Monday, May 7, 2012

April RS Message


Happy Spring and a big welcome to Elsie who just turned 18 and joined the Relief Society!
It is such a beautiful time of year! Lawns are starting to green, trees and flowers are blooming. The world is awaking after winter. We celebrate Easter and think of the Savior and His atonement. We have all been promised the gift of "awaking" - resurrection and the opportunity of Eternal Life - to live as our Heavenly Father lives - if we are worthy. What an amazing gift is the Atonement!
We have been blessed by General Conference with the opportunity to hear the messages of the gospel from our prophet, apostles, and other general leaders. President Julie Beck, who was just released as the General RS President, gave a wonderful talk about Relief Society. She reminded us that Relief Society is to teach, strengthen, and inspire sisters in (our) purpose regarding faith, family, and relief. She quoted from President Joseph F. Smith, who said he expected the sisters "to lead the world and ... especially the women of the world, in everything that is praise-worthy, everything that is God-like, everything that is uplifting and that is purifying to the children of men." She closed her remarks by quoting President Lorenzo Snow: "The future of the (Relief) Society is full of promise. As the church grows, its field of usefulness will be correspondingly enlarged, and it will be even more potent for good than it has been in the past." 
Sisters, we have been given the charge! Let us strengthen ourselves so that we exert our righteous influence in our homes to our families; in our ward to our brothers and sisters; in our neighborhood to those around us; in our workplaces to those we associate with. May we, as individuals, and as a (relief) society of women let our light shine out to the world.

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