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!

Sky High Sports

Last night for mutual was our combined activity with the young men. We budget in 2 large expense activities per year, and last night was one of them. We went to Sky High Sports, which is a large trampoline jumping place. They have several different areas for you to jump, including a big foam pit to do flips and jumps into. The youth loved it. By the end of our hour they were all too tired to jump anymore. We ordered a pizza and soda for afterward. It was a ton of fun!

Saturday Skip: Stake youth beach activity

Yesterday for mutual our stake youth leaders organized a beach day for the youth. At a previous SYC, the representatives from each ward voted on a beach activity. Then each ward was assigned a food or drink to bring. We were in charge of the cut up watermelon (which is the only assignment that really requires work. Other assignments include grapes, bags of chips, cookies, and drinks. We got stuck with this because no one from our ward could attend this SYC). The stake provided fried chicken for lunch.

We met at our church building at 10:30 for rides and then headed out to Zuma beach. The stake leaders had an openeing prayer and then everyone kind of did their own thing after that. They did have one game that was optional: players put on a T-Shirt, ran into the ocean to get it wet, and then ran back and rung it out over a bucket. The first to fill the bucket won. Lots of kids brought booogie boards, some kids played volleyball. Someone brought Bocce ball, which was a hit, especially for our ward.

We had a really good turnout this year. I think everyone had a good time. I was able to bring my husband and 1 year old, which always makes it more fun. It was a pretty simple activity to organize, and luckily we live close enough to the beach to have this happen every year.

No mutual - Saturday Skip: Stake Youth Beach Activity

Last night for mutual we skipped it because our stake youth leaders planned a stake activity at the beach. See you Saturday!

Mall Scavenger Hunt

Last night for mutual we did a scavenger hunt at the mall. We split into 2 teams and were given a list of clues that led us to stores in the mall. You then had to take a picture of that store. It was a fun game. Unfortunately I don't have a list but some examples include: PAG corresponded to Gap, Apple Democratic corresponded to Banana Republic (this one threw us off because there was also an Apple store in the mall), Bullseye corresponded to Target, etc... It was fun to search and pass the other team in the mall. The girls in my group got a little disheartened when we saw the other group had finished as we were going to get our last 2 stores. But I told them not to give up, and it payed off. We got all the clues correct and the other team missed a few, so we were the winners and got first pick of donuts!

Our leader for the evening likened our scavenger hunt to reading the scriptures. Sometimes things in the scriptures might be confusing, but if we keep reading and searching and ponder on it, then it will make sense to us.

By Choice or Chance?

Last night for mutual we did an activity I called By Choice or Chance. The goal of the activity was to drive to the temple. But here's the twist: the car turned left, right or went straight based on the roll of a die. For our YW group, we split into two cars and saw who could get the closest. Since we live in the valley north of the Los Angeles temple, I decided that we should start down closer to it. We took the freeway down and once we got off on the exit to the street with the temple, we started rolling the die. I wrote a list out for both cars: 1 and 4 were left turns, 2 and 5 were right turns, and 3 and 6 were straight. It really doesn't matter which numbers you use. We had a few rules, like be safe (don't cut across traffic to make a turn at the next light), don't turn if the spirit tells you not to, and don't get back on the freeway. So whenever we came to a light or a stop sign we followed the directions on the die.

Our car ended up in a neighborhood a few miles away. Once we turned into the neighborhood we were stuck and just couldn't seem to get out. The other car said they stayed pretty close to the temple and passed it a few times, but just couldn't get the right number to turn into the parking lot.

After about 30 minutes of trying to get there, we called up the other car and we met up at the temple. We did a few activities at the visitors center and talked to the sister missionaries there. I meant to have treats there at the temple grounds, but I was running behind and wasn't able to pick anything up beforehand. So instead we had treats that I had someone else pick up for me back at the church building. There we discussed how the YW need to make the choice now to have the temple as their ultimate goal. They won't be able to go if they don't stay on the right path. Turning off the path can get you trapped in a neighborhood that is hard to get out of. Sometimes you come close to the temple but close doesn't cut it. There are lots of parallels to draw from this activity.

The girls had a lot of fun (at least we did in our car). They were getting so frustrated and realized within a few minutes how hard this was going to be. I think and hope that it made an impression on the young women. Getting sealed to my husband in the temple has been the greatest joy and blessing in my life and I am always grateful to know that our family will be together forever.

Combined-Movie Night: Wreck-It Ralph

Last night for mutual was our combined activity. We set up a big screen on the stage in our gym and brought in a projector and speakers to watch Wreck-It Ralph. Our YM president has a popcorn machine, so he popped some kernels for us. We also had drinks, M&M's and red vines.

People wore their comfy clothes and some brought pillows and blankets. The couches from the lobby were relocated into the gym also. It was a fun night and we ended up watching the whole movie.