Book of Mormon Read-a-thon

Our youth conference this year will be Moroni's Quest, Book of Mormon themed. They challenged the stake to read or re-read the Book of Mormon before youth conference. We had talked the last several months about doing a read-a-thon and the challenge confirmed the need to do it. A few weeks before the event, we mailed letters out the parents with details. We held it over a three day period, Friday- 1pm-10pm, Saturday- 8am-4pm, and Monday- 1:30pm-7pm. We completed the Book of Mormon and had some great discussions about it. 

For food, we brought snack things- water bottles, candy, trail mix, gum, etc. We kept the food simple for meals- baked potatoes, pulled pork sandwiches on rolls, pancakes, and a deli tray.

For the reading part, we spent 90% of the time listing to the podcasts at 1.5x speed. We did stop every once in a while and take turns reading but the podcasts were able to move faster. 

We held it in the gym for Friday and Monday and stayed at a counselor's house for Saturday. It was nice to spread out in the gym and have everyone take a good amount of space for wiggle room.

We brought the soft cover Book of Mormons and highlighters for the young women to use if they did not bring their own. I also brought a reading chart for the young women to color in as they read along.

Things that helped keep us awake- finger nail polish, snacks, coloring pages, walking around the gym. I also downloaded some songs to my iPad for brain breaks- Cha Cha Slide, Hokey Pokey, Sid Shuffle 

Assessment- I think it was a great project and I think the young women enjoyed it. The reading chart was a great way for everyone to keep up. I don't think I would recommend trying to do it in less than three days, so much information packed in so little time. In fact, I think if we do this again, I would stretch it out to four or five days. The brain breaks were a great way to move and then quickly re-group.

Talent (and Non-Talent) Show

In May the young women were in charge of the ward social. We decided to do a Talent (and Non-Talent Show) and used many ideas from Awesome Ward-Missionary Ideas.

For a few weeks before, we passed around a sign-up sheet. We emphasized that we were encouraging a variety of talents and that there would be no judging involved.

Since we do not have a stage, we used the overflow as our stage. We had bag pipes, whistling the Star-Spangled Banner, air guitar, hula dancing, stories, harps, lip-syncing, etc.

We also had display tables out for non-preforming talents. People brought artwork, science fair projects, stories, etc.

For refreshments, we asked everyone to bring a finger food.

What is the priesthood?

Last Sunday I had a young man from our ward come in and explain what the priesthood was and how it blessed his life.

Then one of the young women used the talk, "This is My Work and My Glory" by Elder Ballard to teach about the priesthood.

(from theredheadedhostess.com)

With the remainder of the time, we completed and discussed the priesthood quiz found at The Redheaded Hostess.

Personal Progress Mentors

As we have thought about ways to help keep our young women going with their Personal Progress, I stumbled across an amazing idea at What We Did in Mutual. They started a summer mentoring program where the young women were paired up with a relief society sister that could teach them a skill they wanted to learn.

So I took the idea and ran with it. The young women picked out their skills and last Sunday I pasted around a sign-up sheet in Relief Society. On the top of the sign-up sheet, I wrote this message- "The Young Women are working hard on their Personal Progress and we would like you to help mentor. If you can help with any of the skills listed below, please sign up. We are asking for 10 hours of help, above and beyond that is up to you. The young women will get in contact with you soon to begin making a plan. I know that this will be a blessing to our girls. Thank you!" I also told them it was up to the sisters to decide if they wanted to donate materials that would be needed for the project and to not feel obligated to do so.

I was so excited when the clipboard came back and each young woman had at least one sister volunteering to help. I think this will be a great opportunity for the young women to learn a new skill and gain another friend in the ward.

We have one young women who is almost done with her Personal Progress, so I think what we'll do is ask for a sister to call her up during the summer and plan out how to finish up her Personal Progress.

At the end of the summer, we will have some kind of thank you for the sisters that mentored.