Evening in Excellence

Last week we had Evening in Excellence and it was amazing. We used the part of the theme for the year which is "standard for the nations" and then tacked on the questions, "where will you go?". We talked about the new curriculum for the youth (I am so excited for this!), aiming high and reaching our potential, and being disciples of Christ.

Angela found these perfect globe ornaments and I brought all my maps.

Angela also did all the design work and it was perfect.

I got an old road atlas at the thrift store and tore out the pages to use as place mats.

That is a pen in that little arrow right there. For taking notes.

I also borrowed my neighbors globe collection (like I did this time) and it was perfect.

We had a baked potato/salad bar and had someone make us really yummy cupcakes. 

Here are all my girls (a few are missing) and they are all so wonderful. 

This is with the leaders too. I love the women I get to serve with. I feel really, really lucky.

Mimi made an amazing video with the help of Brooke and Shelby and I love it so much. She did such an amazing job and I made the mistake of putting my speaking part after the video. Needless to say I bawled through my whole talk. They probably all think I am nuts. But I love this gospel! I love these girls! And that makes me cry.

change is good

So now that I am done with blogging about my New York trip that happened at the end of September I can start blogging about all the other things that happened earlier in September. Because for some reason I am just really, really behind. And things aren't going to slow down so I need to pick up the pace and get caught up NOW! I mean just look at my list of things that are happening between now and the end of the year! And add in Young Women's lessons and activities and the fact that I am the president of the parent council at the kids school and yep, I am busy.

I am NOT complaining though. I am not even stressed because none of these things I am doing by myself (well, maybe the first three/four) and because all of these things make me extremely happy. I love parties, celebrations, and holidays but even more I love what is being celebrated. Except Halloween, I am not even sure what we are celebrating there. But it's fun.

i made envelopes out of wrapping paper

And now about the change that I mentioned in the title. They changed our ward boundaries by adding to it! They added two streets to our ward and a bonus is that Mimi lives on one of those streets! This is a huge answer to prayer for me. You see, I have been serving as the president of the Young Women's organization for over 2 years. We have very little youth, when they made the change we only have 3 girls that would come and 2 that didn't want to come anymore. I don't write that much about the experiences I have had with this calling because they are not my stories to tell, but boy do I have stories. I will say that most of the girls come from rough back grounds and broken homes and are carrying a lot of baggage because of it. I have tried to be a help and a support to them as much as I can and I hope I have been. But only have a few active girls has made it really hard to run the program the way it is meant to be run and more than anything I want these girls to have friends. 

angela made the labels and invites (of course) for a get to know you party we threw

When they added those two streets we gained 11 (11!!) new girls. And they are good, wonderful girls. Just like the ones I already had. Now we just have more! And I got more leaders, which means more help. It has been wonderful working with Jessica and Angela and it is wonderful to add 6 new leaders to the group. The change has made things busy and I was shaking like a leaf on Sunday to teach a lesson to a room full of girls and leaders, but it has been and will be so so good for me and the girls.

On Sunday we had our New Beginnings. That's where we have any girls that will be coming into Young Women's this year come and learn about Young Women's. We also talk about what we're going to be doing this year and try and  set some goals. This years mutual theme is "Arise and shine forth that thy light may be a standard to the nations'' D&C 115:5.

 I knew my friend Lauren's huge light bulbs (that she so graciously loaned me) would be perfect to use for a decoration and I also knew (because of her instagrams) that this other gal had a collection of globes that she so willingly let us borrow. Isn't that awesome.

Add Angela's amazing lettering skills combined with a chalkboard marker (found at Hobby Lobby) and you got some awesome decorations.

Jessica, Angela, and I all took turns talking about the light of Christ: how to get in our lives and how to share it with others. We used the idea of nations as a way to lead into our Young Women in Excellence that will be at the end of the year, which will be a world's fair. We are going to encourage the girls to learn about their ancestors and where they came from so that at the worlds fair we can share what we have learned with each other. 

We used the same boxes and ties that we used for Angela's baby shower and made a picnic lunch. That made it easy because we could  prepare it all beforehand. We set it up quickly and had New Beginnings during our Young Woman's hour of church. 




 I also made a little book for the girls made out of a bunch of different shapes of scrapbook paper and envelope (for photos and notes) all sewn together. It is for collecting information about their ancestors and where they've come from. 

I was pretty proud of myself for the hand lettering I did on the front. I am really trying to improve my handwriting skills. The whole thing turned out lovely and, as usual, it end up strengthening my testimony on the light of Christ and how it can shine in us.