Enrichment Night ~ October 16

Come learn how to use Preach My Gospel in our personal study and FHEs on October 16 at 6:30 p.m. Enjoy a night of good friends, good food, and good feelings. Dinner and a children's class will be provided.

Fall Festival

Our ward invites everyone to the Fall Festival on Friday, October 24 from 6-8 pm. There will be a chili cookoff, carnival games, and a trunk or treat, all held in the pavilion! See you there!

Fall Announcements

Strengthening Your Family Course:

The Strengthening Your Family course that was developed through LDS Family Services is going to start in our stake, and we want to make sure all are aware. This course is taught by Brother Kendal Allsop and there are many practical applications that are easy to implement in our families. This course will start September 5th, at 7pm and then the dates the class will be held are 9/26, 10/3, 10/17, 10/24, 11/7, 11/21, & 12/5. Please come to as many of the classes as possible and the more that can attend the better, Kendal says he can handle a large crowd. The location for all of the classes is in the Relief Society room of the Katy Stake Center.

Peanut Butter Cannery

Date: October 17th (Friday)

Time:  3:30 AM to 8:00 AM  (yes – very early in the morning that Friday)

Number needed: 9  One to be the Shift Foreman.

Date names and phone numbers needed for stake: October 9  (need foremans name and phone by 2nd)

1.  Please ensure that each volunteer receives a copy of the attachment and reads it prior to coming to the cannery.  It is particularly important to note each volunteer needs to wear long pants and closed-toe shoes.

2.  Volunteers need to arrive on-time or even several minutes before the start of their shift.

3.  Please ask for alternates for each shift so that we can guarantee we will have a complete 18 volunteer group for each shift.  However, remember that the cannery limit for each shift is a maximum of 24.

In addition, the following are answers to commonly asked questions:

1.  All volunteers must be 16 years of age or older.  Both brethren and sisters are welcome to participate.

2.  All volunteers will be given a free jar of peanut butter for their service

3.  All volunteers will be able to purchase peanut butter for their personal consumption following their service.

Family History Fair

Date:  October 25th

Location: Stake Center

There will be more coming out about this, and this looks to be worthy of bringing your whole family and friends. 

September 7 - Presidency Lesson
September 14 - Lesson #15 Eternal Marriage
September 21 - Lesson #16 Bringing Up Children in Light and Truth
September 28 - Teaching For Our Times
October 5 - General Conference
October 12 - Lesson #17 Sealing Power and Temple Blessings
October 19 - Lesson #18 Living By Every Word That Proceeds from..
October 26 - Teaching For Our Times

September Provident Living

Food Storage Item: 21 lbs rice (date for rotation)

Week 1: Add diapers, feminine hygiene supplies to 72-hour kit

Week 2: Add items related to individual medical needs to 72-hour kit

Week 3: Add a hand shovel to 72-hour kit

Week 4: Add a small game for children or family to 72-hour kit

Week 5: Add a Book of Mormon to 72-hour kit

Notes from Sunday's Presidency Message

Conquering the Goliaths in our Lives

Start with story from President Hinckley (January 2002 Friend)

Overpowering the Goliaths in Our Lives

Some years ago I spoke to the young men of the Church about overcoming the Goliaths in their lives. I would like to apply that same theme to all of us, for few of us do not have at least one Goliath to contend with. As we study the Old Testament this year, we will come to realize that the story of David and Goliath is a wonderful example of what we can learn from the pages of this great book of scripture. I recount only a portion of the story, for I am confident you are already familiar with it. It is the story of David, the son of Jesse.

As you recall, the army of Israel under the leadership of King Saul was engaged in a deadly war with the army of the Philistines. One army poised on one hill, the other on an opposite hill, with a valley in between. Now, the Philistines had among their number a great giant of a man named Goliath of Gath. His height was six cubits and a span. If I have figured correctly, that would put him somewhere in the neighborhood of nine feet tall. What a basketball center he might have made!

Clad in his armor, he came down to the valley and called out to the army of Israel:

“Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

“If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.

“… I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together” (1 Sam. 17:8–10).

When Saul and the army of Israel looked at this giant and heard his chilling challenge, they were frightened because they had no one of their own of such stature.

Now, while all of this was going on, Jesse, David’s father, asked his young son to take some food to his three brothers in the army. When he arrived at the battleground, Goliath came out again, issuing the same challenge, which David heard. There was fear throughout the army of Israel. David, who was no more than a boy, said to the king (and I paraphrase his language): “King, why are you so afraid of this giant? I will go and fight him.”

Saul replied, “Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he [is] a man of war [trained] from his youth” (1 Sam. 17:33).

David Armed with Faith

David then persuaded Saul to let him try. He told the king of how he had fought with a lion and a bear to save his father’s sheep and concluded by saying that the Lord would deliver him out of the hand of the Philistine. Saul, possibly thinking that one more life lost would not be serious among the great losses they had already sustained, said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with thee” (1 Sam. 17:37).

Saul then placed armor on David until the boy could scarcely walk. David said to the king, “I cannot wear this,” and he took the armor off.

He then “took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had … ; and his sling was in his hand” (1 Sam. 17:40).

This stripling of a boy, with only a sling and five stones, and without any armor other than the armor of faith, went down into the valley to face Goliath.

Goliath Armed with Sword, Spear, and Shield

“And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.

“And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves?”

And Goliath swore at David, saying, “Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.”

Then David spoke these great words: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

“This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (see 1 Sam. 17:42–46).

That was brave talk for a boy who stood against a nine-foot giant.

In anger Goliath came at him. Then David, running toward the giant, “put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth” (1 Sam. 17:49).

Evil Giants in Our Lives

I would like to apply this story to our lives. There are Goliaths all around us, hulking giants with evil intent to destroy. These are not nine-foot-tall men, but they are people and institutions that control attractive but evil things that may challenge and weaken and destroy us. Included in these are beer and other liquors and tobacco. Those who market these products would like to enslave you into their use. There are illegal drugs of various kinds which, I am told, are relatively easy to obtain. For those who peddle them this is a multibillion-dollar industry, a giant web of evil.

There is pornography, seductive and interesting and inviting. It has become a giant industry, producing magazines, films, and other materials. It is available on the Internet and, if you allow, it will intrude into your home via your television. It is designed to take your money and lead you toward activities that utterly destroy.

The giants who are behind these efforts are formidable and skillful. They have gained vast experience in the war they are carrying on. They would like to ensnare you.

It is almost impossible to entirely avoid exposure to their products. You see these materials on all sides. But you need not fear if you have the slingshot of truth in your hands. You have been counseled and taught and advised. You have the stones of virtue and honor and integrity to use against these enemies who would like to conquer you. When they challenge you, you can hit them “between the eyes,” to use a figurative expression. You can triumph over them by disciplining yourself to avoid them. You can say to the whole lot of them as David said to Goliath, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

Victory will be yours. There is not a person in this Church who needs to succumb to any of these forces. You are a child of God. You have His power within you to sustain you. You have the right to call upon God to protect you. Do not let Goliath frighten you. Stand your ground and hold your place, and you will be triumphant. As the years pass, you will look back with satisfaction upon the battles you have won in your individual lives.

When temptation comes your way, name that boastful, deceitful giant “Goliath!” and do with it as David did to the Philistine of Gath. I humbly pray that God will bless each of you.

10 Stones to Ward Off Satan & Goliaths in our Lives

1.       Power of Prayer: Pour out your whole heart to the Lord over everything that concerns you (Alma 37:37). The Lord cares about the details of our lives. If it’s important to us, it’s important to Him. “Prayer keeps man from sin and sin keeps man from sin.” (Brigham Young)

2.       Scripture Feast: Learning from the scriptures gives us power to withstand Satan and is full of life’s answers (2 Nephi 32:3) if we take time to feast and not snack. Feasting means enjoying, nourishment, and having many options to satisfy our needs.

3.       Know How the Holy Ghost Speaks to You: First off, learn the Spirit’s communication to you and recognize it daily. Seek it and we shall find it. President Kimball also said: “They who reach down into the depths of life where, in the stillness, the voice of God has been heard, have the stabilizing power which carries them poised and serene through the hurricane of difficulties” (Ensign, May 1979, p. 6). Stand in holy places and live worthy of it.

4.      Have faith the Lord will keep his promises. When we do what He has asked, the Lord always blesses us in His time and way (D&C 82:10). We can’t expect blessings if we don’t do the work, as in exercising our faith. He loves us and knows what blessings we need vs. what we want. Sometimes blessings come after the trial of our faith, after we overcame our Goliath.

5.      Have faith to accept the Lord’s will: His will may be the opposite of what we want, so we have to be humble enough to align our will with His. Pray for understanding of the Lord’s will. President Bednar said to a young married couple whose husband had cancer. Dan’s wife story.  Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven” (cited in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972, p. 98).

6.      Worthy pursuits: There is nothing more inspiring than worthy music (In His Embrace). Fill your life with wholesome people, places and media to overcome Satan. Visiting teaching is the best way to fill our lives with awesome people. Come to our activities. Be engaged in the gospel.

7.      Understand your Weaknesses and how Satan Attacks Them: Outsmart Satan by seeing him come our way. Focus on one at a Time to turn it into a strength. We learn line upon line, precept on precept.

8.      Service: If we lose our lives in service, we will find our lives (Matthew 10:39). We will recognize our own strength and our blessings. We find the joy of helping others, the joy of Christlike charity. Nothing is as sweet as that.

9.      Priesthood blessings: Ask for one or read our patriarchal blessings. They can be a huge strength to us when we feel hopeless. They can show us how the Lord sees us and His eyes are perfectly accurate.

10.  Temple attendance: Eternal perspective at the temple is the best place to strengthen our spiritual armor to overcome Satan. It’s THE best place for revelation because it’s the Lord’s house.

-Angie Staples