We are highlighting the virtue of Faith in our young women group in May. As the girls come up each Sunday and share what they’ve worked on in their Personal Progress, they can grab a treat from our Arise and Shine Forth Hot Air Balloon Treat Basket.
I wrapped 3 Muskateers Minis in faith wrappers, then made a paper hot air balloon by printing a couple shapes, adding glue and glitter, then sandwiching a white pencil between them.
You can see previous personal progress incentives here.
I’ve made this handout to go with the YW lesson 19 about Personal Records. Most of these quotes as well as the majority of my lesson material is coming from the additional resources. If you’d like to see my basic plan, you can download it here. You can download the handout here.
At one point in my lesson I’m sharing some blessings to be gained through journal writing. I simply cut them into strips and let an end stick out of this cute little journal. I’ll have the girls pull them out one at a time as we discuss them.
Susan, from Mothers Who Know, gave some great tips on preparing a lesson. I plan on reviewing her list as I finalize my lesson, and add questions to encourage thoughts and discussion.
The May 2012 Visiting Teaching message is to be selected from the talks in our most recent General Conference. I was drawn to Elder Richard G. Scott’s talk, How to Obtain Revelation and Inspiration for Your Personal Life. He talks about the Holy Ghost guiding us in our mortal journey, and then gave several patterns and principles to follow. It reminded me of following a map, with explicit directions on how to arrive safely at our destination – that of happiness through divine guidance.
With that in mind, I adapted a free printable game to help discuss Elder Scott’s remarks. I set the game up for one player – so the sister we visit could play the game, while my companion or myself refers to a list of things that help or detract from us receiving heavenly help. To play the game you rotate the squares of paper to make a path towards the “Midpoint Card” and back home again. To share with my sisters I’ve printed the game on colored cardstock, cut it, then put into a bag with 2 buttons as markers. This would also be a great future Family Home Evening lesson, and is easily adapted to any topic.
We are having an MTC activity for our next combined youth activity. We are using a lot of ideas from Sisters in Zion’s post, and I thought I’d share a few printables I’ve made to go along with it. First, having been inspired here, I made this handout of things to write in a letter to a missionary, along with some other nice tips. There will be copies on the letter-writing tables at the activity, as well as attached to the “care packages” filled with candy for the youth.
These are the invites/mission call letters we are sending to the youth. We are including a page showing the dress and grooming guidelines for missionaries, which you can find here.
The Young Women manual 1 lesson 17 is about the purpose of covenants and ordinances. One of the suggested references for this lesson is “The Power of Covenants” by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. This happens to be the talk I selected in 2009 to share as a general conference visiting teaching message. You can view the original post here. I have adapted it for this lesson with my class of Mia Maids and Laurels.
I’ll begin the lesson by showing my “covenant” visual aid. These are two empty #10 cans that I’ve covered with paper. The top can symbolizes God’s promise to sustain, sanctify, and exalt us. The bottom can is our commitment to serve God and keep His commandments. They are bound together by a ribbon which represents a covenant: a divine agreement between God and man, an accord whose terms are set by God.
I will then explain that there is a great power inherent to making and keeping covenants. They are essential steps to returning to our Heavenly Father, as well as being the source of great moral and spiritual power; “the power to smile through hardships, to convert tribulation into triumph, to “be anxiously engaged in a good cause, … and bring to pass much righteousness”. The flowers inside the cans represent this power.
To make this bouquet of “flower power”, download and print this file. Each “petal” has a point from Elder Christofferson’s talk or a scripture to discuss. Cut the petal strips, then glue the ends together. Punch or cut a 1″ yellow circle, then punch a hole in it’s center with a mini hole punch. Glue the title and 3 main points to the underside of the circle as shown above. Then glue the remaining petals in between.
Take a white chocolate Lindt truffle (YUM!) and attach to 1/2 length of stem wire with florist tape – keeping it especially snug at the top so the truffle doesn’t droop.
Then slide the wire through the hole in the paper daisy and carefully scooch it just underneath the truffle. It’s a tight fit. I put a foam block in the bottom of the can to hold the flowers, and will have each young woman pick one to use as a reference as we continue the lesson.
I am teaching the lesson for our young women tomorrow on Easter Sunday. I will start out by passing out the following pictures from the Gospel Art Kit, then have young women come up one at a time to put the picture on the board with a magnet and share some thoughts about it. We will then read a scripture and/or sing a song.
Triumphal Entry
Jesus and His disciples were traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. How was Jesus greeted?
After Jesus had cleansed His holy house, He healed the blind and the lame who came to Him there. Children, seeing what Jesus had done, cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David”
Read: Matt 21:12-15
Perhaps sing “Hosanna” again
The Last Supper
What happened during the Last Supper? What do you think Christ was thinking/feeling?
We will then watch this video, and share a final quote from this article:
“When the challenges of mortality come, and they come for all of us, it may seem hard to keep believing. At these times, only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Atonement can bring us peace, hope, and understanding. Only faith that He suffered for our sakes will give us the strength to endure to the end. When we gain this faith, we experience a mighty change of heart, and, like Enos, we become stronger and begin to feel a desire for the welfare of our brothers and sisters. We pray for them, that they too will be strengthened through faith on the Atonement of our Savior.”
Elder Hales said to all those whose souls are hungering for faith, “[I invite you] to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written” (see Ether 12:41). Let their witness that the Savior gave His life for you sink deep into your heart. Seek a witness of this truth through the Holy Ghost in prayer, and then see your faith strengthened as you joyfully meet the challenges of this mortal life and prepare for life eternal. Jesus Christ did come. He did live. And He will come again. That is a wonderful truth to carry in our hearts at [Easter] and all year long.”
source: artists helping children.org
If we have time, I would love to make some paper handprint lillies and explain their meaning: Before fully opening, lilies assume a trumpet shape. This shape represents God the Father calling his Son Jesus home, which is a great source of joy for Christians. The choice of white lilies indicates purity and freedom from sin through Jesus’ death on the cross.
I was given a request for a visiting teaching form – a way for sisters who don’t use the internet much, to report how they have contacted their sisters. I tweaked my personal progress form to make this visiting teaching report. Visiting teachers can mark any of the boxes that apply for ways in which they contacted their sisters, and can then write some details of their visit – things that they could share about what’s happening in her life, service that was given, etc. The forms can be kept on a table outside the Relief Society room, then dropped into a box or handed to a visiting teaching supervisor.
I’ve put together another general conference basket for my young women. I’ve actually made 2, along with some consolation prizes, for the girls to win after taking a young women broadcast “quiz”. Most of our young women attended the broadcast last week, but I’ve also let them know they can view it again here.
The basket has a binder with this printable on the front, and this printable on the back. Inside is this General Conference workbook, along with some of these pages. I made a pom pom pen, altered a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet (like Sister Dibb demonstrated during the YW broadcast), personalized a white mug, and added a few other goodies.
On the mug, I simply wrote, “General Conference warms my heart” with Sharpie paint pens. These are permanent oil-based pens – but not food safe, so a good idea to keep away from the rim. I then filled the mug with a couple hot cocoa packets.
The April 2012 Visiting Teaching Message is how to love, watch over and strengthen our sisters as visiting teachers. I’ve made some jelly bean bracelets to go along with the nine suggestions in this message:
To make the jelly bean bracelets, you’ll need jelly beans in pink, yellow, purple, green, red, orange, white and black. Brach’s has ’em. I used 12″ lengths of tutti frutti flavored dental floss to string them together, and a couple 6″ lengths of blue ribbon (to take the place of blue jelly beans) for the ties.
Thread the dental floss through a clean needle, and place the eye-end down on a cutting board. Carefully press a jelly bean onto the tip of the needle, then slide down the floss. I cleared the sticky pieces off the needle with my fingers after each pass.
Once all the jelly beans are strung, use a clean needle to pierce the floss through the end of a piece of ribbon.
Pull the needle off the floss, and tie the floss and ribbon together in a secure knot.
Do the same on both ends.
Then you can use the ribbons to tie the bracelet on with a pretty bow.
You can package your jelly bean bracelet in a ziplock baggie, with a bag topper stapled to the top. I printed the bag topper from anythingbutperfect.com. You can then print my colored list from this month’s message, and glue it to the front or back of the topper, however you prefer. Hope you enjoy! You can download the list below:
I wrapped 3 Muskateers Minis in faith wrappers, then made a paper hot air balloon by printing a couple shapes, adding glue and glitter, then sandwiching a white pencil between them.
