Women's Conference

Today was our stake's women's conference. I felt like I really needed to be there, and after attending I understood why.

There have been many different things on my mind lately, and most of them were addressed during this conference.

We had three different topics we went over, and I'm going to record my notes from this event.

In the opening remarks given my Sister Lori Toney, she talked about the importance of visiting teaching in the Lord's plan.  She reminded all of us that we serve through our visiting teaching, and that we need to show each other how much we love one another and how much the Lord loves us as individuals.  We also need to treat our sisters we visit as family, and that visiting teaching is all about family.  This notion of visiting teaching is all about family really struck me. I also remind myself that the church family really is a family of mine. It's hard for me sometimes to be so far away from my side of the family, and being reminded that we need to treat each sister in RS like family helped me feel like I'm not just here in MI all alone.  Also, I was thinking about how much visiting teaching strengthens me and helps me be able to better focus on my role in the home. Then the last point Lori made was how we need to help all of our sisters return home to Heavenly Father's presence.

After the remarks, we broke up into our different groups and then rotated through the church to our different lectures.

The first group I was in, the topic was The Lord's Jewels. The main focus for this group was fulfilling our divine mission here on earth. Then she talked about the different "powers" or strengthens that we are blessed with to be able to find our full potential so we can complete our missions we were sent here to do.  The different powers were: the power in revelation, power in priorities, power in the word of God, and lastly the power in fulfilling our missions. There were many quotes that she used from talks that I want to find and study. Those talks were by the following:

• Sister Beck, General Conference, April 2010
• Sister Beck, General Conference, October 2010
• Sister Beck, BYU Women's Conference, May 2010
• President Benson, General Conference, April 1988

Power in Revelation:

How do we stand strong, increase our faith during great opposition? There are a few things we can do, such as pray, read our scriptures, keep our covenants. But the main thing that will help us is personal revelation. Revelation is the manifestation of the power of the priesthood. D&C 8:2-3.

Power in Priorities:

In order to make something a priority, we must feel that it is important.  There are so many things that we want to do and have to do, that it can seem overwhelming at times and that we have no idea how we will be able to complete everything that needs to be done.  It has been said by many apostles that if we put the Lord first, then all things will fall into place.  All we need to do is have faith and trust in the Lord, and put him first.  If we trust his word, then we know that all things will be taken care of if we make HIM our first priority.

Sister Beck said that we need to make a list of our priorities.  The list needs to include the essential, the necessary and lastly, what we want to do.  The essential are the things needed for us to reach the celestial kingdom and exhalation. The necessary are the things we need to do in this temporal world, such as working to provide for a family, cooking, cleaning, etc. And the lastly, the other things we would like to do is just that. 

Power in the Word of God:

She started running out of time by the time we got to this topic, but she talked about WWII and how England did not succumb to the Nazis.  The UK government strengthened their people through words, and had posters such as the Keep Calm and Carry On. And then we read D&C 1:17-19.

Power to fulfill our Divine Missions:

We find the power to fulfill our missions by making and keeping our covenants.  We find the strength we need from the temple.

The second group that I attended was entitled Right Here, Right Now.

Christmas Letter December 2015

Dear Friends & Family,                                                                                      December 2015

           

            A lot has happened in our family since our last Christmas card two years ago!  First of all, we have a new addition to our family – Juliana Elizabeth Seneca who was born March 19, 2014 on her due date!  She has been a joy and a challenge all at the same time, which is one of the reasons we didn’t get a card out last year.

            This year has been full of wonderful experiences.  Sean has continued working for Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety as a public safety officer.  He has been really successful and has also been testing to become a detective for the past two years; this year, he received the highest score!  We are hoping next year in our letter we will be able to say that he is a detective following the footsteps of his dad and uncle.  Sean has also been serving faithfully at church as the financial clerk up until last month, and currently is serving in the elder’s quorum (men’s group at church) presidency.

            Christy has been busy with the kids and running her two businesses with Young Living essential oils and Younique.  She was serving as the Primary (children’s Sunday school, ages 18 mo. – 12 yrs.) President up until mid August when she was released and is now serving as Cub Master for both of the LDS Cub Scout Packs in the Kalamazoo Area.  She also took some much needed “me” time this year by going to Time Out for Women, being a leader at Girl’s Camp for church, and then being able to attend Young Living’s convention down in Dallas, TX.

            Elijah is going to be four years old this month!!  Where has the time gone?!  He is transforming from toddler to a little boy with his interests changing from wanting everything to be Disney to adding in super heroes such as Spider Man, Bat Man, and the Avengers.  It totally made his year when we went to Disneyland and he got to meet Thor and Captain America in real life!  Captain America told him to always be a good man, and Eli hasn’t forgotten!  Another HUGE milestone for him is that he started preschool this fall, and loves it.  He also loves to be mommy’s big helper whenever he gets the chance and is becoming quite independent.  His favorite things to do this year include painting, puzzles, his Montessori “activities,” and helping out Juliana whenever he can.  Eli has also made it very clear that he wants to be an astronaut and a doctor that helps mommies poop babies out!

            Juliana has grown so much this past year!  Last year at this time, she was still nursing every two hours at night (she did that every night until she was done nursing at her first birthday), not even walking or talking yet.  Now she sings “Let it Go” all the time and we have to watch Frozen everyday!  She is very strong willed and determined.  Her favorite people are Sean and Eli, she likes Christy too when Sean isn’t around and sometimes even prefers Eli to comfort her when Daddy is not near; Eli is, after all, her best friend.  And her little pink “snuggy” needs to go with her everywhere.  Christy made the mistake of putting oils on it when Juliana was congested one night, so now she sniffs her snuggy whenever she needs comforting or is tired or just wanting to relax.  She also loves to have dance parties like her mommy and brother.

            Our family has enjoyed many fun times together.  We made the most of Sean’s “7 days” which is when he is off for a week straight by going on day trips, spending many mornings at museums or libraries, doing projects around the house such as building compost bins, and taking a few trips.  Our two favorite trips were this summer visiting Christy’s aunt and uncle up in Traverse City.  The kids just love visiting Don & Judy.  Our other big trip was going out to California to visit Christy’s side of the family.  Christy took both kids on the plane by herself to head out early while Sean was working and then Sean joined the family later.  We were out there for almost four weeks and it was so much fun!!  One of Eli’s favorite things was going to the California Science Center and getting to spend as much time as he wanted visiting the Endeavor space shuttle.  Then seeing the Hubble Telescope IMAX movie just solidified his career choice as an astronaut as every 30 seconds he leaned into Christy saying that he just NEEDED to go to space and NEEDED to do all of the things he saw the astronauts doing.

            We have been blessed to spend much time with both sets of grandparents.  Eli would frequently go spend the night at Sean’s parents so Christy could sleep in with Juliana to try to get extra sleep.  And of course, there were many Sunday dinners and grandparents watching the kids so Sean & Christy could go out on dates.  We have also had the privilege of Christy’s parents coming out to visit on an average of every 3-4 months.  And there are plenty of Skype calls and Face time chats with the Davis side of the family!

We love you all and want to wish you a happy holiday and a joyous new year!

                                                                                           Love, The Szekely Family

                                                                                           Sean, Christy, Eli & Jules