Climb a Mountain

I did this next idea with 2 of my beautiful maimaids as a personal progress project. Again I'm pulling it from my family blog to share. It was really hard but well worth it. These two girls often talk about this experience. What an accomplishment! I wish I had a picture of their YWIE poster. I think people were amazed!


Friday was the day. The mission: To climb Mt. St. Helens and two YW have their projects for YWIE completed. Mission a success! As I was climbing the mountain I was thinking what value climbing a mountain would fall under. Individual worth really sums up the whole experience. You have to reach deep within yourself to accomplish climbing a mountain and these two fabulous girls did it!

Here is our group.... Yes I'm the one who look like the dork:)

The girls look so happy in this picture. There were times we weren't so happy.

Seriana got blisters on both feet early on. She still made it to the top. She is amazing!

I didn't hear Nicole complain once. I'm so glad she got to come! When you work this hard you need a lot of breaks...

My husband is adorable. He even admitted climbing the mountain was hard. Good job honey!

The picture below is the last stretch. I think some people might go crazy there. You can see the top. It looks so close but you are exhausted and getting there sure isn't easy. As I was climbing there was a guy in front of me climbing on his hands and knees. He was really struggling. At one point I heard Jayson yell "Your almost there man! keep going!". When he made it strangers were yelling congrats to him. Climbing a mountain is kind of like life. Some times it's really hard. We struggle and sometimes have to get down on our hands and knees to make it. It's always nice to have those people cheering you on. I think when we make it to the top it will be worth it:)

The girlies at the top. What an accomplishment!

We forgot about how much work it was to get up there. This is what part of the climb down looked like....

What a beautiful world we live in!

Climbed the same mountain twice....my next adventure is knitting :)

Personal Progress Binder & Bag

Can you tell personal progress has been on my mind? For those who read my personal blog I'm sorry for the repeats. There will be some new ones coming soon. A while back we decided that we needed to come up with a way so the girls could keep track of their personal progress book and all the other pamphlets they have. I came up with this binder...



Each YW decorated a binder at a combined activity. In each binder is their personal progress book, journal, For The Strength of the Youth book and we gave them each a True to the Faith book.

So far we haven't had anyone complaining of losing their personal progress books.

Now the problem is getting them to bring their binders :) What if....What if...What if.....we made these.....

They could carry their small binders and scriptures in this adorable bag. This just might be the solution! I found this one at THE ZITO's. You can find how to make it HERE.

I know a gal who made one of these place mat bags. Super cute. She didn't even use a sewing machine and she said it was super cheap (about $4.00). Maybe I can talk her into coming on and doing a tutorial??!

Personal Progress Fireside

Did you know mothers of YW can earn their own Young Womanhood Recognition? Well you (that is if you are a mother of a YW) can! Check out this info I found at http://www.lds.org/...

Q. The notice says mothers can work on Personal Progress. Can mothers complete all of Personal Progress and earn their own Young Womanhood Recognition?

A. The notice invites mothers to work on the experiences and project associated with the value of Virtue. They may also work on all of the experiences and projects associated with Personal Progress with their daughters. Mothers may earn the recognition along with their daughter but not before their daughter. Mothers and leaders can best support young women in their progress by working along with them. Mothers are encouraged to complete the same requirements as their daughters, although they may select different options.

This new development along with the lack of interest of personal progress by our YW inspired a Personal Progress Fireside. We had all the YW and their mothers come to find out that they too can work on personal progress and find out how their daughters are doing. I think it's super fab that they can do it together! The night turned out really well so I thought I would share it with everyone...

We started all together and had two talks. They were as follows:

***THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL PROGRESS- Our YW president spoke on this topic. She based her talk on these quotes. (Can't say how much I love these quotes!!)

"Yes, give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity." (Ezra Taft Benson, “To the Young Women of the Church,” Ensign, Nov 1986, 81)

"Recognize with equal prominence the presentation of the Young Womanhood Recognition Award as you do the awarding of the Duty to God Award and Eagle Scout badge." (Ezra Taft Benson, “To the Young Women of the Church,” Ensign, Nov 1986, 81)

***WHAT'S HAPPENING IN OUR PERSONAL PROGRESS PROGRAM: We had our personal progress specialist/advisor speak on this topic. She introduced our new poster and also our new reward system for the girls that complete an experience/project. She filled up 8 different bins with items from the Dollar store. Each bin represents one of the values and had only items of that color in it. Such as the Faith bin only has white items. When a girl finishes a Faith experience she gets to choose an item from that bin. There is some good stuff in those bins!! The girls loved this new idea.

We had two YW leaders complete the requirements to receive their Young Womanhood Recognition. The bishop awarded them each with a medallion. Nothing like a good example...right?!

After those talks we separated into classes (Laurels, Miamaid & Beehives) The purpose in these classes was to give the mothers their personal progress books and also to discuss with each mother/daughter team where they are at in personal progress.

Sometimes it's easier to see where you are at one glace. This fab form by Emily Mann does exactly that. I filled out this form for each YW so she could take it home and see what she has to work on. You can find it at Sugardoodle HERE (Shout out for Sugardoodle! Melanie you are awesome :) ).

I did a little math to figure how many experiences/projects the YW would have to do to each year. It's totally not how it has to be done but just an even way to spread things out so you don't have to rush when you realize you have to do a whole lot your last year in YW:) The first number is how many experiences to do in a year. The second number is projects. So you could do 1 value experience a month January to August and then work on your project from September to December. Sound easy when you divide it up evenly between the 6 years you (or your daughter) have in YW.

We also had the moms and daughters work on a value experience together. They had a lot of fun. So much fun we took way more time then we had!

We met back together for a closing prayer and gave the girls these purses with personal progress projects ideas.
You can find a template for these HERE. I altered the one we did slightly but you get the point. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Personal Progress

In our ward we are always looking for ways to motivate the YW to work on personal progress. Our personal progress specialist (Traci) came up with this fun jeweled poster. What girl doesn't love jewels...

Tonight we are having a personal progress fireside. I will have more pictures and ideas to share tomorrow.