Wednesday, August 10, 2011

1st YouTube Parable of H2W Talents, Crafts & Fine Arts!

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If you put your light under a bushel, it will go out!  (or the basket will catch fire!)

Sharing your light will help it grow brighter! Here's 2 minutes and 36 seconds of sharing brighter and brighter talents.  Here's what our ward did with everyone who didn't skip town for family reunions on the weekend of the 24th of July. Nearly 100 presenters and Variety Show Committee members participated!

When more YouTube H2W fun is packaged and produced from Michael Fugal's terrific video shooting of that night, you'll receive notice (if you send back an email with comments to: wizardhowe@gmail.com)


The Holladay First Ward of the Salt Lake Holladay Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints produced a Variety Show and Fine Arts & Craft Fair on July 22, 2011.  This is the first of several YouTube Productions sharing that Pioneer Days Celebration.  This first 2 minute 36 second "sample" features a welcome by Brent McPhie, Second Counselor in the H2W Bishopric and twelve young women  singing "Sippin' Cider through a Straw".  The spinning wheel crafter in the beginning of the sequence is Shannon Fugal. Pictures of many of the other participants in the talent show are displayed during the singing.

JRH


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

The Enduring List


Evidence of the Power of a Kindly List
One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.

Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down.
It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.

That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin.

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists!'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. (of course they would on the other side)

The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them, before it is too late.

From Carol McLean

Monday, August 8, 2011

What does God to for a Living? He leads Committees!

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The first verse of Genesis, the first Book of the Old Testament reads, "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth."  Joseph Smith translated one word differently in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible--from "God" to "the Gods"

The creation of this mortal experiment station between Jupiter and Mars was not a one man job.  It took a bunch of us.  I say us, because Joesph Smith taught that we all helped--all of us who earned the right to take bodies and go through the obstacle course that is mortality.

"I don't even step on an ant because I don't know what part I took in helping to create it!" Brother Joseph is reported to have taught about the process of creation.  (See Abraham 3:22-24, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1, pages 74-75.)

What's the BIG IDEA(S)?
Over the last two months, I've learned more about the way our Heavenly Father does business.  The Bishopric asked me to work with a committee to produce our Variety Show and Arts and Crafts Fair--and what a committee.   I learned that when you call great people, you get great results and I had the blessing of working with the cream of the ward.  I thank them for the fun success we enjoyed with everybody -- An audiece of nearly 100 and more than 80 participants on stage and on tables around the edge

When we were collaborating on the stake musical, I was convinced that God was a playwrite.  Then we worked on the Variety Show together and I changed my mind--God is a talent scout and a producer.  Of course geologists say he was one of them for His glorious mountains, educators claim His primary skill is the teaching ability behind the great parables.  In this discussion a Lawyer boasted that before the creation of the earth and the great teaching of the Savior, God most resembled his profession-----creating chaos!  (Ref Scott Turow Time magazine)

Everyone on the committee pulled their weight and more--but one sister gladdened my heart.   We brainstormed a stage full of strings playing a fun number.  I personally counted on the whole Hilton Family who boasts three talented, hard practicing sons:  two violins and a cello, however they let me know they were headed to a family reunion out of town that night.  The idea began to fall apart, then I called Natalie Niebaur one of the best and brightest violinists in the ward.  I explained the idea and hoped she could pull together other string players in the ward including a rumored ukelele player in the elder's quorum.  Her response bouyed me with her enthusiasm. "Of course!  I'd love to!" she said and she did!

What a great plan of happiness that puts us in position to learn as we rub shoulders with one another in a great effort to build the kingdom.

JRH