Gourmet Girls Club meets this Friday

All is organised for this Friday's Gourmet Girls Get-together. We will be heading off to Karenne & Guy's place, over the river, to get some hot tips on how to bake home-made bread. We will begin with grinding the wheat downstairs and then head upstairs to put that ground wheat into good use!! They are also going to show us how to use their vacuum sealers to help us keep our food so much longer. Bring along any food storage questions you might have - Karenne & Guy have a wealth of information between the two of them. Feel free to meet at Lindy's house at 6.20 pm if you want to car pool, otherwise we will see you at 6.30pm at Karenne & Guy's home.

Welcome to Our Ward

Although Esther has been in our Ward a few months now this is our official welcome on the blog. It's so lovely to have Esther with her gorgeous, smiling face with us each week in Relief Society and of course we can't forget cute little Minol as well. It's lovely to have another young mother in the Ward and we hope you feel welcome and a part of our Ward.

Ideas for Service Craft Group

If anyone has any ideas for a service project for Sister Yvonnie's craft group please see a member of the Relief Society Presidency.

What happened on Ward Conference Sunday

1. It was lovely having so many visitors today and especially our Stake Relief Society Presidency with us.
2. A special thank you to Clare (& Jack) who organised all the blood donations for our stake service project yesterday and made it so easy for Dawn to co-ordinate. Also thanks to Peggy and Betty (& Jim) who helped out in the kitchen and feed all the blood donors from our Ward. Thanks to all those who provided food.
3. A reminder to feed the missionaries in the month of September. If you didn't see the missionary meal roster please check the notice board next week and fill in a blank spot.
4. Remember the 50th anniversary of the Rosny Chapel is coming up on the 13 September. If you are willing to help 'man' the Relief Society room for an hour on the Saturday afternoon anywhere between 2 - 6 pm please let Rachael know.
5. Our Stake Relief Society presented music time and lesson time today. We were asked the following 3 questions:-
a. who are you?
b. why are we here?
c. how do we do it?
The lesson focused on our responsibility to share the gospel truths with those we come in contact with. Sister Louella asked us some thought provoking questions such as 'what puts us off sharing the gospel' etc. She counselled us to pray for opportunities and to turn to the scriptures.

Thanks Stake Relief Society for your love and concern for the sisters in our Ward.

6. We hope our wonderful sisters who work in the Auxilliaries enjoyed Ward Conference today. It looked like there were a few extra children in Primary today - hope you all had fun and felt the spirit. The sisters in Relief Society just love to hear the beautiful music that can sometimes be heard coming from downstairs.

BYU Womens Conference

Sorry to those sisters who wanted to view the BYU Womens Conference - it seems to have been temporarily misplaced and as soon as I can locate it I will forward it on to people - my apologies.

Family History Enrichment Activity

Due to Stake Auxilliary Leadership Meeting this coming Thursday evening there will be no Family History Enrichment Activity. Please contact Rebecca if you need any help with your family history and she will organise a time convenient to you to help you.

What happened on Sunday

1. We missed seeing some of our sisters today. We hope if you weren't in Relief Society that you feel our love and we look forward to seeing you next week.

2. Lots happening this next weekend. The Stake Service Project will be held next Saturday - we are donating blood at the Red Cross Blood Bank. Everyone should have their times by now.

3. Thanks to those sisters who are providing food for the blood drive.

4. The Ward Conference Activity will be held on Saturday evening, 6.30 - 8.30 pm

5. Ward Conference is next Sunday. We will be having Relief Society first, commencing at 9 am, then Sunday School and then Sacrament Meeting.

6. Please could everyone bring a plate of sandwiches for Soup & Sandwich Sunday next week to co-incide with Ward Conference.

7. Gourmet Girls Club will be held on Friday 5th September. There will be demonstrations of bread making and vacuum sealing of food. Please let a member of the Relief Society Presidency know if you are interested in attending this activity.

8. For Music time we learnt some more skills for choristering.

9. Kristy gave a beautiful lesson from the May Conference Issue entitled 'Opening our Hearts' by Elder Gerald N. Lund. There were some thought provoking quotes such as :-

'Nephi taught, “When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.” Elder David A. Bednar noted the use of the word unto: “Please notice how the power of the Spirit carries the message unto but not necessarily into the heart. … Ultimately, … the content of a message and the witness of the Holy Ghost penetrate into the heart only if a receiver allows them to enter.”
Why just unto the heart? Individual agency is so sacred that Heavenly Father will never force the human heart, even with all His infinite power. Man may try to do so, but God does not. To put it another way, God allows us to be the guardians, or the gatekeepers, of our own hearts. We must, of our own free will, open our hearts to the Spirit, for He will not force Himself upon us.'

We were asked 'how do we open our hearts?'

Kristy concluded the lesson with her testimony and a quote from Paul who said "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

What do you all think?

The Gourmet Girls Club meet on the first Friday evening of the month. The next activity will be on Friday 5 September. We are going to have a demonstration of bread making, by hand and also in a bread making as well as learning how to use your food storage wheat in bread (after grinding it in your grinder of course!). We also thought it might be worth having a demonstration of a vacuum sealer (that can be purchased for under $100 if you are really interested) that helps keep food in the fridge and freezer for much longer periods of time than normal. So basically it will be centred around our food storage. I have in mind two 'experts' who are willing to come and show us these things. However they are not members of our Ward and I don't want to ask them out on a cold night (well, I'm guessing it will be) to demo all this for us if no one is interested. (Not that I am pressuring anyone, if you are not interested that is totally fine, you don't have to be). However, if this does interest you we need to know if you are coming otherwise we will cancel the night. So please, if you would like to come along, just let us know, by responding to this post, by telling one of the presidency at church, by email - just tell us if you want to come. THANKS.

What happened on Sunday

We had a small group of sisters on Sunday, but we enjoyed a wonderful lesson from Sister Piret. The lesson came from chapter 19 in our Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith and was titled “Stand Fast through the Storms of Life.” It was a very touching lesson as we discussed the trials and persecutions of the Prophet Joseph and discussed how we can overcome hardships as he did. Some important points from the lesson were:

Those who follow Christ will be tried to prove themselves faithful to God.
God will support and bless those who trust in Him in their times of trial.
We all have trials to overcome, we cannot look at another’s trials and compare them to our own.
We need to not murmur at our afflictions but to thank God for the opportunity to overcome them, as we are learning something in the process.
If we have faith in God, He can help us overcome discouragement during times of trial.

The last quote Sister Piret read summed up the lesson beautifully:
‘Stand fast ye saint of God, hold on a little while longer, and the storm of life will be past, and you will be rewarded by that God whose servants you are, and who will duly appreciate all your toils and afflictions for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s. Your names will be handed down to posterity as Saints of God.”

It was Charmaine, Barbara and Rachel Mullock’s birthdays this past week, Happy Birthday!!!

Important announcements:
Sat 30th Aug – Helping Hands Blood drive (donations of Blood and food+helpers)
- Ward activity 6:30 entertainment from a variety of individuals and families

Sun 31st Aug - Ward Conference, RS first at 9:00. Please bring plate of sandwiches to share for soup and sand after.

Sat 13th Sept - 50th Anniversary of Rosny 2-6 for open home
- 6:30 – 9 for evening entertainment.

Sisters we thank you

Thanks to all the wonderful sisters who helped make the meal for the Missionary Zone Conference this week a success. We appreciate all those who cooked, set-up, cleaned up and enabled all the missionaries to have full stomaches!

Thanks also to everyone who has provided food in the last few weeks for Soup & Sandwich Sunday, Family History day, Enrichment Meeting, as well as providing meals for those you have stewardship for if necessary.

We really appreciate the willing service you provide.

Food Storage Bargains

Anyone know any good specials this week?

I'm still trying to recover from last week's bargains!! One couple got 48 cans of two fruits from KMart for 95cents. What a blessing for their food storage. (Two fruits seems to be the only really cheap ones and I don't think it is still that price).

Welcome Rachael

Rachael has been coming for a few weeks now after being away from us for quite a while. We are thrilled to have her with us and thank her for being so willing to participate and help out in any way she can. She adds a special spirit to our Relief Society and we want her to know that we are all here to support her and help her in any way we can. It's great to have you with us.

Some of our new faces

It's been wonderful to welcome Fiona and Jill into our Ward Relief Society and they have jumped straight in and joined in with everything right from the beginning. It is lovely to have them both

in Relief Society and hopefully we will also be able to welcome their other sisters and daughters at various stages as they come to visit. Thank you so much for all your support and the help you have given to us since you arrived in our Ward. We hope you both feel welcomed and accepted and want you to know that if you need any help just let us know.

What happened on Sunday

A busy Sunday as always. Announcements were as follows:-

1. Stake Conference next Sunday (& Saturday) so no meetings to be held at our Chapel.
2. Stake Conference activity to be held on Friday evening.
3. Anyone who wants to participate in the national service project our Stake is donating blood - Saturday 30th August - please see Claire if you are able to donate.
4. We are also looking for anyone to donate some sandwiches or slices for that day - please let us know if you can help us out.
5. Ward Activity coming up on the 30th August also 6.30 - 8.30 pm.
6. Ward Conference will be held on the 31st August - meeting times will be changed around.
7. It was Catherine's last Sunday with us (we were sad you couldn't stay for Relief Society) and we wish her all the best moving to Queensland.
8. We welcomed Sister Emmerton and her husband into the Ward - it's lovely to have another family in the Ward. We have been richly blessed lately with such lovely move-ins. We hope you feel comfortable in our Ward and look forward to getting to know you.
9. Barbara shared with us the visiting message for the month of August. Please remember to advise all your sisters of the upcoming events, including Stake Conference and Ward Conference.
10. In our lesson we talked about how we know if we are becoming more like the Savior and how we evaluate our progress. The Sabbath Day is a great day to look at where we are at and how we can improve.
11. Thanks to the Young Women who gave and joined with us for the beginning of our meeting - it's always great to have you with us.