I was released as Young Women's President last month. It was definitely bittersweet. It was time for a change, but I have REALLY missed serving those girls. I literally have felt a void in my life; I am trying to find new ways to serve others to attempt to fill that part of my heart that seems to be missing. I cannot even begin to explain the growth that I have experienced during my time with the young women. My testimony is stronger than ever. The last week in young womens, I gave each of the girls a note explaining my love to them and telling them of their potential. I SO hope the girls live up to the great potential we, as a presidency, can see in them. Chelsea posted this on Instagram...it meant so much to me.
I feel so honored to have worked with Brittany Hiatt, Lisa Meiling, Lindsey Christiansen, Kris Larsen, and Carly Maw in my presidency. They are all incredible women. I also love Amber Lignell, our camp director, as well as the new YW president. She will do an incredible job.
I was able to speak in sacrament meeting a couple weeks ago. They asked me to speak on strengthening the testimonies of the young women. I decided to add the talk to this post since it describes so well how I have felt over the past few years serving in young womens:
For the past five years I have had the incredible opportunity to work with the young women of the Silvercrest ward. I started out as the sports director, and worked my way up the ladder until I finally reached the top! And what a wonderful place that was to be. It has been so fun to watch cute little beehives grow into strong, beautiful Laurels with burning testimonies.
There are many different aspects of the YW program… Each of them play a role in the development of these burning testimonies in each individual young woman.
According to the church handbook, the purpose of the young women organization is to help each young woman be worthy to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple. To accomplish this purpose, young women leaders guide each young woman in accomplishing the following objectives:
#1 Understand her identity as a daughter of God
Each week in opening exercises we recite the young women's theme. It reads,
We are daughters of our heavenly father who loves us and we love him. We will stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places as we strive to live the young women values which are: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue. We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.
By reciting the words to this beautiful theme each week, the girls are reminded that they are indeed a daughter of their Heavenly Father. By striving to live the young women's values each day, the girls feel of their Heavenly Father's love and gain a greater love for Him as well.
By allowing themselves to feel and know that they are a daughter of God, they have the ability to make wise choices each day for they know that he is watching over them. One young woman said about the YW program,
"I think the young women's program has helped me to stay on the right path as I try to figure out school and my social life. It has encouraged me to find out for myself what the gospel is to me. And now I have a very strong testimony of the Gospel and I think it all started with the YW program."
#2 Understand and keep her baptismal covenants
When we were baptized, we entered into a covenant with God. We promised to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ, always remember him, keep his Commandments, and serve him to the end. We renew this covenant each time we partake of the sacrament.
Baptism is the first saving ordinance of the gospel. The ordinances of baptism and confirmation are the gate through which all who seek eternal life must enter. Honoring our baptismal covenants leads to, and is an important part of, making the covenants associated with all of the other saving ordinances on the path to eternal life.
The young women, and each of us, have a chance to come to sacrament meeting every Sunday to renew these sacred covenants… This is not only important to show Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that we will remember Him, but it prepares us all to make additional covenants with the Lord.
Just as the young women theme states, by acting upon the eight values: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity, and virtue, the young women will become more fully prepared to not only strengthen home and family, but to make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.
#3 Be worthy by obeying the commandments and living gospel standards
Each Wednesday we have mutual night. Mutual activities provide the youth with a variety of opportunities to serve others and to develop spiritually, socially, physically and intellectually. It is a fabulous night to invite those who may be less active or investigating the church. What I love about mutual is that it provides the young women and young men a safe environment to socialize with those who have their same standards and allow them the opportunity to share testimony through action. I don't believe that there is anything more influential to an adolescent than the influence of their friends. Brayden Eaton shared with me how her fellow young women have helped her come to know the Savior.
She said, "Christ is real… Sometimes I would be saying a prayer and start to think that maybe there really isn't anybody here with me, but after being with all the young women and hearing what they had to say I realized that no matter what happens Christ will always be there."
#4 Prepare for her divine roles as a daughter, wife, mother and leader
The personal progress program uses the young women values to help them understand more fully who they are, why they are here on earth, and what they should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day they will go to the temple to make sacred covenants. It will help them prepare for their future roles as a faithful woman, wife, mother, and a leader in God's kingdom. Participating in personal progress teaches the girls to make commitments, carry them out, and report their progress to a parent or leader. The patterns established while working on personal progress, such as prayer, scripture study, service, and journal keeping will become personal daily habits. These habits will strengthen their testimony and help them learn and improve throughout their life.
In the November 2006 new era, Jan Pinborough shares five reasons to love personal progress. My favorite reason is that... it can change the world. It takes at least 70 hours to complete the value project requirements in the personal progress program. There are about 435,000 young women in the church today. If each one completed the program, they would collectively spend more than 30 million hours doing good in their homes and communities. That's roughly a total of 1.25 million days or about 3400 years.
Mosiah chapter 2 verse 17 reads "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. " President Spencer W Kimball said, "Perhaps the most essential godlike quality is that of compassion and love – compassion shown forth in service to others, unselfishness, that ultimate expression of concern for others we call love. Wherever our Father's children magnify their opportunities for loving service, they are learning to become more like Him.
#5 Receive, recognize, and rely on the promptings of the Holy Ghost
Each summer the young women have an opportunity to attend girls camp. They sleep in tents, fight mosquitoes, learn life saving skills and first aid, and have to leave boys and cell phones behind for 5 whole days!
Sister Elaine S Dalton said "Young Women camp is an opportunity for leaders to plant the gospel deep into hearts. It provides an opportunity to develop trusting relationships, provide spiritual experiences, teach skills, develop leadership and have fun. Camp takes a young woman out of the noise of the world. It takes her away from a very technologically connected world into nature where she can connect with her peers, her leaders and herself. Most important, camp allows each young woman to be still and connect with the Spirit and her Father in Heaven.
When asked her feelings about girls camp, Sydnie Meiling said, I think that girls camp has helped me a lot. I look forward to every year. I feel closer to the spirit when I go to camp. It's nice because we are really close to nature and we don't have any distractions.
I would bet that if you asked any young woman her favorite part of camp, she would answer--- testimony meeting. The last evening at girls camp, testimony meeting is held around the campfire. After being removed from the world all week, the camaraderie between the girls is incredible, and the spirit is so strong. The girls each take turns testifying of the truthfulness of the gospel and their love for the savior. Spending time amongst Heavenly father's beautiful earthly creations, provides the girls the ability to be sensitive to the spirit and they recognize the role of the Holy Ghost in their lives. It is such a wonderful way to remind them that the Holy Ghost can be their constant companion. As they head back home and start school just a few weeks later, they are more in tune with the spirit and have the ability to let the Holy Ghost help them make important decisions as they enter the temptations of the world once more.
#6 Strengthen her faith in and testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
This past year, we have been able to initiate the new "come follow me "teaching plan. The idea behind the revision is to teach the gospel in the Savior's way. Think about how the Savior taught his disciples… he encouraged their participation. He often times taught in parables and asked them to find the meaning behind what he was teaching. Lessons taught were much more valuable and easy to be remembered . We teach the youth in the same manner. The girls have had a chance to participate much more in the lessons… they may prepare something ahead of time, receive a talk in the lesson, read, and ponder their thoughts on the subject and then share with the rest of the class, and share stories and their testimonies each week. We even went as far as allowing them to teach the entire lesson. It may have been a rough start, but the girls are catching on quickly and learning so much. They are learning to be prepared, and to listen to the Spirit as to the things they should teach.
The last week that I was able to attend young women's, two beehives taught the entire lesson. Emma Kofoed and Annee Burton. I was overwhelmed by their level of preparation. As I sat near the front, I noticed they had notes, highlighted talks, quotes to share, and were prepared with questions to encourage participation. They did an incredible job… I was so proud of both of them.
This is what Annee had to say about her experience… I have loved teaching the lessons in church. When I first had to teach, I was so stressed out by it-I didn't touch it until Sunday morning! But when I got to teach the second time, I actually got a little excited. I read the talk the very next day and worked on preparing it before Sunday. It was an amazing lesson. I loved it so much. The first time I taught a lesson, I pulled out some papers in my lesson and saw that one of them had been written on. It was a note from Emilee wishing me good luck and telling me how well I was going to do. It gave me a burst of energy to finish my lesson. Once I had finished, I realize how lucky I was to have a sister that would do that for me. Then I also realized how lucky I was to have the Holy Ghost that would inspire Emilee to do that for me.
This is what Emilee had to say about the recent change to the lesson plans:
"Young women's has strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ in giving me an opportunity to learn more about the gospel in young women's lessons. The new "come follow me" learning concept has given the young women opportunity to teach and somehow that gets us talking a little more in our lessons.... I guess we feel some sort of sympathy now for whoever is teaching a the lesson and so we feel a responsibility to participate- and this participation makes the lessons so enjoyable. It's great when noon hits and we realized we've only gotten through half of the lesson! The young women get so much more involved, and because of this, we are becoming closer to Christ together, which I think is even better than each of us coming closer to Christ individually."
By helping the girls to accomplish all of these objectives, their testimonies have grown immensely. However, I don't think anybody's testimony has grown quite like my own.
When I first received the call to become YW president, I felt extremely overwhelmed that I was responsible to fix all of the girls' problems be it at home or school, with family or friends, or with a struggling testimony…. It was easy to feel discouraged. About a year or so into the calling, I had an appointment to renew my temple recommend. I had to meet with one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency. He asked how our young women program was going and asked if I felt that my calling was a burden or a blessing. "Both," I answered. He then asked how my testimony has changed in the past year. With the young women in mind, I became very emotional. I expressed to him how I had come to know that the burden that I once felt was not my burden to bear...I had come to learn over time that it is not my responsibility to save these girls. Our Savior Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price and he was the one to carry their burden. I was simply called to help guide them while they are here on earth so that they may one day return to their Father in Heaven.
I am so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ. He knows us, and loves us. He suffered for all of our sins and knows our pains, trials, and sorrows. He can and will carry our burdens if we only let Him. I am so thankful for the calling that I was allowed to have and the growth that it provided me. I love each of these girls so much and pray that their testimonies of the Gospel may only be strengthened as they move forward.
As I have been preparing for my new calling as primary pianist, I have been practicing a song called "He Sent His Son."
How could the father tell the world of love and tenderness? He sent his son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness. How could the father show the world of the pathway we should go? He sent his son to walk with man on earth, that we may know. How could the father tell the world of sacrifice, of death? He sent his son to die for us and rise with living breath. What does The father ask of us? What do the Scriptures say? Have faith, have hope, live like his son, help others on their way. What does he ask? Live like his son.
I know that by living as the Savior would each day, we will become more like him and more prepared to meet our Father in Heaven one day.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
