Young Women activities

This past Sunday we had our ward Young Women in Excellence. Yeah, it's pretty late in the year, but we still got it done. Our group has nearly tripled this year. At the beginning of 2010, I had four girls, one of whom attended always. The other three had fairly sporadic attendance. Now, I have nine girls, and 6-7 of them are pretty regular. Our group is also very diverse. We have two latina, one Japanese-American, three African-American, and three Caucasian girls. It's taken the better part of the year to grow to this size, and to achieve regular attendance. With so much diversity in both cultural and racial/ethnic backgrounds, we wanted to choose a theme that would help the girls get to know each other better. Also, while Young Women in Excellence is traditionally a showcase of Personal Progress achievements throughout the year, most of the girls in my ward are younger and/or recent converts, and haven't yet delved into the program.

We came up with "In Her Shoes" and asked each girl to bring a pair of shoes to talk about. They could be a favorite pair, or an otherwise significant pair, such as a performance pair, or something like that. I and my presidency talked about important shoes in life, we had a couple of musical numbers, and the girls shared their shoes. It was a really neat program.

From left to right, there's Cassandra, with the shoes she wears on vacations at Myrtle Beach and to family weddings; Sister Butler, with temple shoes; Sarah, with her first pair of non-snow/rain boots, which make her think of her mom; Christina, with the boots she got for her 13th birthday, which make her think of independence and being a teenager; me, with my mission shoes; Sister Taylor, first with Hailey's drum major shoes, which are significant because music is such a huge part of her life, and because she's learned and grown a lot in that leadership position, then Sister Taylor's own shoes, the running shoes she was wearing when she met her husband (she talked about dating, standards, and goals); and then Alona, with the boots (notice a theme?) she bought at an outdoor bazaar in Kazakhstan when she and her family were there adopting her little sister.

Then, on Tuesday night, we drove out to Kirtland to see the Nativity display "Wise Men Still Seek Him." It's something that they've hosted at the visitors' center for eight or nine years now, and this year it was named by the American Bus Association as one of the top 100 events to see in the United States. Because of bad weather, holiday travel, and previously scheduled events, only three girls were able to come, but I'm really glad that we did it anyway. I took lots of pictures of nativities that piqued my interest, and I'll work on getting them posted, but here's one of our little group before we left.

Left to right, it's me, Niya, Sister Taylor, Sarah, and Yahna.

Time Out For Women

Way back in April, I took a quick weekend road trip with some girlfriends to Pittsburgh.


We went to a fabulous retreat/lecture series put on every year by Deseret Book, called Time Out For Women. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's an opportunity for moms, wives, daughters, sisters, to just take time to be women, without all the other labels. There are speakers and musical artists. It's inspiring, it's uplifting, and it's just plain fun. I'm so glad I decided to go. It was a positive experience to me, plus I got to make some new friends on the way. I knew everyone that I went with, but not well. It was a great opportunity to create new relationships.


Friday evening we went to a charming Italian restaurant called The Spaghetti Warehouse. The atmosphere was engaging, the food was delicious, the waiter was smokin'! Seriously, the food was amazing. They gave us fresh loaves of bread with a garlic-herb butter that was sooooo good.

My order was a little boring -- fettuccine Alfredo, but they have a roasted red pepper Alfredo sauce that was incredible. I loved it. The prices were pretty reasonable, too.

After dinner, we headed over to the convention center where the conference was being held. That evening we had one or two speakers, and several musical numbers from Dallyn Vail Bayles, who was a little Josh Groban-esque, yet still unique. He's very talented, and it was great to hear him perform.


Our little car full of people met up with a few other girls from the Shaker Heights Ward, which was also fun. The second day, we had more speakers and musical guest Hilary Weeks. We finished the day around 4:00pm and headed home.


One of the speakers on Saturday was Mary Ellen Edmunds, who is such a funny and uplifting lady. She's real and down-to-earth. She's in her 70s, I think, and has never been married or had children, but has so much life experience to share. In her talk, she suddenly stopped in the middle of a story and said "Where's Eleanor? Eleanor, will you stand up?" (At this point, 800 women start twisting around in their seats to try to find this singled-out Eleanor.) "Eleanor and I grew up together, and ..." I finally found her, and gasped out loud. It was my mission president's wife! She lives in West Virginia, so this was the nearest TOFW session to her. At the next break I grabbed my camera and ran over to where she was. We talked for 15 minutes and got a picture. It was great to see her again.


Overall it was a really great weekend and I hope to go again next year.

New Beginnings

If you didn't know, I am the Young Women President in my ward at church. At the beginning of the year each year (we were a little late), we have a program called New Beginnings. The purpose of New Beginnings is to welcome girls who are new to the ward or new to the YW program (having turns 12 in the last year) as well as to talk about and recognize achievements in Personal Progress. Personal Progress is part of the YW program. It helps the girls learn goal-setting and achievement, and helps them grow and mature spiritually. There are eight values in the Personal Progress program, and there are specific goals and projects that the girls work on related to each value. Our New Beginnings was last night.


We chose Dr. Suess' Oh, the Places You'll Go! as our theme. It was a lot of fun to put things together. For each value, we came up with a "place" that the girls could go with the help of Personal Progress:

Faith: go get a testimony
Divine Nature: go experience womanhood
Individual Worth: go develop your talents
Knowledge: go get an education
Choice and Accountability: go to the temple
Good Works: go serve a mission
Integrity: go be a leader
Virtue: go prepare for a temple marriage

We had a few talks about the values, and the "places" the girls could go with them. We also had a couple of musical pieces, played by the young women themselves. Along the length of the room, we set up two long tables with displays of things representing each of the above "places."


Faith: Personal Progress book, Girls' Camp manual, scriptures, journal, picture of Christ

Divine Nature (where we chose to focus primarily on womanhood, but also some on motherhood): chick flick, cosmetics, mirror, dress mannequin, jewelry, Jane Austen novel, high heels, perfume, pearls, hair combs, baby bootie "piggy" bank, statuettes of pregnant woman and new mother

Individual Worth: tennis racket, cookbook, ballet slippers, photography, hymnbook, speech competition certificate, high school newspaper, camera (not pictured since it was in use)

Knowledge: college diploma; graduation cap; textbook; highlighters; book about Sacajewa, who learned everything she could about the world around her and how to make practical use of it

Choice and Accountability: picture of temple, white temple slippers, limited use temple recommend, family names, special copy of the Ensign on temples

Good Works: a mission photo album, missionary journal, missionary library, nametag, Spanish Book of Mormon open to 3 Nephi 11, Pass Along cards, Preach My Gospel

Integrity: YW, teaching, and leadership sections of the Church Handbook of Instructions; book about Esther, an example of a leader with integrity (and female to boot!); Susan B. Anthony $1 coins (representative of her, not of money); Conference issue of the Ensign; a compass; a copy of the For The Strength of Youth booklet

Virtue: a wedding photo; temple photo; sacrament tray; engagement ring; scriptures open to Proverbs 31; a temple recommend; The Holy Temple, by Elder Packer

Here's the whole table, before quite everything was on it:

To top everything off, we had rainbow cupcakes, which went with the Dr. Suess theme, as well as brought out the values' respective colors.


(I forgot to give credit for this theme idea. I got it from my friend Angela who used the same theme in her ward in Seattle.)

Irked

Irked is what I was after Sacrament meeting yesterday. I thought that it was a really good meeting. Every once in awhile, one comes along that is just really good. Yesterday was one such meeting, for me anyway.

Honestly, I don't remember what the youth speaker's topic was, but I do remember that I felt the Spirit. I think it was about unity. The second speaker spoke about self-worth, I think. Again, I know I felt the Spirit. then we had an interlude hymn, and the final speaker spoke about reverence.

I missed the first half of it because I had to change my baby's diaper, but when I came back in the chapel, I noticed how quiet it was. At first I thought it was because the brother who was speaking was so quiet, so everyone else had to be quiet in order to hear him. Then I started listening and I realized what his theme was. It was a really good talk, but it apparently didn't sink in with everyone. The kids in the congregation got it...they were quiet and still during the meeting.

However, there were three men I walked past on my way to the back of the chapel afterward, who were (loudly) talking about Saturday's BYU-Utah football game, and how "if we had put up the right offense, blah blah blah." I was really irked. I almost went up to them and said "I don't mean to be rude, but did you not hear Brother Rogers' talk just now?" Admittedly, I already don't particularly like two of these three brethren anyway, but I was very saddened to see that it was a case of garbage-in-garbage-out with them.

I hesitate to post this here, as many of my readers know these people, and two of my readers are in fact married to two of these people. But I had to get it out.

Thankful November: Day 8

Today, as I am at this moment on the road on headed to Columbus, I am thankful for the temple. I am thankful that Ben and I were able to be married in the temple, and not just married, but sealed, with the promise that if we live faithfully, we can be together forever, even after this life. I am thankful for the blessings that are offered me through temple worship, and the opportunity I have to attend the temple, even though I don't do it nearly often enough.

Boston Temple (where Ben and I were married):

Columbus Temple (where we go here in Ohio):

Foolish or wise?

Today was stake women's conference. We had a lunch and service project portion to the day, but the part that really stuck with me was the spiritual part. It was a musical oratorio about the 10 virgins. After it was over, I headed to the kitchen to help get lunch ready (my ward was in charge). As I walked down the hall and started working, my thoughts really turned inward.

I'm not sure I really ever understood the parable before. As I listened to the performance, and the stories of each virgin (it's been fictionalized, but still based on the parable), I realized that I had a hard time figuring out who was foolish and who was wise. It wasn't until the end when the wedding happened that I could really sort it out. And I realized that I think that's the point. We don't know who of those around us are "foolish" or "wise." They all blend together. One of them, for example, didn't have enough oil in her lamp because she never went to the market to get any extra because she was always so busy doing other things. Good things, but just not the best priorities.

I realized today that I am a foolish virgin at this point in my life. I have a lot on my plate that I try to do, and I keep up with a lot of it. But none of it right now is personal scripture study or prayer. I've actually had it on my mind frequently over the last couple of weeks or so, but today it really sank in.

Okay, I don't really have a tie-up to my thoughts...that's really it.

Mundane Monday

This weekend was Ben's company picnic. More accurately, his department picnic, since he works for the Cleveland Clinic (far too many people for a "company" picnic). It was held at a campground/park in Kirtland. There was archery, canoeing, badminton, and a lot of walking in between. I didn't know (1) that it would be so spread out, or (2) that there would be such outdoor "event" type activities. The company picnics I remember going to as a child for my dad's work consisted of organized games, relays, and mini-competitions. I remember one year where they made the dads wear aprons in the form of a plastic garbage bag, then smeared shaving cream or whipped cream all over dad's face. They sat them all on one side of a long picnic table with their children across the table from them with a miniature water gun. Whomever cleaned their dad's face first won! I was expecting this type of activity. So I didn't wear sneakers. Ben "assumed" I knew to wear them, so he didn't mention all the available activities to me. So my feet hurt by the time we got down to the archery spot and back, but I lived. I played a little badminton, but I had to take off my shoes and socks in order to avoid stepping out of my shoes and falling on my face. Mostly I was just bored.

Today is laundry day. I've created a chore chart for myself to try to keep me on track with the arts that are homemaking and housekeeping. I've had a hard time keeping up with (and in some case, getting going on) much of the daily household stuff since Julie was born. Mostly -- ironically -- it's a problem of too much time on my hands and not knowing what to do with it. But today is laundry day. Tomorrow I'll worry about tomorrow's chores.

This is a busy week for me. Tonight I'm going visiting teaching. Tomorrow night is the kickoff meeting/BBQ for the year for Ben's Boy Scout troop. Wednesday night is book group, and Thursday night is the Relief Society service auction, which I'm looking forward to. I just need to get around to making my thing for it this week.

Julie slept 10 hours last night! She went to bed at 8:00, and didn't get up until about 6:15. Boy, was she hungry when she did! She's calling me now, I need to go. Have a great day!

A fortunate meeting

When I was 14, I attended a program at BYU called Academy for Girls. I believe that program has been discontinued by now. I know it was significantly modified at least after I stopped attending. It was an EFY-type program put on through the Church Educational System, and was only for young women. It was 11 days long, and we stayed in the dorms. We had a couple of days of field trips, which is different from EFY. On one of those days, we traveled up to Salt Lake City to see Legacy in the big theater (yeah...when they were still showing Legacy -- I think they're two movies past that one now) up there. In the afternoon, we went to Lagoon, but we had a couple of hours of down time in between, during which most of the groups just stayed at Temple Square and walked around the Visitor's Center(s).

My counselor suggested that we go over to the Administration Building to try to meet President Hinckley. "Yeah, right," we all thought. (1) Who knew if he was even in town? (2) Would they let us take his time if he was? (3) Would he take the time?

Nonetheless, we were excited to give it a try. It's not often that you get to meet the prophet. He became prophet and President of the Church in March of that year, and this was August. This is the result of our efforts:


We did get to meet him. We went to the lobby of the Church Administration Building, and our counselor told the receptionist who we were and that we would like to meet President Hinckley, if we could. She informed us that we could only meet him by appointment, but that he had an appointment in about 5 minutes with a man who was sitting in the lobby, and if we waited, we might get to at least see him through the heavy glass doors with bars on them. So we eagerly waited to catch a glimpse of him, which we did. We saw him, and like the 14 and 15 year old girls we were, we got all giddy and started waving at him through the glass. He smiled at us, then came out to shake hands with us. It was really neat. Definitely a unique experience.

Can you tell which girl is me?

Two men, different lives

Two men died this week.

One has been all over the media, and there has been huge amounts of hype and commentary across the world. Twenty-eight year-old actor Heath Ledger died in his apartment from what appears to be an accidental drug overdose. He was lauded by many as the most promising actor of his generation. He chose unique and challenging roles, and never failed to look good.

The other will -- by comparison -- go largely unnoticed by the media. Sure, there's a story about it on MSNBC, and I saw a quick blurb on it this morning on CNN while I was walking to my desk at work, but it won't elicit the response or excitement that Heath Ledger's death did. (Side note: to find the story on CNN's website, I had to go to page three of the headlines published within the last 24 hours...it was buried beneath Dick Cheney's daughter endorsing Mitt Romney, and a mom accused of killing her 1-month-old baby via the microwave). Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Prophet of God, died last night.

President Hinckley was the Prophet of my youth and young adulthood. He is really the only one I remember as leader of the Church. I had been in bed already for 1/2 an hour last night when my mom called to tell me, and while I was talking to her, my sister-in-law beeped in to tell us the news as well. When Mom first told me, my reaction initially was "Oh no! That's too bad." As I thought about it more, though, I wasn't as sad as I always thought I would be.

He was 97 years old. Crass as this may sound, he had to die sometime. Ben and I had long since stopped praying for his health to sustain him, especially after Sister Hinckley died a few years ago. We still continued to pray for him and other leaders of the Church, that they would be able to continue to lead us in a way pleasing to the Lord, and that they would be upheld physically and spiritually as they needed, and as long as they needed, but that was about it.

So many wonderful things happened within and without the Church during President Hinckley's tenure as President. To name a few:

• temples (specifically the concept of smaller temples, and the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple)
• the Perpetual Education Fund
• the Church's Sesquicentennial celebration
• public image of the Church (through the Olympics and numerous interviews with huge media outlets)
• the building of the Conference Center (and renovations of the Salt Lake Tabernacle)
• The Family: A Proclamation to the World
• in 1995, when he became President of the Church, there were 9,024,368 members. At the end of 2006, there were 12,868,606, very likely to have surpassed 13M by now
• humanitarian aid throughout the world (flood relief in Louisiana several years ago, tsunami and hurricane relief more recently, vaccine programs in undervdeveloped countries, wheelchair access, to name only a few)

So while the world at large mourns Heath Ledger (and I don't want to diminish that, because it has strongly affected many people), I know that 13 million people throughout the world today are saddened by another man's passing, yet we have great reason to celebrate at the full and rich life he led.