2014 Theme Has Been Announced!

So the 2014 has been announced (OK so it was announced a couple of weeks ago) and I am in love with it! The theme fro this year is "Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness." (Moroni 10:32). 

I think that the theme this year definitely goes with the Young Women's program since the symbol, the torch, represents just that, inviting all to come unto Christ. 

So this is just the first of a few ideas that I have cooking up in my head. I know I haven't been great at keeping up with the curriculum this year but life has been pretty crazy between graduating from college and now becoming a working lady. Plus, not being in YW's has definitely played a part in it. So now that life is less crazy, I am hoping to be more with the program :D

So I am providing a few different links here. I should warn you that the program that I usually use has been giving me some issues and I have been waiting to hear from the company to send me a replacement file so turning the projects into PDF's has been nearly impossible for me. So please bear with me as I have had to resort in using Microsoft publisher to create.

Click HERE for JPEG

Click HERE for PDF (or so I am hoping)

Click HERE to open in publisher (editable!)

2013 Mutual Theme Has Been Announced

I am excited to know that the new theme has been announced and that it comes from the scripture found in D&C 87:8 "Stand Ye in Holy Places,  and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord."

You can find more about the theme HERE

So to help get the ideas going here is a bookmark that I created for the theme. Picture comes from the site of announcement. More to come!

Click HERE to download PDF of 3 or right click and save on image for jpeg.

Another Binder Cover for the 2012 Theme

Slightly different from the previous binder cover that I designed...I am in a damask mood lately and not sure why. So I thought I would share another creation with you all. You can download it from 4shared by clicking HERE (its a pdf file) or you can right click on the image and save as a jpeg (high quality).

The Word of God as a Standard

I have finally got lesson 37 done for the YW Man. 3. Sorry its late!

Click HERE for download (4 to a page pdf)

Paper credit goes to Coreen Silke while flower credit goes to SP

2012 Binder Cover #2

Here is the second binder cover that I have created for you all to enjoy. Simple and clean and classy. Contains all of my favorite colors. I am thinking about making class and presidency binders with this same concept and design, what do you think?

Click HERE for download of pdf. To save as a picture just right click and save jpg or click HERE to download jpg

PPW...a day late!!!

Sorry that I missed yesterday...it was crazy!! If you have been following this blog then you would know we had our YWIE last night and I spent most or rather a good chunk of the last two days (maybe 3) preparing for it. Which I will blog about in a different post. 
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I finished my Book of Mormon reading yesterday (Wednesday 11/2) at 2:30 pm. It was a bit of a challenge at times but it really was a worth while experience. I did learn a lot, not only about the people in the BOM but also about myself. 
I learned that the Lord does really look out for those that are faithful to his commandments and that follows his example. I have learned that greed and power are easy ways for Satan to take hold of our hearts. I learned that through true repentance that we can be saved and that if we have enough faith and are righteous that the Lord will bless us with what we need. 

I mentioned a while back about parable of the olive tree that was taken from the bible but can be found in Jacob chapter 5. As a leader of our ward's YW, I found this particular story to hit home. I learned that as a leader I am the person who tends the garden. It is my job to help see that the trees grow to the best of their ability. That they bring forth much fruit that they are capable of. I learned that each of my girls that I am asked to lead are a tree and there are those who are active (the good productive trees) and those who might be less active (the trees that produce but not as much as they could) and then there are girls who have been planted in bad soil and not tended and they are in a way "dead." As a leader it is my job to help those girls who are struggling to be the best of who they were meant to be, to reach out and graft together their branches with those of the gospel. To help their testimony grow and to let them know that they are of worth and they are Princesses and future Queens, that they have a father in heaven who loves them. 
It sounded better in my head 2 weeks ago but this is part of the things that I learned. It truly is a true book and another testament of the savior. He really does love us and knows us and wants us to be eternally happy not only here on this earth but in the life to come. I know that the teachings the book holds are true and that they are just as relevant today (if not more) as they were in the day that they were written. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God who was called to bring back the restoration of the Lord's church on the earth today. I know that President Monson is a true prophet that he has been called to lead the church today. I know that we are  also capable of receiving personal revelation if we have the faith and are righteous enough to receive it. We have the power to be examples of Christ and to bring others back to the fold. We might not all be called as missionaries to go to various places in the world but we can be missionaries here in our own ways. Whether it is by being called as a teacher or even if it is just leading by example. If we live the way we should we will allow others to want to know Christ as well. 
As for the rest of my personal progress goals, I did achieve my goal and earn my gold ribbon for virtue and my green ribbon for knowledge. My other two value projects are completed, I just need to finish the experiences to go with them. I still haven't finished my faith requirements that I have been working on...I got lazy and busy...oh ok...I got LAZY and put them off. I am going to set another goal to have earned my YW medallion before our New Beginnings (which I think is in Feb/March) so I will be looking at my goals and start completing them. 
How is your personal progress coming along? I would love to hear about your achievements (or lack of...if your like me sometimes) or any ideas that you might have or are doing currently to get your YW to work on Personal Progress. 

"13th Night"

As promised from the short little blurb that I wrote last night from my phone, I am posting the details of last nights mutual activity.

The theme for the night was Being in the World but Not of the World or simply known as the "13th Night." 

We started out with the girls all repeating this years mutual theme, the 13th Article of Faith. Our idea for the nights activity was on the last words of "if there is anything virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek after these things" and Elder Oaks talk on Pornography (which can be found HERE).

We had our stake president come in and talk to the girls, he is also a professional counselor and has had experience in the effects that pornography causes, plus our girls really responded well to him when he talked at girls camp. 

We had the girls and leaders sit in a circle so it was a little more intimate and so the girls would feel comfortable asking questions or making comments. Our stake president started off with some points that he liked in Elder Oaks talk and then proceeded with some current statistics which are and were quite alarming....for example if we took all the money that is spent on pornography we we could fix the national debt with in weeks. Considering there is about $180,000,000.00 spent in 60 minutes on the filth. Scary isn't it? He also mentioned that one in seven females get solicited. Even scarier!! 

He also brought up some great stories from the scriptures to drive his point. He used the story of David and Bathsheba (how thoughts turn into actions and so forth) and then he talked about Joseph and Potifer's wife (sorry if I spelled those name wrongs) and how Joseph knew what was wrong and how he made a commitment to avoid the temptations. 

We talked a little from our discussions how thoughts and being modest affect the young men that our young women associate with.  How being strong and committed to doing what is right can help them if they found themselves in a situation that would compromise their virtue when on dates or what not. The girls made a lot of great points and it made it for a great night to address some concerns and issues that our youth are being forced to deal with in the world that they live in. 

Scripture Study

Lesson 30 is up and ready for those of you who can still use it. Its a book mark with 4 to a page.

 Click HERE to download

2nd Handout for Lesson 21...

So I finally was able to create something that I am satisfied with. I have spent the last two days trying to get this handout right...and by golly I finally did it!!! *Happy Dance*

So I know I wont get the finished pictures up until I get these put together which will be tomorrow but here is what I plan on doing with them. I have little votive candles in a variety of colors and scents that I got at wal-mart for like $2.00 if that and they came in a set of 4. Score for me! So now that I found the candles, I thought to myself how and I going to get a tag attached that the girls will actually keep on the candle. The light went off (it does that occasionally) and so I picked up some smaller size treat bags by Wilton (again walmart for like a $1.50). I got them home and ta-da! The bags don't exactly lend themselves well to being gathered and tied. SO this is when I came up with this crazy idea to create a bag topper.

So here it is...another pdf with four to a page

Click HERE for download

Handout 1 for lesson 21 YWM3

Woo hoo!!! I think my mojo is coming back to me...haha however I still have a bag topper to contend with (I gave up on it earlier today). But like the post title suggests, here is one handout for lesson 21 Learning to Share the Gospel. Its a set of 4 (if you couldn't have guessed that by now esp if you have been following me) and I have also provided a link to download it as a jpeg (4x6)

Oh that brings me to my next thought...I HEART COMMENTS, EMAILS AND WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG, I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE YOU LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE as well as PASSING ME ALONG TO YOUR FRIENDS!!! Hint Hint....but in all seriousness I always love to get feedback from anyone who visits the site but like the Lord teaches...the choice is yours :) but I know that if you show some love you would be blessed beyond measure!

Anyway...here is what your really after...

Click HERE for download PDF

Click HERE for JPEG

ENJOY!

Scripture Power!

I have some great news...the other counselor in our YW presidency has graciously shared with me her handout that she created for a nightlight up at girls camp last year. The theme was centered around the scriptures (hence the scripture power song =] ). Moving on to the good stuff...here is the handout. Its a jpg file with a single 4x6 picture (this way you can save it and take it to your favorite photo place and have it printed off...it looks much better that way...trust me!)

Click HERE to down load 4x6 image (jpg.)

Thanks Priscilla for sharing your creative idea!