New Beginnings

I just got pictures from our New Beginnings program for our young women group. It was such a fun night! We had a Survivor theme. (My friend Jen was the mastermind behind the theme). When the young women and parents arrived we split them up into teams (8 teams for each of the 8 values), and they each got a strip of fabric in their value color to tie around their arm. We talked about how the Young Women program and Personal Progress program will help the young women "survive" their teenage years and prepare them for the great things ahead. One of my counselors made these cute programs and took the time to burn all the edges. We introduced cute Taylor who will be turning twelve this year and joining us. We gave her a "survival kit" with things she'll need in the YW program. Each of our young women talked about a Personal Progress value by reading the value scripture and talking about how that particular value was important in their lives. (We have a small group of young women, so everyone got to participate). That was definitely the highlight of the night! After each girl talked about her value, she added her value box to the totem pole. And then we talked about how the totem pole represented the strong core of faith that will come from living by these values.

In between the girls' testimonies of each value, we had "challenge" questions that everyone completed with their team. Examples of challenge questions are "Who can approve a value project?", "How many hours should each value project take to complete?", "What is the new website for tracking Personal Progress online?". I think it was a fun way to go over some of these details with the girls and their parents. Refreshments were chocolate cupcakes with crushed oreos and gummy worms on top. Very Survivor-ish, right? This was such an awesome night to celebrate our girls and the Young Women program. I love serving with the young women!