Perfecting the Saints — One Lesson at a Time
I have always loved music, and I’ve been blessed to have many opportunities to serve Heavenly Father through music. Recently the church published online new lyrics which Janice Kapp Perry wrote for “As Sisters in Zion,” in 2013. Now retitled “The Sist…
Summer is great for a lot of things, and one of those things is Personal Progress. Quite a few people are choosing to do the Summer Personal Progress Challenge, which makes me so happy! Inspired by that, I got thinking about some creative ways one co…
As the summer is approaching I’ve been thinking about goals. One goal of mine is to read the entire Old Testament over the summer. It’s a pretty lofty aspiration, but if I’m focused and organized it’s certainly achievable.
I recently shared my Book of Mormon reading chart, to overwhelming response, and so I got started creating reading charts for all the other standard works. Of course, with 39 books in the Old Testament, the circular design I used would be quite a bit more complicated (though I may have found a way around that—it might just take a while).
Instead I went with a fairly simple design with rows of bubbles. They’re designed the be fairly easy on the eyes, with a clear font and fun colors.
In total there are 6 different charts. Book of Mormon & Doctrine and Covenants, and two each for the Old and New Testament. The first set of Testaments also includes portions of the Pearl of Great Price which are considered extensions of these records. Because of this I didn’t create a Pearl of Great Price chart, but if there’s interest I might consider making one.
The charts come in one .zip file containing 6 PDFs.
One thing I love almost as much as the Book of Mormon itself are creative reading charts. There are SO MANY out there, and there’s just something about an empty chart that entices me to get reading. I literally have an entire Pinterest board devoted to reading charts.
My stake is challenging all of its members to read the Book of Mormon by July 1st, and I must say that I’ve fallen far behind. So I decided to get my creative energy flowing and come up with a reading chart, and I must say I’m pretty proud of the result.
I tried a bunch of different styles, but ultimately decided to make a target-style chart, with a ring for each book. As I was making it, I really liked the idea of a target, because not only is reading the Book of Mormon an important goal to aim for, it also helps us achieve our other goals and keeps us centered on Christ.
I also went back and updated the Book of Mormon goal-setting chart I made a year ago after realizing that it was actually pretty hard to read, and not very cohesive with most of the designs of this website.
You can download PDFs of both charts in either black and white or color.
And as a bonus I made a little handout saying “Don’t Miss the Mark—Read the Book of Mormon” to tie with the idea of aiming at a target, which can hopefully help motivate young women who are working on reading the Book of Mormon.
Download Reading Chart in Color
Download Reading Chart in Black and White
Download Goal Setting Chart in Color
Download Goal Setting Chart in Black and White
I’ve been getting really excited about this Summer Personal Progress Challenge. After almost completing it last year, I’ve seen ways it could be improved and built upon. One thing I’ve done is create a week-by-week study packet. Each week has a theme …
My daughter who is about to move up from the Beehive class to the Mia Maid class came up with this adorable necklace design. It’s simple, classy, and easy to make. She’s awesome! Step One: Assemble Your Materials For this project you’ll need adhesive, pliers one Mia Maid Rose Cabochon Pendant, one jewelry bail, and one jewelry cord. (The rose cabochon, jewelry bail, and jewelry cord are available in our…
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I loved General Conference! It was so inspiring and exciting. I took so many notes that by the last session my ink-stained fingers were cramped and twitching, but the rest of me was on top of the world! Thanks to the miracle of the internet, a…
I think it’s pretty evident that Personal Progress and General Conference go together better than Peanut Butter & Chocolate! Personal Progress is designed to help us draw closer to Christ and become like Him, and General Conference offers us specific revelation to help us do that!
Of course we know that General Conference serves as a great value project, but I went through the value experiences and found quite a few that include studying the teaching found in General Conference.
The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Learn about faith from the scriptures and living prophets. Read Hebrews 11; Alma 32:17–43; Ether 12:6–22; and Joseph Smith—History 1:11–20. Read two general conference talks on faith. Exercise your own faith by establishing a habit of prayer in your life. Begin by regularly saying your morning and evening prayers. After three weeks of following this pattern, discuss with a parent or leader what you have learned about faith and how daily personal prayer has strengthened your faith. In your journal express your feelings about faith and prayer.
As a young woman you are blessed with divine feminine qualities. Increase your understanding of and appreciation for womanhood. Read Proverbs 31:10–31 and two talks on womanhood from a conference issue of the Church magazines. Review what “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” says about being a wife and a mother. Then ask your mother or another mother you admire what she thinks are important attributes for being a mother. List the attributes in your journal. Then choose one of those attributes and strive to develop it. After two weeks report your success to a parent or leader.
Learn about the importance of patriarchal blessings by studying about them in True to the Faith and recent conference talks. Find out why they are given and who can give them. Discuss with a parent or Church leader how to prepare to receive a patriarchal blessing and how it can teach you of your worth and identity and be a guide throughout your life. If you have not received your blessing, prepare to receive it.
Select a gospel principle you would like to understand better (for example, faith, repentance, charity, eternal families, or baptismal covenants). Read scriptures and the words of latter-day prophets that relate to the principle. Prepare a five-minute talk on the subject and give the talk in a sacrament meeting, in a Young Women meeting, to your family, or to your class. Record in your journal how you can apply this gospel principle in your life.
ANY Choice and Accountability Experience
In my opinion, it seems like the majority of conference talks touch on the topics covered in these experiences, so it should be easy to find one to correlate with the experience of your choice!
Teach a lesson about service in family home evening or in another setting. Use pictures, music, examples [from General Conference], or demonstrations in your lesson. You may want to use the manual Teaching, No Greater Call as a resource.
List the issues, trends, and problems that weaken the family. Read the First Presidency message, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”, and the section on family in For the Strength of Youth. Then research in the Church magazines the counsel of those whom we sustain as prophets, seers, and revelators. Write in your journal your plan to strengthen your present family and the values and traditions you want to establish with your future family.
ANY Virtue Experience
As with Choice and Accountability, so many talks touch on the topics discussed in the value of Virtue, so there should be no problem finding one that fits!
I’ll admit that I’m not a huge Pinterest person— despite the fact that it appears otherwise—but every once in a while I’ll find something that really makes me smile. One thing I’ve seen abundantly over the past few weeks are several handouts with the phrase “Make the Most of General Conference” attached to a packet of M&M’s.
I thought the idea was so cute that it got me thinking of creating a companion handout. Another thing I’ve seen are poems using M&M’s, rotating it to make a 3, a W, and an E, each standing for something. I love President Uchtdorf’s advice for conference preparation, where he lists three things we can do, so I just sort of combined the two ideas and the result is a cute, fun handout with 3 Ways to Enjoy General Conference.
And even though I adore all the other handouts I’ve encountered, I really wanted cohesion, so I created my own “Make the Most” handout, designed to be similar to an actual M&M’s package.
Download both handouts full size here
Download “3 Ways to Enjoy General Conference” quarter size here
Download “Make the Most of General Conference” quarter size here
I’m not a big history person, because names and dates just don’t stick with me, try as I might. Nevertheless, I love stories about people who have done their part to influence change for good in the world. I think this is one reason why I love church and family history so much—because I can directly see the results of what they’ve done in my everyday life, because if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. You could say that about any area of history, but it’s these focuses where the Spirit aids me in my study most of all.
Not long ago I was thinking about the women in the history of the church, and specifically the young women. We don’t hear a lot about them, so I decided to go digging and research the history of the Young Women’s organization. I was actually surprised by the amount of information I was able to find, and how much of it is unfamiliar to most young women and leaders. I saw this as an opportunity to share the small insights I found about the history of the Young Women’s organization.
I think that reading through all this information could be fun in a mutual activity, a fireside, or could possibly be used as the basis of Girl’s Camp! If anyone else is as intrigued as I was, I would encourage you to click through the sources at the end, because there are some really unique gems buried in there!
1843 – The Young Gentlemen’s and Young Ladies Relief Society of Nauvoo was developed by youth in Nauvoo under Heber C. Kimball’s guidance and Joseph Smith’s support. It began as casual social meetings, and eventually grew, having the Prophet speak to them on at least one occasion.
1869 – Brigham Young holds a meeting with his daughters, asking them to “retrench from extravagance in dress, in eating, and even in speech.”
1870 – The Young Ladies’ Department of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Association is formally organized.
1877 – The Name of the organization is officially changed to the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association.
1880 – Elmina S. Taylor is called by John Taylor as the general president of the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association
1893 – Tuesday evening is designated as Mutual night.
1904 – Martha Horne Tingey is called as general president.
1912 – Liberty Stake held the first summer camp for Young Ladies.
1913 – Church introduces Beehive Girls program for young women 14 and up. It covered seven fields: Religion, Home, Health, Domestic Arts, Out of Doors, Business, and Public Service.
The Program included 3 ranks: Builders of the Hive, Gatherers of the Honey, and Keeper of the Bees. To achieve each rank, Girls had to complete at least 50 selected requirements from over 300 options.
Beehive Girls watchword was Womanho. “Wo” stood for work, “man” for mankind, and “ho” for home.
1922 – Gold and green become official MIA colors.
1929 – Ruth May Fox is called as general president.
Church publishes the Improvement Era.
1936 – First Churchwide dance festival.
1937 – Lucy Grant Cannon is called as general president.
1940 – Golden Gleaner award introduced for young women over eighteen.
1943 – Busy Bee Girl character illustrations introduced to Beehive Girls program.
Class symbols of beehive, rose, laurel, and sheaf of wheat introduced.
1948 – Bertha Stone Reeder is called as general president.
1950 – Class names and age-groups updated
Beehives: 12-13
Mia Maids: 14-15
Junior Gleaners: 16-17
Gleaners: 18-24
Felt seals would mark progress on a blue sash, called a bandlo.
1959 – Junior Gleaners replaced by Laurels
1961 – Florence Smith Jacobsen is called as general president.
1965 – For the Strength of Youth is published
1971 – The New Era is published for Youth.
(One event I forgot to add was the release of an updated version of For the Strength of Youth in 1972. And while I couldn’t obtain an image of the original New Era cover, it was very similar in style to the cover of For the Strength of Youth shown.)
1972 – Ruth Hardy Funk is called as general president.
YWMIA becomes a priesthood auxiliary.
1977 – My Personal Progress program introduced with six areas of focus:
1. Spiritual Awareness
2. Homemaking Arts
3. Service and Compassion
4. Recreation and the World of Nature
5. Cultural Arts and Education
6. Personal and Social Refinement
1978 – Elaine Anderson Cannon is called as general president
First general women’s meeting.
1980 – Sunday lessons begin with meeting schedule consolidation.
1984 – Ardeth Greene Kapp is called as general president.
1985 – First Young Women broadcast.
Motto “Stand for Truth and Righteousness” added.
1987 – Young Women Theme and 7 values and colors introduced:
Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity
New medallion for Young Womanhood recognition.
1990 – New For the Strength of Youth pamphlet released.
1992 – Janette Callister Hales Beckham is called as general president.
1993 – New Camp Manual published, focusing of Young Women values.
1994 – 125th anniversary of Young Women program celebrated.
1997 – Margaret Dyreng Nadauld is called as general president.
2002 – Personal Progress is updated
New For the Strength of Youth pamphlet released
“strengthen home and family added to the Theme.
Susan Winder Tanner is called as general president.
2004 – LDS.ORG Young Women site launched.
2006 – Church Camp properties are purchased and developed.
2008 – Elaine S. Dalton is called as general president.
2009 – Virtue added as eith Young Women value.
Young Women Medallion redesigned.
Honor Bee charm added to Personal Progress
(another thing I left off due to forgetfulness—Personal Progress online (in 2010 I believe…))
2012 – 100th anniversary of Young Women Camp
New For the Strength of Youth pamphlet released.
2013 – Bonnie Lee Green Oscarson is called as general president.
Come, Follow Me curriculum for Youth introduced
General Women’s Meeting for women and girls 8+ replaces Young Women and Relief Society Broadcast.
SOURCES:
http://www.mormonshare.com/young-women/history-of-the-young-women-organization
https://www.lds.org/ensign/print/1977/08/program-changes-highlight-1977-regional-meetings
https://www.lds.org/liahona/1987/02/together-in-righteousness
http://www.vintagekidstuff.com/beehive/beehive.html
https://archive.org/details/handbookforbeehi03unse
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2008/06/presidents-of-the-young-women-organization-through-the-years
https://www.lds.org/new-era/2003/11/134-years-young
http://beginningsnew.blogspot.com/search/label/Friday%20Flashback
https://www.lds.org/callings/young-women/leader-resources/history/timeline-of-young-women-history
https://www.lds.org/callings/young-women/leader-resources/history/history-of-young-women-recognition
The entire infographic is below, but because of the size it’s uploading in very poor quality. I’m attempting to fix that, but in the mean time if you click on it you can see it in high quality.
As fun as egg hunts and mysterious bunnies are, the highlight of my early Spring holiday celebration is General Conference—which happens to fall on Easter weekend, so it’s the best of both worlds!
Every six months I try to see what I can do to get the most out of General Conference. This year I’m really trying to get a head start on the spiritual preparation by studying previous talks and pondering questions I’ve had in the months since.
Doing so has gotten me SO excited that I wanted to create and share this study packet. In years past I’ve done things similarly, writing out questions beforehand, and evaluating the inspiration I receive between sessions. Hopefully my system proves to be helpful to other young women!
General Conference time is an excellent time to think about Personal Progress and set goals again! To help you get in a Personal Progress mindset, there’s Personal Progress BINGO, or better yet you could create a whole General Conference Value Project!
To download the General Conference Study Packet PDF, click here.
I LOVE General Conference, and I especially love the General Women’s Session. I’m excited that now it’s being formally recognized as an official session of Conference, because it’s always been that way in my mind. In years past I’ve had some years when the Young Women would have a big party, and others when they’d forget about it completely.
In an effort to solve this predicament of forgetfulness, I’ve made super simple invitations that wards can distribute to the Young Women, Relief Society, and Primary as a reminder to the girls and women. It could be especially meaningful if the Young Women personally invite the Primary girls.
I’ve made them in three different color schemes—teal and pink, green and lavender, & cranberry and gold—and with four different times because of time zone differences, because some wards will hold a dinner beforehand.
The invitations are designed to be printed 4 to a sheet. One .zip file includes 12 different invitations (3 colors x 4 time zones) in 3 formats—JPG (300dpi), PDF (4 to a sheet), and full sheet PDF.
If you email [email protected] I will happily customize times, but not location (with some exceptions) or add further information.
THIS WEBSITE WILL CEASE OPERATIONS ON DEC 31, 2018.
We are moving to http://NoBoringLessons.com/ where you can find Come Follow Me Lesson ideas for the new 2019 curriculum Dismiss
