Christmas Wishes to Our Missionaries 2017

It's that time of year again...time to think about sending Christmas Wishes to all the missionaries serving from the Columbia Maryland Stake.  When I began collecting the photos and verifying addresses there were over 30 missionaries listed as serving from our stake.  But as I began to hear back from parents, I learned that several of them would be returning home prior to Christmas (my own missionary daughter included!)...a couple of these amazing missionaries returned just in the last 2 weeks.  It's always wonderful to gather the photos and see all the smiles and know that behind each smile are difficult days, hard work, long hours, tears and fears.  But also behind each smile there is faith, there is diligence, there is love, there is courage, there is testimony.  How grateful I am for them and their willingness to serve with all their hearts.  We hope our sisters and their families across the Stake will join us this year in sending Christmas cards to each of these missionaries.  While the addresses are available through the LDS Tools app and lds.org - I have compiled them into a Google Doc for your convenience.  At the time of publication, I am still missing one address for a missionary still in the MTC - I will update the Google Doc asap for him.  Some parents did provide specific details on how mail should be sent to their missionaries, so please check for those.  If you want to send a package - please contact the parents directly to ensure you understand any protocols that may apply.  Thanks for supporting our missionaries!

-Lorie Pierce

Google Doc Addresses for Missionaries 2017

Personal Moments with Gordon B. Hinckley

President Gordon B. Hinckley became the prophet just before I turned 11, and was the prophet until he passed away when I was 23. These were my key decision-making years, so as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he was definitely a huge influence in my life for good. A person teaches more by example than by what they say, and Gordon B. Hinckley was a great example in many ways. I will briefly discuss four ways the teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley have influenced for good/blessed my life.

Gordon B. Hinckley was a great example of optimism. He always had a positive attitude and a friendly smile on his face. Seeing his optimism influenced me to want to be an optimistic person also because I could see that optimism equals happiness.

Gordon B. Hinckley was happy to tell others about the gospel, and share his testimony with them. I still remember when our family gathered on my parents’ bed to watch his interview with Mike Wallace on television. I was so impressed that he had the faith and courage to face the world in such a bold manner. Seeing his courage in sharing his beliefs has taught me that I can also have that same courage in sharing with others my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.   

Gordon B. Hinckley was a great example of how to be a good spouse. He and his wife, Marjorie, were such a cute, loving couple. You could tell in the way they treated each other with utmost love and respect. President Hinckley was instrumental in the bringing forth of The Family: A Proclamation to the World, which offers great counsel on marriage and family matters. Seeing his example, and studying The Family: A Proclamation to the World has influenced me to be a better spouse, and helped me to better understand how a marriage and family should be.

Gordon B. Hinckley also taught about the importance of temples. During the time he served as prophet, the number of operating temples leaped from 47 to 124. I remember attending youth temple baptisms at the Portland, Oregon temple. Each visit was a special experience. They helped me to gain a testimony of the importance of temple ordinances, temple work, and family history.

I love Gordon B. Hinckley. I am grateful that he was the prophet during such crucial years of my life. I am grateful for all the wonderful things I have learned from him. I am grateful for his good example.

-Bonnie Barrett, Columbia 2nd Ward

I Can Better Know Who I Am

Being a teenage convert to the church Family History was a completely foreign concept to me. I had never thought about family members that I had never met, much less about those hundreds of years before my time. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I had kids of my own that I actually started thinking about these family members. But once I did, I couldn't stop thinking about them. I knew nothing about any of my ancestors. How was I supposed to know who I was if I didn't know who they were? And being the only member of the church in my family I was feeling the pressure to get the temple work done for my ancestors. However, I was completely overwhelmed and at a loss as to where to start. Fortunately, Heavenly Father knew that I would need help once I got started on this project and blessed me with a wonderful sister in our local family history center and a family history class provided by our ward.

Family history wasn't always easy and though there were times of frustration I kept trying. A couple of years later through FamilySearch and Ancestry, I was able to find a distant cousin of my mother's who, though not a member of the church, had been doing family history for my mother's family. This was an amazing blessing to me since at that point I had been having no luck finding any of this information. Then just recently I found out that my great grandma, who also wasn't a member of the church, had been doing family history for her side of the family for years. After she passed away my uncles decided that since I was doing family history now they would pass on all of her things to me. Within these things were some old Family Ledgers. For the last 3 days, pretty much straight from 7am to midnight, I have been sorting through these precious treasures unable to put them down! I have been putting all the names into digital family group sheets. 82 group sheets and 142 family names later I finally got it all done! The entries ranged from the oldest one, who born in 1782, all the way down to my father.

When I look at all these family names I now feel that I know these individuals even though I have never met them. I feel a deep love for them and look forward to taking their names to the temple so that we can all be sealed into our family chain throughout the eternities. Through the years I have come to love family history and the sense of connection and love it gives me. I'm so thankful for those who have preceded me who have worked so hard on our family history and the blessing that I have to carry on where they left off. Family history has helped me discover who my ancestors are so I can better know who I am.

-Jessi Eberle
Ellicott City Ward

Fuel the Find - An Invitation to Indexing

Sisters technology has opened many doors and changed how we approach family history and temple work.  We have the ability to log into FamilySearch and other websites and be greeted with Record Hints. The powerful search engines of these sites are always searching the online records for possible matches to your Tree. But where do those Record Hints come from? Original documents are digitized and then volunteers view those images and type into a database what is on the record.  That process is called indexing.

Indexing is the first step in finding our ancestors online and we can assist in those efforts, providing service to all who seek to Find their family names and prepare them for Temple ordinances.

With the change in technology has come a change in Indexing. Now all you need to participate as an indexing volunteer is to sign into familysearch.org.  You view the images online and type the data directly into the site for processing.

October 20-22 is the FamilySearch World Wide Indexing Event.

https://www.familysearch.org/indexingevent2017

We have created a Web Indexing Group for our Stake Relief Society to join together to collectively contribute to this effort during that event and beyond.

To join this group you need to:
Login to familysearch.org

Click on Indexing

Click on Web Indexing

Scroll down that page until you see Groups

Click on the Find Groups link and then click Find Groups again in that drop down menu
In the Search box on the left of the Find Groups page type in Columbia Maryland Stake Relief Society and then click Search
You should then see the group listed on the right of the screen with a Request to Join button
(Our group picture is the same one of the Washington DC Temple used in the blog)

I will be monitoring those requests and get everyone in ASAP.

If you are new to Web Indexing - it is recommended that you take the Guided Tour found on the Indexing Overview page.  You can also find many helpful articles by clicking on Help Resources on the Indexing page. Simply type Web Indexing into the Search bar and you can scroll through the articles.  If you have questions, feel free to ask me at loriepierce.rs@gmail.com.

This Indexing event is a great opportunity for us as sisters to serve together in an effort with lasting effects.  We hope you will take time to login and get acquainted with Web Indexing before the event and then join us Oct 20-22! 

-Lorie Pierce

General Women's Session Recap

Last Saturday evening, we were blessed to join with over 230 sisters, young women and Primary girls at our General Women's Session social and broadcast event.  The cultural hall was filled with happy sounds of mingling and enjoying a delicious meal together.  We concluded our meal with a beautiful musical number provided by mothers and daughters from the Eldersburg Ward.  It was a perfect way to set the tone as we departed for the Chapel.

We are very grateful for the sisters who prepared soups, salads, and cookies for us.  These events are huge and the extra help from our sisters this time was very appreciated.  There was so much variety and no one went hungry!  As always we want to express our thanks to the brethren for their support in set up, serving and clean up.

We hope that all who attended felt the welcome of this great sisterhood and the love of the Lord.  The conference speakers were inspired and we were enriched my their messages of hope, encouragement, guidance and love.  If you didn't have the opportunity to view or listen to this session, you can use this link to access it on lds.org.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng&cid=HP_SA_23-9-2017_dGC_fBCAST_xLIDyL1-B_

We love you sisters!  How grateful we are for the association with have with such amazing women, young women and Primary girls.

- Lorie Pierce

The Heart of Relief Society

Dear Sisters,

“And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them” (Moses 7:18). 

This scripture was used as the opening statement for September's visiting teaching message. I think it embodies what Relief Society is all about. One heart, one mind, living righteously and taking care of each other's needs, -whether they be physical, emotional or spiritual.

It has been said that Visiting Teaching is the heart of Relief Society, and I believe that's true.  And I'm not just talking about the "monthly visit" that we dutifully do.  It's the caring for one another, the genuine interest in each other's lives, and the time and effort spent in service that draws us close as sisters and allows us to grow spiritually in ways we cannot do on our own.

I follow the quarterly reports of our stake, and have been concerned as I've watched the numbers fall.  Too many sisters are not getting visited or contacted.  Do these sisters feel welcome in our wards? Do they have friends among us? Do they feel they have someone to turn to when they have a need? I fear that many opportunities are being missed to reactivate, motivate and serve.  I worry that some sisters are feeling isolated and alone.

I know that I personally feel better when I have visited or contacted the sisters for whom I have stewardship.  Our busy lives can make this difficult, and I never like to impose on their time, (a fear you might share also) but over the years I have learned from and been spiritually fed by wonderful sisters who were "assigned" to my care.  I have walked away feeling like I was the one who benefited most from our visits.

Yes, Visiting Teaching is the heart of Relief Society.  But...we need to get Visiting Teaching into our hearts. Then we can truly be a Zion people.

Sending much love as you go forth and visit the wonderful sisters of the Columbia Stake,

Cindy Erekson

Stake Relief Society President

Personal Moments with Gordon B. Hinckley

I have loved studying the teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley this year in Relief Society.  One of the most memorable teachings for me from President Hinckley was his emphasis on reading the Book of Mormon.  

In August of 2005 President Hinckley issued a challenge to Church members.  He challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in its entirety before the end of that year.  He later reported, “It is amazing how many met that challenge. Everyone who did so was blessed for his or her effort. As they became immersed in this added witness of our Redeemer, their hearts were quickened and their spirits touched.”

I vividly remember taking President Hinckley’s challenge.  My 3 boys were young (ages 8, 6, and 4), but they were old enough to all be involved in organized sports and music programs.  I did a lot of driving my boys around, so I decided to read the Book of Mormon by way of listening.  I listened in the car as we drove to various events.  After a while my boys began reciting scriptures from the Book of Mormon.  I was amazed, especially with my 4 year old.  I remember the Spirit I felt as I listened to the book in its entirety over a few short months.

President Hinckley makes a promise when we read the Book of Mormon.  He said, “It is then that the Spirit can bear witness of its divinity.”  We are all entitled to receive personal revelation.  It is my testimony that when we read the Book of Mormon and sincerely seek revelation through study and prayer, we will know it is true.  

President Hinckley said, “Without reservation I promise you that if each of you will observe this simple program, regardless of how many times you previously may have read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.”

I am grateful for the teachings of President Gordon B. Hinckley.  He was such a positive man with much energy.  Remembering, studying, and obeying his teachings have truly blessed my life.

- Kim Olivier (Columbia 2nd Ward)

Stake Relief Society Counselor