My RS Lesson, my way

I got special permission to teach the conference talk I wanted to teach today, instead of the one I was assigned.  (A major blessing, since I've been over the top busy with BYU alumni stuff, travel to Nevada, catching up on everything I missed with my trip and being sick.) I did the one I taught for the stake RS women's conference in August, by President Uchtdorf about Living the Gospel Joyful (Oct. 2014).  It was the one where he said we sometimes picture God locking blessings in heaven, waiting for us to be obedient before he releases them.  In reality, he is constantly raining blessings down on us and it is only the umbrellas of our own fears and sin that keep those blessings from reaching us.  In order to practice closing the umbrella, we played a game of truth or dare.  The truth cards were thought questions about gospel truths.  The dare cards were quick ways to keep the commandments right now in this room.  Some of the ones that got chosen that I remember are:

Truth- How has knowing you are a child of God helped you accomplish something?  A sister said it helped her through tough times growing up without a dad because he didn't choose her.  Her mom joined the church when she was young and she grew up knowing that her real father, her Father in Heaven loved her beyond reason, and that she was worth keeping the commandments and choosing a better life for herself.  She credits her temple marriage and current life to knowing that truth.

Dare- Call someone you visit teach and give her the message for this month in 90 seconds or less.  This was done by a lady who was visiting our ward and got passed the dare by her mom who is in our ward and didn't want to do it!  She did it quickly, easily, and on speaker phone!  Welcome to Kansas City first ward!

Dare- Show us your shopping list and add one thing to it to build your food storage.  My friend Heidi blushed and said she didn't even have a list this week!  She vowed to start it with canned tomatoes for food storage because she loves them even though her kids don't.

I have a whole stack of cards and we only made it through maybe half of them, but the ones we got were good.  I had someone comment at the end that it was kind of terrifying and fun at the same time.

I closed by ending with Elder Uchtdorf's conclusion that God doesn't care how fashionable we are or how many followers we have online.  He loves us as we are right now and for the potential of who we can become.  When we know these truths, we can keep his commandments and live the gospel joyfully.