Personal Touch

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In our Personal Touch with Rebecca Cressman segment, she interviews Shaun Barrowes, who is an internationally acclaimed, award winning singer-songwriter who has toured the world, received major radio airplay, and written music for major video games and movies. He’s also an American Idol finalist who believes he and his band members have benefited tremendously from their own High School music and arts programs, so he envisioned a way to give back. Shaun Barrowes and his band members are traveling the country with the “Live For Music Tour”, performing at high schools, with school Choirs, Bands, and Dance teams to raise funds for local school music and arts programs.




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 Annette Lyon, from Out of the Best Books, wrote this article called “Forgiveness and Gratitude.” She mentions a time in her life when it was hard for her to forgive. She tells us: “Grudges are painfully easy to hold onto and are hard to let go. A cloud descends, blocking out the spirit and making other things—like feeling genuine gratitude during the Thanksgiving season—almost impossible.” She then lets us know how she dealt with those feelings, and how she let go of them. A lesson for all of us.



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 Laurie D. at LDS Blogs talks to teens in her article “Teens: Who Do You Think You Are?” In it, she alludes to a movie that led many teens to wonder about just that a while ago. She says: “I immediately appreciated the message this movie portrays, that we are so much more than our obvious talents make us out to be. If this weren’t truth I would never have tried out for Pep Club my junior year of high school, as my obvious talents lay in the fields of music and writing. Yet I made it and had a wonderful time.”

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President Benson gave this talk “Following The Prophet - 14 Fundamentals by Ezra Taft Benson” at a BYU devotional on 26 February, 1980. Just recently, two General Authorities quoted from it. Maybe we should watch this video, and take notes.

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Monday, 8 November, please click here.

Teachers

Welcome to the Neighborhood News

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it’s too low and we reach it.” ~Michelangelo

Have you had a great teacher in your life? Has this person influenced you beyond what you expected of yourself? Marie Ricks from “House of Order” tells us about such a person in her children’s lives, in her article “Teacher Times Three”. It's a great experience when we are so fortunate to have someone like that close by. In the process, everybody's lives change for the better.

To follow that first article, we have President Ezra Taft Benson’s talk “To the Home Teachers of the Church”, in which he mentions the important nature of that calling. He says: “I feel impressed to speak to you about a priesthood program that has been inspired from its inception—a program that touches hearts, that changes lives, and that saves souls; a program that has the stamp of approval of our Father in Heaven; a program so vital that, if faithfully followed, it will help to spiritually renew the Church and exalt its individual members and families.”

The last entry is a talk delivered by Elder Bruce R. McConkie to the Church Sunday School Department in 1977. The title is “The Teacher’s Divine Commission”; in it he says: “There is knowledge and there are spiritual experiences to be gained from reading, pondering, and praying about the scriptures which can be gained in no other way. No matter how devoted and active members of the Church are in administrative matters, they will never gain the great blessings which come from scriptural study unless they pay the price of that study and thus make the written word a part of their lives.” In other words, to teach the Scriptures, we have to know them. To know the Scriptures, we should read them.

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Monday, 10 May’s, please click here.