By Danielle Ellis
When the 7.0 earthquake leveled much of Haiti on January 12, 2010, charitable people all over the world mobilized to help. LDS people, always at the forefront of disaster relief, sprang into action. Thousands of monetary donations poured directly into LDS Church Headquarters; the Church, through LDS Charities, provided tents, food, propane stoves and solar panels, teams of doctors and nurses, and clinical social workers. But the needs were obviously huge, and many people knew they could do more to help.

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Every March, the women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints remember and celebrate the founding of the Relief Society, which the Prophet Joseph Smith declared to be “the Lord’s organization for women.” President Spencer W. Kimball reminded sisters of the blessings of this organization, pronounced upon the Society by Joseph:

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By Dave Ellis
Every morning I am awakened by my organic alarm clock. Ah, you think I’ve taken ‘organic’ too far eh? Well it’s really my three year old daughter, Bonnie, who technically is organic, so there: I just saved the earth. Every morning she wakes me by saying “I need food! I want eggs, ketchup and my little fork.” This is not code people, she really wants eggs, ketchup and her little fork. In that order.

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by Krista Ralston Oakes
As I prepared to leave the house, the phone rang. It was our ward Relief Society president.

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by Annette Lyon
In the months after high school, my church attendance must have been hard to track.
Oh, I attended. But it was the season of missionary farewells. Sometimes I attended two or three wards—just not my own. Then I had to pick a ward—my home ward, the local singles ward, or a student ward. No one tracked me one week to the next.

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By Nettie H. Francis
When I was young, my family held a special “Garden Family Council” early each spring. Sitting around a big table and with Daddy acting as scribe, all thirteen of us would shout out everything we wanted to plant in our family garden that year. Tomatoes, beans, corn, carrots, lettuce and radishes were regulars. Some years we were more daring, adding cantaloupe, big blue morning glories, and Jack-Be-Little pumpkins to our garden wish list.

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By Alison Palmer
Scripture: John 14:26-27

Song: “The Still Small Voice,” Children’s Songbook, 106

Preparation:

Place a copy of the above scripture in an envelope for use during the lesson. Gather a stack of index cards, 5 or 6 sheets of blank paper, pens and tape. Write situations that are pertinent to your family on the pieces of paper. These should include decisions to be made, difficult situations being faced, times where protection or comfort may be needed. (Studying for a test, making a choice, avoiding danger, etc.)
Prayerfully read “Helping Others Recognize the Whisperings of the Spirit,” Vicki F. Matsumori, Ensign, November 2009, 10-12 and consider which thoughts and passages you would like to share with your family.

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By Lorae Bowden
A new book has been released that teaches families how to save hundreds off their groceries bills without coupons or gimmicks. In Centsible Meals: How to Feed Your Family for Less (CFI, $9.99), Montana author Lorae Bowden discusses how she feeds her family of nine on $200 a month – less than a dollar per person per day. Her timely advice and tips can save anyone substantial money as she reveals her secret to feeding healthy and thrifty meals for pennies.

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By Danielle Ellis
Surround Yourself with Greatness.” This is the commitment a young Chad Lewis made to himself while he was half a world away from home, serving a mission in Taiwan. He read an old talk by Gordon B. Hinckley, “Caeser, Circus, or Christ,” (available at speeches.byu.edu; 1965) and resolved to himself that he could surround himself with great music, great books and great people, and this would help him to become the man he wanted to be.

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Joseph Fielding Smith, speaking of marriage, explained the beauty and importance of the covenant. “Marriage is a principle that, when entered into, presents more challenges and blessings than any other.… Nothing will prepare mankind for exaltation in the kingdom of God as readily as faithfulness to the marriage covenant. Through this covenant, perhaps more than any other, we accomplish the perfect degree of the divine will. If properly received, this covenant can be the means by which man gains his greatest happiness. The greatest honors in this life and in the life to come—honor, dominion, and power in perfect love—are blessings that flow from it. These blessings of eternal glory are held in reserve for those who are willing to abide in this and all other covenants of the gospel.”

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By Dave Ellis
My wife’s birthday was last month. I know, this is the first I’ve heard of it too. It’s not very fair to me when she tells me the day after and then acts all pouty about it. Of course I’m kidding. I was well aware of her birthday, I wore a string around my finger since January 2009 to remind me.
Nearly lost that finger over it, but it was worth it.

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By Julie Wright
I don’t think boys realize that girls make lists. Not just any lists: important lists. We make lists of our friends, music we like, and most importantly what qualities we expect our future husbands to have before we agree to marry them. I had a list of my own, brimming with the perfections I expected my husband to possess.

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By Ken Craig
Never, in all my youth, could I conjure up the image of the moment I would purchase an engagement ring. In my mind, the buying of the ring was The Final Step. And The Final Step to
The Final Commitment would be intimidating to most, would it not?

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By Stephanie McMillan
Grammy and G.G., as my great-grandparents were affectionately known, married in the year 1929 and homesteaded a sheep ranch in the wilds of Montana. Their ranch on Big Sheep Creek was miles away from any other civilization. It was this picturesque but lonely mountain that served as welcome for my great-grandmother, Afton, a new young bride. She was eighteen when she married Lewis, a handsome young man who had stolen her heart.

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By Katie Parker
There was something about the phrase “marriage for time and all eternity” that sounded incredibly blissful to me when I was a starry-eyed teenager. Surely when the magical day of my temple marriage arrived, my husband and I would be whisked into a peaceful future in our little cottage in the clouds. What else could marriage for time and all eternity involve?

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