and do the thing which the Lord has commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them to accomplish it." This reminds me that nomatter what stumbling blocks are placed in our way for getting our Visiting Teaching done, there is always a way to accomplish it, because the Lord wants it done, and He will help us accomplish his works.
Well, I have some ideas for you to accomplish your Visiting Teaching during the summer. One fun thing I have done in the past was to set a date, and invite my sisters to meet at a park and to bring the kids. While the kids play, you can give your message, and catch up on your sisters. The kids are entertained and you have a great time enjoying the friendship you have developed with your sisters.
Another idea came to me when some of my sisters couldn't find a time to meet in their home, so we agreed to meet at the soccer field when they were there during their childs practice. We gave her the message and had a great visit while she was while she was waiting for her child to finnish soccer practice.
Another time, my own visiting teachers invited me and their other sisters to meet at a local deli, and we visited over lunch. We were given the message as well, all at once, and I was able to get to know alittle better some of the other sisters in my ward that my Visiting Teachers taught.
Get creative if you have to during the summer months, because there are way too many excuses for not getting Visiting Teaching done. You can do it, and your sisters need the message as well as your friendship and support.
I wanted to share through music and art, the theme for Junes' Visiting Teaching message so check out the picture/postcard that I posted to the right, and click on it. This beautiful music sung by the Tabernacle Choir, will be the background music to help put you into the proper spirit as you read through the June message. The June message entitled "Participate in Sincere Prayer" can be found at: http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,2044-1-4826-1,00.html
You can also use the postcard as your handout to your sisters and make sure that you print your names and phone numbers on the back so if your sisters need to contact you, they can. To get the postcard to print, go to http://visitingteachingsurprise.blogspot.com
Sincerely,
Katie G.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New "Mormon Channel on the Radio"
Monday, May 18, 2009
I just wanted to share with you, my readers, some good news for my husband and I. A few weeks ago, we just completed serving an 18 month part time mission in the LDS Addiction Recovery Program as missionaries. http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8517-1-4751-1,00.html We opened up the Spanish Speaking branch of our mission and served there, even though I didn't speak Spanish.( My husband does Speak Spanish) A wonderful thing happened, that I can testify to you that the Lord is mindful of our needs when we are in His service.
I had agreed to serve that particular mission in Spanish, knowing full well that I don't speak, but prayed continually and had a prayer in my heart that I could somehow be able to participate. The Lord truly blessed me, and though I didn't learn to speak the language, He blessed me to understand much of what was said in our meetings. When the Spirit is present, miracles can happen. I feel so blessed to have had the Spirit touch my mind and heart and give me understanding. When you are in the service of our Heavenly Father, He definitely keeps an eye on you.
I wanted to let you know of a story of my Grandmother Robinson, who I loved dearly. She was so kind and good and always had a smile on her face. She was assigned to Visit teach a woman who over the years had developed the reputation of being the meanest woman in her ward. She had been assigned Visiting Teachers over the years but none of them were able to get her to answer her door and let them in. My Grandmother took on this assignment and was absolutely determined that this mean old Lady would not prevent her from doing her Visiting Teaching.
One day, she and her companion had tried to call this woman to make an appointment with her, but just like the others before them, she would not answer the phone. This was before answering machines. My Grandmother and her partner just decided that they would go to this woman's home and try to visit with her. They marched up to the front door and knocked. They knocked again, and no one came to the door. My Grandmother looked around porch to a window and could see that this mean old woman was sitting right there and just ignoring their knocks.
This got up my Grandmothers dander a bit, and instead of leaving like all the others before her, she was determined that if she was nice enough to come to visit, this woman should have the courtesy to come to the door. At that, instead of knocking, my grandmother began to kick on the door which really made alot of noise. I am sure her companion was embarrassed, but still she continued.
Suddenly the door opened and to my Grandmothers surprise, there stood this kindly looking old woman with a smile on her face. The woman then said, "Thank-you for knocking so loudly on my door, I am very hard of hearing, almost deaf and I don't hear much at all." She invited her visiting teachers inside, and as they introduced themselves as he Visiting Teachers, the old woman replied, " I have not had any visiting teachers or visits from anyone in my ward for so long, I am happy to finally have some".
You can imagine the joy that my Grandmother felt from gaining an understanding about this woman's hearing problems,so that she and her Visiting Teaching companion could fulfill their calling and serve this lonely sister. I believe that my Grandmother was inspired to do what she did because I know that the Lord will put us in places so that His work can be fulfilled.
Now, back to my good news. We had resubmitted papers to serve as missionaries for another 18 months in the same LDS Addiction Recovery Mission, but in a different area, and finally we received word that our call had been sent to our Stake President this past week. We can now begin serving our second mission together. It is a wonderful blessing to be able to be a missionary, whether full time or part time. For me this is the best of both worlds, because I can still live in my own home,enjoy my family and grandchildren, but serve the Lord on a mission.
There are so many opportunities for mission service, and not just full time opportunities. Some people don't feel they can leave their homes for whatever reason, but they can still serve so many different kinds of missions. As for me and my husband, we are not retired and my husband is still working full time, so doing a full time mission for us, isn't a possibility. That is why we are serving a part time mission. Part time mission calls require at least 6 hours a week of service. That really isn't much more than many of us do in the preparation for our own Ward callings. I wanted to share this with you so that you can know that there are so many ways we can serve the Lord. Visiting Teaching is one of them, and what counts is that we are all giving service in the ways that we can. Without this kind of service, Wards and Stakes couldn't function. What a blessing we are given as members of this church as we receive opportunities to Serve the Lord.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Strawberry season spells fresh Strawberry Jam! (English & Espanol)
If you would like to download the recipe cards that I made up...
for free,
feel free!
Yours from,
Katie G.
Actually I didn't really plan to rhyme it, but since it did... all the better! ha, ha.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
May 2009 Visiting Teaching
Here is a tip from me.... I like to prepare my lesson and print it off for each sister because from time to time, when we begin visiting with our sisters, time runs out before we can give a lesson. When that happens, if you have a printed one to had to her, you can suggest when she has some quiet time, read the lesson, and briefly tell her what it was about.
The Handout for this month is a fun way of sharing all the Conference talks with your family at dinner time. I finally have it done with the help from Maria and Maya and Patti. Sorry I am later than I usually am, but this has been a busy past 3 weeks. This is translated in Spanish too for the Spanish speaking sisters, (as you can see form the picture) but is is also in English. You need to go to http://visitingteachingsurprise.blogspot.com. and you will find all the downloads and directions there.
Enjoy! Katie G.
General Conference Talks
General Conference Reports
Proceedings of Recent General Conferences
What shall we give?
An Apostles Easter Thoughts on Christ
This short video is an Important message from the mouths of our Prophets!
My broken wagon wheel, hath bit the dust!
July 6 - Pioneer Cooking
Click on this link to take you to the Pioneer Recipes:
http://visitingteachingsurprisedocuments.blogspot.com/2009/07/pioneer-recipes.html
I was also thinking that if you were to copy some of these recipes and print them off, that might be a fun handout for the Sisters you Visit Teach!
July 2nd - Diana Lucina Spicer Block
Visiting Teaching Tips, handouts and Ideas
For many years, I have been creating very cute and fun things to take to the ladies I Visit Teach. I have shared from time to time, my ideas with others and they have really appreciated them. I decided that since I do these anyway, I would start doing one every month and then post it on this blog to share with anyone for their Visiting Teaching. I do need to make a disclaimer.... the ideas, thoughts, stories, graphics etc. used are created by me and they are not in any way official LDS Church quotes, handouts or ideas. They are my creations or others as noted, except for the quotes that will come directly from the Monthly Visiting Teaching message found in the Ensign. Also, many thanks to the talented designers of the digital paper and elements that I use to create the beautiful artwork, and handouts you see on my blog.
You can go to http://www.lds.org/ and look up and even print the monthly message if you do not have your own Ensign magazine subscription in English or to choose to read the Liahona or Ensign in a different language go to http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=03103c7ff44f2010VgnVCM1000001f5e340aRCRD&locale=0.
For Spanish you can go to http://www.sud.org.es/
I highly recommend you get your own subscription because you will find a wealth of really good & wholesome, moral reading, that you can't find anywhere else. If you go to http://www.lds.org/ and click on "Gospel Library" then click on "Magazines" you can order your own Ensign, Liahona, New Era, or Friend magazines.
Posted by Katie Gauger at 10:41 AM 0 comments
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Downloading
"Returning to the Past" A Relief Society Activity Idea
Dear Katie,
I just found your blog. It is so great. I love the idea of the Hearts of Angels. I am trying to figure out how we can use it for our VT conference and incorporate some of the things for our VT interviews. I am a new R/S president and all these things we have to do throughout the year are a little overwhelming. I love all of you ideas. So much work involved, thank you for being willing to share with all of us! I would love anything else you could pass my way.
WE had the thought earlier to use a theme of "Returning to the past" for our activities this year. So all of your old-fashioned pictures will be great to use as invites and handouts.
You might be interested in the idea we had for our B-Day dinner. We always have a progressive dinner in December to the homes of different sisters. We divide them up into about 5 smaller groups and go around to the different sisters homes in the ward. Because of the weather we cancelled it and had it at the church. We decided to do it for our B-Day dinner instead when the weather would be better. We are having the women bring a sack lunch with them and to wear something old, like a grandmothers broach or shawl, or to dress up in the time of the 1800's, and to bring a pint jar with a lid. We will have the sisters make lemonade at the first house and take with them in the jar that they brought, and then go to the next house. At the last house we will have and old fashioned cake to serve like apple walnut cake or something like that.
We still have some details to work out but at the end each member of the presidency will be at a different home and will share a prepared script. It will be written as if they were at the very first R/S meeting when the prophet Joseph Smith organized the R/S with just a handful of women.
Anyway, thank you for sharing what you have! You have a great talent!
Stacey McClellan - Blackfoot, Idaho
SELF RELIANT SISTERS BLOG HAS A GREAT ACTIVITY ABOUT GARDENING WITH KIDS - go to http://selfreliantsisters.blogspot.com/ It is well worth the time and a terriffic idea as Spring is just around the corner! Here is a tiny bit of information that you will see at the site.....
Gardening with Kids has great tips on getting kids started with gardening. Give your child some space; literally! Kids loving having spaces that are all their own, whether it`s their own desk area in the house, or the tent they've created with chairs and blankets in the family room. The same is true for gardening. Dedicate a small plot of the garden just for them. Put a fancy border around it, perhaps purchase one of the stepping stone making kits found at crafts stores in which they can mold their name and make their hand print.
Let them join you at the nursery. Let your kids know you value their opinion. Ask them which kinds of plants, flowers, and vegetables they like. Explain what will work well in your garden and what won't.
Give them (limited) choices. While you're at the nursery, ask them if they'd like pansies or petunias, marigolds or zinnias. This will give them the feeling of power without letting it get out of control.
Remind them money doesn't grow on trees. With older children discuss the budget. Let them help select seeds and blossoming plants at the nursery - and turn it into a math lesson. Let your child do the money calculations; they can tell you when the money runs out.
Let your child do what he will (especially if you have a preschooler). Let him dig, explore, play with bugs. You may be tempted to steer your child in another direction (like actually watering or weeding his garden), but this is a great way for your child to explore this exciting new universe.
Plan, plan, plan. If you have older children, say 8 or 9 or older, let them plot out their own garden on paper. Provide him or her with graph paper, pencils and seed catalogs. Give them a group of flowers and vegetables from which to choose, and then let them draw out their garden.
Get them their own gardening tools. Nothing will motivate your little gardener more than having her own little shovel, her own gardening gloves, and her own watering pail. And don't forget those bright colored rubber boots. You need to go to the site and explore all the rest of the links and ideas.