Inkablinka

We are giving “cupcake socks” to our young women this year for birthdays. I saw this idea first at Courtney’s All Things Bright and Beautiful, who first saw it on Sugardoodle, and I just modified it to go with the theme this year. Go on over to Courtney’s blog to see how to assemble the socks – she explains it perfectly.

This is how they look all packaged up in a cellophane bag.

And this is the card that goes with it. You can download it here.

Here is another activity inspired from a 2014 New Era magazine article. This time we are focusing on coming unto Christ through principles found in the Duty to God program.

We began our evening all together, introduced the 2014 mutual theme, and gave everyone the card shown above. (I had meant to bring large envelopes or clear page protectors for they youth to collect all their handouts – but I forgot – and regretted not having something to keep all their printouts in!) We explained that they would be going through a series of workshops that night that would help them better understand these principles and how they help us come unto Christ.

Our young men president began the evening with a short video and discussion on how scripture study affects our lives. We had the following scripture study chart printed on cardstock for them to take home:

We then split the youth into 4 groups, and had them rotate through 4 different 8-minute long workshops. For “Live Worthily”, we had new For the Strength of Youth books for everyone and a checklist, so they could quickly see and assess how they are living Church standards.

The Understand Doctrine class was led by our full time missionaries. They had the following handout and talked about studying and applying gospel knowledge.

Another of our young men leaders talked about how priesthood ordinances bring us unto Christ – no handout for this one.

I led the workshop on service, and had several laptops set up to learn about indexing. We first watched this video, then did the FamilySearch test drive to give them a taste of what indexing is like. One of the computers had an active batch downloaded that the youth could help decipher once they had done the test drive.

We all met up again in one big group for the last workshop on inviting all to come unto Christ. We had a discussion after presenting this idea found on Sugardoodle:

Object lesson: Set up a row of dominoes. Place them on end just far enough apart so that if one is knocked down, it will knock down the next one. As you knock the first domino down, ask them to observe the chain reaction. Call attention to the effect of one domino upon all the others. Explain that we too may affect the lives of others (family and friends) in a chain reaction. By sharing the gospel with even one person, we sometimes touch the lives of many others.

Our refreshments were these cane cookies, resembling shepherd’s crooks, and meant to be a reminder that  Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and calls to us, his beloved sheep to come unto Him. These cookies are delicious, and the recipe found at swankyrecipes.com is below:

Ingredients

• 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon brown food coloring

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl fitted with an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar just until creamy. Separate eggs and add the egg yolks. Add vanilla and almond extracts and beat until combined. Sift flour mixture then add the flour mixture, in three additions, and beat until you have a smooth dough.
2. Remove half of the dough from the mixing bowl. To the remaining half add the brown food coloring and beat on low speed until well blended. If you find the dough too soft, cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
3. Take a walnut sized piece of red dough and a walnut sized piece of white dough. Separately, roll each color on a lightly floured surface, into a 4-5 inch (10-12.5 cm) long rope. Place the two ropes side by side, gently press together, and twist the two ropes to form a spiral. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. Shape each cookie into a cane shape by bending one end into a hook shape. (If you find the cookies a little soft, place the baking sheet (with the unbaked cookies) in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before baking.)
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and place rack in center of oven.
5. Bake cookies for about 8 -10 minutes or until set and the edges of the cookies are just starting to brown. Do not over bake. Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on baking sheet.
6. Cookies may be stored in an airtight container for up to a week. May be kept in an airtight container in freezer for up to a month.

You can download all my handouts for this activity here, and following is our schedule for the evening:

7 p.m. Welcome and opening exercises
7:10 – 7:20 Introduction to evening and topic #1 -youth all together,
then split youth into 4 groups and rotate through workshops
7:25 – 7:33 Rotate through workshops 2 – 5
7:35 – 7:43 Rotate through workshops 2 – 5
7:45 – 7:53 Rotate through workshops 2 – 5
7:55 – 8:03 Rotate through workshops 2 – 5
(8 minutes each with 2 minutes in between to change rooms/tables)
8:05 – 8:15 Topic #6 all together, Conclusion and refreshments

 Workshops – 8 minutes each:
1. Pray and Study the Scriptures 
(How to pray often and meaningfully, scripture reading charts, ideas for marking, memorizing, applying) 
 2. Live Worthily (Live standards in FTSOY – compare your life today to them, and adjust accordingly)
 3. Understand Doctrine (how to do a scripture study outline)
 4. Administer / Accept Priesthood Ordinances (sacrament, patriarchal blessings, prepare for temple)
 5. Serve Others (indexing – set up laptops)
 6. Invite All to Come unto Christ (Invite all to come unto Christ—beginning with your own family.)