Family History

Last night for mutual we worked on our family history. A few weeks ago on Sunday I handed out pedigree charts to all the girls and asked them to work on filling them in for this activity. Then I showed the girls how to use familysearch.org (note: there is also new.familysearch.org). Since we already had our log ins from our indexing activity, we didn't have much trouble getting on (just a few forgotten passwords). The girls were able to fill in some of their charts, but not all of it. With more help from their parents and grandparents, I think they will be able to. I told them that once they fill in their charts, we will be able to print a fan graphic, similar to this:

I also really like this idea from The Red Headed Hostess. The blog includes free printables.

I also challenged the girls to be able to find an ancestors name to take the temple to do baptisms for. I really hope they take this challenge because it is such a neat experience to do the work for your own ancestors. It really helps you feel close to them. (For those who may be wondering, the LDS church does proxy baptisms for the dead. You can learn more about that here).

This activity also allowed us to work on Personal Progress. Individual Worth #6 says:

    When you participate in family history, you come to understand your identity and individual worth. Visit with your living relatives to learn as much information about your family history as possible. Then complete a pedigree chart of your family and list the temple ordinances that have been completed for each person.

This was a wonderful activity and the girls had fun, as did some of the leaders who discovered that their family has been working on their family history. We will have to do it again soon to help the girls be able to find more of their ancestors. I'm thinking a trip to our stake family history library is in store. And I really hope we can make those cute trees once the girls have their charts filled in!

Duck Duck Goose

Last night for mutual we played Duck Duck Goose in the wrong shoes. On Sunday we had a lesson on Patriarchal Blessings taught by yours truly. Since I taught the lesson, I was in charge of the activity. I had everyone wear their favorite pair of shoes. Only 1 leader brought her high heels, which kind of surprised me. We had everyone take off their shoes and put them in 2 piles, left feet and right feet. Then we let them scramble and pick a shoe from each pile. The girls then had to wear these shoes while we played duck duck goose. Some shoes were too big, some were too small, and some of us had to limp because of the height difference on the heel.

We talked about how we each brought shoes that were fitted to us, and when we tried to wear someone else's shoes, things weren't very comfortable. In the same way, our patriarchal blessing is fitted to us. It is unique, and won't fit anyone else. We reviewed the purpose of patriarchal blessings also. Then we were able to pass off Individual Worth #2 in our Personal Progress books.

We only played a few rounds in the other persons shoes, mostly because I didn't want any broken ankles. The girls enjoyed playing this childhood game. We also let some of the younger girls who were hanging around the building play with us. It was a fun night.

I received inspiration for this activity here: http://somesweettalkinggirl.blogspot.com/2012/10/patriarchal-blessing-activity.html

Sunday Lesson: How can a patriarchal blessing help me?

I was able to teach the YW lesson this Sunday. Our topic was on Patriarchal blessings, which I feel pretty knowledgeable about. I am able to help our stake patriarch by typing up the blessings that he gives. I've been doing this over a year now, almost 2 now that I think about it, so I've read quite a few blessings in my day. 

We started out the lesson listening to this talk by Sister Beck, which I think really tells of the importance of patriarchal blessings and why we need them. Then I printed a copy of this article. Then I cut up each section, rolled up the papers and put them in the box. I had each girl draw a paper, and then she either had to act it out charades style, draw it pictionary style, or do a hangman puzzle of the question or key word in the question. Our girls are either not big into acting, or really like hangman, because that is the only thing they did. That's ok though, we still had fun and learned a lot. 

At the end of the lesson I handed out this quote to each of the girls to remind them that their blessings can be a guiding star for them. 


A Star to Follow


“A patriarchal blessing from an ordained patriarch can give us a star to follow, which is a personal revelation from God to each individual. If we follow this star, we are less likely to stumble and be misled. Our patriarchal blessing will be an anchor to our souls, and if we are worthy, neither death nor the devil can deprive us of the blessings pronounced. They are blessings we can enjoy now and forever.” President James E. Faust, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, “Priesthood Blessings,” Ensign, Nov. 1995, 63.
We counted this lesson towards IW #2, and we will sign it off for the girls on Tuesday after our activity, which ties into this lesson.

PPP Party: Profiles

Every first Tuesday of the month we have a Personal Progress Program (PPP) Party, and we try to incorporate a fun P theme to go along with it. This month we chose profiles, with this as our inspiration: 

 http://middlechildcomplex.tumblr.com/post/2389902442

Instead of the church in the background, we are going to put pictures of the temple behind the profile of each girl. 

During each PPP Party, we take the girls aside and ask them for an update on their personal progress. It's good too take notes during these little meetings so that you can follow up with the girls next month and see how their goals went. We encourage the girls to set a new goal for the month or to continue whatever goal they are currently working on, and try to assist them in any way. This is also a great time to sign off on any goals the girls have finished.

For this activity, we also wanted the girls to work on and finish Individual Worth #7, so we took each girl's journal and wrote down some of the gifts that the Lord has given her. Each girl will then also need to have a friend and a family member do the same. Then she can compile her list of gifts and make a plan on how to improve and use these gifts. 

We wanted to redecorate our old outdated (think pale pink and tulle everywhere) young women's room. So after we finished tracing our profiles, which will be part of the new wall art, we took down all the ugly old pink and started putting up the new decorations.

The mutual theme this year is "Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen." (Doctrine and Covenants 87:8). Our YW class has taken on the symbol of a tree to remind us of this theme. We found this great tree that sticks right on the wall to add to our decorations. We covered the bulletin boards in contact paper. I'll try to get more pictures of the completed room on Sunday. 

Since we had some extra time before we started decorating, we all sat together as a group and read the first chapter of 1st Nephi to get us started on our Book of Mormon Challenge from Sunday. 

I also meant to bring my laptop so that the girls could work on their indexing goal also, but I forgot it at home. Hopefully I will remember next time.