our "Daughter of God" week...

i've been serving in the young women presidency for about 7 months now.  it is one of the most challenging, but wonderful, callings i've served in.  

as we've struggled to think of ways to help these girls with all the challenges they face, we knew that the most important thing to do was to help them first, gain a true testimony of who they are...Daughters of our Heavenly Father.  

i first came across the idea for "Daughter of God" week here.  I knew this was something that we needed to do.  i immediately brought this idea up during a presidency meeting and they loved it.

"We chose a particular week to help the girls more fully understand that they are God's children. They had a powerful lesson on a Sunday to kick-off the week, and sent each girl home with a large envelope filled with seven smaller envelopes: one for each day of the week. The girls opened one envelope each day and were edified by either a poem, a CD with a beautiful song on it, or a short story to further help them understand that they are daughters of God. The next Sunday, they invited all the parents and girls and leaders to fast for those girls that their understanding of their divine nature would be more apparent in their lives. They had a special meeting at church with the girls and their parents complete with a slide-show from when the girls were babies, and an opportunity for the girls to tell about any experiences they had during the week. Then all girls, leaders, and all their families met together after church to have dinner together.

The theory is that if teenagers realize more fully that they are God's children and that He loves them and wants to help them through life, peer pressure and tribulations will become easier to bear. Making good decisions that will impact their lives and those of others around them for good will come more readily."

The weekend before we began our week all of the Young women leaders attended the temple with this purpose in mind.  i don't know if the girls quite understood all of the thought, prayer and effort that went into this special week, but it was all worth it in the end.

when we first introduced the concept of the envelopes some of the younger girls were super excited and could hardly wait to open their first envelope.  some were impartial and i could tell some of the older girls were worried how they would find the time to do this task with already so many school and family responsibilities.

*each of the leaders chose what to place in their envelope for their assigned day.  they were encouraged to be prayerful in deciding what was best for the girls to know/feel at this time.

day1:

day 2 (vinyl lettering to hang up in their bedrooms):

day 3:

day 4:

day 5:

day 6:

day 7 (the "leader lullaby" is all of the YW leaders singing "Walk Tall Your A Daughter of God"):

we saw the girls that wednesday night at our mutual activity and they could hardly contain their excitement for this activity.  most of them had stories and experiences already form a certain story or poem that they've read in just the first 3 days.  we had a wonderful activity that night about expressing our love for each other and the importance of helping each other as we go through the hardships of life.  we helped "light each other's light" as we said something kind and uplifting about the girl to our left.  (if you look closely, you can even see our awesome bishop sitting in on the circle with the girls)...

when we met together that final sunday with all of the YW and their parents, the spirit in that room was so strong.  we started off with this slideshow (done by ginger upshaw) using this song, then asked the girls to share anything they felt inspired to share about their experiences with opening their envelopes throughout the week.  the leaders had tears in their eyes the entire meeting.  watching each girl stand up and express how she knew that she was a special daughter of God really touched us all.  i was so sad to see the week end.  i hope that the girls will always remember the feelings they felt each day opening up a new envelope and have a desire to always be close to our Heavenly Father.

here our a few pictures from our wonderful family potluck later that day with all the YW and their wonderful families...

thank you so much to the wonderful young women leaders.  that may have thought i was a bit crazy with trying to put this all together in such a short amount of time, but they were all more than willing and happy to sacrifice their time to help make this a wonderful and memorable week for these beautiful girls.

inspired to be more...

i was called to serve in the  young women program this past summer.  it has been just what I've needed.  being around these young women takes me back to the wonderful thoughts and feelings i had about the gospel when i was a teenager.  seeing their eagerness to learn and live the gospel inspires me to be more.  i also feel a greater need to be better so that i may be more prepared to assist these beautiful young ladies on their journey to discovering their worth.

not only to i get to see them on sundays, but i get to spend every wednesday night with them involved in activities and learning opportunities.  here are a few of my favorite activities...

for christmas we made these for each of the girls.  it has the 2012 mutual theme printed on vellum paper, with their picture in the back...

this is not an original idea, I actually made one of these when i was in the y.w. program a few years ago, but i wanted to do these for my young women to start off the new year-- a journal jar.  sometimes its hard to have inspiring things to write every night in your journal, but having a journal jar kind of helps get  the ball rolling.  i found a list of questions of the internet.  questions like, tell about your favorite family vacation, or write down all the found memories you have have your grandparents, or tell about your first date... and so on.  we cut the questions into strips and put them in the jar after we decorated it.  then we decorated fun journals to go along with them...

we have started a "thing" of kidnapping the new girls that come into the mia maid (the 14 and 15 year old) class.  chick fil a & ice skating was a blast..

i dont usually don't teach the class on sundays, but this past week the teacher asked me to teach the lesson.  we talked about learning to follow the example of Jesus Christ.  as i was preparing the lesson, one of my favorite songs from when i was in high school, came to mind, "His Hands".




i have always loved that song.  my favorite line is at the end when it says, "and though I'm not yet as i would be, He has shown me how i could be.  i will make my hands like those from Galilee."
i made the girls bottles of soap with that phrase in it.  i made a similar thing for teacher gifts years ago (with a different saying in it).  you just print on transparency paper, then roll it up and slip it in the bottle.  so easy!