How Can We Increase Our Gratitude?

Yes, there is seminary Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday before Thanksgiving. 5:55 am, every school morning! Read 5 minutes a day. November 30th you should be up to ENOS. Use the holidays to catch up.

Guest blogger is Luanna Demetter, one of Sister Landbeck's younger sisters. This is from a talk she gave in Church today:

What ways have you found to increase your feelings of gratitude?

My answer to that question is “I need to use and recognize the gifts that I have been given. If I forget or do not pay attention to what I have and what others have worked to bless me with, I won’t ever understand how valuable my gifts and blessings are.”

President Eyring talks about his encouragement to take time at the end of the day to think about the Lord’s blessings. A few of his words on his own experience in taking time are these.

“I would see evidence that I would not see in the busy moments of the day.

Trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

You might pray and ponder….”Did God send a message that was just for me? Did I see His hand in my life?”

One gift we have... been blessed with is to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We have amazing records in the Book of Mormon that can and has benefited and enriched our lives.

Recently while reading in 2 Nephi chapter 26, I read about the Lord’s love for every person who comes to this world.

Verse 24 –

He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25

Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold I say unto you Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

33 And he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God both Jew and Gentile.

We all have something pretty incredible to be grateful for. All of us have been blessed with the love of our Savior and of our Father in Heaven.
Something else on the lds.org website I ran into was the statement

Humility allows a greater degree of gratitude.

Pride can not exist along with gratitude. (think about how this applies to the lessons we talked about last week in Jacob!)

How Can We Increase Our Gratitude?

When I Consider the Work of Thy Fingers, the Moon and the Stars...

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." Psalms 19:1

Next week, Earth will be passing through the historic trail left by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. This will result in a much larger than normal concentration of meteors, producing dozens, perhaps as many as 100 meteors per hour. Brother Landbeck is planning on taking a field trip from our house 150 yards southwest into the soccer field to sit and watch them at 4:30am the morning of Tuesday, November 17. If any students are interested, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Few things are as delicate and inspiring as a shooting star. To see dozens in a row is not something to miss.

Please RSVP and let us know if your student will be attending. We have a few camp chairs and blankets to share. And obviously, results aren't guaranteed, and will depend on cloud cover that night as well.

There will be food in the field. Hot chocolate, donuts...something yummy.

Report Card Week

Thank you for your participation in the no-warning-Testimonies-on-Demand on the Strength for Youth booklet last week. I don't know how many of ours will be chosen for the Church website. I was impressed with the depth and quality of your thoughts and feelings you shared. What an amazing group of students!

I went ahead and emailed in your testimonies and pictures I had taken or found from facebook sources...Over the next weeks I will include one or two on this blog so you can see what I thought represented you well (out of the choices I had! We need to take more class photos!).

Parents will receive seminary report cards by the end of this week. We are trying to keep it synchronized with the school terms.

To be up-to-date on your scripture reading: 2 Nephi chapter 29 on Monday. Starting Jacob this week.

Keep reading 5-10 minutes every day in the scriptures! If you have finished the Book of Mormon already this school year, start over! Read by subject, or underline all the EMOTION words in one color. Try looking for repeated themes, do a character study of each prophet writer, try to find all the times Christ is mentioned and use another color for prophecies about Him...There are lots of ways to read the scriptures and learn new things each time you go through them.

I want feedback on the 3/3 seminary activity last Wednesday. First thing Monday morning there will be a form to fill out, telling your teacher what you liked about the activity.
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President Stewart devotional assignment: (to be announced as soon as he gets home from the dance, or he will tell you in Church).

Only 2 1/2 weeks to Thanksgiving. How many blessings have you listed in your Tiny Plates? Is it getting easier or harder to come up with new ones every day? Hopefully being grateful will be an easy talent for you. Look for the little things that add up in your life.

Today I am thankful for baptism. The newest member in our ward had a huge smile on his face Saturday night as he came up out of the water. He glowed! I was asked to speak about the Holy Ghost. I was impressed with this quote by the Prophet Joseph Smith: Joseph Smith said: “You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half—that is, the baptism of the Holy Ghost” (History of the Church, 5:499).

There is always more to learn about Church History and modern revelation. It put into perspective for me how important the confirmation part is. Think baptism and confirmation in the same sentence.

You have that great gift of the Holy Ghost. Do you take it for granted? Have you felt the gift of the Holy Ghost recently in your life? Do you feel it in class? I will make a better effort at pointing out when I feel the Spirit testifying in seminary.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true! You will be blessed for coming to daily early morning seminary! Next week is a full, long 5 day week, with some great doctrine. Please go to bed early enough that waking up isn't too painful. Come on time so you feel the full benefit of participating in the devotional. 5:55 AM

SHORT week + Missionary Op

No school Thursday and Friday means no seminary those days.

Wednesday night November 4th 7:00 - 8:15 pm at Susquehanna Building is the first 3/3 Seminary Acitivy! All three classes will gather as one. We will start the evening in the YW room with the YM in charge of opening exercises, song, prayer, announcements, etc, as per usual.

Then we will move into the gym, start out with a rousing game of Missionary Tag, then pull out chairs and sit in a huge circle to play some more games that will have you laughing, I promise.

Bring a friend from school or your neighborhood! This is a good way to introduce them to the fun we have in seminary class and expose them to the youth program, without dragging them to class before 6 am (although they are welcome to come join us anytime! We would love for them to feel invited and welcome!).

THIS SHORT WEEK DEVOTIONALS: TBA by President Stewart with a phone call Sunday evening...

Some parents have asked about bringing food: YES, is the answer. Please volunteer, because I still don't want to "assign" it.

These students love to eat and they are always very grateful. No known allergies that anyone has told me. I always have plates, napkins, and glasses here to use. Fridays are best, and sending me an email to let me know you want to do it.

Also, you can consider birthday celebrations surrounding your student's special day. We can't do it in public school anymore, but if you want to send in cupcakes or other favorite treat, we will sing Happy Birthday and give a blessing over the contribution!

These are the first 10 Scripture Mastery with rhymes we will be focusing on for the first 3/3 activity (so you parents know):

1 Nephi 3:7 Way Prepared for Me
1 Nephi 19:23 Scriptures Likening
2 Nephi 32:3 Feasting Tells You What to Do
2 Nephi 32:8–9 Praying Always Will Help You
Alma 34:32–34 Procrastinate No More
Alma 37:6–7 Small Things Help Build Heaven
Alma 37:35 Wise Youth Learn Their Lesson
Alma 41:10 Wickedness Is No Fun
Ether 12:27 Weakness Can Help
Moroni 10:4–5 Testimony Comes When





(I love how the students gather in our kitchen after class, before leaving for school together. These are from a donut morning!)