idea

Catch Someone doing good and tell them about it!

Psychology: what kinds of mental disorders do people get diagnosed with? OCD, ADD, Phobias, all negatives! There is a group of doctors who hope to make positive diagnoses: courage, hope, faith. If you always focus on the negative, how do you feel? (Handicapped… weak…) You will always have weaknesses. Everyone does. Finding Strengths helps you change.

Second Kings 6:8-23 gives us a powerful example of God's supernatural help and His law in action. Ben-Hadad II, king of Syria, while at war with Israel, becomes aware that the prophet Elisha receives supernatural insight from God about the king's actions. He therefore sends an army into the city of Dothan in Israel to capture the prophet. Elisha's servant becomes afraid when, early in the morning, he sees the city surrounded by the Syrian army with their horses and chariots. Elisha, though, prays to God to open his servant's eyes, and he sees "the mountain...full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (verse 17). God had sent an angelic army to protect His servants.

Focus on the positive. Look forward to where you want to go. And help others to do the same!

We are creating a Bee Tree (Bee positive, Bee kind...) We found some Bumble bee stickers and decorations, and we will hang them on a tree with places for each girl to recieve some positive reinforcement from the other girls...hope it works!

I made a handout to go with a lesson recently that was on purity. I used a picture of the 3 white dresses (and poem) as a display and then at the end of the lesson I handed them 3 white dresses. I cut three small dresses out and put a single piece of white ribbon across one dress (like to make it look empire waist) on another one I put a single white pearl at the empire waist and sequins along the bottom, then for the wedding dress one I put a bow with a pearl at the empire waist line. I glue them together on a piece of ribbon and put a bow at each end. The girls thought they were really neat.

I like to encourage the girls during the week with candygrams. For example, 1 - Take "Timeout" (a chocolate bar)for personal progress (or scriptures, journal, prayer, family time) this week. 2 - You really went the "extra"(gum) mile this week when you ... (state something special you have noticed recently). 3. You really do "excel"(gum) in ... (personal progress, service, kindness, leadership etc.)

This is a handout was done to accompany a soup making activity. We decided on several kinds of soup the girls wanted to make and had an activity making them. We did a handout of a soup can made from construction paper, to look like a Campbells Soup can. On the bottom it said Young Women Soup, we made copies of the recipes they made and several others and made a little book. The girls really appreciated having the recipes of some of their favorite soups.

Before the testimony meeting at Girls' Camp, all the girls were given little packages of tissues. Inside was a note that said, "Your testimony is like this package of tissues: If they stay in the package, they do nobody any good. But if they are taken out and shared, then everyone benefits."
Ricki Edwards - Price, Utah

Glue a penny to a card that says, "We were given two ends: One to think with, and one to sit on. It's up to you which you'll use more. Heads you win, Tails you lose!"

Poke two toothpicks into one end of a large marshmallow, and a strand of shoelace licorice into the other end, so the marshmallow resembles and electrical plug. Attatch a card that says, "Get plugged into service."

For youth conference this year our youth decided to put together a carnival for underprivialaged youth. We invited big brother groups, group homes, homes for bettered women etc.. We asked for the children to between the ages of 3 to 12. Each ward provided 4 or 5 carnival booths. Some of the booths were face painting, bowling, ring toss, knock down the milk bottles, balloon pop, coin toss, rubber band shoot etc... The booths were inexpensive to put together and allot of fun for the youth to decorate. The stake provided small carnival gifts to be given out at the booths, ever player was a winner! We held the carnival
in our baseball field at one of our meeting houses. We borrowed cotton candy, popcorn and shaved ice machine from the local schools. We also provided hot dogs and drinks for all the participants as well as our youth. We invited the local fire department and sheriff department to come, and they let the kids come and sit in the fire truck and police car. We also had a couple of horses and had horse rides. The youth worked at the booths. We also had youth that were assigned to different
groups as they arrived to be their "Big Buddy" and to show them around. It was allot of work planning such a large scale carnival, but the faces of the children that came made it all worth it. The testimony meeting after this conference showed that the youth really learn to appreciate the things that they have. They also learned to love others and give of themselves.

This year for youth conference we had learned proper etiquette and then put it to use. We had classes taught to us about it and then the next day had a catered luch that we HAD to use proper etiquette at the lunch. It was a lot of fun and we did a lot more than that. We had some improvsational comedians come in and perform for us and we even rented out a roller skating rink for the first night. It was fun and the spirit was still able to dwell there.
C.Yeckley - Aurora, Colorado

At our 1997 Youth Conference in the Cheasepeake Stake, we traveled up to Southern Virginia College for four days. While we were there, we learned about the Book of Mormon. We were also put in families so that we could get to know other people from the stake. We also had Reid Benson come and speak to us! This was a very spiritual experience and a chance to get out of our comfort zones.
Heather Sheaves - Suffolk, Virginia
Because we are blessed to live just several hours from Nauvoo and Carthage, it is a little easier for us to orchestrate, however it can be done by anyone, and the experience is well worth the budget and the effort. In the summer of 1996 we took our youth to Carthage and Nauvoo, and participated in many activities and service projects for our youth conference. The city of Montrose was very happy to have youth volunteer to beautify the landing just across the river from Nauvoo, and the youth cleaned and planted trees at a park in Nauvoo. We were able to paint the fence at Carthage Jail as well. We also were able to make a handcart trek from Montrose Iowa to Sugar Creek. We had gotten special permission from each farm along the way to carefully walk through their fields all along the 11 or so mile trek. The weather was hot and we were exhausted by the trek's end, and each of us had a new appreciation for what our brothers and sisters had gone through 150 years before. The Nauvoo chapel allowed us to use their cultural hall for a dance and a big breakfast. There are campsites and many hotel rooms available in the area, as well as a women's dormitory available at the Catholic school in Nauvoo (right across from the Temple Site.) The Nauvoo High School allowed our Young Men to use their shower and bathroom facilities while they camped. The restored homes and Church history sites are wonderful to visit, and the spirit in this beautiful place is incomparable. If you go, be sure to find the pioneer cemetery. It is a spiritual and beautiful place to visit, but because of the persecutions of the times, the cemetery is located several miles outside of the city of Nauvoo, and is a little hard to find. Be sure to bring crayons and newsprint for rubbings, then you could do some research about the families buried there in the church genealogy center at Nauvoo. Probably an overwhelming amount of information, but it is a GREAT youth conference!

Our stake was not able to hold the traditional Youth Conference this year. Instead, they had a Super Saturday, complete with workshops, activities, lunch, and a dance in the evening. One particularly fun activity was water kickball: each base was a wading pool, and a "Slip-n-Slide" was the stretch to home base - perfect for a hot summer day!

Do You Know . . . ?
These are requests from readers looking for specific stories, dates, or other information I haven't been able to find. Please take a minute and see if you can offer any help! If an e-mail address is listed, please respond to that address. Otherwise, send the information to me and I'll pass it on. If you are looking for information yourself, send me your request and I'll get it posted as soon as possible! Thankyou for your help!

Does anyone have a copy of the Personal Progress Questionnaire. My daughter is the specialist for the PPP in her ward and emailed me a copy of it but it is too small to read. Could you direct me to a larger copy so I can print it out for my girls. I've just been call as second counselor in YM and have been assigned to PPP. I need help. Thanks e mail here 10/30/03

Linda Legg, Murphy Branch, Murphy NC

Our ward is spliting on sunday into two wards. Some of our young women will be in another ward and we as a presidency wanted to give them a rememberance gift to let them know that we love them and will miss them. We are looking for ideas on what to give them . Any one have any cute ideas. Thanks. e mail here
Jeana Hobbs 4/29/03
WallaWallaWashington 2nd ward