The biggest item on my 'to do list' before our baby boy arrives was YW in Excellence. I was in charge of this event for our young women and I'll be honest, it fell at a pretty stressful time. We started planning roughly 4 months in advance, but I still felt the pressure of creating a spiritual evening, which celebrated our young women, their accomplishments- yet was different and unique all at the same time. All the while, just wanting to concentrate on my little babe arriving in a few short weeks.
We embraced the mutual theme, Arise and Shine Forth and tried our hardest to showcase how the girls were able to do this, through personal progress, as well as in their personal lives.
One of my favorite parts of the evening was the Pie Night Video. We gave our YW a three month time frame to pass off as many PP experiences as they could and each experience equaled one pie, which they could pie the YW presidency with on our designated combined activity. I begged and begged Justin to video the activity and he created a masterpiece for our event.
The girls loved watching the video.. it provided a light and fun aspect to our evening.
Justin is SO talented. Here's a link to it:
Justin is SO talented. Here's a link to it:
I felt really strongly that the young women needed to be recognized for the efforts they made outside of YWs and church as well. We contacted their families and asked them to share stories with us about how their daughters were able to 'arise and shine forth' at home, at school or amongst friends. I then compiled these stories into a booklet, along with a letter from our presidency. I wanted each young woman to feel that her efforts were noticed and that they are so loved by their parents. Gathering the stories was a nightmare, but the end product was fabulous and hopefully a keepsake that these YW will cherish for years to come.
(cover of their booklet- found on Pinterest)
Gathering displays from our YW always proves to be quite the task. The display table consisted of framed pictures of each YW, descriptions of their displays, name cards, and their items. Our other counselor, Vanessa did a fabulous job with decorations-- lanterns, lights, moss, rocks, pine cones... it was really earthy and fabulous!
The program consisted of desserts and displays, I spoke then presented our Pie video presentation, then one of our laurels spoke, followed by Bro. Peck. The talks were perfect and so in tune! The girls learned more about their light and how the challenges they face here in Utah are different that what others face. They are surrounded by so many 'lights' that they often feel unnoticed. Bro. Peck was so motivational about helping each of them feel of their individual worth. It was beyond perfect.
I also taught the YW a new song.. which I always do.. and they concluded the evening with it.
It was beyond fabulous! The spirit was SO strong.
It was beyond fabulous! The spirit was SO strong.
I'm beyond, beyond, beyond excited that this event is done. It was so much work and honestly consumed my life. But, it was worth it. It always is. I regret not taking any pictures that night, but I did have a lot going on. :)
I'm so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who makes what we have enough and turns our efforts into something far greater than we could ever accomplish on our own.
These YW are remarkable in all that they set their mind to
and we had a wonderful evening celebrating just that.
I'm so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who makes what we have enough and turns our efforts into something far greater than we could ever accomplish on our own.
These YW are remarkable in all that they set their mind to
and we had a wonderful evening celebrating just that.
No comments:
Post a Comment