I facilitated a women's Bible study at my church this fall. Every Tuesday morning I would meet up with a wonderful group of ladies to study God's word under the leadership of author and speaker Beth Moore. One of my love languages is gift giving and I loved creating little things for the women in my Bible Study. On our first day I passed out little note cards with mini "embellished" binder clips The notecards were to encourage scripture memorization. The next week I brought a little square of chocolate (Russell Stover & Ghirardelli) made by folding a two-sided 6x6 square of paper. Chocolate is a great way to start your day! In order to keep your place in your book, I made bookmarks from ribbons & charms. Believe it or not, most of the supplies for these crafts I found in my basement. I know, you want to come to my basement and go shopping! These are really simple to make. Cut your ribbon double the length of your book. Thread the charm so it reaches the middle of your ribbon. Tie a knot and then tie another knot at the top. It was easy to put together a sweet treat of candy corn, peanuts and M&M's in a little candy baggie tied with a festive fall ribbon. Just a little reminder of how Sweet He is to us! In order to have your memory first posted to the front of your fridge, I made magnetic memo clips from clothes pins. Tutorial here. For this next gift I tied twine around a candle and hot glued two acorns to paper hand made acorns along with the verse of the week. For instructions on the hand made acorns, go here. The dollar store has become my new favorite place when buying "multiples" I always wanted to try Truffles... so while watching the TODAY show Katie Brown was on demonstrating how easy it was to make truffles. So I did! Go here for her recipe. Finally, on our last day of class we had a Christmas brunch... so I crafted up my last gift of the year, Christmas Shopping List's. In a variety of festive papers and ribbons. I love the idea of keeping this in my purse to jot down ideas that I have for people, grocery lists and things to get at Hobby Lobby! I have different little embellishments on each of the covers. I'll have to get the cutting dimensions for you (basically just make a folder). But the main thing you'll need is to get small legal pads cut in half (they can do this for you at your office supply store -I got mine at Office Depot). I use a little bit of scrap paper for the top of the legal pad and then glue dots to keep the whole thing in place. Tie it all up with a ribbon, again using glue dots. How cute is that? They'd be great for keeping tallies during card games or little gifts for teachers anytime of the year. I hope the ladies in my Bible study don't have high expectations... there are some 20+ women in my class this year!

I had the opportunity to be the assistant Stake Camp Director this year, this was probably my most favorite camp I’ve been to, out of the 14 times I’ve gone! The director and I really wanted new things that the girls hadn’t seen before, so we worked really hard to come up with great classes and experiences for these girls, and we would like to share it for anyone that may be looking. Camp Theme Women Warriors We had 3 sub themes that we focused on each day Women of Faith, Women of Strength, Women of God Purpose of camp was to help the girls see that they could do anything the Lord asked them to do, and they can do hard things. We created a slide show with images of “Women Warriors” to introduce the theme. We talked about qualities of a warrior, then talked about REAL women Warriors in history, they did exist. They were rare, but powerful, usually impacting their tribe, or country for generations to follow. We based our decorating off of a Native American feel, kinda boho, which was trendy this year so it’s easy to find lots of things to go along with the theme. Tuesday: Women of Faith day, Warrior initiation day! The stake leaders and YCLs camp up Monday to get camp ready, and then we took them to the lake just to have fun for a couple hours. We had a jet ski, pontoon boat, lily pad and a ski boat. It was an awesome afternoon where we had a chance to bond with the girls a little that we didn’t know very well. Tuesday morning the wards arrived, we gave everyone time to find their cabins and then we had morning devotional and camp orientation. Then we started our activities. Women’s Self Defense class: This was totally awesome!! A sister in the stake teaches women’s self defense and she relates it to the gospel, being able to listen to the spirit is a huge part of her class, and she tweaked it perfectly to fit in with our Women of Faith day! Warrior endurance: (Short hike) We renamed everything for one to sound more exciting, for two, to keep a little mystery in the week, and for 3 so they didn’t see something like a hike or service project and have time to complain, it was just; here is this thing! I think it helped girls to just be in the moment. After lunch we had crafts and our spiritual/sit down class. Crafts: Only 2 crafts this year, dream catcher key chains, (SO cute!) and walking sticks (sticks harvested from my parents forest) First class was about having self confidence, and changing negative thoughts in your head to positive thoughts. Second class was about finding your “inner peace” like Po from Kung fu panda, we talked about meditation and did a guided meditation at the end. A couple hours of free time, and dinner, and then we had our evening devotional. YCL skit The YCLs had a skit for every night at camp that they had been working on, all continued from the night before and correlated with the daily theme. They were AWESOME!! It was like watching a mini episode every day! Then we did bag skits with each level. 4 leaders brought a bag of props and random items. Each level got to do one skit during camp. They got their bag of props and had 30 mins to come up with a short skit to preform that night at devotional. It was totally optional. It was just to give each of the girls an opportunity to get up in front of everyone if they wanted to. The girls had fun with it! Awards We gave out 2 awards each night. The clean cabin award, each day at a random time 2 of our leaders would look at all the cabins, the cleanest cabin got a cooler full of drinks for the night. This was a HUGE hit for the younger girls! It really made clean up a breeze on the last day! Girl on Fire award. This was EVERYONE'S FAVORITE!! Every day each girl and each leader got to submit one girl for girl on Fire. This was for anyone who you had seen go above and beyond, or stand out in any way. Every day after dinner, before devotional our two 18 year old leaders (who were the back bone to camp this year!! They weren’t YCLs, but they weren’t cabin moms, they were like the stake assistants. They were the runners. And they went from sun up, to way past sun down!! Seriously THE best!) they would read all the submission and pick 3 for the night. Any one that was really special they saved for the ultimate girl on fire on the last day. They played “this girl is on fire” and during the first verse they would read the girls who won, and what they had done, and the girls would come up to the stage, and then as we got to the chorus “THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE!” everyone erupted and sang and danced! And the energy was crazy exciting! Celebrating these awesome girls up on stage! This year we gave them each a water bottle filled with red and yellow wrapped candies, and a super cute dream catcher bracelet. Totally epic award!! So fun! After the crazy and the fun we had our spiritual thought given by one of the stake leaders each night, also correlating with the theme and events of the day, and then we would sing our theme song. I will have a separate post about that. This was one of my favorite thing about camp this year! Faith Walk After devotional we had our faith walk led by the YCLs. They each took a value and were stationed around the camp. The younger girls walked from station to station and got a mini devotional about the value and a woman Warrior from the scriptures that helped teach us about the value. This was quiet and reverent. They had jar lanterns for each group to carry with them. It was truly awesome to hear these Laurels bear testimony and fill us with the spirit station after station. They totally blew me away! We ended back in the chapel (our big in-door multi purpose room that was our main gathering place) where one YCL wrapped it all up. Glow in the dark games Each evening we had glow in the dark games for the girls and each morning we had early swim. These girls just kept going and going!! The activities after dinner and before breakfast were optional, but the girls LOVED them! We were very fortunate to have leaders that were available for kick ball, volleyball, swimming, and impromptu karaoke! I, on the other hand, was wiped out and had to opt out of the late and early festivities. So I was grateful for the leaders that were able to play with the girls! Wednesday: Women of Strength Warrior training day! We met at the fire pit for morning devotional before breakfast, for a quick spiritual thought, and blessing on the food. This is also when the camp director and I would get up and talk about the activities for the day. At breakfast we had face paint crayons and several simple options for the YCLs to choose from. They picked a design for their group, and during breakfast the YCLs put “war paint” on each of the girls. They all loved that! Our 4th years ended up with long mustaches. They are hilarious! Then we began our warrior training! Everyone rotated through archery, knot tying (classic old school girls camp certification), spear throwing, learning how to build a fire, and ultimate archery tag. We instructed the teachers of each rotation to tell the girls the things they do today will effect them tomorrow! That intrigued most of the girls. The fact that it was a race got leaked, but it was not what they expected! Spears The Spears were one of my favorites! It was the spear from the spartan race, you can get info on how to build and throw it on Pinterest. It was important that each girl learned how to throw the spear because during the race they were going to be expected to do it before their team could leave that station. To make a target the spear had to stick into the hay bale and the handle not touch the ground. 1 cm off the ground counted! Just so long at it did not rest of the ground. The more athletic girls got it right away and LOVED it! But the …less athletic girls ended up standing in the back ground. After about 20 Mins I asked who had not made a target. Hands slowly went up as eyes went down. They didn’t think they could do it. So we brought them all to the front and coached them individually. One girl would not follow through. So I told her when she throws it to stay there like a statue until the spear hit the target. She tried it the next throw and made her first target!! There was jumping and screaming and much high fiving!! That was EXACTLY what we wanted those girls to experience!! EVERY girls that stuck with it and tried and persisted was able to make a successful target! There was one girl, that I know of, that was unable to make the target. She threw it once and said “I can’t do it” and never tried again. Definitely a lesson to be learned in that! Archery Tag The archery tag was SO fun!! We also had a slack line put up next to it for the girls that were waiting to play. (That was for the race also but they didn’t know that) If you are interested in archery tag, you can buy the equipment your self off of amazon for about what we paid a professional to come in for 3 hours, FYI. After lunch we had our craft/spiritual class rotation. We had someone come in who I believe is a youth counselor, she specializes in working with kids that deal with anxiety and depression. Her class was AMAZING!! It was full of hands on demonstrations of what the brain can do! The girls really listened too! I could hear the things she taught come up in conversations through out the rest of camp! She just dropped into our lap at the prefect time! Someone needed that class, I have no doubt! Then free time, dinner, devotional, and evening festivities! Just like that day before. Fire competition: This is where the “training” started coming into play. One of our priesthood men took over the fire instruction class for us. That was not planned, it was spur of the moment, but he couldn’t have been more perfect! He is a physics teacher at a local school! He was amazing! We split the girls into their race teams for the next day, and gave them each a bag of kindling. They built their fires, and then we strung a piece a string above their fires with two wooden skewers. The object was to burn their string till it broke. This was the determining factor in the order they got to start the race the next day. Thursday: Women of God Warrior Adventure day! After breakfast we had the race! It was patterned after “The Amazing Race” but we did it to the theme of Lehi’s Dream. I will do a separate post on this as there was a LOT of moving parts, it was the most difficult thing at camp to plan and coordinate. It was “all hands on deck” that day! Everything that they had been doing and learning throughout the week came into play during the race! It was really cool to see everything come full circle and to see the girls put into action things they learned from their classes and activities! There was a slight mix up though. Each team was numbered. They had a series of 16 stations that they had to move through. At each station there was a challenge. Once they successfully completed the challenge, they got their next “Route info” ticket. Each of these tickets was numbered with their team number. The mix up happened when the teams went out the door for their first stop, some of them got the number of the order they were going out, the number of their placement from the fire competition, instead of their team number. Then at the stations they were given their team number and everything started to crumble! We had planned for 2 ½ to 3 hours for this activity, and 40 Mins into we had to stop the race and regroup. We ended up doing our 'after lunch' classes right then and moved the race to after lunch. During the classes we collected all the tickets and put them back into order and back in the correct envelopes for each station. My heart stopped a little when the race was falling apart, cause countless hours went into to making it work! And the girls WANTED to do it! But the other leaders rallied together and we got everything back in place! We started again after lunch and everything went prefect that time!! After the race was free time, and then BISHOPS NIGHT!! BISHOP’S NIGHT: I didn’t realize that this was more of a local tradition, but it has ALWAYS been the highlight of our girls camp!! Bishops are invited to join us for dinner and festivities of the evening. They are usually asked to participate in something in front of the girls. This year we made it a competition! We are hoping to start a new tradition. We made a small trophy for the winning bishop to keep on his desk in the bishops office. We bought a 4 inch “Captain Moroni” figurine cast in pewter. And fixed him on a small wood plaque with a little metal engraving “Girls Camp first place bishops night” with instructions on the bottom to bring it back next year to girls camp, to see if he can keep his title of 'first place' and reclaim the trophy! Since the girls learned SO much this week we wanted to give the bishops a shot. Points were awarded for each thing. First was a watermelon speed eating contest. The girls had to do this in their race. 1st 2nd and 3rd place were awarded points. Then it was the spear throw, not as easy as the little girls made it look! And then archery. Then we went inside for evening devotional and we did the awards ceremony with the added awards for the race. We made “medals” out of ribbon and candy. 3rd place got individual size candy, 2nd place got candy bar size, and 3rd place for movie candy size. We called them up and placed their medals around their necks. We presented the winning bishop with the trophy. I loved it because the bishop that won had JUST been called only a week or two in advance! It was a great way to establish that relationship with the girls! I was the speaker for the evening followed by our awesome stake president. I used the explanation of the t shirt design and the birth of our camp theme song as the basis for my devotional. Because it is exactly the point we wanted to get across to the girls this week. I will go into detail of the song in another post. To explain the T-shirt’s is just started talking about how we use symbols in the gospel. And how the Native Americans used symbols. I showed them a pic of a feather, which symbolizes trust, and strength. Then the symbol of the great spirit, or God. The symbol for brotherhood (or in our case sisterhood) and then we put our t shirt design up on the screen. Which is a combination of all of those symbols to create one simple design with not many words, but if you understand the symbols, it says Women Warriors Women of Faith (trust), Women of Strength, Women of God, and girls camp. When I threw the t shirt image on the screen the all erupted!! Mind blown! It was great! Testimonies After devotional we separated for ward testimonies with their bishops. Some had fire pits, some had tiki torches, cause we LOVE testimonies around the fire, but we did not have enough fire pits at the camp ground, so we improvised. And it worked pretty well! Then we had our Epic Dance party back in the chapel till midnight! So! Fun! And so exhausting! Lol and then some of our AMAZING stake leaders took the girls for a midnight swim!! Epic day! Last day was pretty low key. After breakfast we met for our closing meeting. We awarded the ultimate girl on fire awards, who got the water bottles AND blankets that we had made during the race. And then we watched a slide show video of the week! One of our 18 year olds collected pics from leaders and girls all week and made a totally awesome slide show!! We sang our theme song all together one more time, had a prayer and finished cleanup and check out. All in all it was a pretty amazing week!! We put a lot into it, and we would love to share to with anyone looking for ideas for camp.

Women's groups and even groups of friends will enjoy this women's group activity idea to bring everyone closer and have fun too.

Get ready for Catholic Mom's Summer Book Club, featuring a handbook to help you connect with other women who share your faith, interests, and concerns!

An elderly woman in Brooklyn was struck by a stray bullet outside her apartment on Tuesday evening. Lucille Barnes, 76, was hit while standing outside her

Such an hysterically funny and fun women's retreat balloon icebreaker for all ages! Don't let satan burst your bubble...God's Word will save you.

46 youth group icebreakers perfect to get teens talking! These are fun and easy to do games that require little or no prep. Perfect for large or small youth groups.

We’ve all been there. The dreaded moment when you somehow are supposed to magically conjure up months of weekly activities that will uplift, inspire, engage, and dazzle a group teen girls with diverse backgrounds and interests for Young Women’s. Let’s start with the goodness. We’ve polled thousands of former young women and young women leaders and compiled the most extensive modern list of ideas for Young Women’s activities available. Before we dive in, we do need to have a little heart to heart. In the past, it wasn't uncommon for a majority of activities to center on motherhood and being a wife. While these are important things they may not always be age appropriate or even universally applicable to all young women. It is important to remember that young women are children. Encouraging children to focus on marriage, weddings, and childbearing puts unhealthy pressure on girls, can be limiting, exclusionary, and can give off weird child-bride vibes. There is not a girl in the church who doesn’t understand the important role marriage and children play in the Church and the Gospel. We would argue that there are far more girls who lack understanding of how to value themselves as individuals without the relationships of wife and mother. The truth is, more and more of our young women will grow up and not marry right out of the gate. Not only is that ok, it’s actually really healthy. Many will not be able to or choose not to have children. A good portion of them will experience divorce. What we don’t want is for these young women to be scrambling to understand their worth as individuals because we only prepared them for how to live the gospel within one specific life experience context. What’s the solution? Focus more on principles and less on specific applications. Our young women are very smart. If we focus on helping them learn the principles of the gospel, they will be able to figure out how to apply it to their own lives, progress, and growth. No matter what their lives may look like. Our goal here is to help prepare young women for whatever their Heavenly Parent’s unique plan has in store for them. This list is packed full of activity ideas that will stretch, educated, prepare, inspire, engage, and strengthen young women. Not to mention, have some fun. Above all, remember that young women are still kids. Having fun is not only incredibly healthy, but crucial to their development. Life Skills: Stock market 101: The key here is to help girls understand why this is important for their future. Understanding investing basics are key to being a financially independent adult. Credit and credit scores 101: Teach the importance of having and managing a credit card. It’s common for LDS youth to fear any type of debit or credit card. Help them understand how to use and pay off a credit card each month so they can make important future purchases like cars and homes. Learn about 401Ks and savings Understanding or communicating boundaries: Have a trusted local therapist teach the girls the importance of respecting their own boundaries. Cars 101: How to change a tire, check the oil, and change a cabin air filter. Help them understand what each of these things should typically cost and how often they should do them. How to create and follow a basic budget to reach financial goals. Get first aid and get CPR certified. Don’t forget to review baby and pet CPR. Learn how to start a fire, set up a tent, and make a simple camping meal. Camping is such a fun hobby for many young adults, but the first adventure can be intimidating. Practicing in a safe environment helps make future adventures so much easier. Easy recipes and cooking basics. Remember the goal here is useful life training. Not how to be a future mommy or wife. All young women will need to know how to healthy feed themselves. Not all young women will be wives and/or moms. Learn about self defense and safety tips. A routine review of basic self defense and personal safety precautions can be a matter of life and death. Learn about preparedness and 72 hour kits Great Outdoors: Scavenger hunt around the neighborhood Go swimming Go camping and learn to set up a tent Rock climbing / Rappelling Go on a bike ride Gardening. How to create and grow a small herb garden. Then maybe learn how to use those herbs to make fun drinks or treats. Nature walk Go paddle boarding Picnic at a park Have a backyard BBQ + s'mores White water rafting or tubing Snow tubing Ice skating FUN: Karaoke night Sodalicious + game night Go bowling Pizza night Lazer tag Outdoor movie night Talent show Board game night Go to a local play Go roller skating Creative: Arrange a floral bouquet & deliver it to an elderly women in the neighborhood Book club Cupcake wars Drawing / paint class Wood working intro Poetry writing class Photography class Make an art collage Tie dye shirts Paint a mural Shrinky Dinks Decorate canvas totes Sports: Volleyball Yoga Pickleball Batting cages Kickball Nerf war Zumba Golf Spin class Service: Make fleece blankets for local refugees Go to the local food bank Yard work Serve food at a local shelter Write letters to people in the ward Service scavenger hunt Visit a retirement home Decorate cookies and give them to families in the ward Educational: Tour a local college Tour a local business. Learn what it is like to work there. What do they look for in employees? How did they get started? What is it like to run a business? Visit a local art museum Bring your HW and get some help! Heathy study habits Career night (learn from women who have careers in what the girls are interested in) How to write a resume Stargazing and learning about astronomy Learn the basics of coding Language and culture night Go to the capital during legislation Learn about entrepreneurship College scholarships Personal care + Relationships: Attending the YW’s extracurricular activities Learn about how to have healthy relationships with friends and family Spa night Learn about personal hygiene How to meditate Learn ways to manage anxiety Learning about body neutrality Dating safety and consent Learn about setting goals Spa night / self care / self love Personality quiz night Spiritual: Paint flowers at the temple grounds Learn about the temple endowment Charades with Book of Mormon stories Finding ancestor names to take to the temple Temple tour and picnic Have poetry night and talk about Heavenly Mother. You can find great resources here.

Great games to play at your next youth activity!

Looking for Latter-day Saint mutual activities for youth? You have come to the right spot! Here are TONS of ideas for fun activities - both for individual

Are you planning a fall event for women’s ministry? Start with this one! Your women will love it and want to do it again next year!

Looking for the absolute small group bible study discussion questions? One of the greatest skills that you need to run a good Bible study is the instinct to craft good questions. Here's the very best one . . .

I have lots of fun Young Woman Activity Ideas and cute printable handouts so you can make the most of your calling in the church.

I am greatly honored that this beautiful lady is sharing her story on my blog, she is truly an overcomer! I have the honor of not only calling her my friend but my workout buddy, as well! Her courage inspires me and I pray it will inspire you too. ~Mandi~Growing up, and then as a […]

"Let go and let God." It's a wonderful thought and a scripturally sound concept. However, it's easier said than done sometimes. We tend to want to hold on to

Looking for some fun and unique activities for ladies' groups? Doing activities can be a great way to make new friendships.

God's Description of a Titus Two Woman. When we desire to become a Titus two woman we must look at how God describes her.

Learn how to start a Women’s Ministry in your Christian church, including outreach events, building relationships, Bible Studies and more.

It is Tuesday evening, your small group has gathered, you have had some supper, opened up about what is happening in your lives, read and discussed God’s word and now it is 9:25 you have 5 minutes left to pray together before your 9:30pm finish time……. what do you do? “David would you close in […]

Choosing a talented, dedicated, enthusiastic group of actors and technicians will make the directing process much less stressful and much more rewarding. In order to cast a show, you will need to hold auditions

Please enjoy these resources that were used in opening worship at the NALC’s 2014 Mission Festival (Abida Hearts on Fire) & 2015 Mission Festival (Mission Possible). For other cre…