If, when you open your scriptures, you find yourself just reading words on a page and not gaining lightning bolts of revelation, you’re not alone.
I realize that I am not as on top of monthly ideas for young women as I used to be, but thanks to all my loyal followers and their patience as I get back into the swing of things! On the little downtime I have had I have been reading up on the Come Follow Me outlines for this month! I love that we are repeating the outlines from last year, but get the opportunity to study new resources! It has been wonderful for me to be able to go back and review my notes from last year, and continue learning. The overall focus of this month is "The Godhead". I have loved reading up and studying the outlines this month! I have created a couple fun handouts and lesson helps to spark some inspiration! The handouts below directly coordinate to the lesson outline... "WHO AM I, AND WHO CAN I BECOME?" Feel free to print off , share, and use for your lessons! You can download a PDF copy of the handouts and lesson helps by clicking on the links below. I only provide PDF files, as the quality is much better for printing purposes and I prefer the integrity of the designs not be changed or altered. Thanks for your understanding! YOU MATTER HANDOUT For a PDF download of the handout (4 to a page) CLICK HERE I really loved this talk from Sister Elaine S. Dalton. I love how she emphasizes the importance of strengthening our relationship with our Heavenly Father. She also emphasizes how each young women is special... how we matter. Sometimes I believe as women, we get caught up thinking we aren't good enough. We often compare ourselves to others which can cause feeling of inadequacy. What a great talk and reminder of how special we each are and how there is great potential that lies in ALL of us. DEAR SISTERS For a PDF download of the handout (2 to a page) CLICK HERE This is actually a repeat print from the General Conference designs I created back in October. I remember when Elder Christofferson spoke about the moral force of women, I was so touched. It was a great reminder to me of my purpose and the significant role I play in my family and community. What a special message to the women and reminder of our influence in the world! I AM OF WORTH CARDS For a PDF download of the handout (2 to a page) CLICK HERE This handout and idea was sparked from the outline suggestions and an activity I did with the young women in my previous ward (read more here). You could print off these cards with each young women's name on them and pass them around the class. Each young women could take turns writing down divine qualities they see in the young women whose name is on the card. At the end each young women would receive a card with some of their positive qualities written on it. They could keep the card as a constant reminder that they are of worth.
Everything You Need to Help the Youth Plan and Carry out Activities for The Year: Usually, January activities are planning activities!! There are some amazing resources on lds.org!! Here is a link to Strengthening Youth Through Activities. It gives the details about conducting activities, how long activities usually last and why we hold youth activities. Here are some tips, ideas and printables to help the youth plan out their activities for the year: Class Planning Activity: Begin, this activity by dividing the Young Women (or whatever class this activity is for) into groups, so there are 3-4 girls in each group. Give each group the Class Planning Printable. (See free download button below) Invite them to write down what activities they would like to do under the 3 categories. When everyone is done writing down their ideas, gather back together as a class. Go through each category, sharing the ideas that each group wrote down. I usually had the master list and we would narrow down the ideas, to ideas that everyone wanted to do. You can then, later gather your class presidency together and invite them to decide which activities to do in which month. Then each month as you hold your class presidency meetings, you will finalize those plans to carry out the activity. These activities can be planned for either class activities or for Personal Progress. Side note, you could call this activity "Pizza and Planning". We just picked up some inexpensive pizzas, ate and then did out planning. Combined Youth Planning Activity: Here's an idea we did in our ward. Our bishopric is usually over this activity. They introduce the new theme for the year and then we split up into classes/quorum. Each class/quorum is given a month to be in charge of a combined youth activity. That is six activities that will be planned. Here is a sample: As you can see, January the bishopric is over the planning activity. We have Standards night usually in April- May and as leaders we usually take that activity. In October and December the Ward Party is our combined Activity. There is usually a Face to Face event, sometime during the year. In 2019 it is in November, so that is the combined activity for that month. Whatever month our Youth Conference falls in is the combined activity for that month. Which leaves, the six months. After each class/quorum chooses and plans their activity for the month they were given, then gather back together. Each group has one of the youth come up and share what their activity will be for the month they were assigned. This way there are no duplicates and everyone can put the activity ideas on their calendars. They usually end the activity with a friendly game of crab soccer or dodge ball. Combined Young Women Activities Planning: You could do the same as above, assign each young women class two activities to be in charge of planning. Another idea that our ward did was each adviser was given a month to plan a combined activity for. Then the Presidency did New Beginnings, YW in Excellence and the Christmas Party. I like the girls being more involved though. So another great idea, would be for the adviser to plan it with the class presidency, or be paired up with a couple Young Women. Personal Progress: 2019 is the last year for the Personal Progress Program. Here is a schedule that will help the young women earn their Young Women Recognition award by the end of the year. (See free download link below) Though I think they can earn it much quicker than this, by doing more than one value experience in a week. Another option is to work on and complete a value a month. Here are some activity ideas and packets to accomplish this: Young Women Personal Progress Activity all about Faith: Faith and Floats; YW Personal Progress Divine Nature Activity: "Do-nut" forget your Divine Nature; YW Individual Worth Personal Progress Activity: Self Esteem Retreat Youth Opening Exercises Conducting Sheets: "Mutual usually lasts about an hour or an hour and a half. It begins with opening exercises, conducted by a member of the Laurel class presidency or one of the bishop’s priests quorum assistants. The youth sing a hymn, have an opening prayer, and may share testimonies and musical numbers or other talents." - Strengthening Youth Through Activities Click the Free download button below, for the Opening Exercise Conducting Sheets. If you would like more Personal Progress Ideas click here! How about Come, Follow Me Lesson Helps!! or YW Activities, Combined Activities, or Leader Helps! For more ideas make sure you follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.
For our Combined lesson this month I thought the girls needed to hear how special and unique they were. It ended up being a great lesson. I played this clip from President Uchtodorfs talk You are not Forgotten I also played the song Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God I attached this to a little glittery snowflake I purchased at Walmart for $1.97 for a pack of 20
I'm teaching YW class this Sunday, and I've created this "Temple Prep Bucket List" to go along with the lesson. 16 thin...
2 printables + 2 phone walllpapers to help you remember President Nelson's talk about contention & peacemakers.
A collection of free handouts for Young Women, Relief Society, holidays and more!
A blog with ideas to aid us on our life's journey to perfecting ourselves and our families. Crafts, Printable Pages, LDS lesson helps and more.
An old Jewish legend of two brothers, Abram and Zimri, told by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. A great example of how to have concern for the welfare of your fellow man rather than having a mine, mine, mine attitude.
I like to take a little "treat" to my YW over Conference weekend. Just so they know that I am still thinking about them (: I found the nail polish at Target for $0.84, Cheaper than the dollar store and way cuter color selection! For those that used our Adventure awaits theme... Here is a slightly different handout without the UP theme
I am getting really excited about next month's YW "Come Follow Me" curriculum because it is all about ordinances and covenants. I decided to get a head start on creating some various handouts for the month. The lesson outline for these particular handouts is... "Why are covenants important in my life?" Feel free to print off and use for your lessons! (you can download them by right clicking on the picture and selecting "save image as"... you can copy and paste the images in a word document and manipulate the size as desired) This quote came from the talk from Bonnie D. Parkin titled, "Celebrating Covenants". I appreciated how Sister Parkin expressed her love of covenants, and talked about how we can and should "celebrate" our personal covenants. You can print this handout in any size (small to fit in the girls scriptures, or large to post on their wall). I was also very inspired by the talk given by Elder Christofferson titled, "The Power of Covenants". The talk was awesome and gave a lot of great insights as to why covenants are important. I decided to create a few different handouts/lesson helps based on Elder Christofferson's talk. The first is the handout above which is a quote from Elder Christofferson. It can be printed out for each girl and placed in their room, scriptures, etc. and used as a reminder of the how their covenants can be blessing in their lives. The circles below coordinate with the three different points Elder Christofferson made in his talk on the power of covenants. You could either print these off and give them to the yw, or use them as display as you discuss the three points during your lesson.
A while ago I made this princess handout. I have observed this quote is a favorite out there, and a lot of people are choosing to use...
A blog with ideas to aid us on our life's journey to perfecting ourselves and our families. Crafts, Printable Pages, LDS lesson helps and more.
The Personal Progress Helper has hundreds of fun and worthwhile resources to help young women stand for truth and righteousness and come unto Christ.
I'm trying to upload some of our handouts. Here's what I have so far: Taken from this site. Found this on pinterest with no link to a source. If you know where it is from, please let me know so I can link it. We used this for Cinderella Day devotional. A "spiritual directory assistance card" we made for their scriptures was found here at beginnings new. Sorry I could not seem to upload the image here, but it's a great handout. Awesome bookmark found here at Holy Handouts.
A committee agenda created for use during LDS BYC meetings -which would help the youth to focus on individuals instead of programs and activities
So this weekend I helped Carey put together some binders for the Young Women group at Church. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook then you've already seen the cover. For those of you who missed it, here it is. Cover sheet image is from JennyPhillips.com We also found some good pages online and then revised and created new ones to fill the inside. In all we made binders for the; Laurel Adviser Laurel Class President Laurel Class 1st Counselor Laurel Class 2nd Counselor Laurel Class Secretary Mia Maid Adviser 2nd Mia Maid Adviser Mia Maid Class President Mia Maid Class 1st Counselor Mia Maid Class 2nd Counselor Mia Maid Class Secretary Beehive Adviser Beehive Class President Beehive Class 1st Counselor Beehive Class 2nd Counselor Beehive Class Secretary And binder covers only for the; Young Women President Young Women 1st Counselor Young Women 2nd Counselor Young Women Secretary That was quite the project in a short time. Here are the pages for the Beehive Manual if you would like to see them in more detail. The Mia Maid and Laurel Manuals are altered to be specific to their classes. What a great time playing on my MacBook Pro and doing something useful at the same time. (Yes documents and spreadsheets count as playing for me.) (Added 4/27/2016) Here is a link to all the files.
Most definitely a lot has happened to Brett and I since our last anniversary. Brett completed his internship with Deloitte and was offered a job. We have begun to make preparations to move to Phoenix next summer. We are approaching our LAST 2 semesters of school (hoo ra)... This past year has been a whirlwind of opportunities, and gratitude fills out hearts. Throughout the course of these exciting opportunities, we have continued to try to expand our family. This journey hasn't been the easiest for us (okay mostly for me...). Brett and I felt pretty quickly after being married that we were supposed to start a family. It's been 2 years now trying to make this happen. After a miscarriage, several trips to the ER, and being told that it could take up to 7 more years for us to have a family, we have been faced with a number of emotions. Heartache. Confusion. Exhaustion. I guess we can just say, for us it has been no walk in the park. We do lots of those. Walks that is. And if it were that easy, we would have like a billion children by now. Normally, I am not one to share my feelings about infertility. It is a trial that I like to hold close to home and only discuss with those closest to me. I hate to appear weak. I hate to burden others with feelings of pain. So for all you silent sufferers (and I know you are out there), and my dear friends that I know have been struggling as well, I hope with all of my heart that you read this and know that you are loved. My goal in writing this is to let you know you are not alone--- and that you are SO important to your Heavenly Father. There are those of you who ARE that lucky out there. Whose husbands seemingly only have to wink at you, and bam....pregnant. For the longest time, that was always the hardest part for me. Feeling left in the dust. Feeling inadequate and unable. Watching everyone I know welcome beautiful bundles covered in peach fuzz. Quite honestly.... it is sometimes nearly unbearable. Not because I am not thrilled for the new parents... but because it is a constant reminder of my trial and the things I am unable to attain. Before I proceed, I need to mention one other thing. A moment goes out to my stud of a husband. I know I talk about him a lot, but I seriously couldn't go on day to day if it were not for him. Brett is truly the MOST level headed individual I have ever known. He has always been able to see the bigger picture. That man truly has a perspective like no other-- it has helped us to both stay perfectly happy and calm along our journey. To calm my nerves when I needed it the most. I love him, He will make one heck of a father. In the past month, as we have continued to pray, hope and discuss the expansion of our family, several times the discussion of adoption has been brought up. I cannot say that we have not considered adoption prior to this point. We have. But especially lately, I have begun to question if it is something our family should begin to prepare more earnestly. I guess earlier, I would think about adoption in passing. Lately, the matter of adoption rests on our minds more frequently. To be honest, the thought has always scared me a little. I consider myself a faithful and determined person. I almost felt as though if we were to explore other avenues of having children, I was a failure. That I was giving up. Not to mention, Brett and I have always dreamed of a little look-a-like. Would they have dark hair like mine? Or maybe bright blue eyes like their daddy? There is just something special about a woman's role of bringing her children into the world. That is a role I have ALWAYS wanted to fill. A few weeks back, I had a precious experience that, once again, had an impact on my perspective of infertility. I was serving in the temple pondering why we have to struggle with infertility. I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons, some physical, others spiritual. That day I was helping out at the front of the temple. (one of my favorite things to do by far) I love seeing the joy of people coming to the temple. I was especially blessed to greet a small family that morning. There is no denying the light that filled their eyes. It was a young couple - dressed in white. The young father holding a small little boy - dressed in white. As the small family asked for some directions, I asked them about their visit. The small boy gleamed as he said, "Today I get a forever family". Both parents eyes welled up as they both hugged and kissed that beautiful child. I later found out that the family had adopted the small boy from Haiti. It was like an answer that I had never expected. It came to my mind that one reason for our infertility may be to lead us to consider adoption. What a peaceful assurance. We do not yet know for certain that we will end up adopting a baby... but we do know that Heavenly Father has been preparing us for that possibility. I have found that one thing that helps me, when I am feeling sad about our current situation, is writing letters. Letters to OUR future bundle of joy. I know it sounds a little cheesey--- think what you want. I honestly felt a little strange as I first began to jot down these little notes. But later, I found it filling me with more hope than sorrow. Recently I wrote the following... To MY sweet little baby, It does not matter how you come to us, we will love you just the same. I want you to know, that I know, for absolute certain, that Heavenly Father has a plan for you. It does not matter how you come to us, because you are still meant to be ours. Every morning when I wake, every night before I sleep, and a million times in between I pray for you. I pray that I will be in tune with the spirit so that I might know how to provide the way for you to join our family. I pray that you will be healthy I pray that I can be the kind of mother that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I pray for you, because I love you. I pray that I will get to meet you soon I know that this our journey is still ongoing-- and probably will be for sometime. But oh how grateful I am for the knowledge of a kind Heavenly Father who loves me. Who showers me with tender mercies and love. Who opens a door when i think all hope might be lost. I guess my point for writing this all is to say that hope is never lost. No infertility trial is the same (that I know), but I ALSO know that we are not forgotten. That the Lord IS aware of me. He is aware of YOU. That there is light at the end of the tunnel. And although the trial is probably one of the MOST difficult challenges a woman may have to face, WE ARE BLESSED. Hold on. Don't give up. Look for the blessings. Because they are there- and they are REAL.
To a busy teen, completing Personal Progress experiences can seem like a daunting task—or it used to.
A fun Personal Progress workshop for Young Women! Help the young women get multiple Personal Progress experiences finished or started in one night.
How LOVELY and AMAZING were the April Sessions of General Conference?! I was moved, inspired, fortified and uplifted... almost in ways I cannot describe. I look forward to conference weekends all year! I love gathering with my family, I love taking notes, I love all the treats and most of all, I LOVE to hear the counsel our leaders have for us. I also LOVE how so many of the messages aren't Mormon-Centric! Their messages ring true for MANY faiths that believe in Christ and believe in accountability before our Heavenly Father. Topics of faith, hope, prayer, repentance, listening to promptings, peace and more... each one extends well beyond our particular church and I love that! If you would... please PIN this post and individually PIN your favorites - then download from the links provided below. Each image is saved as a 5x7 and can be printed at home or at your favorite photo lab. One tip - because of the white font - it may help to "de-select" any "auto color correction" options that might automatically apply (specifically if ordering from Sam's or Costco). Available as individual quotes (5x7) or as Collage Posters! Help me spread goodness by PINNING FIRST - then download HERE! You might also like... GC QUOTES: 2015-2016 & my Gen Conf Study Journal Happy Printing... Don't miss new printables, freebies and discounts! FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST or SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER SHOP NOW | WHAT IS SCRAPBOOK MAX? | TERMS OF USE | DISCLOSURE | CONTACT
I am getting really excited for the youth lesson curriculum for the month of February. It's all about the Plan of Salvation. As I served a mission, this was probably one of my most favorite things to share with the people I had the opportunity to teach. I decided to get a little head start for the month by making this Plan of Salvation bookmark. It is all based from Preach my Gospel. I made it to have two sides--- The picture diagram being the front, and the scripture references to be the back. Feel free to use for the upcoming month and as you are preparing for the Plan of Salvation lessons! Let me know if you have any question and feel free to share any comments! You can click here for a link to the download! To learn more about where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going, please visit mormon.org!
Help your young woman accomplish a lot this summer with this free printable program. Lots of pictures and a free download.
Scripture Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. —Isaiah 40:26 Quote We can apply his teachings when we don’t know […]
