May 2010 Newletter

May Lessons
Conducting Tami Paskett
May 2 RS Presidency
Teacher Tami Paskett
May 9 Gospel Principles # 8 Praying to Our Heavenly Father
Teacher Ramona Ford
May 16 Gospel Principles #9 Prophets of God
Teacher Myrna Clark
May 23 Teaching for our Times 2010 April General Conference TBA
May 30 Fifth-Sunday lesson topic determined by Bishopric

General Conference
As always, General Conference was terrific. Sister Charlene Robinson kindly consented to give me her summation of the conference. I would appreciate any other contributions concerning your feelings and impressions of the conference.
Sister of the month
This month I thought it would be fun to have a little quiz about all the Sisters that we have presented so far.
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a Holiday that is important to all of us. The spirit of motherhood is something that we all have been given as women. Sheri L. Dew’s started her article Are We Not All Mothers Ensign, November 2001, by writing, “Motherhood is more than bearing children. … It is the essence of who we are as women.”
On the internet I came across a humorous anecdote from Reader’s Digest concerning mothers and the importance of the role of women in this world.

Great Minds Think of Mom
After a long, exhausting day, a friend of mine headed home. On the road, he passed an elderly woman who was standing by a car with a flat tire. His conscience got the better of him; if that were his mother, he thought, he would want someone to help her. With a tired sigh, he turned around and drove back.
Just as he reached the stranded woman, a truck pulled up and a burly farmer got out. "Kinda reminds you of your mom, too?" the man asked as the two of them pitched in together to change the tire.
-- Contributed by Katherine L. Houge

Women can bring out the noble feelings in even the roughest men. One attribute of mothers is that we want the best for our children. Part of this is that we not only want others to be nice to our children, we also want out children to be nice and sharing to others (a mother’s version of Matthew 25:40 “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”) There have been more than a few times when mothers have been asked what their child can do for them only to reply that it would be better that the child do something good for someone else instead.
However, even though it almost seems to be second nature to deflect any kindness from our children toward others, one of the best ways to teach our children how to treat others is by how we teach them to treat us. I found a very familiar poem on the internet from A First Presidency Message “Behold thy mother” in the April 1998 issue of the Ensign. In the poem 3 different children express their love for their mother – with only one of them following the words up with actions of love. As women we need to teach children that serving others is the best way to show love. This poem shows how our actions prove love far better than our words.

Mother’s Day Surprises
As part of teaching our children to be kind to others, we teach our children how to be generous and giving. It is hardest for us to teach our children to honor, respect and be generous with us (sometimes this feels contrary to our own need to be humble and not be self serving). However, this is especially important since one of the ways that our sons learn how to treat their wives is by how their mother’s are treat by them and their father’s (so it’s OK to make sure that your husband treats you well during this day). Helping your children with their projects is a bonus – making sure things get cleaned up after should be part of the deal.

May Recipe
Here are some recipes from the ‘Children’s Friend’ that are kid friendly for helping your family help with the cooking. There are also a couple of recipes for us to share with family, friends, neighbors and those who drop by.

Genealogy
There are two holidays in May – both which have ties to Genealogy. On Mother’s Day, as we remember our mother’s it would be a good idea to remember their mothers and their mothers before them. Also, although Memorial Day was originally intended to remember those who have given the ultimate price for our freedom (which is a noble service for which we owe them a GREAT debt) it has evolved into remembering those who have gone on before. With this in mind, here are some more genealogy tips with an interesting poem.

Health tips
Along with helping our children how to honor and respect us, we need to teach by example – respecting ourselves by taking care our health. I have included a couple of tips concerning health from WebMD.

Driving tip
Sister Levinson sent me a couple of tips concerning driving in the rain. I would like to thank her.