Latter-day Village Square

I wanted to let you know that the September VT Bookmark is now in the Sampler Knowledgebase This bookmark features images of the Houston Temple and one of the statues from the Nauvoo Women’s Monument along with a quote from Russel M. Nelson that I particularly liked. Please feel free to share this with all your RS sisters.

Online information about the annual General Relief Society Meeting this month can be found at lds.org

Don’t forget that our Relief Society Lesson Handouts for the second half of the year are available in our store for instant download. We have gotten some wonderful comments from those who have been using them to
supplement their lessons.

A fun little gift for visiting teachers or those you teach is our Visiting Teaching Magnet, now available in our store.

If you have had successful events or created useful resources for RS that you would be willing to share, please send me an email with the details and attach any documents you have, and I will upload them to the KB for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks,
Debra Woods Hamilton

There are so many great themes this year for New Testament study in Seminary!  We’ve had product lines for two great NT themes for over a month, and now we have added a new one!

“LET YOUR LIGHT SO SHINE” from Matthew 5:16 is one of my favorite scripture references and happens to be one of the Seminary Scripture Mastery Verses this year!

I tried my hand at designing a logo for this theme.  I wanted to use a lighthouse, but I also included a number of other “light” symbols.  You can see stars in the black night sky, and there are sun icons as well as two eyes in the borders of the image.  I also used arrows because the light points the way we should go.  I wanted to depict the contrast between darkness and light in the design, so I used a black sky.

Once when I was teaching the Primary song “I Am Like a Star” I had a neat discussion with the children.  I turned off the lights and turned on a flashlight that had a star cutout on the end.  I asked them why they could see the little flashlight glowing, and they said it was because it was dark.  I reminded them that we only see stars at night because it is so dark.  Even a little star shines bright in that black sky.  We sang the song and I asked them to listen for what it was that helped us shine like a star.  The words go like this:

I am like a star shining brightly
Shining for the whole world to see
I can do and say happy things each day
For I know Heav’nly Father loves me.

The reason we can shine like a star is because we know Heavenly Father loves us.  In this world of darkness, we shine like stars because of that special knowledge.  Those who do not have that knowledge can see the light shining from us and are attracted to it.  We can share that light with others by helping them learn that they too are children of God, and beloved by Heavenly Father.

I had that in mind the whole time I was designing this logo.  Also, I am an actress, and by nature, I have no problem expressing myself in public - but sometimes I’ve been accused of being a show off or big mouth (that was way back when I was a kid, but I still remember and feel self-conscious about it) so this scripture always brought me a sense of vindication and relief that expressing myself wasn’t such a bad thing.  I’ve taught drama classes for kids many times, and directed a number of children’s shows and youth plays.  I love getting to the end - the big performance - and watching the children who initially were shy and afraid shining like stars on that stage.  It tickles me to no end when one of my most resistant students ends up stealing a scene once they understand how great it is to hear the audience responding to them.  I’ve seen many a little life turn around from such an experience, and I love it!

I don’t know what it is about letting your light shine that makes it glow all the brighter - but perhaps it is like the parable - if someone had a candle and put it under a bushel, it would eventually go out, wouldn’t it - for lack of oxygen?  When you remove the bushel, and let it shine for all those around, the flame will actually increase, won’t it, when it gets that exposure to fresh air?  Yes, it surely seems to me that when we let our light shine it gets brighter - from my experience with performing, and also with sharing testimony.  As we share our testimony, it grows.

So there is a super metaphor in this scripture/theme.  But it didn’t stop there.  I also looked up “light” in the online scriptures - narrowing it to the New Testament.  There were MANY references and they were all interesting and powerful.  Of course the Savior is the “light of the world!”  to mention just one.

I created several products with this logo so far:

• Poster
• T-shirt
• Mug
• Totebag
• Keychain
  
• Sticker

SEE ALSO OUR OTHER NT THEME PRODUCTS

• Armor of God
• Fishers of Men

I recently read an interesting blog post about BYU football (I am kinda nuts about football, mostly college football, primarily BYU or Wyoming football [OK I confess, I also cheer for anyone playing the U of U]). But at least I immediately recognized the article as having an application for seminary teachers. The writer, Dick Harmon, sports columnist for the Deseret News, is a longtime friend of mine, from when we both lived in the same Orem, UT ward. We both had very young families, were very interested in sports (he professionally) and so we hit if off as friends. I later wrote a weekly college football prognostication column for the Provo Daily Herald where Dick was the sports editor. I used a home-written computer program to predict college football games and spent many Saturday nights in the Herald office watching the college football statistics come across the sports wire. I also did some stringing for the Herald, covering high school basketball games in Utah County. But I digress.

As I read Dick’s blog about BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall and his use of memory techniques (found here http://deseretnews.com/blogs/monthly/1,5553,19,00.html?bD=20080809&sc=dmn),

I could not help but think how the same principles applied to teaching seminary.

Dick had noted behavioral scientist Paul Gustavson comment on Coach Mendenhall’s technique for impressing principles on the minds of his football players. He wrote;

“Dick,

Research indicates that the three strongest facilitators of long term memory are:

1. Emotional experiences (e.g. running to the top of the Y and then Bronco talking about goals. Like the first year he said that the view from the top is different from the view from the bottom. Being in LaVell Edward stadium watching the last 12 home victories etc., many that you have written about)
2. Music The use of music is powerful. Many of our children learn their alphabet by singing the ABC song. At Bronco’s fireside the team sings the Sons of Helaman song (I know that it goes by another name) the Haka is a war chant (type of song).
3. A metaphor is the third strongest facilitator of long term memory. Christ taught in parables and all parables are metaphors. Bronco uses lots of metaphors such as being flag bearers and the flag with everyone’s signature on it.
   

I believe that this coin and its symbolism/metaphor is about being a flag bearers and who they represent. I believe that the coin was to be given at a significant emotional experience point (run up the mountain to begin camp. I don’t know if it was at the top of the “Y” or somewhere else that he told me that he was going to give this to the players. I think that they might be like dog tags that members of the services have signifying who they are and who they represent.

Hope this background helps. Bronco does the best job of any leader that I know leveraging these three facilitators of long term memory. “

So how can these three facilitators be applied in a seminary setting and will they be effective. Since it has been a couple of years since I taught seminary, here are my thoughts organized around what I should have done better then or what I might do better if the opportunity ever comes again.

1. Spiritual experiences. Make sure students and teacher have daily spiritual experiences. Follow the spirit in preparing and leading your learning discussions. Share you r testimony frequently and personalize your students learning environment by using spiritual experiences from your own life or theirs. If you are in tune, spiritual experiences will happen; those will tend to stay with your students longer than anything else. Leverage them; get your students to record their thoughts and impressions in student journals.
2. Music – use soothing prelude music to set a proper learning atmosphere. Sing hymns frequently, even if acapella, especially those that directly correlate to a scripture passage. Use music to teach and practice scripture mastery; if you get those verses into memory with music, they do not leave nearly so fast.
3. Metaphors. Use object lessons to bind learning to specific memories in your students minds. As a fifty-something, I still remember object lessons learned in my first 9^th grade seminary class. Yearly themes can be metaphors you reinforce with every lesson. Objects students take home become a visible library of learning and application.

So there you have it; football and seminary. I hope my observation makes some sense for you as you guide your young charges through their spiritual discovery of the New Testament.

Last week we had two deaths in our neighborhood that took us all by surprise and saddened us deeply.  Last Monday our dear friend and former neighbor, Roman Patt, died in his sleep at age 52.  We learned that he had spent his last day at Solitude with friends, hiking and enjoying a meal - with no sign that anything was amiss.  He had a heart condition that he was on medication for, but no one expected him to die, least of all his two children who had lost their mother 11 years ago in a car accident.  Roman was full of life and knew how to enjoy it.  No, there are many others I would have imagined were much closer to death than Roman.  I attended his memorial gathering on my 50th birthday.  I am in much worse shape than Roman was, so easily that could have been me . . .

On Thursday morning, my birthday, at a school bus stop in my neighborhood, a little four year old on a bike was hit by a car making a left hand turn just after the bus pulled away.  The mother was there to watch after putting an older sibling on the bus.  She is our stake YW president.    The injuries were so severe, the little boy was pronounced dead in flight to the hospital. The teenage boy driving the car was her neighbor and friend and in her ward.

The 1st Counselor in our Stake Presidency spoke in our sacrament meeting about it.  He related how inconsolable the young man driving the car was.  He told how the second counselor met with the parents of the little boy and the young driver and how the father had wrapped his large arms around this young man to comfort him, and reminded him that this is what the atonement is for.

A 50th birthday, not to mention two deaths in our neighborhood have served to cause some reflection on my part.  Somehow it always takes us aback when someone dies.  It is as though we forget that each and every one of us is going to die (unless we live during the millennium and are merely changed in a twinkling of an eye).  Sadness and grief are understandable - but shock is something I think peculiar to our generation.  We live in an age when the advances in medical science are so remarkable, we literally expect to be cured, or resuscitated and brought back to full health no matter what the illness or injury.  Even though we see death portrayed on television, or perhaps because we see people die on television and then later they appear on another show - alive and kicking - our perception is all warped.

I have walked through pioneer cemeteries where three, four or five family members died within months of each other - presumably from some illness like cholera or the flu!  Back then, when someone became ill, people understood that it was very serious and their loved one might die. Recovery was the exception rather than the rule.  My grandfather, born in 1886, was a little sickly as a baby.  Family lore says that they didn’t name him till he was three because they weren’t sure he was going to live - well, I know they named him, but in his baby journal his mother always referred to him as baby, till he was a little older.

I had my first big loss when I was 22.  My father died of cancer at age 61.  He was not a member of the church.  I had been married not quite a year, and had a new baby when we drove from Idaho to Ohio to be with my dad.  I had no concept of death and prayed daily he would recover.  It wasn’t long before I realized he was only getting worse day by day.  So I changed my prayer.  I prayed I could go with him into the spirit world to see the look on his face when he realized there was life after death.  I didn’t need to see what he saw, just the look on his face.  I knew it was a silly prayer.

Father answers silly prayers too.  The morning my dad died, the last thing he did before breathing his final breath was open his eyes after three days in a coma.  Mom came wailing my name through the house and I passed her in the hall as I ran to my father’s bedside.  He was gone.  But I saw the look on his face.  I did not go into the spirit world with him, but the spirit world came to him before he died and he saw it or someone and opened his physical eyes to see it.  Then, a couple months later, he visited me in a dream.  I knew it was his spirit because the look on his face was amazing.  There was a peace on his countenance that I had never seen while he was alive.  He told me everything was all right.  I had never thought of my father as troubled.  He was a cheerful man.  But the contrast between his familiar physical appearance and his spirit was striking.  I realized that Daddy had dropped all his burdens.

I thought then, and have recalled a number of times over the years, that if Daddy could drop his burdens, perhaps there was hope for me.  Then came the thought, if I am going to drop them someday, why not now?  That was my goal at age 22.  Now I am 50.  I’ve failed miserably at my goal.  Now I realize I am very possessive of my burdens.  I cling to them protectively.

It doesn’t seem to matter if they are great or small.  I know it is pretty universal to hang on to our burdens.  Our fears, our disappointments, our resentments, our failures, our regrets, our offenses, our injuries, our guilt,our humiliations - yep - we do a pretty darn good job of strapping those puppies on and carrying them with us for years, decades and half centuries on end, often wholly unaware, we are so used to them, that they are there and removable.

I admit, after Dad died, I became very interested in studies about the spirit world and near death experiences.  Before that, it wasn’t something I thought about much.  But the reality of my father’s death made me very anxious to understand what happens.  I have quite a nice library on the topic.  One of my favorite books of all time is “Life Everlasting” by Duane Crowther.  Another one I have gotten more recently is “Glimpses Beyond Death’s Door” by Brent L. Top.  I got them out again, after last weeks trauma (which included other things as well, not mentioned here).  I read a series of statements by people who have died and been revived, of how it felt when they passed through the veil and met the “being of light” or whatever they called it.  Mostly they said words can’t begin to describe how wonderful it is.  The love, acceptance, peace, contentment, sense of belonging, wholeness etc is like the best thing you can imagine times a trillion.  That’s what one woman said.

It occured to me that perhaps what is felt is the reality of the atonement.  The price for all the pain we cause and that we experience is already paid for.  But we don’t comprehend that here.  Perhaps we finally begin to experience it as we come through the veil.

It is all well and good to contemplate these things.  Day to day life demands our focus and very very quickly we lose sight of any semblance of an eternal perspective.  Thank heavens for the Sabbath.  Thank heavens for the Sacrament.  Thank heavens for General Conference.  Thank heavens for the temple.  Thank heavens for the scriptures.  Thank heavens for visiting teachers. And, thank heavens for trials that make us stop and think.

If by their fruits ye shall know them, I say, we have all the proof we need that this is truly Christ’s church.  The blessings that come to me through my membership I cannot begin to count.  And no matter what is wrong in my life or in me, I KNOW I am better because I am a latter-day saint.  I hate to think of who I would be without these blessings.  I also know that generations past are counting on me - have been awaiting decades and centuries for me to finally be introduced to the restored gospel to begin the work of securing their eternal welfare through family history and temple work.

My mom joined the church three months before she died at age 83.  I have one sister who joined the church, but hasn’t been active in 25 years.  So I still feel kinda lonely in my membership.  I may have total confidence - aka FAITH - that there is life beyond the veil - but for the most part, it is only faith - not a LOT of knowledge - a little, a few distinct moments that have been quite profound - when the veil got thin enough for me to see for a flash beyond it - but for the most part, I rely on faith.  And I know, thanks to Roman, who was a half Jew, half Catholic, Polish Israeli American who refused to buy into any kind of faith, that faith is not automatic - for many many people it is not something they can embrace - so I now appreciate my faith as a tremendous gift.

I would have liked to see the look on Roman’s face too . . .

~Debra

We’ve gotten a few requests for the artwork for  the New Testament Scripture Mastery Poster/Stickers/Clipart without the scripture reference included - to use as image clues once students have become familiar with the the verses - for games and quizzes.

NTSMIC

So I created a new add-on product with just the images and added it to our store for instant download.  I called it New Testament Scripture Mastery Image Clues.  It has each image as a full page png file that can be inserted into any document, and then I created a pdf file with a set of full page posters that are ready to print, as well as a pdf set of half-page flashcards.  I made flashcards with just the reference and flashcards with just the image, so you can play matching games.  It sells for only $2.99 (remember, though we have products in the store for under $5.95 - our cart minimum is $5.95, so you will have to bring the total up that far on a purchase - and we have lots of low cost items to choose from).

This product uses the same artwork as our:

• NTSM Posters
• NTSM Stickers
• NTSM Clipart
• NTSM Shrink Charms

Happy Scripture Chasing!

Debra

I have added new September material to the Primary KB:

• September Posters & Bookmarks
• September Newsletter Template
• September Primary Scripture Search
• September Sharing Times
• Lesson Supplements for Primary 4 manual

see them at http://latter-dayvillage.com/primary/category.php?id=185

I noticed on the church website that they have the new Nursery Class Manual - “Behold Your Little Ones” online - most of it anyway, as html or pdf, along with a short little training video. You can find it at:

http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,8184-1-4470-1,00.html

I have gone through the lessons and they are wonderful!

We will have our first practice for the CSMP on Sunday. This is way early, not even the fourth quarter, but, on the other hand, we will be done and able to move on to some other things - like a nativity pageant I’d like to do for our ward Christmas party!

I will be starting to create 2009 helps soon!

Enjoying the cooler weather in Saratoga Springs,
Debra Woods Hamilton

It’s late, but at last I have added the new August LDS collection to The CLUB!

http://latter-dayvillage.com/pages/VDDClub.htm

Every Needful Thing, by yours truly, is a preparedness - themed digital art collection I have had in mind for a long time. I hope you enjoy it - especially for Enrichment Night projects for preserving and storing food. There are some cute recipe cards and canning labels, and fun scrapbook Quick Pages so you can scrap harvest/canning memories or recipes.

The font is one I call DWHMaple. The capital letters have a maple leaf on them, the numbers have a maple seedpod, and the lower case letters have a fun divided up effect.

The extra projects this time round are two new delightful Quick Pages designed from elements of Serene Heiner’s 2007 Acorn Fun Collection.

I hope you have been enjoying the Quick Pages - just layer your own photos behind the page so they show through the transparent openings, and then add your own text on top of the page - in a few moments you will have a  beautiful finished digital page you can send to family and friends, post on your blog or print out!

CLUB SAMPLER free clip of the month is a ready-to-print pdf page of the Russett Canning Labels from the Every Needful Thing Collection - so be sure to go and save it now, before you forget - http://latter-dayvillage.com/pages/ClubSampler/index.html

Elise Black is still working on the illustrations for her LDS ABC Book, I will let you know when it is available!

DESIGN A FONT - honestly, I KNOW some of you have super fun hand lettering techniques, so why not share them with us and have your own font! Just write out all your letters, numbers and punctuation in black ink on white paper, and scan it at about 300 dpi - and send it to me! If I think it would be of interest to our Club members I will turn it into a font and send it to you at no charge. Then you can type it into all your projects, and be credited as the designer on the site!

We’ve had glorious weather here in Utah County of late, and I am so enjoying walking or swimming each day - have to admit, it is quieter now the kids are in school!

Have a great day,
Debra Woods Hamilton
debra@latter-dayvillage.com

Long-time seminary teachers who attended the annual CES symposium at BYU each year are probably familiar with The Scripture Connection series, written by Dennis A. Wright, Associate Dean of Religious Instruction at BYU. His comprehensive teaching resource, The Scripture Connection, was an annual symposium best-seller at the BYU Bookstore. We are proud to announce that Latter-dayVillage.com is now the exclusive source for this wonderful teacher’s aide.

A limited number of printed copies of the New Testament version are now available for sale in our online store. We also have a much smaller of printed DC copies now available. When all printed copies are sold, we will release downloadable PDF versions of each book. Buy now to get your Scripture Connection books as we anticipate a quick sellout!

The Plan of Salvation is a fundamental doctrine that answers life’s most basic questions - it is taught at all levels of gospel instruction - by the missionaries, primary teachers, in Sunday School, Seminary and in our homes.  I have been wanting to have a felt Plan of Salvation product for a long time because of the durability of felt - for this set, I knew, would be used over and over again by anyone who had it.  I have invited several artists to take this on.  I designed a set myself that I wasn’t satisfied with.  Now, thanks to LDS illustrator, Scott Jarrard, we finally have a beautiful felt product - the Plan of Happiness Felt Storyboard.  The set comes with a beautiful galactic star field background upon which 20 colorful cut out figures can be laid out.  The set includes figures for both a girl and a boy in three phases of existence -

• Pre-mortal life
• Mortality
• Resurrected

This set includes a digital download so you can print out the story, a girls journal, a boys journal and wallet cards with the plan image on one side and scripture references on the other.

The process used for printing on felt is dye sublimation.  The dye is printed on special paper and then laid face down on the felt where it is pressure heated to the point where the dye evaporates and infuses itself into the felt.  It is not ink laying on top of felt, it has become a part of the felt, and the colors are brilliant, washable and colorfast and will last generations.

There are two options with the background - it can come unmounted, or for $5 more, it can come pre-mounted on stiff corrugated plastic.

Make this foundational doctrine clear and simple to understand and remember with this beautiful felt set!

~Debra

LDV now has beautiful fine art prints on canvas by LDS artist David Lemmon in our Zazzle Store!  David painted the originals on canvas, and so far we have only been able to offer them as digital collections, but now we have the ability to create gorgeous prints of his beautiful biblical characters -

• Father Abraham
• Enoch, City of Zion
• Rebekah, Mother of Nations
• Elijah and the Chariot of Fire

I added each product at a certain size and material, but you can change the size and the material and add a frame through the Zazzle customize feature.  Now you can have one of David’s beautiful fine art oil painting canvas print in your home for the fraction of the cost of buying an original.

Zazzle allows us to add many original designs that can be printed on a variety of products such as:

• Shirts
• Hats
• bags
• ties
• aprons
• mugs
• pins
• magnets
• posters
• canvas prints
• and more

And with Zazzle, you can customize the products with options of size, color, material and also add your own text and images!

I shopped around the internet for a service that would print one of a kind, or print on demand products, so that we could offer many more designs than if we had to do a long (large) run of one design.  In the printing world, it has always been true that the more you print of a single design, the less each one will cost.  Because of the set-up fees for offset or silk screen printing, doing single prints is very expensive, and therefore it isn’t feasible.  But with the new printing technologies available, doing single prints or short runs of a single design is absolutely possible.  Still, if you check around, it can be pricey.  Zazzle is much more affordable and so we are excited to be able to put our designs on many products!  They only print it up when an order goes through, so there is no initial investment and inventory problem, issues that have kept LDV from doing all the things we’d like to do.

Zazzle uses many different techniques to print, depending on the product, and they can do this because they use the same base materials - shirts - mugs - bags - which they buy in large quantities that bring their prices down.

~Debra