A unique project

Richmond Virginia Stake Members,

Be part of history! This is a call to all youth and adult members of our stake to join an historic and unique project, one you can do from your own home computer and on your own schedule, for as little or as much time as you wish. After 72 years the US Census Office has released the 1940 census information. Recent Ensign articles and talks by Church leaders have asked anyone able to join with thousand of volunteers around the country, members and non-members of the Church, to help index the digital images of this census. You chose the amount of time you volunteer, hours or even minutes, and the time of day that you wish to help, and you do it all from your own home.

Anyone - adults, homebound, youth (It's great for community service hours or as an Eagle project) can help. This is a fun and exciting project which will allow millions to easily find new information about family members who lived during that time period. Find your own grandparents!

To sign up go to familysearchindexing.org. The census site had 37 million hits the first day. Contact your ward Family History consultant or Pat Watson, Family History Center Director, at pwatson51@verizon.net or more information.

Career & Employment Workshop

We will be holding a Career & Employment Workshop Saturday May 19th from 9am-4pm. The location will be confirmed at a later date, but will be at either the Richmond Stake Center or the Richmond Branch building. Participants need to register ahead of time for the workshop and should bring a bag lunch.

To register for the workshop, participants can contact Tish Heflebower at Tish.heflebower@gmail.com or 804-928-3868.

Reading schedule for Gospel Doctrine - May

Gospel Doctrine's reading schedule for May:

May 6     Lesson 16   Mosiah 4-6

May13    Lesson 17   Mosiah 7-11

May 20   Lesson 18   Mosiah 12-17

May 27   Lesson 19   Mosiah 18-24

Addiction Recovery Program

Addiction Recovery Program (ADR):  The ADR Group, sponsored by LDS Family Services, currently meets every Sunday from 5:00-6:30 pm at the Pump Road Chapel, except the first Sunday of each month.  The ADR Group meets in a classroom beyond the nursery on the north side of the building.  Participation is free and confidential.  Additionally, the ADR Family Member Support Group, also sponsored by LDS Family Services, will start meeting on Sunday, June 10, 6:45-8:00 pm at the same location (with the exception of the first Sunday of each month).  This group is for the family members of those suffering from addiction, regardless of where that person is in the addiction recovery process.

For further information regarding the ADR Program contact your Bishop OR contact Bro. and Sis. Warnick (364-0742 or warnicklee@gmail.com).

A need

A family is in need a kitchen/dining room table.  If you can help please let Bernadette know.  Thanks for all you do.

Tri-Stake Fireside

This Sunday; April 22 there will be a Tri-Stake Fireside, at 6:30 p.m. at the stake center.

The guest speaker is Scott Anderson, a well-respected CES instructor and speaker for EFY.

It is a wonderful opportunity for our youth(ages 2-18) & their parents, so please encourage them to come.

April's Book Club

Book Club will be meeting Thursday April 19th at Robin McLean's home.  They are reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  To read more about the book and what else the book club will be reading check out the blog.  http://readitornotherewecome.blogspot.com/  All are welcome even if you haven't read the book.

For those with Cub Scouts

This week on Wednesday, April 18 will be the Cub Scout's Blue & Gold Dinner in the gym from 6:30-8:00.  Families with a Cub Scout are encouraged to attend.

RS Women's Conference

April 28th will be the RS Women's Conference "CHOICES" at the Stake Center from 9:30 - 1:30 pm, lunch will be included but no nursery.

You get to pick 4 or the 7 mini-classes offered.  They are as follows - Buy This Not That, Cut Hair Not There, Where What!!, Eat This Not That - Build a Meal, Read This Treasure That (Choose the Better Part), Sew Here Not There & Plant This Not That.

You can read more about the classes by clicking on the Flyer to the left.  Make plans now so you can attend.

Stake Employment Office Hours

Stake Employment office hours, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. This is an opportunity for members to work with employment specialists one on one for employment-related activities such as writing resumes, networking and goal setting. Appointments are not required. For additional information, please contact: Candace Harman vacandace@gmail.com or 804-380-8558 Tish Heflebower tish.heflebower@gmail.com or 804-928-3868 Hank Heilesen hankheilesen@ymail.com or 804-240-8648

Event date: Apr 11, 2012

Event time: 7:00 PM

Location: 2500 Pump Road

Mormonism 101

The missionaries mentioned these two websites today, if you have a chance check them out.  The first is Mormon news room & also Mormon.org.  Search the newsroom site for Mormonism 101 FAQ.  Also setup your own profile on Mormon.org and share your testimony, if you'd like that is.

If you have trouble clicking on the links above you can cut and past the following.
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/
http://mormon.org/

April Visiting Teaching Message

This months message is from our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson titled "His Is Risen" - a Prophet's Testimony.  By clicking on the link you can share it with your sister's, read it or print it.

Love, Watch Over, and Strengthen

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Prayerfully study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.

Love, Watch Over, and Strengthen

Like the Savior, visiting teachers minister one by one (see 3 Nephi 11:15). We know we are successful in our ministering as visiting teachers when our sisters can say: (1) my visiting teacher helps me grow spiritually; (2) I know my visiting teacher cares deeply about me and my family; and (3) if I have problems, I know my visiting teacher will take action without waiting to be asked.¹

How can we as visiting teachers love, watch over, and strengthen a sister? Following are nine suggestions found in chapter 7 of Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society to help visiting teachers minister to their sisters:

• Pray daily for her and her family.
  
• Seek inspiration to know her and her family.
  
• Visit her regularly to learn how she is doing and to comfort and strengthen her.
  
• Stay in frequent contact through visits, phone calls, letters, e-mail, text messages, and simple acts of kindness.
  
• Greet her at Church meetings.
  
• Help her when she has an emergency, illness, or other urgent need.
  
• Teach her the gospel from the scriptures and the Visiting Teaching Messages.
  
• Inspire her by setting a good example.
  
• Report to a Relief Society leader about their service and the sister’s spiritual and temporal well-being.
  

From the Scriptures -Luke 10:38–39; 3 Nephi 11:23–26; 27:21

From Our History

“Visiting teaching has become a vehicle for Latter-day Saint women worldwide to love, nurture, and serve—to ‘act according to those sympathies which God has planted in [our] bosoms,’ as Joseph Smith taught.”²

A sister who had recently been widowed said of her visiting teachers: “They listened. They comforted me. They wept with me. And they hugged me. … [They] helped me out of the deep despair and depression of those first few months of loneliness.”³

Help with temporal tasks is also a form of ministering. At the October 1856 general conference, President Brigham Young announced that handcart pioneers were stranded in deep snow 270–370 miles (435–595 km) away. He called for the Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City to rescue them and to “attend strictly to those things which we call temporal.”⁴

Lucy Meserve Smith recorded that the women took off their warm underskirts and stockings right there in the tabernacle and piled them into wagons to send to the freezing pioneers. Then they gathered bedding and clothing for those who would eventually come with few belongings. When the handcart companies arrived, a building in the town was “loaded with provisions for them.”⁵

For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.

What Can I Do?

1. How can I know what my sisters need?
2. How will my sisters know that I care deeply about them?
   

Easter Egg Hunt

April 7 will be an Easter Egg Hunt at Dunncroft-Castle Point Park 10:00 a.m. – Be on time and bring baskets for the kids. 

Personal History Writing Class

Don't miss tomorrow nights Personal History class at Margie Harton's house at 7pm.  "Here's our topic: spring fling.  Now, this isn't meant to be scandalous.  It's your dating story or history.  Or your parents'.  Or, lack there of, etc.  Basically, write about whatever you want!"  Even if you haven't written come and see what it's all about!