in her shoes: a relief society additional meeting

on sunday night, our ward relief society committee put on an amazing activity for the relief society birthday...

"in her shoes"

the point of the evening was to get to know more about the other sisters in our ward, by taking a walk in their shoes. each of us were asked to wear our favourite shoes and to be prepared to talk about why they were our favourites if asked. one of the girls was actually asked specifically to get up and talk about hers which was really lovely to hear. they had an incredible story behind them that left some of the sisters very emotional.

we also played a game, where we had to find each of the pairs of shoes listed on this paper (some of the ones listed were also placed around the room to make it easier to complete the categories) and find out why people loved them or had chosen to wear them on the night.

i had been asked to prepare a table to represent the first president of the relief society - emma smith, the wife of the prophet joseph. so i gathered up:

an old oil lamp

a sampler stitching

old ladies boots

a locket

pearls

and an old copy of the book of mormon

i also placed a few items that represented the relief society itself along with the quote: "sisters, we are going to do something extraordinary" on a chalkboard. emma said that when the relief society began on march 17th in 1842 and it's often quoted amongst our sisters. i have always felt like emmas shoes would have been the hardest to fill and i am so glad she was recognised on the evening, as our bishops wife also spoke about her briefly at the end of the evening.

the girls has decorated beautifully in purple and gold (for royalty!) and the room looked amazing. they always go above and beyond and i love it!

and each of the tables even had a gorgeous pair of dressy shoes as a centrepiece. ♥

these super cute handouts were made by one of the girls, each a cardboard stiletto with chocolate inside, complete with the quote:

"blessed are those who walk, according to the law of the lord" - psalm 119:1

and these cupcakes each had a hand cut glittery stiletto or star on them!

such a lovely evening. i love to see such hard work and effort pay off to be enjoyed by the sisters in our ward ♥

a night in the bethlehem marketplace: a relief society additional meeting

this evening we had our christmas additional relief society meeting - a night in the bethlehem marketplace. what an excellent idea! the activities girls absolutely nailed it and it was such a good night! 

we began the evening with a spiritual fireside in the chapel, complete with bible readings and musical items. i was asked to sing with my beautiful friend maddy - a song we had previously done together, thank goodness, we didn't have a great deal of time beforehand to practice! it's called "when mary sang her lullaby" by sally deford and you can find the music here. i love it so much, it's well worth the listen on youtube here if you don't already know it.

when the fireside aspect was finished, we moved into the hall for an evening in the marketplace, where bustling stalls were set up ready to receive their visitors. each person was required to pass through the census, having their name recorded, paying their tax (a can of food to be donated to charity) and receiving a bag of gold to use at the stalls to purchase food and goods.

the stalls were so cool, there was a jewellery store, with some funky finds from ebay

and handmade earrings i helped the girls make a few weeks back. i was glad to see they were a hit!

some bracelets and necklaces we found

and rings and hairclips

grandma was on hand to hold alex while i had some food and fruit from the food stalls

looked around at the nativity table - a lot of these were mine on loan as well... such an awesome idea - a great focal point and a way to ensure the focus of the evening remained about the birth of christ.

our marketplace for the evening ♥

the girls had asked me to make the desserts for the evening (much to my mother in laws annoyance... she told my friends not to ask me, but i was happy to do it. i love to be involved in these activities!), so i had been busy making most of them, but cheated and bought fruit mince pies. seriously, who has the time to make them when they are cheap as - and the cheap ones are actually good!

i made rocky road

brownies, fudge and cupcakes topped with a piece of turkish delight (trying hard to somehow tie it into the middle eastern theme there). yum!

everything looked and tasted amazing, i am so grateful as always for the amount of effort that goes into each and every one of these incredible activities!

our christmas tree for the evening - to the left was "bishops brew" which i unfortunately didn't get a photo of, oh was i cracking up over that one!

and in the middle of the room was the "women at the well" a gathering place to eat, sit and chat, while enjoying a quick massage on the house from one of our lovely relief society sisters who is well trained.

at the end of the night after pack up and finally dropping something off to oli, poor baby alex was completely exhausted. after a decent feed, which i had struggled to offer while at the chapel, he fell asleep on his grandma before i took him home to bed. i just love this picture, it shows how much our boy is loved ♥

what an amazing night. i am truly surrounded by amazing women in the gospel

**a huge apology and thank you to the wonderful bert ghergori who took the majority of these pictures. i was dying to capture some good shots of the evening, but spent most of the night racing between the dessert stall and my baby, so i have used his pics from our ward facebook page. thanks bertie! x**

ready, steady, cook: welfare edition (a relief society additional meeting)

this evenings handout, complete with a cookie... please scroll to the bottom to have a look!

tonight we had another relief society additional meeting, with a focus on welfare. the girls did an amazing job and we had a great time as always.

someone had been lined up to sing a song on the evening to open but wound up sick and i was handballed it last minute... oh my word. it honestly is one of the hardest ones i've had to learn short notice and i am still amazed i managed to pull it off. thank heavens for the lovely emily who played it for me and helped me stumble through learning it at such short notice. you're a gem! it is pretty... you can listen to the original (not me thank goodness) here

our opening presentation was about spiritual welfare, discussing what we can do to keep our lanterns full and be prepared for times of sadness and hardship. it was really lovely, especially having the room darkened and being given a candle each to light as we talked about it.

our second topic was about the benefits of honey... it is good for soooo many things and stores indefinitely! fun fact: they have found honey in the ancient pyramids that is 5000+ years old and it's still just as good as it was when it was packed... never loses any nutritional value or takes on bacteria. it's such an amazing god given gift!

lastly we had a presentation about the importance of emergency preparedness... having a plan in place, what we need on hand and a 72 hour emergency kit in case we ever need to leave in a hurry.

then the fun began! elena and her activities team had planned a competition to follow... ready steady cook, with things you'd typically find on hand in your pantry or food storage, plus some extra things to make it more interesting.

it was kind of a cross with masterchef with a judge ready to pick a winner at the end... and the teams being given just 20 minutes to put something on our plates. 

i was paired with my mother in law and one of our sister missionaries... to make an entree

quick peek in the box found enough ingredients to make crepes, both savoury and sweet (once i'd swiped some chocolate from the other teams pantry - totally fair considering they'd stolen our frypan and we had to find another one and plug it in haha). 

i used the pancake mix according to directions then added onion, zucchini and tomato, which the other gals sliced and siced while it was cooking, then whacked in some pizza sauce before rolling it up. sweet ones were cooked normally, strawberries and cream and chocolate added once on the plate, which melted perfectly seeing as they were still warm when we served them up. yes i know, they don't look very appetising, but you gotta make do with the time you have! 

our entrees were marked as a draw with the opposing team... but our team won the competition overall for the evening... yay! i also was super chuffed as i won a prize for having the best presented dish (not my crepes obviously) just by making jelly slice and putting it on a two tier plate. if only presenting everything in life was that easy!

an action shot of our crew, filling our sweet crepe with chocolate before serving.

now... the highlight of the evening... my beautiful friend jennifer asked me if she could make cookies for any of our church activities as she's just recently started doing decorated cookies and needed to practice. i suggested these hive ones and she delivered them yesterday much to my absolute amazement... i can't even imagine how much time and effort went into them! i am gobsmacked. 100 points to baked on benrua, her little side venture. aren't they amazing?!

guess the dress: a relief society additional meeting

this week we had our additional meeting for may, our first (of hopefully many combined with the young women):

guess the dress

oh my word... it was a hoot! our activities committee collected 18 wedding dresses from sisters of all ages in our ward to be used in a catwalk show. our young women and recently married YA modelled them, and the rest of the sisters attending were given a list of whose they might be, to guess as we went along.

the ward young women president (one of my closest friends - made organising the evening a piece of cake!) and i introduced the evening with the following:

The focus of our evening is to mostly have some fun, and as we the older generation remember our wedding days, we also allow the YW to look forward to theirs. As you know, when you attend a fashion show, you receive a gift bag, so you’ll each find a gift bag on your chair with a few little items to help you through your day.

One of my favourite fashion bloggers: Corinne Stokoe is a member of our faith and gave a beautiful quote when interviewed for a piece a few months back. She said: “Modesty is important to me, not because I feel like I need to be a prude or even just because it was a part of my culture growing up. Modesty is something I choose because to me, it feels classy and timeless. I feel strongly that every time I dress modestly it means I’ll never have to look back on that photo and wish I had exemplified something different for my children, or grandchildren. It might not always be popular or put you at the best chance of succeeding in today’s world, but I choose modesty because it feels most genuinely true to who I really am, and who I’m trying to be, for my family and for my own self worth. Being a lady means to feel confident, classy and comfortable in whatever you choose to wear. Because I’m a lady I choose to dress modestly.”

As you know, we encourage the women of our church to dress modestly, and I couldn’t agree with that statement more. Modesty is not only about respect for your body and your appearance, it’s respect for yourself! I know each of the dresses we will see tonight are a wonderful example of modesty. 

In 2009 the YW general presidency added an 8th value, virtue. Virtue is behaviour showing high moral standards. In Proverbs 31:10 it says: Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. It also says in the 13th Article of Faith: if there is anything virtuous lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. 

Temple marriage or marriage at ALL may not be a possibility for everyone, but it’s something we as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strive for. A marriage that lasts beyond this life, and remains for time - and all eternity. If we keep the Temple in our sights, we will achieve great things. A wise man once said, “keep your eyes on the prize and your mind on your goal.” Don’t wait for the right one, BE the right one. 

Thank you all for attending tonight, for the gorgeous girls who will walk down the aisle in our dresses and for you amazing women entrusting your precious memories to be worn by another.

sisters arrived,had a glass of “bubbles” and took a seat by the catwalk, each receiving a gift bag on their chair. (free printable for bag can be found here)

 

each sister also received a wedding favour as she left at the end of the evening, a bag with caramel fudge

after each round we had a reveal via a slideshow on a projector, with wedding photos of each sister, then refreshments (a grazing platter after round one 

and wedding cake after round two - we had our presidency cut the cake then handed it out). 

we also had someone throw a bouquet into the young women and single sisters.

we received one dress which the owner preferred wasn't worn, this was displayed on a mannequin, with a chance to guess the owner and year of her wedding.

it was honestly one of the best activities i’ve ever been to. it was a laugh a minute (especially as we discovered some of our young women had quite the dramatic streak) with memories galore. well worth the effort.

relief society birthday party: 176 years old!

last night we had our relief society birthday celebration at the chapel. i am blown away over and over at the amount of effort that goes into preparing these activities as i participate in setting up. this was no exception... our additional meetings co-ordinator had thought of everything and it was a super fun night.

our cultural hall was set up for an informal high tea celebration with vintage china... all sisters who attended brought along a plate of food to share while we provided drinks (crock pot hot chocolate - [recipe here], herbal teas and water bottles with the rs logo. above and beyond around here... haha) 

i spoke briefly as we began the evening, of my love for this wonderful worldwide womens organisation. when the relief society was founded in 1842, it was because a need was seen, it was a chance for the women of nauvoo to offer relief, to build up others around them and to be there for each other. i am constantly blown away even in our little corner of the world, with stories of women right here caring for each other, with no thought of reward. it's truly something amazing to be a part of. when emma smith was made the president of the society, she began with the words, "sisters, we are going to do something extraordinary." we still do to this day! 

we then watched this short video from youtube, entitled "something extraordinary" before the fun began!

we had fun and games galore as the night went on, including a designated photobooth area, minute to win it games (trying to slide an oreo from your forehead into your mouth, pull all the tissues from a tissue box, stack some metal nuts with a straw, move m&ms from one bowl to another with a straw and who could blow the biggest bubblegum bubble, they were hilarious!) and a round of speed friendshipping (questions below, also hilarious), with two people moving each time from table to table so that less mobile sisters were able to remain seated.

and last but not least, much to my amusement, our additional meetings co-ordinator had actually gone ahead with her joke of the evening, we played "pin the pearl earring on the relief society president. please have a laugh at the below photo of me trying to pin an earring on myself.

honestly, look at this, so much effort... everything was just so.

little relief society decorated cupcakes...

and a beautifully decorated white mudcake, which we will be passing around during sundays lesson. i am sure it will keep the sisters happy...

it was an amazing evening... i am so blessed to be a part of something so wonderful. ♥