February 2012 Announcements

Announcements

Relief Society Information: Please check out www.LockportRS.blogger.com for up-to-date Relief Society information, announcements, lessons, and visiting teaching messages.

Visiting Teaching: Itʼs a new year and a chance for a new start. Please visit your sisters and show your love for them. If you donʼt have time to visit in person, please call your sisters or send them a note. Check in with them. All visiting teachers: Please call Sister Debbie Casselman (716-998-3395) to report your visiting teaching by the 30th.

Be Prepared: The Buffalo Stake leadership has asked all individuals and families in the Stake to prepare a 72-hour kit by January 31, 2012. Visit the Relief Society blog for suggestions on items to include in your kit. More information about self reliance is available at www.providentliving.org.

February Calendar

1 (Wednesday) - New session of the family finance class begins. 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

7 (Tuesday) - RS Meeting at 6:30 p.m. Light dinner and a class on using New Family Search and doing family history.

19 (Sunday) - Linger Longer - Please bring a generous dish to pass

26 (Sunday) - Lockport Ward Conference

February Relief Society lessons:

5 - Fast Sunday/RS Presidency

12 - GAS #3 Our Testimony of Jesus Christ (Heather Norris)

19 - GAS #4 The Prophet Joseph Smith, God's Instrument in Restoring the Truth (Jesika Froman)

26 - Ward Conference - Lesson will be taught by the Stake Relief Society Presidency

GAS: Teachings of Presidents of the Church - George Albert Smith

TFOT: Teaching for our Times - these lessons, generally taught on the 4th Sunday, are taken from talks given in the most recent General Conference.

February Birthdays:

6 - Ruby Wheeler

8 - Adele Harris

10 - Michelle Mayes

16 - Hillary Georgia

16 - Trina Pardee

19 - Jessica Durrant

20 - Sue Stevens

27 - Anna Maria Steimer

27 - Barbara Hoffman

28 - Louise Schroeder

February Visiting Teaching Message - Guardians of the Hearth

Study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.

“You are the guardians of the hearth,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) as he introduced “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” in the general Relief Society meeting in 1995. “You are the bearers of the children. You are they who nurture them and establish within them the habits of their lives. No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God.”1

For almost 17 years now this proclamation has reinforced that our most significant responsibilities are centered in strengthening families and homes—no matter our current circumstances. Barbara Thompson, now second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, was in the Salt Lake Tabernacle when President Hinckley first read the proclamation. “That was a great occasion,” she remembers. “I felt the significance of the message. I also found myself thinking, ‘This is a great guide for parents. It is also a big responsibility for parents.’ I thought for a moment that it really didn’t pertain too much to me since I wasn’t married and didn’t have any children. But almost as quickly I thought, ‘But it does pertain to me. I am a member of a family. I am a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a niece, and a granddaughter. I do have responsibilities—and blessings—because I am a member of a family. Even if I were the only living member of my family, I am still a member of God’s family, and I have a responsibility to help strengthen other families.’”

Fortunately, we are not left alone in our efforts. “The greatest help,” says Sister Thompson, “we will have in strengthening families is to know and follow the doctrines of Christ and rely on Him to help us.”2

From the Scriptures

Proverbs 22:6; 1 Nephi 1:1; 2 Nephi 25:26; Alma 56:46–48; Doctrine and Covenants 93:40

What Can I Do?

1. How can I help the sisters I watch over to strengthen families?

2. How can I be a righteous influence in my family?

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.