That means little bookmarks that say what lesson you’re on each week, 3-up and made painstakingly in Microsoft Word so you can adjust them to your schedule and print enough out for everybody.  They will thank you for them, and you can get more next year.

- LDS Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (PDF format)
- LDS Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (editable DOC format)
- and an Old Testament reading schedule–929 chapters divided by 365 days (actually starts January 10th per schedule)

Holler with comments or questions.

The meeting started off in the chapel with three talks from women who spend five minutes speaking on the topic “How I feel the love of the Lord in my life.”  Then we split into mini-classes.  We could choose two of six classes: Women’s Health, Building Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Strengthening Marriage, Kitchen Tips, Personal Revelation, and a service project making turbans for those fighting cancer.  I chose to go to the Women’s Health and Faith classes–all of them looked interesting, so I decided by picking the two taught by women who serve in Primary with me.  Both classes were informative and faith-promoting.  The health class was taught by an RN and we discussed everything from the Word of Wisdom to osteoporosis to menopause to how much sleep we should get.  She was going to talk about “serving in callings with chronic health problems,” but I guess we didn’t have enough time.  In the Faith class we talked a lot about prayer and Elder Bednar’s recent General Conference talk on faith.

After the mini-classes, we met up in the chapel again to hear talks from two sisters (wives of the stake presidency) on Sustaining the Priesthood.  Then we got to go into the cultural hall for a very yummy lunch prepared by a man in our stake who is a professional chef.  He and some other men in the stake served us chicken (caesar?) wraps, potato salad, and fruit salad (actually mostly marshmallows).  Women in the stake had brought desserts to share and we had a HUGE spread of a variety of desserts.  I skipped the fruit salad so I would have enough in my carb budget for a bit or two of cheesecake and brownie.  It was heavenly after nearly a month of very limited sweets to have good bite of dense chocolate and another of cheesecake….mmmm…graham cracker crust…

2008 North Little Rock Sunday School Schedule

2008 North Little Rock Priesthood & Relief Society Schedules

Again, feel free to print it out, adjust the dates per your needs, or create derivative works for other contexts; but please mention it here or email a copy so I can be proud of myself… 

Let me reduce this to a simple saying—one of the most simple and homely that can be used—“Keep your dish right side up,” so that when the shower of porridge does come, you can catch your dish full (DBY, 310).
When [individuals] act upon the principles which will secure to them eternal salvation, they are sure of obtaining all their hearts’ desire, sooner or later; if it does not come today, it may come tomorrow; if it does not come in this time, it will in the next (DBY, 309).

She knows that we've struggled financially and that it can be a tough trial sometimes.  She said that in similar circumstances she and her husband remind themselves that if they had to choose a trial for their family, they'd rather have financial problems than have a child terminally ill or many of the other painful circumstances you can choose from.  I'm with her–as long as we don't let financial problems weaken our relationships or testimonies, there's nothing lasting in them that will hurt us.  Especially since we have such a great network of family and friends and church that supports us when we need help. 

I am grateful to have the trials I have, even if only because it means I don't have worse ones.  I'm grateful to have an awesome visiting teacher who says what I need to hear at the right time.  I'm grateful for the gospel that teaches me how to keep my dish right side up, so that when the blessings I desire become available I'll be ready to receive them.   

A week from Saturday is October General Conference.  We've got some changes coming up in our leadership because President Faust of the First Presidency passed away a little while ago and it's expected that we'll have at least one new member of the First Presidency (typically called from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) and a new member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

So, as we prepare for Conference we might all want to pray for the people who will be called to new positions, and pray for ourselves to have spiritual confirmation of the callings so that we can confidently sustain our new leaders.

For those of you looking for ways to prepare for General Conference (I know some of you are giving talks that topic this week), take a look at my previous posts: "How to stay awake and interested during General Conference" and "Preparing for General Conference." 

If you don't know what General Conference is, check out my previous explanatory post here.  I think the most remarkable thing about General Conference is that it's an opportunity to hear the voice and counsel and commandments of the Lord through his chosen mouthpiece, the modern-day Prophet of God.  What would you give up to hear Moses or Abraham speak in person?  President Hinckley has the same authority and prophetic calling as they did, only it's even more exciting because he's here to tell us what the Lord wants us to focus on today.  Go to Conference and listen to the prophet's voice. 

Yesterday was no exception.  It was so nice to be in Relief Society again, since I don't get to go to the Sunday meeting because I teach in Young Women.  My RS Pres. called me the night before and asked me to tell a 2-minute story about how having Visiting Teachers has blessed my life.  After the announcements, Pres. got up and told the story from Exodus about Moses learning to delegate from his father-in-law Jethro, and she said that that's what Visiting Teaching is for her.  It helps her to know about all the women in the ward and be able to help the ones who need it without her having to visit all of us all the time herself. 

Then I was up.  I told the story about my Visiting Teacher who came to visit me spontaneously once when I was sick and miserable.  It took me more than two minutes because I cried through the whole thing–it was a really touching experience for me even if I wasn't able to explain it well.  Maggie cried through the whole thing, too.  She really needed a nap and refused to go to sleep with so many interesting people around.

Then a couple of other ladies got up and talked about their experiences.  Then the Relief Society President got up and talked about how we can help each other and told the "feed my sheep" story.  

My Visiting Teachers came over last night.   And I called the one sister of the three we haven't VTaught this month yesterday.

One of the cool things that they did for the conference and for enrichment earlier this month was have the Visiting Teachers tell the presidency three good adjectives about each of the people they Visit Teach.  Then they typed the words up on little slips of paper and wrapped the papers in cute little gift boxes and gave them to the person the adjectives were about.  Everyone got a box.  Mine said that I'm cheerful and bubbly, talented, and kind.  I think that's four adjectives, but I didn't mind having an extra.  They handed out the boxes at the RS Birthday Party Enrichment meeting, but the ones that hadn't been taken there they handed out yesterday at the conference.   It sounded like it was a lot of work, but it got us all thinking good things about each other and ourselves.