Inkablinka

Temple Refreshment

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Kristin

Here is another fun idea to share the July Visiting Teaching Message with your sisters. Pioneer Party showed these on their blog. The message is hanging on a water bottle, with a little packet of Hawaiian Punch tucked into the pocket.

“We wanted to portray the idea that the Temple is a refreshing break from the world – as is a good ol’ drink of water! It revitalizes, rejuvinates, and refreshes us! Pull out the message and unfold to read all the quotes from the Ensign.”

These would be really easy to make – they just stapled the striped paper on top of the solid red to make a pocket, and punched a hole for the bottle top to go through. Fun!

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Temple Worship

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Kristin

The Visiting Teaching message for July has to do with preparing for temple worship, and the blessings that come from qualifying and partaking of temple worship. I found this great puzzle on lds.org, on which I wrote several ways that we can prepare for the temple. They are:

obey the commandments
seek to do God’s will
keep a current temple recommend
fast
pray
listen to Hymns
read patriarchal blessing
review covenants
study scriptures
count your blessings
research your family history

As you put the temple side of the puzzle together you can discuss these ways that we can prepare for temple worship. The first three things on the list are mentioned in this month’s message. The rest of the list came from here, which gives some nice ideas for further discussion on each topic.

The flip side of the puzzle has different things that have to do with the temple, such as sealings, baptisms, families, the creation, and the atonement. I printed a small version of the puzzle on a separate piece of paper and cut and pasted this underneath:

This is a two-sided puzzle. After you mix up the pieces, you can look at the pictures at the top of this page to see how to put the puzzle together. Going to the temple is like looking at the box-top picture of a jigsaw puzzle. In the temple, we see better how we need to fit the many parts of the gospel together to obtain exaltation.

I love this visual of looking at the whole picture in order to better understand the individual pieces.

As you place the center picture of the Savior in the puzzle, you could read this quote from the July Visiting Teaching message:

“The primary purpose of the temple is to provide the ordinances necessary for our exaltation in the celestial kingdom. Temple ordinances guide us to our Savior and give us the blessings that come to us through the Atonement of Jesus Christ”

You could then talk about what some of those blessings are.

The puzzle and text from lds.org can be found here. You could print both puzzles on either side of a piece of cardstock like I did, or you could print just one puzzle that you would like to focus on for a more concise lesson.

Posted in temple | 2 Comments

Prayer is (good) Work

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Kristin

The Visiting Teaching message for June is about prayer. The quote I chose to focus on is by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

“Meaningful prayer requires both holy communication and consecrated work. Blessings require some effort on our part before we can obtain them, and prayer, as ‘a form of work, . . . is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings’. We press forward and persevere in the consecrated work of prayer, after we say ‘amen,’ by acting upon the things we have expressed to Heavenly Father”.

I hadn’t really thought before of prayer as a form of work, so that was of interest to me, and I like how Elder Bednar mentions the continuing work of prayer by acting upon the things we have prayed about. To illustrate this point, I bought a pair of gardening gloves from the dollar store, then attached the quote by Elder Bednar, along with a scaled-down tracing of my hand with the significance of the (work) gloves printed on it. It reads:

“These gardening gloves represent not only our hands in prayer, but also the work we perform as we pray, and as we continue to act upon the things we have prayed about.”

You can download the PDF file for the quote and the hand here. (I cut inside the lines of my hand tracing, because it looks cleaner.)

This visual aid is a springboard for further discussion of the message. You can talk about what consecrated work is, why blessings require work on our part, and how prayer is not passive communication. You could talk about how prayer strengthens us, just as physical labor does. You could also put your hands in the gloves as you share the quote, folding your hands together in prayer, then demonstrating some kind of work with your hands – showing how prayer and work go “hand in hand”.

Have a great month!

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Covenant Flower Power

Posted on April 30, 2009 by Kristin

Post edit: This idea has been revised to go with YW Manual 1 Lesson 17. Click here to see more.

The Visiting Teaching Message for the month of May is to be selected from last month’s General Conference addresses. The talk I chose to share with my sisters is “The Power of Covenants” by Elder D. Todd Christopherson. He explains what covenants are, and how God blesses us as we are obedient to the things we have promised to do at baptism and in the temple.

I have two plastic cups, one inverted on top of the other with a surprise inside. These cups represent a covenant, or divine agreement between God and man. The bottom cup has a quote from Elder Christopherson’s talk taped on it which reads, “God binds Himself to sustain, sanctify and exalt us”. The top cup reads, “We commit to serve Him and keep His commandments.” These two promises are bound together by a covenant, which is represented by the white ribbon “binding” the cups together (along with a couple pieces of tape).

Inside the cups are a trio of flowers that represent the power of covenants. (Flower Power!) On the petals of the flowers, I printed the three points Elder Christopherson gives concerning the blessings our obedience to covenants brings.

To make the flowers, first download and print the pieces found here. Trim out the pieces, then fold and glue the petals as shown above.

Cut out a 1″ circle from yellow paper and punch a hole through the middle. Glue the petals on the yellow circle, beginning with the quotes and ending with the blank petals.

Push one end of the wrapper of a white chocolate Lindt truffle through the center of the flower.

I then secured a lollipop stick to the end of the wrapper with a green pipe cleaner, wrapping tightly to keep in place. Green florist tape would also work great for this.

I bunched my bouquet together and tied with a pretty ribbon to help keep the flowers together when I put the top cup over them. My bouquet got a little squished with the cup on top, but I should be able to fluff them up again when I take them out and explain their meaning.

This candy flower technique was found here. She has some really fun ideas – check it out!

Posted in Covenants, Spring | 7 Comments

Envelope Bags

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Kristin

How about Orange has a nice tutorial for making gift bags out of envelopes. I especially like the tag she created that you can download and print on your envelopes before sealing, cutting, folding and fluffing your bags. You could put any little treat inside for your visiting teaching sisters.

How about some “Treasures” chocolates with a scripture-marking pencil for April?

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Egg-stra Cute Message

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Kristin

Here is another idea to spark your creative juices. Hand Picked Daisy has this cute kit available for purchase for the April 2009 Visiting Teaching Message.

I think the little egg pockets are adorable.

Happy Visiting Teaching!

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Treasure the Scriptures

Posted on March 22, 2009 by Kristin

We still have a little over one week left to do our visiting teaching in March. If you haven’t been out yet, please take a look through the archives and see if there is an idea that would supplement the part of the message that you have chosen to share with your sisters.

That being said, April is almost here! I thought I would give you a head start on the Visiting Teaching Message for April. Some of the ideas I have might take a little extra planning (if you want to do the same) so it would be a great idea to start now.

April’s message is about searching and treasuring the scriptures. I was particularly drawn to the following quote by President Spencer W. Kimball, about treasuring the scriptures:

“As you become more and more familiar with the truths of the scriptures, you will be more and more effective in keeping the second great commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. Become scholars of the scriptures—not to put others down, but to lift them up! After all, who has any greater need to ‘treasure up’ the truths of the gospel (on which they may call in their moments of need) than do women and mothers who do so much nurturing and teaching?”

I found a little treasure chest-shaped tin at the dollar store, within which I put items that can help us to treasure the scriptures. I printed the last part of President Kimball’s quote on white cardstock, trimmed it and adhered it to the lid of my box with glue dots. I then placed sticky gems around the edges of the quote.

Inside the box I put a complete set of scripture mastery cards ($1.00 for all 4 sets of cards from the standard works ordered through the distribution center). I thought going through the scripture mastery cards, marking them in our scriptures, and playing some games with them would be a fun way to teach our families to treasure the scriptures.

Also included in the treasure box is a separate card with a couple ideas for some games to play. One game uses the scripture mastery cards, and the other game helps us to learn how to “liken” the scriptures to ourselves. Sister Beck mentions “likening” in her quote this month as a good way to start studying the scriptures.

I placed a few abstract words which are needed for the games in a black drawstring bag.

I included one more thing in my treasure chest, and that is a little 3 x 4″ reclosable bag filled with 4 small colored pencils, and a list of ways to mark our scriptures, taken from pg. 24 of “Preach My Gospel”. The little list fits perfectly inside the bag. I got both the black drawstring bags and the reclosable plastic bags at the dollar store. I found the small pencils in the education section at Staples. Full-size red scripture marking pencils are available from the distribution center.

You can download the pdf for President Kimball’s quote, the “liken” the scripture games, and the scripture marking list here.

Feel free to put together the whole treasure chest, or just select one or two items to share with your sisters. Any part of this “kit” would be a nice way to encourage our sisters to begin or to continue to search, study, and treasure the scriptures.

Posted in scriptures | 5 Comments

Laff Through Life

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Kristin

This great “anytime” idea is from Linda at Visiting Teaching.net:

Here’s a fun quote which would be great with a Laffy Taffy to make your Sister’s day.

“The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”

-Marjorie Pay Hinckley

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Easter Story Egg Hunt

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Kristin

I first did this Easter Story Egg Hunt many years ago. I love how it combines the fun of an egg hunt with what is really important and special about Easter – the spiritual message of the resurrection of the Savior. These are fun to share with the sisters we visit teach. Even if they don’t have small children at home, it is a special way to reflect on the atonement and resurrection.

The information for how to put it all together was found at families.com:

What you do is get twelve plastic Easter eggs (the kind you can fill with candy) and number them 1 – 12. A permanent marker works well for this, or you can get fancy and use squeeze-tube fabric paints. In each egg, put the corresponding numbered scripture and item. You can write out the scriptures or just put the reference and look them up in the Bible as you go.

You can have a separate egg hunt with just these eggs, or do what I like to do, and mix the numbered eggs in with all the candy, boiled eggs and other surprises for a traditional Easter Egg hunt. Give the kids instructions not to open up the special numbered eggs until you say so. After all the eggs are found, let the kids settle down and eat some candy, and then gather everyone around. Open the eggs in order and read and discuss what is inside.

You might be surprised that the kids will enjoy these special eggs the best!

If you have older kids or don’t want to do an egg hunt, you can place these eggs in a basket and take turns opening them after Easter dinner.

1. Item: Small cup or sacrament cup. Scripture: Matthew 26: 39-44 Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray. He asked Heavenly Father to bless Him. He did not want to suffer. He said to Heavenly Father “if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” But Jesus wanted to obey Heavenly Father. He would suffer for all people who repent of their sins.

2. Item: 3 dimes. Scripture: Matthew 26: 14 – 49 One of Jesus’ twelve apostles, Judas, made a deal with some wicked men. He would show them where Jesus was in exchange for thirty pieces of silver.

3. Item: Knotted twine. Scripture: Matthew 27: 1-2 When morning came, the chief priests and elders of the people decided to put Jesus to death. They bound Him, led Him away, and delivered Him to the governor, Pontius Pilate.

4. Item: Piece of soap. Scripture: Luke 23: 13-24 and John 19:6. Pilate asked Jesus many questions and then told the Pharisees that Jesus had done nothing wrong. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but the Pharisees wanted to crucify Him instead. Pilate washed his hands in front of all the people, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then he let them crucify Jesus.

5. Item: Square of purple cloth. Scripture: Matthew 27: 28-30 and Mark 15: 15-19. The people stripped Jesus, put a purple robe and a crown of thorns on Him. They mocked Him, saying “Hail, King of the Jews!” The spit on Him and whipped him with a reed.

6. Item: Nails. Scripture: Mark 15: 15-19 and Luke 23: 26-27, 33. After they mocked Jesus, they took the robe off Him and led Him away to be crucified. The soldiers nailed His hands and feet to a cross.

7. Item: Dice. Scripture: Luke 23: 24-34. When Jesus was on the cross, he asked Heavenly Father to forgive the people who crucified Him because they didn’t know He was the Savior. The soldiers took Jesus’ clothes and cast lots for them.

8. Item: Small rocks. Scripture: Matthew 27: 57-60. When Jesus finally died, His spirit left His body and the sky was dark. There was a big earthquake, and the ground and rocks broke into pieces.

9. Item: Strip of white cloth. Scripture: Matthew 27: 57-60. One of Jesus’ disciples, Joseph, took His body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb.

10. Item: Stone. Scripture: Matthew 27:60, 65-66. After Joseph had laid Jesus’ body in the tomb, he rolled a big stone in front of the tomb so Jesus’ body would be safe.

11. Item: Spices tied in a small piece of cloth. Scripture: Matthew 28:2 and Mark 16: 1-9. Jesus’ body was in the tomb for three days. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome had brought spices to use to anoint Jesus’ body.

12. Item: Leave egg empty. Scripture: Matthew 28:6. When the women got to the tomb, the stone was rolled away from the door and it was empty. They saw an angel there, who said to them, “Jesus is not here, for He is risen.” Jesus was resurrected.

Posted in Spring | 1 Comment

Bunny S’mores

Posted on March 11, 2009 by Kristin

To celebrate the coming of Spring, these Bunny S’mores would make a sweet gift for those you Visit Teach. These were found on the Creative Holiday Gift Ideas blog.

INGREDIENTS AND DIRECTIONS:

1. Reduce 1 sleeve graham crackers to crumbs.
2. Layer 2/3 of the crumbs in a 1 quart jar.
3. Place 8 marshmallow bunny peeps standing up, facing out around the inside of the jar.
4. Press them up against the glass, but don’t squash them.
5. Carefully spoon remaining crumbs in the center of the jar to support the bunnies, pressing down to keep it snug.
6. On top of this pour 1-1/4 cup Easter M&M’s.
7. Spoon 1/3 cup brown sugar into center of M&M’s, gently pressing with a spoon.

My changes: I did M&M’s first, then Peeps, then put combined brown sugar and graham cracker crumbs in baggie. I didn’t like how the crumbs made a mess in the jar.

Attach a gift tag giving the following instructions:

1. Empty the jar contents into a bowl. Snip the bunnies into bits with kitchen sheers or cut up with a knife. Return the bunny bits to the mixture. Mix well.
2. Melt 1/2 cup butter; add 1 teaspoon vanilla. Pour this over the dry ingredients, mixing well. Pat into a greased 9″ square pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Cool and cut into bars.
(Makes 9 to 12 bars.)

*Option – leave bunnies whole; combine remaining ingredients and place the bunnies on top; then bake as directed.

*This gift jar may be created to suit any holiday for which marshmallow candies are available.

Posted in Spring | 4 Comments