Our theme this year is from the Doctrine and Covenants...Stand Ye in Holy Places and Be not Moved. So we were all wracking our brains to come up with an idea for it. Bonnie found a program written by Jenny Phillips that was good...it had some beautiful music that went with it. We all read over it and it seemed a little dry, but we thought we could have the girls take their parts and make them more interesting by putting their own ideas into it. Well the first time we had the girls go over their parts, we could see that wasn't going to work. McKenzie was the first on the program and got up there and was trying to get through it and make it sound interesting, but after about a minute she just looks at us like ...really? This is so boring, I'm going to fall asleep reading it myself! We all agreed. So that night I went home and started really looking into some of the things I had come across before but not pursued. I found another program also written by Jenny Phillips with some of the same songs, but this one was fun. It used an analogy of wearing the right shoes and standing on the Lords side. It had a cute role play at the beginning of wearing shoes that don't fit, and then got into a more spiritual discussion at the end. We presented it to the girls and they were very happy with it and excited to do the parts. It really amazed me how willing they were to do all the parts and were also ready and willing to fill in if some of the parts didn't show up.
We had been working on this song by Sally DeFord called "In that Holy Place" for several weeks and Bonnie had asked Abby to sing one of the songs from Jenny Phillips program called "I've already decided" and we decided kind of at the last minute to throw in "I walk by Faith" so we were good on the music.
Last week for our mutual activity, we met at Bonnie's and had a fun get to know you activity, then we went over the program. This was the first time we had sung "I walk by Faith" (seems like I haven't heard anybody singing it for some time...seriously one of my all time favorites) . Some of the older girls knew it a little bit, but then we were singing along and came to a whole new line they had put in for the added value of Virtue. It was kind of tricky, but we figured it would work out with more practice ( and it did!)
Then on Sunday, Charity shortened the lesson a bit so we could run through the program one more time. A few of the girls weren't there so we were just hoping and praying that they would come that night. ( we had given a part to one girl that is not a member, but she comes to our activities sometimes...really a darling young woman who is loved by all the girls...she showed up at the last minute and did a great job! So cool to see how the girls rally around her to show their love and support...hope someday she will open her heart and accept the gospel)
We went over and set up early. Jerry was over there already setting up his photography area so he could take pictures of all the girls. We had had the idea to have him take pictures of the girls standing in front of this enormous picture of the temple that Tanisha C. had made years ago when she was in young women. It's painted on a huge heavy sheet and really is pretty spectacular. We had talked to him about it and he said it wouldn't be the best background because he would have to stand so far back to get the whole temple in...then they would be really small. (Kelley came over and helped us hang up the huge temple picture in the Relief Society room and it really looked neat anyway!) So we opted for each of the girls holding a small picture of their favorite temple. These pictures turned out AMAZING!. So grateful to him for doing this for the girls!
Stacey brought all the decorations that went with our little program "The Right Shoes" Can I just say she is amazing! Friday night she was babysitting Mickie's kids out at Mickie's house, when Payson was over at a friends house and had a bowl of scalding hot ramen noodles drop in his lap. He got second degree burns over his lower torso and legs. So Stacey was taking care of him for the next few days.( Mickie was out of town) Cool story she told me...She was prompted to get everything taken care of for what she was responsible for, for new beginnings days ahead. She is pretty awesome at getting things done at the last minute, but she was prompted again to get it done now...so she did. There would have been absolutely no time to get things together while she had to spend every minute with Payson. How grateful I am for wonderful counselors who are in tune with the spirit!
Anyway, she set up this cutest display ( wish I had taken a picture!!!) with all these cute shoes (thank you Angela for sharing your darling shoes!) It really added a lot to the program and looked fabulous!
The dessert table was really fun too. She had the same color scheme going there, we added the awesome picture of the temple Camille gave me for Christmas and it was perfect. We got the idea for dessert from pinterest...love, love, love pinterest! It had mini cheese cakes with all these different toppings (one to go along with each of the value colors and a sign you could print to set by each topping that had shoes the color of the value and what the value color stood for on it. So Bonnie and I made mini cheese cakes and each brought some of the toppings. (Cheese cakes not as awesome...mine sunk in the middle...Ha!..Kelley said they were nice little cups for the fillings! I was hoping Bonnie's turned out better so we could just use hers, but hers were possibly worse than mine. We had a small panic when we got to the church and decided to put whipped cream ( one of the toppings) on top before we set them out to fill up the craters. Ha! they tasted good anyway.)
We had a great turn out. All the parents and stake leaders came and only one of the girls didn't show up. The program went off without a hitch. Alicia introduced our new beehive Allyssa and did a great job. Bonnie did a great job with the "shoe analogy" skit part...the girls who helped her were perfect. All the girls and leaders did great with their parts, the songs went well and the bishops talk was just exactly what the girls needed to hear! I think my favorite part was when Abby sang "I've already decided" The words to this song are so powerful...I sat there with tears running down my face as I prayed that each of the girls was taking this message into their hearts. Can you imagine the impact it would make if we all had already decided what we would do before we were in a situation. She sang this song with so much conviction, if I didn't already know what she so strongly believed and stood for, I would have known it then.
I've Already Decided
Fiery arrows flying in the sky
I take my Father's shield and I fight
With the sword of the spirit
Opening my eyes
I see the battle clearly and I know
I already decided
Long before this life
that I would stand by Him
And always stay in the light
Because I love Him
There is no question
Which side of the line
You will find me on
I've already decided
Where I stand
I want to keep His armor on at all times
And always have a battle plan
Ready in my mind
Long before Satan hits me
I will be ready
Without any hesitation'cause I know
I already decided
Long before this life
That I would stand by Him
And always stay in the light
Because I love Him
There is no question
Which side of the line
You will find me on
I've already decided
Where I stand
What I watch
What I read
What I wear
What I think
Where I'll go
When I will leave
What I'll never do
The life I will lead
I've already decided
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