Service Project

For several months, women in our Relief society made beautiful and soft prayer shawls and blankets to give to individuals who are going through medical treatments. LaVerte Dowd came up with the idea and did a great job getting others involved! For our activity, we sorted, rolled, and tagged these beautiful gifts and then had dinner.

We also enjoyed haystacks for dinner!

Holiday Dinner 2013

Souper Craft Night!

This Little Piggy

On Thursday, August 22, we had a "This Little Piggy" themed evening. We were inspired by another Relief Society's blog post. We had mini classes for each line of the nursery rhyme. Sis. Allison Evers taught couponing for "This little piggy went to market." "This little piggy stayed home," was home decorating by Sis. Carter Holzhowser. Sis. Melissa Harnois taught "Herbs and Spices" for "This Little piggy had roast beef." Our 3 sister missionaries, Sis. Murphy, Sis. Anderson, and Sis. Jensen, taught us "No fear of Sharing the Gospel" for "This little piggy had none." Sis. Brooke Soderholm briefly explained how to make a cake that she and Sis. Ashley Meyers prepared for dessert before the "Wee, wee, wee all the way home!"  Each of the mini-classes was interesting and inspiring. There were many spiritual messages mixed into these seemingly non-spiritual lessons. Allison, taught that by couponing we may be better able to serve others by sharing the things that we have. Also, it can help us to follow the prophets' counsel to have food storage. Carter closed by sharing that the best decor for any home is to have the spirit in it! So true! Some interesting techniques that Melissa taught us were toasting whole spices in a a cast iron skillet and waking up spices by rubbing them between the hands. The sisters taught us that "perfect love, casteth out fear." (Moroni 8:16). They also invited us to strengthen those members who are within our reach, especially those we visit teach. We should invite others to come unto Christ.

We have so many amazingly talented women in and serving in our branch! We are thankful that they share their talents with us and encourage us to learn and grow too!

Pioneer Day Celebration- Bread, Butter, Yeast, and Being more like Pioneer Women

Tie on your bonnets, sisters!

We are going to celebrate Pioneer Day!

Thursday, July 25^th at 7:00

at the church

Sis. Stephanie Holland demonstrated and taught us how to make her amazing whole wheat bread. She also gave us the recipe. I bet a lot of families in our branch were thankful to try that yummy recipe.

Next, our Relief Society President, Sis. Allison Evers, and Sis. Peggy Grimes taught us about yeast and told us several ways to make yeast. Allison gave us handouts as well.

Lastly, we divided into two groups and took turns shaking a jar of heaving whipping cream to make butter. We played a game where we pulled out a verb that was something pioneer women did and talked about how or why they did that thing. For example, they.... 

believed, set goals, planned, prepared, sacrificed, woke up early, worked, walked, mothered, gathered, cooked, carried, packed, cleaned, sewed, laundered, nursed, taught, journaled, lost loved ones,  persevered, built, planted, created, praised, loved, sand, and endured.

It was awesome to ponder how amazingly strong these pioneer women were.  We thought about how we could be more like these women.

We closed with a song and prayer. Then, we enjoyed socializing a bit more as we sampled the homemade bread, homemade butter, homemade jam and blackberries. Delicious!

The women left with a copy of the first presidency message, "The World Needs Pioneers Today."

http://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/07/the-world-needs-pioneers-today?lang=eng

Picnic!

In June, we had a fun, relaxed Relief Society cookout. We enjoyed bbq, appetizing sides, and delicious desserts. Thanks to the sisters who brought such good food! The food was good, but better was having an hour to spend getting to know each other and strengthening bonds of friendship and sisterhood. Best was hearing a spiritual thought from our Relief Society President, Allison Evers. She talked about blooming where we are planted and overcoming obstacles. We are so thankful to have her as our leader!

Emergency Preparedness by Sis. Tami Connelly

In May, we enjoyed a really cool activity which was put on by Sis. Tami Connelly, our branch's Emergency Preparedness specialist. She taught us about Water storage, Fire, and Food. She taught in a really fun way and I think that all who attended learned something new. One thing that was particularly entertaining was watching sisters drinking water through filter straws. Afterward we enjoyed refreshments- food made from our food storage. Everything was really good!