* All About Mormons Newsletter *
August 1997
Welcome to the All About Mormons Newsletter!
*In this newsletter:
*Scripture Topic of the Month: Learning
D&C 19:23
Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my
Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.
2 Nephi 28:30
For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the
children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a
little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto
my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall
learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and
from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be
taken away even that which they have.
D&C 90:15
And set in order the churches, and study and learn, and become
acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and
people.
It’s back to school time. With that comes new classes, new friends, books, tests, and homework. For high school students, back to school also means seminary. But seminary students should not be the only ones really studying the scriptures this school year. Make your house a house of learning and a house of God by getting the whole family involved—whether you have a seminary student or not. Have a morning devotional at least once a week before or during breakfast. For the devotional, sing a song, say a prayer, have a brief lesson or spiritual thought for the day, and give a reminder of the lesson to each family member. Read the scriptures every day. Read a scripture mastery scripture or other good scripture quote through several times and try to memorize it as a family. Discuss what the verse means and why it is important. Discuss how to use the scripture in your daily life. After you have memorized several scriptures, go back and review them with a fun game, puzzle, scripture chase, or scripture bee.
*What’s New on All About Mormons?
We now have over 1000 pages and we’re still growing!
Our Family Home Evening Section is expanding rapidly. We currently have sections entitled Lessons, Activities, Making Home Evenings Successful, and Building a Strong Family. Coming Soon—a new section called Lesson Ideas, more activities and more lessons.
Our newest related site, Relief Society Rest Stop, is underway. Currently, we have Morale Boosters, Recipes, Making a House a Home, Housekeeping Tips, and Homemaking Night Ideas. Stay tuned to this growing site!
The Young Women’s Corner now has the Young Women’s theme and ideas for presenting several of the values to young women. Also, we have more Fun Foods to Make. Coming soon—more recipes, object lessons, and practical ideas for leaders.
LDS Humor is always adding more to its pages. Send us your funny stories, jokes, etc. Our Other Good Stuff section is especially for non-religious humor. Laugh With Us!
All About Mormons now has even more information to keep you in touch with the Church, including Church related web sites and internet services, Church phone numbers, and magazine information. Check it out on our Welcome page!
New Pages:
LDS Chat is now available. Chat anytime, but especially come during the scheduled times so more people will be available to chat at the same time.
Refreshments—a new page in The Young Women’s Corner, is sure to have just the idea for Family Home Evening treats, youth or ward activities, or family reunions! (7/11/97)
Read about Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s his call to the holy apostleship, and his discussion on how the Book of Mormon is a standard for us to follow in A Standard Unto My People. (07/09/97)
Find an updated answer to Are Mormons Prejudiced? (07/06/97)
In The Fall as Taught in the Book of Mormon, Dr. Robert L. Millet discusses what the Book of Mormon teaches about the doctrine of the fall. He refutes the notion of original sin and discusses instead concepts such as being born into a sinful world, spiritual death and the natural man, and redemption from our fallen nature. (07/01/97)
*Announcements from the LDS Community
A CD-ROM containing audio recordings, video clips, and print material about the incredible journey of the 19th Century Mormon Pioneers and current Church information is now available to the general public. It commemorates the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the Great Salt Lake Valley. The item can be ordered from Salt Lake Distribution. Their number is 800-537-5951. The item number is 50067. The price is $5 each. (Phone orders cost $2 extra, U.S. currency). Current inventory is 8000, but they are going fast! (If there are any further questions, or you need further assistance, contact the help desk at help@ldschurch.net )
benemerito de las americas is a school of the LDS system in Mexico and the web address is http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/1789
Visit http://www.netfeed.com/byondf1/icqlist.htm for fun, friendship and good conversation. They use a program called ICQ, which can be downloaded at the site. It is guaranteed virus free, easy to install and use and is FREE. They have two interactive Bulletin Boards, one for general use and one for the youth of our church. Exchange stories and ideas!
For those of you wondering about pageants, Deseret Book offers a very nice schedule on their site at http://www.deseretbook.com/pageant.html.
Faith in Every Footstep and Hill Cumorah are new sections of http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6130
Washington Temple Visitors Center Heritage Exhibits on display now through August 27, 1997. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. daily at 10000 Stoneybrook Drive, Kensington, MD. Phone: 301-587-0144. "Out of the Past" is an exhibit of pioneer and Church related collectors' items, memorabilia and artifacts and "Turning Hearts to Roots: Children Share Their Unique Heritage" feature Primary age children's illustrated stories from past and present family histories.
To get similar LDS announcements, send an email message to majordomo@lists.panix.com, with "subscribe mormon-index" or "subscribe mormon-index-digest" (for the weekly digest) in the body of the message. Announcements can be sent to mormon-index@lists.panix.com Also, visit Other LDS Sites which has other LDS-related e-mail lists which you may find interesting.
*Object lesson—Sundaes and Sundays:
Serve ice cream sundaes with all of the toppings—hot fudge or chocolate syrup, fruit sauces, whipped cream, cherries, and nuts. Have other toppings such as pickles, mustard, tomatoes, salt, butter, onion, etc. also available. Lead a discussion similar to this:
Were you surprised at some of the things I put out for you to put on your ice cream sundaes? What did you put on your sundaes? Why didn’t you leave your sundae as just plain ice cream? Is that really a sundae? Why didn’t you put onion on your sundae? Don’t you like onion? What about the tomato? Don’t you like tomatoes? Is salt good? Why didn’t you put that on your sundae? (Suit to your family’s tastes. If they never like onion, pick something different to compare to things that we don’t do on Sundays).
Sundaes are like day-of-the-week Sundays. Lots of things are available to do with our Sundays. We can leave it plain like the plain ice cream—we can choose not to do much with it at all. What do you think that means? (Sleeping all day, sitting around being lazy) If we leave it plain, is that really a Sunday? Is that really keeping the Sabbath day?
There are some things that we want to put on our Sundays and some things we don’t.
What are some things that are like the toppings you chose? (Reading scriptures, feeling the Spirit, going to Church, visiting with family members, going to Church meetings, baptisms, or firesides, preparing talks, watching Church videos, listening to good music, writing letters, playing uplifting music on an instrument, reading good books or Church magazines, doing missionary work, going home teaching, etc.)
What are some things that are like the toppings that you didn’t choose—things that are good, but don’t "taste good" on Sundays? (Listening to popular music that is clean, shopping, going to good movies, paying the bills, getting gas in the car, watching TV, going out to eat, going to ball games, playing sports, going to work—unless absolutely necessary, etc.—these are examples. Your family should make its own decision about what is appropriate and inappropriate on Sundays. Let the Holy Ghost be your guide.)
Does that mean that sports are bad or that we shouldn’t go shopping? No. Not at all. But, there is a time and a place for sports, just like there is a time and a place for pickles or tomatoes. On a hamburger, they’re great, but they taste awful on ice cream. So next Sunday, think about what you’re putting on your Sunday—mustard or chocolate sauce.
*Reader Participation: How can I help my family study the scriptures better?
We want to know what you do to study the scriptures. How do you encourage your younger children? How do you involve your teenagers? How do you help family members understand difficult words or phraseology? How do you make sure family members are listening and thinking about what the scriptures mean?
Reader responses will appear in the next newsletter. E-mail responses to mormon@mormons.org
See you next month!
John and Jenny Walsh