~change; YW's Room & Leader

August 2, 2014

We've had a change in our YW's Presidency.

 

Lori Jennings is a cute creative neighbor who I'm really excited to work with and have 

join the Young Women's program here in the 17th Ward, St George Stake!  And with 

this change a long overdue "makeover" of our Young Women's room was in order.  

This is something I've wanted to do ever since we came back from being in the other 

chapel on Main Street (while our ward building was being remodeled) but never took 

the time (or energy) to complete this task.  I am such a 'social' worker (for me, this 

means that I like having others around when I do projects) so when we called Lori I 

knew she would be just the gal to help me accomplish this task! We spent a few days 

and enough hours to make this one of our projects in the Personal Progress Program!

OUR WORK BEGINS!  

First we took down all the previous pictures and Lori began working on our "Come Unto Christ" 

mutual theme and flag banner while I got our motto and monthly lesson and other pictures framed.

So many wonderful and amazing programs within the 

Young Women's organization!  It's exceptional and truly inspired.

~ Now for the "Before" and After" pictures ~

^^^^^^^^^^^  BEFORE  ^^^^^^^^^^^

(Aren't those the most adorable girls!)

Bazinga!

Now for the rest of the "AFTER" pictures . . . 

(I had to post every one of the "after" pictures because it was such a fun project
and it turned out so wonderful ~ the room sets the mood and is conducive to 

a feeling of contentment, learning, well-being and spirituality).

In these pics you can kind of get a better idea of the whole room.  The door the
girls enter is on the right (west side) and the east wall has a picture of the Savior.

Each month we focus on a different value, this month was on knowledge (green): "Seek learning, even by study and also by faith (D&C 88:118). I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth"

The Motto and Torch picture along with the monthly lesson and our YW's scripture are
seen as you come into the room and on the piano is our Personal Progress "treat" jars.
Each time a YW completes one of the value experiences in Faith (white), Divine Nature
(blue), Individual Worth (red), Knowledge (green), Choice & Accountability (orange),
Good Works (yellow), Integrity (purple) or Virtue (gold) she gets to get a treat from one
of the value jars. Just another incentive tactic to help the girls strengthen their testimonies
of Jesus Christ, strengthen both their present and future families, prepare to be worthy to
make and keep sacred temple covenants and prepare for their future roles and responsibilities.
 
As the Young Women enter the room they get a "treat" for just being there.  Then they
find their notebook (spiritual journal) and take a seat.  The theme, value and 'another' treat
are displayed as well (for those that brought their scriptures and personal progress book)!
As you can see, I am really into treats - I like to refer to them as positive reinforcements - I
figure that everyone likes rewards - for those in the work force their reward is a paycheck,
for those that come to YW's theirs is a spiritual experience along with a yummy treat.
On the main table is a basket for handouts, a few extra Book of Mormon's, some True to
the Faith books (one of my all time favorite books in the whole wide world), pencils, etc..

We're all ready for an enriching and enlightening lesson from one of our fantastic leaders!

On to the back wall! It was just blank so I bought 2 bulletin boards and had Bro Fisher put them up for me, we (he) also moved the hymnal case to the east wall (from the west wall where we put the picture of the St George Temple).

^^^Before^^^ and ^^^After^^^

 ~The End~
 . . . or should I say, "The Beginning"!

Side note: after the room was finished we started getting a lot of people coming in
during the 2nd block and just hanging out; it was a very inviting and cozy room to be in!

~to russia with love 1

March 27, 2014

Here I am in front of the St Basil Cathedral located in the Red 
Square in Moscow, Russia!!  Who would have ever thought that 
we would journey to such an historic site!!  Spectacular!

You will notice that I have a shopping bag in almost every picture 
(I'm collecting Matryoshka Dolls for the kids ~ and yours truly 😉)!

Here we are in Rostov, Russia!!!  Our new friend picked us up at the 
airport and took us to our hotel room!  He was great and explained 
a few things and told us he would be back in a week to return us to the 
airport for our departure!!  A very nice greeting, and he spoke English!

We did a little sight seeing and . . .

A little shopping!! 

This was actually a whole weeks worth of shopping for my 
Matryoshka Dolls!!  I wanted to get one for each of the kids 
(not pictured are my Christmas Santa Dolls ~ adorable)!

  
Our 2nd order of business was Food!! At lunchtime it was 
pretty funny when we tried to order from the Kentucky Fried 
Chicken Restaurant – it was a kick (for them).  After getting
 through the hideous long line, I opened my mouth to try to order 
2 thighs and an ice cream in a cup, like a Sundae (because the 
girl in front of me had 2 – one with hot fudge and the other 
with caramel).  The gal behind the counter just looked at me as if 
I was speaking Greek!!  So after the panic of this poor girl 
trying to wait for me to speak Russian one of the guys went 
in the back to find someone who might have some idea of 
what I was saying while she just stood there looking down, 
up, around and anywhere except eye contact with me – 
seriously I was lifting up my leg and pointing to my thigh 
and holding up my fingers showing her that I wanted 2 
thighs – truly I think anyone could have figured that one out.  
Anyhoooo, the ‘English’ speaker told me that they didn’t 
have ice cream in a cup (yes, they did), fortunately there was 
a picture that had ice cream on a waffle so I just pointed to 
that and the guy standing next to me made sure the ‘interpreter’ 
got down 2 thighs, not 2 'fries'!!!  Needless to say everyone behind 
me was having a good chuckle. But in the end I got my thigh 
(and a wing/close but no cigar) and it was worth the humiliation 
because poor Bill just pointed to something and ended up with 2 
little strips of meat and a very small fry!!  The reward was being 
able to hold this little bundle of joy (who kept head butting me) 
so it made the experience of being made fun of worth it!!

~restoration

1/7/14

Restoration of the 
"Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints"~  

Sister Shurtliff (Amber) gave the best lesson on the Restoration 

(Disclaimer - I am ad-libbing here about her lesson - 
it was much better than I am describing it). 
For a wonderful and complete talk on the Restoration, 
by Elder James E. Faust, go here:  
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2006/04/the-restoration-of-all-things?lang=eng

Amber held up a tile with the words: 

Sacrament, Prophets, Revelation, Priesthood Ordinances, Correct 

Principles, Temple Ordinances, Gift of Tongues, Tithes and Offerings, etc.

They represented the organization of Christ's Church as it was when 
He lived on the earth. She explained how it constitutes the fullness 
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! He taught about faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the priesthood, sacred ordinances, etc. 

He gave His Apostles His authority, which is the priesthood of God. After Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, His Apostles went forth to preach His Gospel. The church grew but many people rejected the Apostles and His Disciples 
and there was great persecution for all the believing.

It wasn't long before all the Apostles, except John the Beloved, 
died and the keys and authority of the holy priesthood were lost 
with the deaths of the Church leaders.  Without this authority, 
no new revelation, doctrine or scripture could come.
Multitudes of Christians were tortured and many killed.  Thousands of Christians were martyred and many apostatized. The church and the priesthood were taken from the earth for hundreds of years, this being the Great Apostasy.  

 At this point Amber gave Aingeal the tile and told her to 
smash it on the ground.  Aingeal complied and did it with Gusto!  
Amber explained that this is what happened to the Church 
when all the apostles were killed and the Priesthood was no 
longer on the earth.  The truths were lost and scattered.
There were many good people on the earth and they tried to establish Christ's church again by taking as many parts (tile pieces) of the church that they knew about. The problem was that none of the churches had all the "pieces" 
(eternal doctrine, priesthood authority, the ordinances of salvation, etc.) 
of Christ's original Church.  In other words, they did not have the "fulness" 
of the gospel, hence they could never have the complete Gospel. 

Amber then held up a tile that was identical to the one she had at the beginning 

of her lesson.  She explained that in 1819, when young Joseph Smith (age 14) was trying to decide which of all the reformed churches to join, he read from James, chapter 5 vs 1.  Then he wrote of this experience, 

"At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God.  I at length came to the determination to "ask of God," concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would give liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture" 

And venture he did! After reading this scripture he went to a grove of trees and knelt down and prayed to Heavenly Father.  Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ appeared to him and he was told to join none of the churches. 

https://www.lds.org/topics/joseph-smith/testimony?lang=eng 

It was in our dispensation that the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was Restored. It included all the eternal doctrine, priesthood authority and ordinances of salvation that was taught when Christ was on the earth and established His church.  And it was through Joseph Smith that it was brought back and restored to the earth.  

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1.11-19?lang=eng#10