Young women who are Excellent

As most of you know i have a responsibility of working with Young Women in my church calling. I am the president over about 25 young women. Some care about church some dont some come when they can and some are just there. They are a good group of girls. They all have different quirks and have different challenges to work on. I do not envy them and the challenges they have in their lives. I have a few who are from broken homes, some who have very dysfunctional families, some who have the most supportive families. It is a difficult thing to wrangle all of them sometimes but they all have a genuine love for each other. They have different points of view but generally they find ways to support.

All that being said being called as the YW president entails so much work that i personally dont like doing. Next year i have to plan a Trek (this is where the youth re enact pioneer experiences by using handcarts, dressing in pioneer garb etc) for 3 days.Which we have to do a fund raise for...its expensive. Then I have to plan Girls Camp, I do have a Camp leader to do most of the work but we have to earn a good majority of the money for it. Also i have to plan a Stake Dance in February which is some more money out of a budget that is limited. As well as doing other activities with our girls during the year. I work hard to make sure we have a good time but be wise with our money.

The girls do what is called Personal Progress. We have a list of values they all work on. Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, Virtue. They work on these and get passed off as they finish projects within those values. At the end of the year we try to look back on what they have accomplished. My goal is to teach these girls to be great leaders and awesome women who can not only be great mothers but rely on themselves for what they need. Education is important, its important to be able to take care of themselves. I had 2 girls that wanted to set up our Young Women in Excellence. They did a great job and the other girls brought in their projects to show how awesome they are.

Here are photos of our values. They all have a color associated with them. The girls get lovely book marks with ribbons the color of their values. 

This table was our scripture of this year Doctrine and Covenants 4:2  O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.

 There is also a reminder that they are a child of God and loved.

One of my girls took the time to make all of these lovely decorations, her thought is that we are princesses in Gods eyes. We can use our values to be a daughter of God and be loved as such. The more we love ourselves, the more we have value. 

They did such a great job. We did this on a night when the church was open to visitors and they had to talk about what YW meant to them. I was so proud of them. I am amazed at how wonderful these girls are. From all walks of life they take the love of God and show it in everyday life. 

maybe i have some influence but they are doing the work....those girls are amazing.