christmas at hogwarts: a relief society additional meeting

last night our ward relief society put on yet another awesome activity, this one was harry potter themed and i was in my element! the organisers asked me to be one of the "professors" for the evening and teach the "defence against the dark arts" (how to keep satan out of our hearts and homes) class... so fun! i totally channeled professor trelawney for my costume, even though i am feel aware that dark arts was not her forte. (was anything her forte? haha)

the evenings flyer

little "ron weasley"decked out in his harry potter threads. what a cutie!

my classroom ready to go

diagon alley all set up, the two other classes down the hall were herbology (basic gardening tips to grow helpful herbs) and patronus pet care (how to look after animals in the home) plus a pit stop at the three broomsticks for hot chocolate and cookies.

my little handouts were simple, a quote from harry potter and a candle. "happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

keeping this forever hahaha.

as each of the sisters arrived, we were sorted into houses with the sorting hat, so we could go in groups from class to class. we ended in the hall, decked out with amazing decorations and an epic feast.

the girls spent hours and hours making things and setting up the chapel did not leave one thing undone. it was so amazing! they had even made a mini wand for each place seeting, to be taken home and had set up a table with display items from each book and set up a honeydukes lolly store for dessert. what an effort! this was my favourite though, the owl with his cases and broom with hogwarts letters flying all over the place on fishing line.

i was asked to make pumpkin pies as well, one for each house table, which i happily did... i had so many people comment on them and was thrilled! (you can find the recipe here, it seriously is the best, but you need to use canned pumpkin or it just doesn't taste right.)  

my little classroom setup, i was really happy with it!

it was an amazing evening, loved by everyone who attended.

anddddd here's my spiel, enjoy!

Hi everyone, thanks for joining me this evening! I’m going to spend the next 10 or so minutes telling you how you can defend yourSELF against the dark arts… which is keeping the adversary out of our homes and our lives.

Martin Luther King once said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”

Our best defence against the dark arts, the way to keep the darkness out of our lives, is to fill them with light. Especially the light of the gospel! We don’t have a great deal of time together this evening, but I would just like to give you a few pointers of how we can do just that!

1.    Read your scriptures, regularly and faithfully. Set aside time to do so and make sure you do it! You wouldn’t forget to brush your teeth and reading your scriptures is as important to our “spiritual hygiene” as brushing your teeth is to your dental hygiene!  Get to know the people and the stories. As you love the scriptures instead of seeing reading them as a chore (which we all have done once or twice in our lives) our understanding of them will increase and we will learn more, daily! If we teach our children to love the scriptures, they will grow up knowing that they are loved by the Lord. As it says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

2.    Pray daily, as often as you need to. When we have a problem, are we as quick to kneel as we are to text? Think about that for a moment! Our father in  heaven has given us the gift of prayer and wants us to tell him everything! Our problems, our fears, our desires and our joys. Pour your heart out and know that he is real, he is there and he is listening to our every word. All we have to do is go to him in prayer.

3.    Make time to attend the temple. Schedule a time to be there and then do not change it. Make it as important as your hair appointment (says me haha!). Heaven is full of the light of the Lord and the temple is the closest we can get to heaven here on earth. In her talk “Keeping Covenants Protects Us, Prepares Us, and Empowers Us,” from the April 2014 General Conference, Sister Rosemary M. Wixom, Primary General President said, “Temple ordinances lead to the greatest blessings available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. They are those ordinances necessary for our exaltation in the celestial kingdom. As we strive to keep our covenants, our feelings of inadequacy and imperfection begin to fade, while the ordinances and the covenants of the temple come alive. Everyone is welcome to walk that path to eternal life.”

4.    Regularly attend your church meetings. (Including Sunday School people!) Church is not a museum for saints, it is a hospital for sinners. Go to church not for others, but for yourself. It enables us to renew our covenants each week by partaking of the sacrament and allows us to learn more of the gospel and the teachings of the Saviour. If for any reason you cannot attend every week, go as often as you can. If you are away one Sunday, watch a conference talk, listen to one, read the scriptures… do what you can to create the Sabbath where you are. The Lord knows our hearts and understands our circumstances.

5.    Try to keep your family close physically and mentally. There are so many awful things in the world today, beating down our doors and trying to sneak their way in, to destroy our homes and families. To strengthen your family and cultivate peace, remember to have weekly family home evening. Decide that on your chosen night, your family will be together at home for the evening.

Sister Linda S. Reeves boldly declared: “I must testify of the blessings of daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening. These are the very practices that help take away stress, give direction to our lives, and add protection to our homes.” As soon as your children are old enough to understand, give them a responsibility so they realise the importance of family time. Time with family is precious and is never time wasted.

6.   Be mindful of what you do each day. Sometimes we need to look at what we are doing, to prioritize certain thing over others. To focus more on our personal growth, instead of spending time on things that perhaps are not really necessary in the scheme of things. When we put the Lord first, everything else will fall into place.

I do want to finish by saying that just because we do these things it doesn’t mean that our lives will be easy or problem free. Dark days will come. Life was not meant to be easy and we WILL be tested. But we can choose how we react. On the dark days, find a distraction, and most importantly, ask for help. You can pray, write down your feelings, call a friend for support, sing, watch a favourite movie, read a book, get outside and go for a walk, or even keep a gratitude journal. This is an excellent one. It’s hard to see the bad when you are focusing on the good. As Helen Keller said, “keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.” But most importantly, try to lift yourself from that place. Replace the darkness with light and reach for the things that will raise you up. Jeffery R Holland said, “Expecting a trouble-free life because you are a good person is like expecting the bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian.” By choosing the Lord, we can keep the darkness at bay, but on the days when darkness and doubt come in, we need only remember, that “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” A very wise man by the name of Albus Dumbledore said that.

struggles with depression and anxiety: a young womens lesson

there have been so many struggles within and around lately, stemming from depression and anxiety. it is such a huge thing, with so many people feeling it's effects. in fact, did you know that the average second grader suffers from the same amount of anxiety as a committed patient did in the 1950's? Isn't that incredible? and so frightening! i thought it was time we talked about it with the young women and gave them some coping mechanisms(or distractions!) and made sure that they know it's very real and very normal.

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I want to speak to you all of you girls today about something that’s very real and very hard in our lives. Most of you at some stage in your life will encounter some form of anxiety and/ or depression. If you are lucky enough for it to never affect you, then undoubtedly it will affect someone you know.

Jeffrey R Holland spoke about it at general conference a few years ago, in a talk called: Like a brokenvessel. I have a small video of him talking about it here (we watched 3:15-3:59, but if you have time watch the whole thing - it's so good) 

In life and the universe, there is opposition in all things. Health and sickness, happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain, sweet and sour, light and darkness. Darkness is something most often associated with depression, because it can feel as though you are being swallowed by darkness. If any of you have read Harry Potter, JK Rowling used the dementors to describe the crippling depression she had encountered, something cold and dark, that sucked the life out of you and made it feel as though you’d never be happy again.

Have any of you ever felt anxious, or depressed? There is no shame in it. I want you to all close your eyes for a moment. Okay, now raise your hands if you’ve ever felt either one. (Every single girl in our class raised their hand.)

So. Often we can feel as though we are stuck in the darkness. Can you girls think about it for a moment and tell me what the very best thing is to get rid of darkness. Thinkinnnnnng. There is literally only one thing. LIGHT.

Martin Luther King once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that.” So what can we do, to reduce the effects of darkness? Fill our lives with light. Most importantly, the light of the gospel. The atonement covers so many things. Did you know, that we can call upon the power of the atonement to cover more than just our sins? That we can ask our Saviour to help us with the pains of sadness? Loneliness? Depression? Anxiety? Well we can. It’s not just there for sins. Having depression and anxiety, is certainly not a sin, but it is there for that too!

We need to be kind because everyone we meet is fighting some kind of battle. I’m sure you’ve all heard of people speaking to plants? That talking to them helps them grow etc? Well. If talking nicely to plants helps them grow, imagine what speaking nicely to humans can do. There was once an experiment done when someone showed the effects of kind and negative words on things and I would love to show you. I am sure you’ve all heard the hymn “Let us oft speak kind words” so here is a real life demo. 

Rice video.

So. Wow right? See what kind of effect words can have? The rice is cooked in water, human bodies are made up of 50-60% water.

When I was the ward relief society president, there was a certain sister whose struggles were made known to me. She was incredibly private, didn’t wish to discuss them, nor have any one else discuss them. She didn’t want help. She wanted to be left alone with them. I was rightly worried for her and didn’t want to see her struggle. But over the weeks that followed, something amazing happened. She found someone else who was struggling more than her. Who needed her. Who she was able to serve… and through serving, forgot about her own struggles and managed to lift herself out of the darkness. Serving others is an amazing blessing. Sometimes I think it’s almost selfish to do so, as it’s so wonderful for us to reap the benefits.

What are some things we can do to distract ourselves from problems we might be facing? What can we do to fill our lives with light?

Here’s a list I prepared earlier and you get to keep them for days that you may need a distraction.

I also have 8 things for you to remember during your hardest days: 

8.    There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

I love that last one so much. When you focus on what you are thankful for, it is much harder to think of the things that stress and upset you. I would highly recommend thinking of things you are grateful for when the darkness is coming in.

I want to read you a wonderful quote, in fact it’s from my favourite talk ever. Written before even I was born! (You can read the entire thing here)

"A few years ago, we knew our Elder Brother and our Father in heaven well. We rejoiced at the upcoming opportunity for earth life that could make it possible for us to have a fullness of joy like they had. We could hardly wait to demonstrate to our Father and our Brother, the Lord, how much we loved them and how we would be obedient to them in spite of the earthly opposition of the evil one.

And now we’re here—our memories are veiled—and we’re showing God and ourselves what we can do. And nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us. And then, as President Brigham Young said, we’re going to wonder why we were so stupid in the flesh.

God loves us. He’s watching us, he wants us to succeed, and we’ll know someday that he has not left one thing undone for the eternal welfare of each of us. If we only knew it, there are heavenly hosts pulling for us—friends in heaven that we can’t remember now, who yearn for our victory. This is our day to show what we can do—what life and sacrifice we can daily, hourly, instantly bring to God. If we give our all, we will get his all from the greatest of all."

Did you hear that girls? We literally have people on the other side of the veil cheering us on. Hoping we make it through our trials. Yearning for our victory. We are never, ever alone. Our Father in Heaven is watching us, beside us, holding us, every step of the way. He is waiting for us to call on him and ask for his help.

In closing, I want to leave you with one last video. I want you to think first. If you had to think of who the most righteous women in the whole world are, who would you say? In MY opinion it would be the general relief society presidency and board. You would think that they have it all. Not problems, just perfect wholesome lives. But recently they made a video showing that they are just like us. They all have their struggles.

"Just Like You"

Girls. I pray you never have to deal with huge emotional and mental struggles, but I am realistic and understand it’s a possibility. I truly hope you can find ways to cope, distract yourself or help another during hard times. I have a little handout for you and I feel this quote is perfect for this lesson. A very wise man called Albus Dumbledore once said: Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. (Can we found at the top of this post, I handed it to the girls in a little cellophane bag with a tealight candle each - to create their own light.)

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i feel like the lesson went really well, they were all certainly very attentive for once, so hopefully it will have the desired effect. i had popcorn for the treat, explaining that popcorn starts as something hard that we cannot enjoy, until it suffers through heat and comes out completely different, ready to be enjoyed. hopefully suffering through trials can make us something great too.