Reads

Sister Beck gave a recent BYU devotional called "Why We are Organized into Quorums and Relief Societies".
http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=2012

I have only gotten through part of it, but thought I'd share.  Sister Beck is so awesome. 

Oh, funny story.  I was doing research for my YW lesson about receiving inspiration from the Holy Ghost and one of the talks that came up on my radar was Sister Beck's talk from April 2010 Conference.  Wonderful talk, by the way.  Anyway, the ideas in it were almost exactly what she expressed to the region when she came to California in October and spoke to us.  Before she started her talk in October, she asked women to share any questions that they had for her.  Those that spoke all told sad stories about personal challenges and seemed to be asking her what they should do about their problems {edited to add that I don't want to sound unfeeling - they really were sad stories}.  Her reply was a talk on receiving personal revelation - exactly what she spoke on in that April Conference.  I was thinking - surely it must be frustrating to our leaders to feel like they are TALKING and no one is LISTENING.  Sister Beck could have said "go read my conference talk - you'll find all you need to know in there".  But she didn't.

Just a little personal reminder to myself to READ and ACT and then go back and re-read and study and, well, stop bugging the Lord to fix my problems when he's probably already provided the answer in one form or another.  Maybe a better plea would be to ask the Lord to help me find and recognize the answer from the counsel we've already received.
:-)

Hope you are all having a pleasant January.  I am up to my eyeballs in New Beginnings (happens tonight).  The President that I serve under, and I, have never been to one EVER!   We did something totally fun, though.  The Bishop gave us permission (and then went and did the work for us) to screw hooks into corners of the wall so that we could put pretty lights across the ceiling.  The girls are going to be so amazed because that is one thing that has never been done in our ward.  Should make it a little bit like a fairyland - it reminds me of every wedding reception I've ever been to in a church building.  ;-)  The lovely part of being in this particular small ward is that people have very low expectations!

Oh, just read a fascinating book that my husband had recommended to him called "Donbas: A True Story of an Escape Across Russia".  It's a very quick read and not too heavy or intense, especially considering the subject matter.  This autobiography is a tale of a 15 year old Romanian kid who was captured at the end of WWII and sent to Russia to be a slave in their coal mines...and what happens from there.