Thursday, June 10, 2010

Catching up

Life has been busy but good. I love the new job and the feelings of appreciation that I get and have gotten in such a short time.

Everything is going along just nicely. We recently returned from a trip to a family reunion. We had so much fun passing around the new nieces that we hadn’t met in person before. We enjoyed a variety of activities including bowling, fishing, shooting, a lemonade party, a movie under the stars complete with a snack bar, tin foil dinners, and just time to catch up and visit with everyone. A highlight of our trip was meeting our soon to be sister-in-law. What a gem she is and we look forward to seeing her again before too long.

We both enjoyed the drive to and from the reunion and we once again listened to the words of our church leaders from the April 2010 General Conference. It was so nice to just enjoy the ride as we refreshed all that we had recently been taught. I think that on our next drive perhaps I will take an Ensign and follow along with the printed text, to further “sink” the messages into my heart and mind.

On another note I am no longer in the Primary Presidency, I was put in as a YW advisor earlier this year. I have been working in Laurels and it has been so much fun. They are at a place in life where things are so exciting. They are graduating, getting jobs, applying for entrance to college, starting to drive, starting to date and just have so much energy it has been wonderful. I took upon myself a little challenge that will be beginning soon. We were at a Stake meeting where we were taught that we are here to help the YW become ladies, like Emma Smith, who was told that she was “an elect lady”. I something struck inside of me and I started doing some research on what it means to be a lady. After 25 pages of things to read that I found on various websites I approached the YW President with a proposition. I had hoped to be able to take 5 min at the beginning of Laurels each week to review one attribute of a lady. Well…to my surprise she gave me 5 min with all of the YW each Sunday to review lady like attributes. So on our drive to the family reunion I also reviewed all of my notes of how to become a lady. Now I have organized my thoughts and will get to start teaching the attributes. Hopefully as I teach the YW I will also be able to incorporate those skills into my own life. One thought that I read that has really stuck with me on all of this is that all girls grow up to be women, but you have to practice and strive to become a lady. Hence all girls are women, but not all women are ladies.

2 comments:

Brenden+Nikki said...

Aw you are perfect for YW Rachel! I think you will be able to teach them so many things! I had spent 4 years in YW and was just recently called into a calling in RS and I realized it's pretty much the first time I've been in RS since 54th ward! (Minus our first two months in our first family ward). Anyway - it was a great 4 years! And one of my YW from 4 years ago just sent us her wedding announcement. You definitely create lasting friendships there. Thanks for sharing all the spiritual things you've been pondering and learning! You should share what you're teaching....I think I need to learn how to be more of a lady sometimes!! :)

Stephanie said...

Great idea! I know there's a talk out there where it talks about womanhood and how there are so much women out there who are "hard" and rough and we need more women who are kind and nurturing. Sis. Beck's talks recently are really good. I think that's a great idea! We need to feel good about being ladylike women!