Oh, How Lovely Was the Morning!

For our RS activity this month we decided to focus on the Book of Mormon and how it's impacted our lives.  When I was designing the invite I asked Gina to tell me what style she wanted.  We decided we wanted to use the lyrics from the hymn Joseph Smith's First Prayer.  She wanted it to be joyful and full of sunshine and flowers, but she wasn't sure exactly what yet...

Well during this past General Conference there was a talk by Elder Quentin L. Cook titled "The Lord Is My Light."  In his talk he spoke about sunflowers:

One of the remarkable characteristics of young wild sunflowers, in addition to growing in soil that is not hospitable, is how the young flower bud follows the sun across the sky. In doing so, it receives life-sustaining energy before bursting forth in its glorious yellow color. 

Like the young sunflower, when we follow the Savior of the world, the Son of God, we flourish and become glorious despite the many terrible circumstances that surround us. He truly is our light and life.

I spoke to Gina that evening and we both thought the same thing when we heard his talk: let's use sunflowers!  The ladies who decorated did an amazing job making everything look beautiful and bright.  

Yes, those are M&Ms mixed with chocolate covered sunflower seeds!  YUM!

Lovely ladies!

You can see me in the background setting everything up.  I'm the RS "techie" haha!  I am getting familiar with our building and all it's little nuisances and secret storage compartments.  I think I used components from 5 different rooms/closets to get this all working!

We had some beautiful musical numbers and testimonies of the Book of Mormon.  We also watched these videos:

I love the Book of Mormon and I'm always amazed at how the stories seem to jump out at me during different phases of my life.  Gina shared a story about when she was a young mother she was friends with a mom who had 6 very young children.  This mom was always calm and seemed on top of things.  One day Gina asked her how she held it all together.  The mom simply replied "I read my scriptures every morning."  I came away with the resolution that I need to read my scriptures every morning - not just before I fall asleep at night.  I need to study them with fresh eyes and an inquiring mind.  I don't know if it will help me be calm and collected (that's asking for a lot!), but I know that it will bless my life.  I know that Heavenly Father will provide direction to our lives and answers to our most heartfelt concerns as we immerse ourselves with its pages.