Why does time seem to fly by so quickly?  I look at my life and am constantly surprised by how time keeps speeding up.  Life gets hectic and busy and I get distracted from what really matters.  I get bogged down in the minutia of my career and my life....did I do everything on my check list?  Did I achieve everything I expected of myself?  Am I meeting my high standards?  Is there any time for anything in my personal life?

Just before the new year, my cousin who is the same age as I am, married.  While she is not a member of our particular denomination, she is a Christian with a strong faith.  As an incredible Single Mother, she and her daughter prayed for 22 years for a special Christian man to come into their life.  She had a vision.  She never wavered from it.  She set her standards high.  She married in an absolutely beautiful service filled with family and friends and I believe it was the most relaxing and elegant (at the same time) wedding I've ever been at.

Last night, in the middle of dashing around the local grocery store getting items for my Young Women's activity evening, I ran into her new husband and we took a selfie to send to her.  Immediately she said "come for dinner".  What matters?  Going home and doing a bunch of work for my job or spending time with my family?  I went for dinner and we had a wonderful time.

My lesson that I take away from this is that we must continue to keep our eye on what we most want to achieve.  We must not waver.  We must prioritize our time and make time for the people who matter the most.  Our Heavenly Father is very aware of our needs, even on those days when we feel down and unimportant to him, even on those days when we question whether he is actually aware of us (after all there are over 7 billion of us running around on this little planet) those are the times when we must remind ourselves that it is time to go to God in prayer and then keep our eye firmly focussed on what matters most.

Happy 2020.  May you have a most blessed year.  May your wishes and dreams come true.  May you set goals for yourself and do your best to meet them.  May you grow in faith and have a richer understanding of the Gospel.

I leave you with my best wishes for a prosperous year. 
Until next blog!
​K

The Regional Calendar is slowly coming together.  It's been a bit of a rough start in 2018.  But things seem to be settling down and we are seeing some exciting events happening in our Region. 

We hope that you can attend the Ottawa conference during the May long weekend.

We also hope that you can attend the Brampton conference  on June 8-9.

There's a lot of talk about the Nauvoo, Illinois conference.  For some of us in our region, it's just too far to go.  So the Oshawa Stake SA reps are going to be holding a conference that same day for those who wish to go to a conference but can't travel to Illinois.  Details will follow.

Take care,
​happy Spring!

DDon't you just hate it when "real" life interferes with all the fun things you'd rather do?  Life for your Regional Reps has been crazy these past few months since our Regional Conference.  We've got kids (well my co-chair does) and dogs (I do) and jobs (she's got more than one, I have one) and families and obligations that seemed to take priority over everything else.  Add our callings at our own Branch and we just ran out of both energy and time to work on this web site.  For that we are sorry!  But we think we have things under control and we are slowly starting to put together a Regional Calendar of events.  

Our first event is a Valentine's Dance which will be a lot of fun.  We've booked DJ Michael Deeks to play our music and we're holding it at the Don Valley chapel just off Bayview Avenue....should be a great night!  

We are asking that people bring potluck snacks....the last time we held a Regional Dance we had less than 10 people RSVP that they would be attending (we needed to know for ordering food).  Well, two of those were us, three were the band and we knew there had to be more than 5 others planning to attend.  We took a chance and ordered enough food for 50 people.  We were close - there were more than 50 at it but somehow the food stretched far enough and there was plenty for everyone.  This time we have decided that we don't want to put out a late night supper, and we don't want to have to bug you to RSVP and we' don't want to bug our Stake Reps to chase people in their stakes for numbers so this way those who come will bring snacks and that way we will have enough for everyone!

We hope to see you at the dance!
​

We are coming up to our first Conference Registration deadline!

If you register before June 1, you will receive your conference entrance, your meals and a special gift.  
If you register after June 1 but before July 22, you will receive your conference entrance and your meals.
If you register after July 22, you will receive your conference entrance.

We really hope that you take us seriously about this registration process.   We don't want people coming to the conference and having to brown bag it!  But that is a possibility for those who don't register on time.

We are super excited about the conference, but conferences like this one are expensive.  We are working on a very tight budget and need to have numbers in for our caterer.

At the New Year's Eve Dance, we only had 9 people RSVP.  That number included both regional Reps and the three members of the band.  A little bit of prayer convinced us to buy food for 50 people.  It was a loaves and fishes late night snack and we had enough food for everyone.  That was luck.  We can't do that for a conference.  We have multiple meals to supply and we need to know exactly how many people to provide for!  

The conference fee of $35, when compared to the fees for other conferences of a similar stature, is very affordable.  We encourage all Singles, who might be experiencing financial difficulties finding these funds, to speak with their Bishop about receiving some assistance in paying for the conference.  

We hope you register.  We can't wait to spend the weekend with you and enjoying a spiritually uplifting time together.

It's been a long time since I last posted and so I decided to write a simple blog post.  Spring is in the air.  The leaves are opening, birds are singing, flowers and blooming and winter is just a memory.  It's one of the nicest times of the year.  It's time to think about all the promises that warm weather brings.  Promises like longer days, and more outdoor time, and barbecues and laughter on the back deck.  Promises like family and friends getting together to share a meal, or an outing.  It's a time when we begin to plan our summer activities.  This coming summer we hope that you attend the Mid-Singles conference in Toronto if you are ages 31-45 and the Regional Conference if you are a single over the age of 31.  Both are going to be exciting, fun events!  

We have put a lot of work into planning the Regional Conference and we are very excited about our guest speakers.  This is a rare and unique opportunity for Ontario's Single Adults to come together and be spiritually uplifted by listening to such inspiring speakers.  We hope that you block August 11-13 on your calendar and make sure that you join us at the Toronto Stake Centre for this amazing weekend.
​

I hope you were as inspired as I was to hear from our leaders!  I love the traditions that surround General Conference.  I spend my Sunday with my friend and her boys and we binge watch General Conference.  We also eat all day long.  This year we started with fruit, then blueberry pancakes, chips and dip and then supper.  We call it being physically fed and spiritually nourished.

I would like to share some inspirational quotes from this past General Conference.

General Conference is just around the corner!  Soon we will hear from our leaders.  We will receive inspired council from some of the most spiritual people on our planet.  What words of wisdom will we hear?

I have a wonderful SA friend who says that when she notices a theme running through General Conference it is like that theme is directly speaking to her.  Sometimes when we talk about what we've heard, the two of us have focussed on completely different messages.  I find that fascinating.  We are listening to the same inspired speakers and we both take away different messages.

I guess that is how the Lord directly speaks to us.  We have different needs, we are at different places on our spiritual journey and we perceive problems and issues quite differently.  It just stands to reason that we take away different ideas from a talk.

I don't know about you, but General Conference is a very special weekend.  I spend time preparing spiritually.  I contemplate the problems and issues I'm facing, and I pray that answers and a way forward will perhaps be made clearer after listening to General Conference.  And I also keep myself open to any message that the Lord would have me hear.

What an amazing time we live in.  We have a prophet of the Lord living today.  For thousands of years this was denied to humanity.  But today, in this final dispensation, we have the opportunity to listen to a prophet!  We have the chance to listen to Apostles of the Lord speak to us.  We have the chance to listen to our Worldwide leaders.  These are inspired men and women.  I know that they are working on their conference talks as I write this.  I know that they are praying that the words that they will share with all of us will be the words that the Lord would have them speak.  Just think of the modern miracle about to unfold.  A living prophet, living apostles will speak to a worldwide audience.  People around the world, regardless of location or time zone or even language will be able to get together in their meetinghouses, or around a computer or TV or even a radio and listen to the exact same message.  Has there ever been a more amazing and wonderful use of technology?  

This General Conference, I hope that you spend time contemplating what is burdening your own heart, what problems you might be facing in your life and take it to the Lord.  Ask him in all earnest hope that this General Conference the way forward will be made clearer for you.  Listen to General Conference with an open and willing heart.

Blessings!
​Kristy

I sit here at my computer in complete disbelief! 

Where did the summer go?

How did it get to be the end of August already?

For me, this is symbolically the end of the year.  If you haven't twigged to the fact that I'm a high school teacher yet, let me reveal that big surprise.  I'm a high school teacher.  For me, September is the beginning of the year.  January might be when we celebrate the New Year, but for anyone in the Education field, September is the true beginning of the year. 

September is all about new ideas.  It's a time to make new plans.  It's when kids and teens determine that this year they will improve.  They will get good grades.  They won't get into trouble.  They will have a good year at school.  Believe it or not, teachers are pretty much the same.  We hope to have great classes.  We deeply believe that every one of our students is an awesome kid.  We spend much of the summer planning and preparing lessons.

Sometimes I think life is just like this.  I think that we are at a spiritual boarding school.  We left our original home with our Heavenly parents and came to earth where we are learning and growing.  And eventually, just like elementary and high school, we will some day graduate.  What do students do when they graduate?  Most of them return home to their families.  It is a day of celebration.  They achieved their goal.  Some did very well.  Some achieved honours.  Some barely passed.  Some got scholarships, some didn't.  But all graduated and all celebrate that graduation.  I think that our return to our spiritual home will be like that.  

Wow - that's pretty deep isn't it.  

Okay, time to go back to counting how many pencils I have, how many binders, think about my lesson plans, photocopying, lunch duty, assignments....

Happy "New Year" to you!