Melissa's First Trip to the Temple

Melissa turned 12 in April and thus became eligible to enter Young Women and to go to the Temple.  Her first opportunity to do baptisms for the dead came this week when our Young Women's group went for our Tuesday activity.

We went to the Jordan River Temple.  When she was finished, I asked her how she felt.  She said, "When can we do it again?"

We only had two other girls come to do baptisms, but it was the first time for one of those girls too.  It was a special day for all of us.

I'm glad she has a desire to go back to the temple.  What a blessing to be able to go with her for her first time and watch see her doing baptisms in the temple.

Young Women's General Conference

Loved the Young Women's General Conference!  I was able to attend with my daughter and soon to be Beehive, Melissa.

I was surprised to find the chapel not full of young women and their mothers from our Stake.  There were probably a total of maybe 35-40 in attendance.  Most of the girls in my ward had dates or parties to go to instead of the conference.  It's unfortunate that they were not able to hear the uplifting and encouraging talks.  I especially loved to hear from President Monson.  His talk focused on three words - Believe, Obey and Endure.  I thought I'd make a little clip art that also works for the Arise & Shine Forth theme for this year.  I think it turned out pretty good.

May we all have the faith to believe, obey and endure!

Arise and Shine YW Activity

Well, it seems that planning for Young Women activities has taken over my thoughts.  I am always browsing for ideas for activities or handouts.

We just had an activity on the "Arise and Shine Forth" theme for this year.  I showed the video and music video that the Church produced http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=FXrFpgxdly4&list=PLA313CC396ABEBB1C, then I talked to the girls about what a "standard" is - something to look up to, like a flag or banner that stands for something.  I brought examples like the American Flag (our standard of liberty) and a homemade "Title of Liberty" and we discussed Moroni's "Title of Liberty" from the Book of Mormon.  I also had a pennant banner like for a birthday party - something that helps people find their way to a party.

Then I had them make their own "standard" or banner for our "Arise and Shine Forth" theme for the year that they could look to and remember what they should stand for.  I used the symbol from the music video, a couple I found online and one I made.  Then we added glitter and the garland to make them cute.

Then I encouraged them to make additional pennants with ideas of what they could do to "shine forth".

When they were finished, I had them write their testimony on a card and tie it to a balloon which we took outside and let "arise" and "go forth" to the nations.

I think the girls enjoyed the activity, and I think that the ideas got through.  It took an amazing amount of time to create and prepare for one little hour of presentation, but I hope it was worth it.

Youth Night at the Temple

I haven't been to do baptisms at the temple since I was a kid.  So I was looking forward to our Young Men/Young Women combined activity tonight - we went to do baptisms for the dead at the Jordan River Temple.  Jeremy was one of four boys and two girls who came - this was a good turnout for our ward. 

We went early to try to beat the rush.  It started snowing just before we leftEvidently it gets very busy on Tuesday nights, but we got there about 6:30 p.m. and the kids hardly had to wait at all.  It was nice, too, that someone in our ward gave Jeremy some family names to bring for the young men to do.

It was amazing to me when the Bishop was able to perform the baptisms for our youth, and then one of the Young Men's leaders was able to do the confirmations.  Jeremy is about a half a foot taller than the Bishop who struggled just a bit to raise him up from the water.  One time the witnesses signaled that he didn't get completely immersed, I guess his hair stuck out (amazing when his hair is only about an inch long); so they he had to do it again.

After they were all finished, the Bishop offered to get them dessert in the temple cafeteria.  The kids were delighted!  It was a lovely end to a very special night.

New Year New Callings

For the last 10 years I have had the same calling at church - making and handing out the Sunday sacrament meeting programs.  That has not been my only calling, but it has been the longest lasting.  At the same time I also had the callings of information specialist (I suspect that was a made up job that included making the ward directory, flyers for firesides and other activities, the yearly lesson schedules, ward calendar and anything else they could think up - don't get me wrong, I loved it), choir director, ward music chairman and of course visiting teacher all at one time.

I think I loved being choir director the most.  Over five years I progressed fromg leading choir like I would lead sacrament meeting, to really learning how to lead dynamics, pauses, breaks, etc, to actually arranging some music for the choir.  It has been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun and my reward was always our Christmas program.  I know I'm really going to miss it, but now it's someone else's turn.

Over the last month I have been released from all five of my callings and given one new calling.  The Bishopric told me they had to call three different people to replace me and the Ward directory is online.  That made me feel pretty good and well appreciated which was nice.

My new calling is 2nd Councilor in the Young Women's presidency.  I have never been in the Young Women before and am a bit overwhelmed.

I'm not the only one with a new calling, Anthony was recently released from his callings as Employment Specialist and Ward Missionary and was called as the Sunday School President.  He is really enjoying his calling and is working very hard to do all he can.

Jeremy also received a new calling just before the new year as Assistant to the Bishop.  And Melissa will shortly be graduating from Primary and will start going to Young Women's.  I hope she will like having me in there with her.  So far Jeremy has found it "weird" to have his mom at mutual with him - lucky for him it's only once a month during combined activities.

Jessica has also recently had a change - of employment.  She is now a nanny, taking care of two young children and a 6 week old baby.  This is VERY new for her.  She never did much babysitting as a teenager except for a few times for cousins, so this is a brand new experience for her.  I hope it will be a good one.

Well, there's nothing as constant as change!