Welcome to the Talk Of The Week Club. I began this club as a way to share my love of learning and growing in the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My hope and desire is for you to learn and grow in your faith and love of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Each Thursday a new talk will be posted, come back, open your heart and mind, allow yourself to receive and I promise you will be spiritually fed.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Week 25: The Blessings of the Temple

Most of my life I have been, for lack of a better word, spoiled, as
 far as the Temple is concerned. My family joined the church in New
 York City when I was 8 years old and the temple was several hours
 away, but at that point it didn't really affect me as I couldn't
 enter. At the age of 11 we moved to Provo, Utah just minutes from
 the Provo Temple. The year after we moved, I was sealed to my
 parents for time and all eternity in that very same temple. It was
 then that I first truly witnessed the plan of happiness in action
 and the beautiful blessings we can receive there. Since then I've
 had the opportunity to live several miles or minutes from a temple
 wherever I've lived.

 Until now.

 2 years ago, on a prompting of the spirit and personal revelation
 received in the temple we gathered our family and moved to Kansas.
 We'd never lived in the Midwest, had no family here and neither of
 us had ever been here before moving. We just knew that we needed to
 be here. I know that we made the right choice but there is one thing
 I truly miss...my ability to frequently attend and receive the
 blessings of the temple. Our closest temple is roughly 4 hours away
 and I've realized that it's much easier to "neglect" your temple
 attendance when you live so far away. You begin to put up excuse
 after excuse, it is much more of a sacrifice. The same could be
 said about living close as well, you take for granted what you have
 because it's always there. I make a valiant effort to attend the
 temple as often as I can and being further away from the temple has
 given me a better opportunity to reflect on what is that I do there
 and why it is that I go. What we all need to remember is the
 blessings of the temple are true. The covenants and promises we
 make are so important to our eternal progression. Through the
 temple families are sealed and bound forever, ancestors are brought
 to Christ's true church. "The teachings of the Temple of
 beautifully simple....and simply beautiful."

 I am happy to announce that on May 8th the groundbreaking for the
 new Kansas City Temple took place. I am excited to know that in a
 few short years I will again be close enough to attend the temple
 more regularly. I hope that what we can all remember is that the
 temple truly is the house of the Lord and an incredible blessing in
 our lives.




For better viewing please pause the music on the right before starting this message.


Thursday, June 17, 2010

Week 24: What Greater Goodness Can We Know: Christlike Friends

I have had the opportunity to spend some time each week “dark” and early with a good friend of mine.  We pray for each other, for our husbands and for God’s direction in our lives.  This has been such a huge blessing in my life.  When I heard this talk, I knew that I had to share it because I find so much joy in having Christlike friends in my life.  I pray that you will find great friends who lift you, love you and help bring you to Christ!

Have a blessed week - 




MP3 Link



Kathleen H. Hughes
A few weeks ago my husband and I attended a temple session. As we entered, we were greeted by a temple worker, a dear friend from our ward. That greeting began a remarkable experience for us. We were met and served, more than any time I remember, by many people we knew: friends from previous wards, friends from the community, men and women we had served with in various callings. The last person I encountered was a young woman I didn't recognize. She was lovely, and when she began to speak, I immediately remembered: Robin, one of the young women in my Laurel class when I was first a Young Women president. As we visited and exchanged memories and life updates, she told me how much that time had meant to her. I felt the same way. I left the temple feeling moved by so much kindness, aware how important friends have been to me throughout my life. The Lord has touched my spirit time and again, and more often than not, His touch has reached me through the hand of a friend. Read the rest HERE...

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Week 23: Are We Not All Mothers

I have been thinking a lot about my role as a mother and the influence of those who have mothered me. I have worn many hats as a mother. I've been a working mother, a work from home mother, a depressed mother, a joyful mother, a mother to a few motherless. I have even, at times had to mother myself!  I don't know about you but I have often faltered in my belief of the importance of being "just a mother". The worlds views about motherhood can all too swiftly and silently enter my heart and fog up my divine understanding of the celestial role of mother.
This beautiful talk from one of the most amazing "mothers" I know really help to clear up my vision and helped me see how the many hats I wear can truly help the children of God. I loved this enpowering quote;

Never has there been a greater need for righteous mothers—mothers who bless their children with a sense of safety, security, and confidence about the future, mothers who teach their children where to find peace and truth and that the power of Jesus Christ is always stronger than the power of the adversary. Every time we build the faith or reinforce the nobility of a young woman or man, every time we love or lead anyone even one small step along the path, we are true to our endowment and calling as mothers and in the process we build the kingdom of God. No woman who understands the gospel would ever think that any other work is more important or would ever say, "I am just a mother," for mothers heal the souls of men.
So as each of us go throughout our day I hope we will keep in mind we were born to mother. Even if we have not born children to this earth our pre-mortal nature is that of nurturer, guide, love giver, testifier of truth and protector.  Our hots as mothers can be many but the most important one is to look around us and mother the people who need mothering.

Have a truly blessed week and know that sometimes all around you you have mothers who love you!




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“Motherhood is more than bearing children. . . . It is the essence of who we are as women.”This summer four teenage nieces and I shared a tense Sunday evening when we set out walking from a downtown hotel in a city we were visiting to a nearby chapel where I was to speak. I had made that walk many times, but that evening we suddenly found ourselves engulfed by an enormous mob of drunken parade-goers. It was no place for four teenage girls, or their aunt, I might add. But with the streets closed to traffic, we had no choice but to keep walking. Over the din, I shouted to the girls, "Stay right with me." As we maneuvered through the crush of humanity, the only thing on my mind was my nieces' safety.
Thankfully, we finally made it to the chapel. But for one unnerving hour, I better understood how mothers who forgo their own safety to protect a child must feel. My siblings had entrusted me with their daughters, whom I love, and I would have done anything to lead them to safety. Likewise, our Father has entrusted us as women with His children, and He has asked us to love them and help lead them safely past the dangers of mortality back home.
Loving and leading—these words summarize not only the all-consuming work of the Father and the Son, but the essence of our labor, for our work is to help the Lord with His work. How, then, may we as Latter-day women of God best help the Lord with His work?
Prophets have repeatedly answered this question, as did the First Presidency six decades ago when they called motherhood "the highest, holiest service . . . assumed by mankind."1
Have you ever wondered why prophets have taught the doctrine of motherhood—and it is doctrine—again and again? I have. I have thought long and hard about the work of women of God. And I have wrestled with what the doctrine of motherhood means for all of us. This issue has driven me to my knees, to the scriptures, and to the temple—all of which teach an ennobling doctrine regarding our most crucial role as women. It is a doctrine about which we must be clear if we hope to stand "steadfast and immovable"2 regarding the issues that swirl around our gender. For Satan has declared war on motherhood. He knows that those who rock the cradle can rock his earthly empire. And he knows that without righteous mothers loving and leading the next generation, the kingdom of God will fail.
When we understand the magnitude of motherhood, it becomes clear why prophets have been so protective of woman's most sacred role. While we tend to equate motherhood solely with maternity, in the Lord's language, the word mother has layers of meaning. Of all the words they could have chosen to define her role and her essence, both God the Father and Adam called Eve "the mother of all living"3—and they did so before she ever bore a child. Like Eve, our motherhood began before we were born. Just as worthy men were foreordained to hold the priesthood in mortality,4 righteous women were endowed premortally with the privilege of motherhood.5 Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our very identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us.
President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that "God planted within women something divine."6 That something is the gift and the gifts of motherhood. Elder Matthew Cowley taught that "men have to have something given to them [in mortality] to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. [They] are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls . . . and the regenerating force in the lives of God's children."7
Motherhood is not what was left over after our Father blessed His sons with priesthood ordination. It was the most ennobling endowment He could give His daughters, a sacred trust that gave women an unparalleled role in helping His children keep their second estate. As President J. Reuben Clark Jr. declared, motherhood is "as divinely called, as eternally important in its place as the Priesthood itself."8
Nevertheless, the subject of motherhood is a very tender one, for it evokes some of our greatest joys and heartaches. This has been so from the beginning. Eve was "glad" after the Fall, realizing she otherwise "never should have had seed."9 And yet, imagine her anguish over Cain and Abel. Some mothers experience pain because of the children they have borne; others feel pain because they do not bear children here. About this Elder John A. Widtsoe was explicit: "Women who through no fault of their own cannot exercise the gift of motherhood directly, may do so vicariously."10   
Read the rest of this article HERE

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Week 22: The Divine Nature and Destiny of Women

Hello Friends,

This week's talk is "The Divine Nature and Destiny of Women" a BYU
Devotional given by Glenn L. Pace March 9, 2010. I am grateful for Elder
Pace's inspired teaching which has helped me to see my nature and gifts
as a daughter of God with a new perspective. I found his teaching about
the Creation most insightful and his teaching about the roles of women
in marriage most encouraging. I feel newly inspired after reading and
pondering his counsel to better fulfill my roles as a woman, mother and
wife. What a sweet and tender privilege it is to be a woman during the
winding up scenes and to have the blessings and teaching of the Gospel
to direct our lives. I especially appreciated his teaching of the
essential roles of male and female and their interplay together to
achieve exaltation. I hope his words will lift and inspire you as they
have me.

A wonderful summer of creating good to each of you,





MP3 Link



The Family: A Proclamation to the World” states:
All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.1
My focus this morning will be on the divine nature and destiny of women and the sacred role they play in the sanctification and purification of men.
I’m going to start by giving you two exclusive scoops. First, males and females are different. Second, those differences are more than physical.
I developed a love and appreciation for womanhood in my childhood. My mother, sisters, grandmas, aunts, and female cousins and friends brought immeasurable love into my young life. This set the stage for the adult relationships with my wife, daughters, and granddaughters.
All of the above have contributed to my feelings of reverence, adoration, and even veneration of righteous women.  Read the rest HERE