Saturday Skip: Camping

For our combined activity this month, we went camping. I believe this is a yearly tradition for our ward. Last year they went camping on the beach. This year we went up to the Angeles National Forest to the Angeles Crest Campground.

We met at the church around 4, left around 5 and got up to the campsite about 6. One of the cars in our caravan ran out of gas a few campgrounds away from us. Luckily they found us, but not after we started worrying about them having gotten lost. My husband was coming up later and so he was able to bring up a gallon of gas with him so that they could get back down to a gas station.

We set up the girls in one tent on one side of the campsite and the boys in another on the other side. The leaders mostly slept in their own tents.

The girls pranked the boys by putting rocks under their tent after it was all set up. The boys made gifts for the girls on Tuesday night. They painted little first aid kits, gave a box of matches with a striker, made fire starter in an altoids tin, and also made fire starters out of cotton pads and parafin wax. We were pleasantly surprised.

Luckily we were able to have a fire up in the mountains. The young men were in charge of dinner. They brought chili and cornbread. For dessert we put marshmallows, chocolate chips and fruit in waffle cones and let it all melt together over the fire. That was delicious. The young women were in charge of breakfast. We brought danishes and muffins and also cooked bacon and eggs. All the food turned out really well.

We played mafia around the campfire after dinner. I think everyone enjoyed that. In the morning after we got all packed up we had a bocce ball tournament. That was also a lot of fun. We headed back down to town around 11 and stopped at In'n'Out for lunch before heading home. I would say the camp out was a success.

Adam (1 year old) loved camping

Bocce Ball

No mutual - Saturday Skip

Last night for mutual we skipped because all the youth in our ward are going camping on Friday. I'm excited!

Game night again

What we did for mutual last night was have a game night...again. Originally we had planned on having a modest fashion show and combining this with another ward, but we were too slow in our planning and it didn't pan out. So we opted for game night again. I didn't attend since I was pretty jet lagged. But the girls must have had fun last week since they got to play games again last night.

Mormon Taboo

What we did for mutual last night was play Mormon Taboo, which we downloaded from Burlap and Denim. I am actually on vacation, so I wasn't able to attend, but I wish I could have because I love taboo! It's such a fun game, and I hope the girls had fun.

No mutual - Saturday Skip: Youth Conference

Last night for mutual we did nothing because this Friday night and Saturday the stake is having it's youth conference. Once a year all the youth get to have a big weekend activity. And since it's also finals week here in California, we are skipping our Tuesday night mutual activity.

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.