Tag Archives: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Primary Chorister, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Baptism Song – LDS Jesus and John the Baptist Art

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baptism Update #1 7/6/2014 @ 3:00 pm: I just got back from church and I am overwhelmed with how well this worked out. Every child from nursery to senior primary got to baptize Jesus, granted it was a holiday weekend so the primary was small, but I sang the baptism song over 30 times today. I found a better container to represent the river and the puppets survived being immersed so many times. The water turned slightly yellow after everyone dipped their hands in it but someone commented “well, at least it’s a better representation of the Jordan River!” (since the Jordan River is a dirty river)…. LOL! I also made a stand for John the Baptist so he can just stand in the river the whole time. I made it using two popsicle sticks and hot glue. Everything worked out perfect. I felt the spirit so strong today during primary. The kids were engaged and SOOOO excited to baptize Jesus. I asked the kids questions about baptism before we started singing and they had a lot of great insight! This idea came to me after I was praying one night about how to teach the kids about baptism.  Baptism Object Lesson  Update #2 7/13/2014 @ 9:00 am: I’ve added a few printables for the second verse of the song. Scroll down to see it. Stay tune next week for the third verse!  

Update #3 7/20/2014 @ 6:00 am: I’ve added my ideas for the final verse. THANK YOU Susan Fitch Design for providing the art for the baptism boy or girl. I’ve also realized after doing this for 2 weeks that this baptism idea works best for Jr. Primary and Nursery. The Sr. Primary is a little bit too old and cool for this. I thought I may be playing Baptism Hangman with the Sr. Primary today. Where I put a lines for a word on the board and then draw a man on the board and every time they get a letter right the guy can be lowered a little bit more in the water until he is baptized. 

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I recently got a new calling as primary chorister. I’ve been doing it for about a month now. I haven’t spend much time on social media this month unless it’s looking up ideas for singing time. This month the song is “Baptism” in the Children’s Song Book. I got the idea to teach the kids the lyrics to the Baptism song using laminated stick figures. I couldn’t find the perfect pictures online so I had to make my own drawings and enhanced it with Photoshop. ( Sorry I’m not the best artist but feel free to use these drawings for you own projects and I’d appreciate the link up!) So I’m going to print these out, laminate them, then put them on popsicle sticks. I’ve attached the color and B&W versions. If you don’t have a laminator you can use clear tape.

I’ll have the kids help with the stick puppets but basically I’ll just go through each line of the song of the first verse:

-Jesus came to John the Baptist (Put the Jesus and John puppets together)
-In Judea long ago, (Put the puppets by a Judea map such as the one below)
-And was baptized by immersion (Put John and Jesus puppets in a container of water and have the kids help baptize Jesus in the water)
-In the River Jordan’s flow. (Label the container of water “Jordan River”)

 

First , I’m going to ask the kids “why do we have to be immersed in water?” and not just sprinkle or showered in the water. (Because that is the proper way and it’s a symbolism of full conversion, covenants with God and full cleansing).

 

Then I’m going to ask the kids “why did John the Baptist have to be the one to baptize Jesus?”. (Because he had the priesthood authority and Jesus was being obedient to God).

 

Hopefully someone else can use these pictures too since I spent the time making them! This also works as an objection lesson on teaching kids about baptism by immersion for FHE or Primary Lessons or Sharing Time.
Please share your thoughts and ideas!

Jordan River Judea map picture credit: http://bibleatlas.org/area/judea.jpg Second Verse:  Use the speech bubbles to tell the story of the second verse. Use these speech bubbles along with the stick figures. IMG_9665

“To fulfill the law,” said Jesus
When the Baptist questioned why
Talk to the children about “What is the law?” (Answer: All the commandments of Heavenly Father such as commanded to be baptized.)

The LawWhy “And to enter with my Father in the kingdom up on high.” Cut out the door and have the Jesus puppet go into the temple. Then talk about why you need baptism to “enter into the kingdom”. The size of this picture is 11″ by 16″ but I’ve divided it into 8.5″ by 11″ below so you can print it on two sheets of paper. You can paste this temple onto a cardstock or cardboard box so it can stand up.

Temple

Third Verse: 

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I found these cute little baptism boy and girl on Susan’s Fitch Design. She is an amazing artist. You can go to her website to download the art for free. The third verse is an application verse. So when I call up a volunteer, I will give them a boy or girl depending on their gender then I will tell them to pretend that the puppet is them when they are 8 years old. This will definitely only work in Jr. Primary. The faith and obedience signs are optional sometimes I think it’s better to keep it simple.
Now we know that we must also (Give a boy or girl puppet to the child)
Witness faith in Jesus’ word,  (Hold up faith sign)
Be baptized to show obedience, (Baptize the boy or girl puppet in the water then ask another child to hold up obedience sign)
As was Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Hold the boy or girl puppet next to the Jesus puppet that was used in the previous verses)
Then talk and ask questions about faith and obedience. Emphasize that we choose to get baptize when we are 8 years old so we can do what Jesus did. Remember this is the application verse of the song.
Good luck! I’ve been overwhelmed with all the nice comments. I would love to hear your stories about this activity!
Faith Obedience
Child #1: Micah, Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Our Family’s #Worldcup #Team is #Brazil

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Who is your world cup team?

Ok our family is totally not into sports. We don’t watch them on TV and we don’t play much sports.  However, our little Micah who’s only 2.5 years old is all about sports! He loves all sports! So I bet this year for the World Cup we will be keeping up with the scores.

Also, my husband served his mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Manaus, Brazil so he’s always had a soft spot for Brazil and Brazilian people. He always tells us stories about being on the mission during the world cup and how crazy it gets over there.

Since we’ve been been married, we have met lots of Brazilian friends from around the world! We love all our Brazilian friends. We love their food. We love their culture.

One of our best Brazilian friends got little Micah this #10 Brazilian Soccer Jersey. Micah loves it! It is his favorite outfit and insist on wearing it all the time!

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We’re excited that the FIFA world cup is in Brazil this year and I bet you that we will be watching a few games on TV or online!

Go Brazil!

Please comment: Who is your world cup team!?

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Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Payson Utah Temple Underconstruction

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This is the Payson Utah LDS Temple. This temple was announced on January 25, 2010 by President Monson. Its estimated completion date is early 2015.

I took these pictures in the passenger seat while my husband was driving by last fall.

I can’t decide which one I like better. Can you help me decide? A or B?

So far on my facebook there are:

3 votes for A

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4 votes for B

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To see the rest of the drive by pictures see full gallery here.

Throwback Thursday

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: Family Pictures in Cottonwood Canyon

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Can you believe I have family pictures taken back in Sept 2012 that haven’t been sorted or edited or touched?

Well, cheers to the long journey that I have embarked on to rate, sort and edited my pictures. But guess what?! I have all my pictures files organized and backed up. This was a 6 month process!!! And… I only lost about 700 pictures during the process. I have over 100,000 personal pictures and 17,000 pictures I’ve taken for other people. It’s amazing how data adds up over time.

Did you know? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has billions of free genealogy records online? You can find them here on https://familysearch.org/. The records include pictures, birth certificates, death records and so much more!

To see the rest of these family pictures taken by my little brother click here or on the picture. These pictures were taken back in Sept 2012 in Big Cottonwood Canyon in Utah.

Architecture, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Las Vegas Nevada Temple

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted picture on LDS temples.

This is the Las Vegas Nevada Temple. We stopped here on the way to San Diego back in October.

My husband is really good at going to the temple every week. I’ve been trying to go every other week but it is really a lot harder to go to the temple with little kids. It has worked out though for the most part. I get the the temple about twice a month. Even though I don’t always get to go with Dallin to the temple, the sisters in our ward are always arranging trips together to the temple. It’s nice to get away to have some “girls time” too.  This allows me to be able to get to know different sisters in our ward better by going to the temple with them.

I also notice that even though I can’t go to the temple as often, there is still an increased measure of the Spirit at home. Why? I think it’s because little babies bring with them a special spirit. Also, I think it’s because my husband has been so faithful in attending the temple. I also believe that new moms can be blessed to have the “spirit of the temple” at home through prayer, scripture study, and uplifting music.

I heard once that a mom would take 2 hours of her week to have “temple time” even though she couldn’t physically get the the temple because of distance and time. During that time she would study about the temple.

How do you find time to go to the temple? (Especially if you have little kids…)

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So far on our virtual temple tour we have been to these temples:

I have more temple pictures. It’ll probably take the rest of the year to edit them!

By the way! I finally joined Instagram. You can follow me here.

My LDS Temple boards on Pinterest is here.

Random Photography Ramble: Why do I like to do this star burst effect? Because it was about noon day when we arrived at the temple  and there was no clouds in the sky. I usually like to take pictures during sunrise or sunset with clouds to help defuse the light. Lunch time really isn’t the best time for lighting so I think the light “burst” adds to the picture instead of just having a plan blue sky. You can learn how to do the star effect here.

Child #1: Micah, Child #2: Quentin, Children, Parenting, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Toddlers

General Conference Recap

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Every six months (in April and October) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds a worldwide church meeting called general conference. The meeting last for 10 hours over the course of two days. During general conference, we receive counsel from our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, his apostles, and other church leaders. General conference is broadcast on TV, the radio, and online. The talks are then available afterwards on lds.org to read and study. We believe that if we follow the counsel given in the sermons at general conference that our lives will be blessed. As we listen to general conference, we believe that God can speak to our hearts through the Holy Ghost. Everyone can receive their own personalized counsel during general conference.

After pondering and reading over my notes from conference, two things stuck out to me:

1) Be a Mom

2) Be a Missionary

…. Be a Mother Missionary.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a talk about the influence of a good women. He talked about his grandma and how she “never learned how to drive a car, but she knew how to help boys become priesthood men.” He also posed the question from Neal A. Maxwell “Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congress?”

Also during the conference, our prophet announced that our church has reached 15 million members and have currently have over 80,000 full-time missionaries.

President Monson said that “Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together to work together to labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto him.” He also quoted a past prophet, President McKay saying, “Every member a missionary.”

A couple days before general conference, I got a few of my friends in our ward together for a temple trip. We dressed up our 2 year-old sons as little missionaries and took pictures of them. Aren’t they cute?

I learned during conference being a mother is being a missionary. Mothers in the church are teaching their kids to be future missionaries. Our homes should be like the MTC. Even at this young age, we teach our kids about God and His Son Jesus Christ. We also teach them that they are children of God and that God loves them very much. We teach our kids how to pray to God and how to receive answers to their prayers. We teach them good morals such as sharing their cookies and serving others.

We teach them the reason why they are on earth is to be happy and in order to be truly happy we have to follow of the commandments of God the best we can. We, as mothers, prepare our kids to choose to be baptized when they are eight year old. We teach them that we make mistakes but because of Jesus Christ’s atonement we can change and be a better person.

We prepare our sons to receive the priesthood when they turn twelve and go on missions when they turn eighteen.

We teach our children that the temple is the house of God and we go there to make promises to God to be the best person we can be. We teach them that the temple is where families can be sealed together forever. We are teaching our children to be future missionaries but most importantly we are teaching them to become good husbands/fathers and wives/mothers.

I felt like Heavenly Father was telling me “Don’t worry if your kids take up all your time… it’s what you’re suppose to be doing. Taking care of your kids is the most important form of missionary work!”

So then I asked myself the question “Why do I do missionary work?” For me it is because I know that God lives and Jesus Christ lives. I know that by obeying God’s commandments and following His prophets we are truly happy. Throughout the years my faith has been tested but I still know this day that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s true church. I know that the fullness of the gospel has been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. I love my kids and I want to share with them everything I know to be true.

Why do you do missionary work? What did you learn during conference? Please share with me what you learned! Feel free to share, pin, Facebook these images.

Missionaries loves cookies! It was the only way we got them to sit still and special thanks for all the moms for letting me use their kids. 🙂

Can’t forget my newest little future missionary:

Here are some fun graphics I made:

Here’s a behind the scenes picture of the moms. It’s so hard to get five 2 year-old to sit still! 🙂

Child #1: Micah, Children, England, Family Life, Photography, Temples, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Preston England Temple Pictures

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The Dublin Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went on a temple trip in March. The stake spent a whole day traveling to get the temple by taking the ferry and bus. Then they spent the entire week doing temple work all day long. The temple patrons and their families can stay at the temple accommodations which is like a hotel.  The temple only charges 11 pounds per person per night.  My husband called it EFY for adults. 🙂

I’ve never had to travel so far to go to the temple since I’m from Salt Lake City. It was so nice to be able to go to the temple again! I haven’t been for three months. Every time I go to the temple I can feel the peace and comfort of the Holy Ghost. I’m so grateful that I can go to the temple to pray to God and ponder about life’s questions.

Can’t help but to add some pictures of little Micah. 🙂

Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Living a life guided by revelation

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Today marks five years since I got baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was one of the most difficult but life changing decisions I have ever made. I was never a religious person. My family wasn’t religious either. I didn’t know if there was a God nor did I care to find out. Whenever I saw missionaries I would run and hide behind the couch. I was an epitome of the “disappointing investigator”.

Growing up in Utah, most of my friends were “Mormons“. They invited me to church, activities, dances and camps. The social part of church was fun and all but I was never interested in learning religion. Most of my friends tried once or twice to teach me the gospel but usually left me alone after I told them I wasn’t interested. Some of them were more persistant than others. 🙂

Yet, like most people I went through a series of hard times in my life. I was plain miserable and depressed. No matter how hard I try to pick myself up, I felt hopeless and my life was falling apart.

I could go on with details of my conversion but the details don’t matter as much as how it happened. Eventually after years and years of people inviting me to read the Book of Mormon, I was finally ready and willing to read the book. Along with reading the Book of Mormon, I started to pray everyday to ask God if He exist and if the Book of Mormon is true.

It was March of 2008 when I started reading the Book of Mormon and I got baptized on April 19, 2008. I didn’t know very much doctrine and I didn’t have a sure knowledge of God when I got baptized. I just knew that I felt the Holy Ghost a few distinct instances during the time I was truly investigating the Church. However, the feelings always left me and I had to act on pure faith. It was not an easy decision! I felt very criticized and doubtful at times but that just lead me back to my knees to pray to ask God again. On my baptism day, I felt dark and lonely but all the darkness went away when I made it to my baptism and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Now after five years, I can truly say that I know without a doubt that God lives and that He does answer prayers. I know without a doubt that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth and is lead by apostles and prophets that are called by God. I also know that Jesus Christ is the foundation of this Church. I know all this because I have lived the last five years of my life being guided by revelation from God through the gift of the Holy Ghost.

My Original Plans

  • Graduate from high school, go to the University of Utah
  • Graduate in 4 years in Electrical Engineering
  • Get a nice job and make lots of money
  • Get a MBA and be promoted
  • Become successful!
  • And hopefully get married sometime around 30 if the right guy comes
  • And may be have kids sometime

God’s Plans for Me

  • 2008 – Get baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints

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  • 2008 – Move to Logan, go to Utah State University on a scholarship and meet lots of new friends. Attend church, institute, read scriptures and pray everyday, be part of lots of clubs, and here have the best roommates in the world!

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  • 2008 – Grow spiritually so here are some callings: Family Home Evening Mom, Primary Teacher, Ward Missionary, Bulletin Board Specialist

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  • 2009 – Meet Dallin, your future husband

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  • 2009 – Be an EFY counselor

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  • 2010 – Get engaged, go to the temple and get married in the temple

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  • 2010 – Transfer to the University of Utah and study Computer Science

  • 2010 – Live in the University Village and meet lots of happy families.

  • 2010 – Have some more church callings: Relief Society Presidency, Stake Primary Presidency and Ward Missionary

  • 2011- Have a baby and name him Micah!

Micah

  • 2012 – Graduate from college and be a full time mom

  • 2013 – Take your family to Ireland and serve in the Bray Branch.

Has my life been easy the last five years? No. I still have lots of trials and problems. Were the decisions I’ve made easy? Not really. But has it been worth it? Most definitely! I know by experience that because the atonement of Jesus Christ my burdens can be made light. Living a life following God’s plan is not always the easiest but it has definitely been full of joy, blessings, fulfillment, and miracles.

Can you believe what I would’ve missed out on if I never decided to get baptized five years ago?! I would not be the person I am today or have my family or be in Ireland for that matter. I would be completely lost in my own world.

I love the quote by Presiden Hinkley that says “When you save a girl, you save generations.” It’s so true!!

Family Life, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Why I only support marriage between man and women

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I claim full responsibility for this post. These are my beliefs. I do not speak behalf of anyone else or any organization. 

Where do you draw the line between church and state? Was America founded by the hand of God and His laws? If so, what are His laws? Are there a universal defined morals that can not be changed? I’ve heard a lot of your beliefs and debates. Here is my beliefs (you don’t have to read if you don’t want to… it’s very religious and it most likely be different than yours):

I don’t believe this is an issue on equality rather an issue of is there a God? I believe there is a God and He has defined laws/morals. I believe that God’s laws will always be decided by God Himself and cannot be changed by majority vote or democracy. Just like I believe that God has said sex before marriage is immoral and adultery is immoral. I believe that a relationship between two same-genders is defined by God as immoral. I believe that by allowing same-gender marriage is similar to if we all voted in the right for us to run red lights, to steal or to murder. I believe that as a nation will have to face the consequences of what ever laws are put in place whether those consequences are good or bad. I believe that when we obey God’s laws we are blessed and when we don’t we eventually have to face negative consequences. It may seem unfair that God doesn’t want same-gender relationships but it’s may also seem unfair to people who want to have sex before marriage or people who want to have multiple partners or people who want to steal to get things for free. I believe that these acts all the equivalent in God’s eyes but the good news is that God has the power to help us overcome our temptations to sin. We can also repent for the mistakes we make. I also believe that it’s easier to avoid sins rather than repair sins.

I believe that ideally children should be born to a mother and a father who are married. Now, because the world is not perfect, I believe that the government should have laws that support traditional family values and help families that do not have both a mother and a father for the betterment of our society.

This is why I believe that marriage should only be between a man and a women. I believe that our government laws should uphold good moral principles that are established by God himself.

I also believe that God has given us a choice to choose for ourselves what to believe and how we want to live our lives. He can only give us guidelines. He can never force us to believe what He wants us to. I believe that God loves everyone and He will allow us to make choices for ourselves even if those choices are not aligned to His will.

So weather or not the supreme court decides on Prop 8 is now up to the supreme court. The voice of the people have already spoken and the issue is equally divided even within different religious congregations. I will accept what the supreme court chooses but I won’t change my beliefs. Everyone can and will continue to live their lives the way they want.

I believe the future is as bright as I can make it be. The best thing I can do is live by what I believe. Our society needs to work together to love, to vote and to compromise because all our individual choices will affect the future of our world.

It always brings me peace to know that no matter what happens God will be the final judge and everything will turn out the way He wants it to.

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If you want to know what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes on this topic you can look on their website:

http://www.lds.org/topics/same-gender-attraction?lang=eng

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-responds-to-same-sex-marriage-votes

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-mormon-responds-to-human-rights-campaign-petition-same-sex-attraction

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Feel free to express your beliefs, opinions and comments. Please keep it nice and kind.

Ireland, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Travel

Irish Mormon

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I thought this was really cool when this video popped up on my Facebook feed. This guy was at my branch a couple of weeks ago and his son spoke at our church that week. This video really highlights what Ireland looks light. You can see how green it is here! It also has some clips of the Dublin city. His wife is also in the movie and she is not a Mormon. I feel connected to this movie since I’m here in Ireland right now! 🙂 Enjoy.