Saturday, May 19, 2012

One Step at a Time

One more thing I wish we had found time to talk about today is the need to recognize that we learn and progress, as the scriptures teach us, line upon line -- precept on precept. 


Elder Wirthlin made a wonderful statement about this:

In most cases, growth comes slowly—one step at a time. We understand this when it comes to mastering a musical instrument, becoming an accomplished athlete, or flying a jet aircraft. Yet, we often can scarcely forgive ourselves when we don’t make the progress we expect in all areas of our own lives. 
Great sculptors and artists spend countless hours perfecting their talents. They don’t pick up a chisel or a brush and palette, expecting immediate perfection. They understand that they will make many errors as they learn, but they start with the basics, the key fundamentals first.
He then went on to say that he himself would end each day with writing himself a to-do list for the next day with the items in order of priority. He says he would use that list to focus his attention on the most important things and finish the item on the top of the list before moving on to the item below it. He says that at the end of the day there were often tasks left on the list that he had not completed, but -- here's the important part -- he said, "I don't become discouraged, however, because I'm focusing my energies on the things that matter most" (General Conference, October 2003).
If we do a good job prioritizing, we will not become depressed about not completing the less important things; instead, we can rejoice in knowing we did accomplish the most important things for that day!

Handout From Today's Class


Scripture Mastery Songs

This is the link where I was able to download the Scripture Mastery songs: http://lds.about.com/od/seminary/a/scripture_songs.htm

A Tough Pill to Swallow (but an important one, nonetheless)

Hello to all the dear sisters I got to talk with today at our stake Relief Society conference. I appreciate your insight and your spirit that you brought to our class.


This video is Sister Beck who was recently released as the general Relief Society president. She sets a pretty high standard for prioritizing: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/messages/2010/04/prioritize-with-personal-revelation


So I have to confess, I am a tv-aholic. Seriously, I love watching tv so much. I didn't have time to tell you that in our meeting today, but I know that watching tv is both not important and not urgent. We -must- have balance in all things, and I know putting my feet up and watching a good show is okay to do (otherwise, why would byutv exist?), but I find myself needing to be really careful here and to heed Sister Beck's counsel. We are not to run faster than we have strength, but again Sister Beck gives us a challenge of needing to have our immortal spirits override our mortal brains.  I'm not giving up tv right now, but I see this is something I need to carefully consider.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Listening to Good Music, part B

I made a playlist you should be able to click on and listen to: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/LDS+Church+Music/70641021

Listening to Good Music

Many people don't know what a treasure trove of music the church has posted on their website. This link: http://www.lds.org/cm/display/0,17631,8763-1,00.html will take you to their hymn home page. From there you can listen to almost any hymn, with or without words.


If you select the hymn, "Abide With Me," for example, you will see this page




You can use the interactive tools if you want to learn the different parts (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) of the song




or you can just listen to recorded music by selecting these options




Another online site you might want to know about is grooveshark.com. From that website you can set up your own playlist of songs from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, BYU Men's Chorus, and hundreds of other artists by searching for the artist's name or the song name. (Paul Cardall plays -beautiful- orchestral versions of many LDS hymns.)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Memorizing Scriptures

Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone created a scripture memorization program "which basically has you learn 1 scripture a day, review it every day for a week, then once a week for a month, and then once a month for a year." This program has been useful for some people ( http://mormonlifehacker.com/ ).


One website that talks about his system and has links to a working set of flashcards for starting your memorization is https://sites.google.com/site/saintsrevived/kevinh/scriptmem


Someone has also built an app for iPhones / iPads that uses the principles of Elder Featherstone's system: http://www.scripturepowermemorization.com/


I haven't tried either the flashcard or the app version of his system, but it interests me enough to consider it and share it with you.