PPP: Plants

Last night for mutual we had our Personal Progress Party with a plants theme, perfect for spring! Unfortunately, since school is getting busy, we only had 1 girl attend. We planned on planting some flowers at the house of an older sister as a service project (and surprise), but since we were small in numbers we just planted them around a tree at the church instead. And of course we had our regular Personal Progress update interview with the one YW who came. It was a pretty relaxing and fun night. Hopefully our flowers thrive!

Heart Attack Part 2

Last night we got together as Young Women to heart attack a girl who has been less active in our ward. The girls we brought with us had never done this so secretly before, so they had a lot of fun. We silently went up to her front door and taped the hearts we mad eon Tuesday all over. We also had a giant Valentine's Day card, some heart lollipops, and a small potted rose to leave on her doorstep. Then we played ding dong ditch. We were able to see somewhat from some bushes two doors down. It was a big adrenaline rush for all of us, so it was a lot of fun. I hope this young woman knows that we love her. Hopefully it will also spur her to come to more activities with us.

Heart Attack Part 1

Last night for mutual we prepared for our heart attack, which will take place late the night before Valentine's Day. We have a young women in our group who used to come all the time, and still attends seminary and Sunday School, but won't come to Young Women's for some reason. We are going to heart attack her to let her know that we still care and that we would love to see her come back to us. So last night, we spent the evening cutting out hearts and writing messages both sweet and cheesy on them. Thursday evening we will go and cover her front door with the hearts and leave a few treats also. Hopefully I will remember to take pictures!

Treats

Last night for mutual we made rice krispie treats and muddy buddies. Originally we had planned on going ice skating (as a reward for finally finishing 1st Nephi, see this post). But since half of our girls couldn't come and the two girls who did come were sick and exhausted, we decided to instead make some treats for those girls. Since we had a lot extra, we also delivered some to our Bishop and his executive secretary, who were at the church that night. It was a fun and easy night that I think the girls enjoyed, and the two girls who were gone were grateful for the treat and to know that we remembered them. We'll be rescheduling ice skating for another night.

Random Acts of Kindness

Last night for mutual we did some random acts of kindness. We have been meaning to do a service project with the girls for a while now, but all of our plans for big projects kept getting ruined somehow. So we decided to have a night of small acts of service. We were inspired by this lovely blog and used the great printables found there. The printable came out black and white, sow e let the girls color them before we headed out. We asked the girls to bring any spare change they had, and our president traded them for quarters. We also had all the girls write a note to bring to school tomorrow thanking their favorite teacher. It could be anonymous or not, we let them choose.

First, we headed to our local grocery store and put away a bunch of carts that were scattered around the parking lot. We also left some money on the vending machines and the redbox machine at the store with notes tagged to them.

Next, we headed over to our local hospital. We handed out a few full size candy bars to some people working and waiting there with notes taped to them. This was a great lesson in social skills also. We had some girls too shy to hand them to people, and some girls who said kind of weird things. Hopefully they learned a thing or two by the example of the others in the group. We also went to the cafeteria vending machines at the hospital and taped more quarters to those. Fortunately, since it was night time, the cafeteria was empty and we could do our work in secret. Unfortunately, hospital vending machines are expensive! Here are some pictures of the girls taping quarters.

I asked the girls how they felt afterward and they all said they felt really good. They liked the high of helping someone, and doing it in secret makes it even better. This was an awesome service project for us!

Party Planning

Last night for mutual we did some party planning. We sort of volunteered our YW group to be in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. This is always a big party with great turnout for our ward, so I think it's important that it does get put on, and since no one else seemed to be stepping up to take charge, we did just that. We decided this would count as a service project :)  So last night we figured out everything we would need food wise and entertainment wise and made assignments. It sounds like its going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully all the girls will do wonderfully at the things they are assigned (running games and decorating). We will also be doing an encore performance of our One Act Play since a lot of the ward wasn't able to make it to the original performance. The girls are excited about that. I'll let you know how it turns out!