I've Been Heart Attacked!

I was released on Sunday.  On Tuesday, there was a loud knock on the door and we went out to find I had been heart attacked by the Mia Maids.  

And in the light of day.

Thank you, sweet Mia Maids!  I will miss you!!!!

Released From Young Women and a New Calling

This post is a hard one to write.  On Sunday, February 24th, I was released from serving in the Young Women organization in our ward.  Actually, the entire presidency and staff were released.  And the entire presidency and staff of the young men (except the scoutmaster who is irreplaceable!) were released.  And the presidency of the Relief Society was released.  It was a big day in our ward, and personally, a sad day for me.
I have loved serving in the young women program.  I have loved being in the presidency with sisters who I love and admire.  I have loved each and every young woman.  I have thought about them and worried about them and prayed for them and loved them.
When Ken and I were on the airplane flying home from our mission to Japan, I turned to him and asked, "Now that we're heading home, what calling would you like to have?"  He answered that he was willing to do whatever he was called to, but then he named a calling he had always wanted to have.  Within a couple of weeks, he was given that calling- a thank you note from Heavenly Father.  The calling didn't last long, but he held it and enjoyed it for a few months.

Then he asked me the same question.  My answer was that I would like to teach.  I had been in a place where I couldn't even talk, let alone teach.  Teaching sounded fun.  But then I added that I mostly just didn't want to be put out to pasture.  I wanted to serve.  Well, I would have never dreamed that that would be with the young women.  I thought I was too old for that.  But it was perfect for me.  It stretched me and kept me young and active.  And it introduced many people into my life that truly blessed me.
Working in the young women is pretty demanding.  You have Sunday classes and weekly activities.  We also take our young women to the temple for baptisms once a month.
There are young women presidency meetings.  And Mia Maid class presidency meetings to prepare for and hold monthly.  But really, I loved it all.  Well, maybe all except the all- youth, once a month Mutual activities.  Those were too loud and crazy for me.
So I'm sad.  But I feel like the timing is good.  I just got new, wonderful Mia Maids, so it's a good time for them to get a new leader.  I just finished my personal progress award.  I feel like I served well and faithfully and, mostly I loved.  I truly loved these precious young women.  I feel like I did what I was called to do.
In that same appointment with the bishop, I was given a new calling- that of Gospel Doctrine Teacher.  This will stretch me and help me to grow and learn more and to serve adults in my ward.  I am grateful for the opportunity.  I taught my first lesson last week.  It went well.  I was so grateful to wonderful ward members who made such great comments and blessed all with their wisdom.
Though I have for many, many years read my scriptures every day, having to teach made me really study the scriptures.  It was a whole new level of study.  That will be good for me.  I am grateful for the opportunity to teach and am humbly grateful for the 1 1/2 years I got to serve in young women.  I loved it!

We went out to dinner to celebrate our time as a presidency the other night.

Kim-2nd counselor, Me-1st counselor, Charmaine-President, Kayla- Beehive Advisor

How I love these ladies!

Young Womanhood Recognition Award

Yea!  It's complete!  I finished the requirements for the Young Womanhood Recognition Award!  I now proudly wear my new medallion. Funny story, I actually OVER finished the requirements.  As I was writing my testimony in the back of the book, I read and discovered that leaders only have to do three of the value projects.  I guess that serving in young women counts for the rest.  I didn't read that before, so did all eight of the projects.  But I'm glad.  I'm all the better for it.  I have loved working on this.  It truly has helped me stretch and grow.  I actually earned this award about 25 years ago when I worked in young women then.  So now I need to figure out how to wear both medallions at once.  I love the young women program and the young women!

My worn out personal progress book.

The accompanying journal

The value ribbons with the bookmark.  I'm not sure I will ever figure out how to put this together!

Young Women New Beginnings

On February 12th, we had our young women New Beginnings program.  One of our Beehives, Abigail, planned and prepared it for a value project for her personal progress.  She did such a wonderful job. (Her mom is the 2nd counselor in young women's and helped her a lot!)

A lot of hours are represented in this picture.  They made frosted sugar cookies, and prepared those sweet necklaces for each girl with this years' theme, "If you love me keep my commandments."  Abby and her mom untangled chains (ordered from China), put the necklaces together, made cute stickers to close each bag, and bagged them.  

The decorations were so cute.

Our laurel president, Aubrey, conducted.  She is such an awesome young woman.

Seva, the Beehive President,  talked about Beehives

Kristen ,my awesome Mia Maid president talked about Mia Maids

And Emma (my recently released Mia Maid president, moved onto Laurels) talked about Laurels.

Abby is at the microphone (the one who did this for her project)  She is introducing the three new Beehives.

Sister Gerth, our stake young women president gave a beautiful talk on personal progress.

Our bishop also gave remarks

It was a beautiful evening.  I was so proud of these girls!

Personal Progress: Integrity

I really enjoyed working on the goals in integrity for personal progress.  One of the experiences included reading from the scriptures many references to people in the scriptures who showed integrity.  That was a very meaningful and eye-opening exercise for me. Some of those included were Queen Esther, Paul, Joseph Smith, Joseph of Old, and of course, Jesus Christ.
Another of the experiences I did was read a book called "Covenant Keepers" by our prophet's wife, Wendy Watson Nelson.  Here is the short review I wrote of that book:

I loved this little book by our prophet’s wife. I was especially moved by her teachings and experiences with angels,

“We could also say it this way: As we keep our covenants, we can ask for angels to help us. Literally!”

She goes on to explain how she learned this truth and gives examples. This little book made me grateful for the protection and blessings of my covenants. 

For my value project, I served as an ordinance worker in the St. George temple- a project that took well over the required ten hours.  In fact, one shift was six hours and I served there for over a year.  I especially enjoyed serving as a veil coordinator.  It is a privilege to serve in God's house.

Personal Progress: Divine Nature

To earn my divine nature ribbon, I took on a big challenge for my project. Here's the story:
 When I was in high school in 1973, a very popular new movie came out called "The Sting."  I went to it on a date with Rick Hurst.  I remember it really well.  The movie was entertaining with a surprising twist at the end.  But maybe the best part was the music.  The theme song of the movie was "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin.  It was catchy and it still is the background music for commercials, etc.  I loved the music.  Since then, I have wanted to learn to play it on the piano.  There are many simplified versions available, but I wanted the original.  Motivated by this project, I  ordered the music and started learning it.  When I first started, I was overwhelmed as the music is really too hard for me.  But I was determined.  Each time I practiced, I took my phone to the piano with me and timed my practice sessions.  My purpose was to make sure I spent 10 hours on it.  I should have known it would take me much longer than that. I have worked hard to learn this difficult piece.  It is so satisfying to be able to play it now.
Though not perfect ( and it probably never will be,) I decided to record it . . . and record it . . . and record it.  I never will get a perfect recording, but I got one I was pretty happy with.  I tried to post it on here, only to have it rejected because it was too long.  So, I will record it in two halves.  The first one, you will recognize; the last half of the song (on the second recording) is less well-known, but I have come to love it as much.

I think this was the most difficult of all the projects for me, but very rewarding.

Rocks!

This is just some of the girls who were there.

I was in charge of the all-girl activity for mutual in January.  Last summer, while visiting Kristen's family in Wisconsin, we went to a bakery.  There, in front of the building, Audrey found a painted rock with a website address written on the back.  She was thrilled.  This was the first time I had heard of a popular craze:  rock painting and hiding.  There are groups in many cities and communities all over the nation that paint rocks.  Then they hide them for others to find.  The finder posts a picture on the website written on the rock, then the finder can keep the rock or re-hide it for someone else to find.  I thought that would make a great activity for the young women.
It was quite a lot of work to get ready for and execute, but it was fun.  I gathered and purchased all the supplies.  The girls had fun visiting while they painted.  I think they turned out really cute:

Then I took the rocks home and first mod podged them, gluing on a label with instructions with what to do if you found the rock:  Congratulations!  You have just found a rock painted by a young woman from Bloomington Hills 4th ward.  Please take a picture and post it on the ward's facebook page.  Then you can either keep it or re-hide for someone else to find.

After the mod podge dried, I sprayed them with a sealer.  There were too many steps with drying in between to finish them all in one night, but I was happy to finish them up.  So then, as part of the next week's activity we hid them in the playground park that is within our ward boundaries.

So far, we have had five people post on the facebook page that they found rocks.  I'm sure there will be more.  It was fun craft/service activity. It rocked!

Mia Maid Christmas/ Farewell Party

The Mia Maid party was on the 18^th of December and was oh, so fun.  We started by my showing them the video of their attribute white boards that we did several weeks ago.  Then we had lots of treats, then played the cellophane ball game.  They LOVED it!  They were so cute and had so much fun.  Then we did Christmas at the Rights to determine which gift they got to take home.  I think everyone had fun.

I made fudge, raspberry white chocolate scones, cheese ball and cracker, punch, and Karey brought pizza and caramel corn.

Prizes wrapped in cellophane and packing tape. One girl can work on unwrapping the ball until doubles are rolled, then it's the next girls' turn.

These pictures don't really show it, but the girls had a blast playing this game.  They were so cute!

When I planned the Christmas party, I didn't know it would also be a farewell party for the Mia Maids moving on to Laurels.  I lose seven very special girls and keep only two .  I don’t think there is a better calling in the church, where you can watch these precious girls grow right before your eyes.  I compare how they were a year ago, and I am just brought to tears at how they have blossomed and grown.  I will miss those seven, but get five new Mia Maids who I am sure I will come to love just as much.

Personal Progress: Individual Worth

For my Individual Worth Project, I did this blog!  One of the suggestions for a project in this value is that you write a personal history and add pictures.  I thought, "I already do that!"  Our blog is our family history with pictures, including family events, holidays, vacations, general conference reports, my favorite things, Ken's adventures, my mantras, a few recipes (though I also do a food blog with my daughters and post most of my recipes there ) many book reports (I write a review of every book I read- and that's a lot), and some "Merry Musings" of mine. The requirement is that you spend at least ten hours on your project.  I have spent three hours just today on blogging.  I have spent many, many more than ten hours.  My goal specifically was to get caught up on my all the time goal of posting twice a week.  I was about five posts behind, but as of today, November 18th, I am caught up.  I am still behind on posting about the happenings of our life, but I am caught up with my goal.  I feel that blogging is a way to keep perspective in life, and keep a record of our lives.  It also helps us stay connected with friends and family. Thank you for coming to and reading our blog!

Personal Progress: Knowledge

For one of my value experiences in the value of knowledge, I learned more about church history by reading the book Saints, Volume 1. Following is the report I wrote of the book:

This is a very interesting and very readable history of the early days of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-Saints.  I have read Ivan Barrett’s “Joseph Smith and the Restoration” a few times (I love that book!,)  but still there were many history stories that I hadn’t heard before.  It made the history so personal and interesting.   I am grateful for those who spent many hours researching, preparing, and writing this book.  I have to admit that I was disturbed by some of the accounts and stories.  But overall, it is a faith-building, informative, and well-documented history of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth.

I also learned more about the Vietnamese boat people by reading the book Where the Wind Leads.  Here is the report I wrote on that book:

I loved this book.  It was a story of a family of refuges and their flight from Communist-ruled Viet Nam.  You may remember the boat people from that era.  The author was one of those boat people rescued from a small boat when on the verge of death from dehydration.  I loved his story of survival and determination.  And I loved how he recognized and gave credit to God for his family’s survival.  I recommend this book to anyone looking for a good and uplifting read. 

Either of the above could have been my value project as both took well over ten hours, but I did another project.  When Joan came to visit in June, she bought me supplies and taught me how to crochet a lap quilt or afghan.  I then purchased more yarn and made one for my granddaughter, Brielle for her birthday.  I spent many hours on it.

Before sending it to Brielle for her 13th birthday in November, I took several pictures of it.

All wrapped and ready to send.

I found I really love crocheting and am grateful to Joan for teaching me how.  I think I will be making more of these warm, soft blankets.