S.T.A.R. - Young Women in Excellence

{I just posted the following on my personal blog and thought I'd share it here as well.  I'd love to see your ideas for these events!}

We had our Young Women in Excellence program last night.  I was a little bit worried about it.  Some of our girls haven't been very excited about Personal Progress.  Since Young Women in Excellence is a "celebration of Personal Progress," I challenged each of them to do something that they could share last night.  Well those amazing girls stepped right up to the plate and did a great job!  I was so proud of them as they shared what they've learned, what they still hope to accomplish, and how setting goals has helped them.  A member of our Bishopric is doing the program with the girls so he contributed his accomplishments last night as well.

Our theme was S.T.A.R. - Stand for Truth And Righteousness

There is a Primary song called I Am Like a Star which went along with our theme for the evening: S.T.A.R. - Stand for Truth And Righteousness. (No credit to myself for that one.  The internet is full of good ideas!!)  I wrote a second verse to the Primary song which went like this:  I am like a star shining brightly, shining for the whole world to see.  I can be a light, stand for truth and right, and be all that He wants me to be. The young women sang that as our special musical number for the evening.  Simple and sweet.

Our Bishop challenged each young woman to:  Seize the Day (Carpe Diem), live life more abundantly (see John 10:10), and be anxiously engaged in good causes (D&C 58:27).  [Maybe he forgot he was speaking to the young women because I'm pretty sure that was all for me!!]

It was a great evening, complete with an impressive display of food at the end.  From spiced cider, meatballs, little sausages wrapped in crescent rolls to a huge veggie tray and star shaped cupcakes, there was something for everyone.  The young men and cub scouts who found us after their activities enjoyed the treats as well.  :)  (Hooray for a wonderful counselor who took on the food challenge and outdid herself.  Otherwise, we would have had homemade cookies and water...)

Overall, a great evening!  (I am SO glad it's over!!)

Memorize the Family Proclamation.... Check!

The Stake YW Presidency has a special announcement to make:  3 of us have finished memorizing the Family Proclamation!! 


That's right.  Our president, Sister Becca Anderson, and her two counselors, Sister Janna Allan and Sister Emily Savage, have just passed off a big personal progress project.  And let me tell you, memorizing it certainly brought about a lot of personal progress.   There is so much joy and wisdom to be found in that inspired document.... and it feels so good to have it committed to heart and memory.

We're excited to hear about your own personal progress stories!  How are you doing with your personal progress?

Words of Wisdom

I just redid one of the bulletin boards in our Young Women classroom.  It's definitely nothing fancy - I wanted to keep it simple - but it displays recent quotes from our leaders.  All of the quotes are from the most recent General Conference with the exception of Sister Dalton's quote which is from the General Young Women meeting this past March.  I plan to update it regularly to keep it current.

 A few close ups:

 

Fundraiser Help...

Rantoul Young Women need your help!  They are trying desperately to raise funds for Girls Camp, but are meeting obstacle after obstacle in their efforts to find an appropriate way to earn money.  Do you have any ideas???

Here are their specific needs:

• **Earn money WITHOUT asking the members of the branch to contribute.**
• Raise money within the boundaries of the Rantoul branch.
• Avoid associating the church with brand names.
• Encourage non-member friends to participate and earn their own way.  

 Here is what has come from brainstorming so far:

• Bagging groceries for tips at a local County Market.
• Spraying, tending, picking, and selling apples.
• Selling water bottles at a county fair. 

Please add your comments if you have anything else to share!

Young Women Fun-tastic! Activities

Here is a link to the book Margie Swensen (Mattoon) talked about at our auxiliary training on Saturday.  It has mid-week activities to go along with the Sunday lessons.  A book that focuses on Personal Progress activities can be found here. 

LDS YOUNG WOMEN Yahoo Group

Sorry - I'm not a very good blogger - and I don't see that the website showed up - so here you go: Go to groups.yahoo.com and do a search for LDS_Young_Women and you will find the group. You have to 'ask' to join, but it only takes not even a day to get that confirmation. It's easy-peasy! Do it! You'll be glad you did!

LynnEl Springer

Stake Auxilliary Training Meeting Info

Sisters,
I spoke to you about online YW Personal Progress and I also told you about belonging to a LDS Young Women Yahoo Group. I thought I would post that here so you can all "join" if you are interested. It is a great group with lots of suggestions, questions, helps, etc. Hope you have fun doing your Personal Progress online now too!



Sis. LynnEl Springer
Mahomet YW President