We had our New Beginnings program Sunday night and I'm not gonna lie, I was really sweating this one.  And It wasn't for lack of planning or preparation on our part.  Some of the girls were really giving me fit over this.  Well I will start at the beginning...

A few months ago, we started looking for ideas for a theme for New Beginnings. We tossed around several ideas but then decided to go with this one I had seen on lds.org.  It  was titled "Come Unto Christ through Personal Progress."  It went along with our theme "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him" perfectly.  It went through all of the values and told how Jesus exemplified this quality.  We decided we would have one of the girls take each of the values and write a little two minute talk about how they can come closer to Christ by completing the experiences and project for this value.  We wanted the girls to really give it some thought and study so we didn't just hand them a part to read.  I wrote each of the 8 girls a personal letter asking explaining what what their part of New Beginnings was and exactly what we wanted them to do. I gave them a scripture and other places to find information about their value.  I gave them to the girls about a month before New Beginnings so they would have plenty of time to prepare.

Well by the next Sunday, two of the girls had already lost their letters.  So I made them each a new letter and delivered it to them, asking them to be sure to take care of it this time.

We would ask every Sunday how they were coming along with their talks.  It sounded like only one of the girls had actually given it any thought.  One of the twins said she had lost her part and the other one said she was just going to wing it when she got up there.  I was really getting fired up.  I told them I had trusted them with this important part and that other girls would have liked to have the chance to do it...that they were going to look really dumb it they got up there and didn't have anything planned to say.  I could tell they were pretty impressed by my serious talk because the Sunday of our program I asked them again if they were prepared.  They said they weren't cause they had just been too busy.  Really???  I asked them when they planned on doing it (trying to keep my voice calm and my hands from strangling them) and they said they would have time that afternoon.  I knew at that point that there wasn't anything else I could do and I needed to just not let them make me crazy.

C wasn't at church that Sunday and I was pretty concerned about her too.  She had lost her part twice so I hand delivered it to her house and also sent her mother a copy of her assignment so she could help her.  That didn't happen.  She didn't come to the practice we had on Wednesday night and I mentioned I was concerned about her.  Tori said she would do her part if C didn't come.  Stephanie saw C walking home from school in the rain on Thursday and stopped to give her a ride.  C told her she had lost her part again and that she didn't think she was going to be able to come that night.  When Stephanie told me this on Sunday, I told Tori we would probably need her to do C's part.  I was stressing over it Sunday afternoon when I was making the final changes to the program, so I asked Stacey to text C and just ask her if she was coming.  She text C and her mom and neither one of them responded so I put Tori's name on the program.

We all went over early and got things set up.  Can't say enough how much I love these ladies that I get to serve with.  The time, effort, love and concern they show for the girls is pretty remarkable.  I don't know what I would do without them!

We set up all the girls pictures (another neat project we saw on pinterest...Kelley cut out wood blocks and we painted them and mod podged the girls pictures (thanks Stacey for doing the pictures!) on them.)  around  Bonnie's Statue of Christ and it looked really cool.  It really set the tone for the whole evening.  Wish I would have gotten a picture of that.

When I was looking for ideas for New Beginnings I came across the idea for memorizing The Living Christ.  As soon as I saw it, I had the strongest feeling that this was something our young women should do.  I found a ton of ideas on different ways to help the girls memorize it, but I liked this one best. It had The Living Christ broken down into several small parts and had a cute printable for  each one. Then I found this picture of Christ and after about 50 tries was able to get the words on the front. (wow that's a whole other story and not a good one so I'll just leave it that I need some computer lessons.)  So anyway, I found these cute frames at IKEA and got them all put together.  They turned out nice.  Then every couple weeks, I will print the next part for them to work on.

We had a really good turn out...even the twins were on time.  We had four of the six new beehives show up too which was pretty exciting!   We had asked Tori to do the spotlights on the new beehives and she did a great job. 

We were pretty much set, so I sat down to play some prelude music.  At about two minutes before seven, I feel someone standing behind me so I look around and it's C.  She said "so you know that part you wanted me to do...what email did you send it to?"   I was just staring at her like you have got to be kidding me.  I said "I'm afraid it's too late to find your part...we are going to start now." She went and sat down by Tori.  I guess she had seen that Tori's name was by her part.  I watched them talking quietly while the rest of the program went on.  Then when it was Tori's turn,  there was this huge pause...we were whispering to Tori that it was her turn, but she stayed put and C got up.  I guess Tori had helped her and told her a few of the ideas she was going to talk about.  She didn't talk very long and mostly just asked the audience some questions.  But she did it.  I didn't know whether to hug her or wring her neck.  This girl has got some hard things, her home life is a wreck...way more problems than anyone should have to deal with.  My heart aches for her as I watch her struggle...trying to fit in, trying to be liked, trying to keep her head above water while her family sinks.  We have all tried to help her but Stacey has the patience of Job with her.

Oh another thing that was wigging me out was the musical number Calle and Allyssa were going to do.  It kind of came out of the blue...at the practice the Wednesday before the program, we somehow got talking about good songs about Jesus.  Calle said she could play the flute to "I'm trying to be like Jesus"  Her and her mom had done it in Sacrament meeting a while ago and it was really good.  She said they could do it for the New Beginnings program if we would like.  That sounded great so we were planning on it.  Then before we left that night, Allyssa said "I can play the violin to that song too"  So we decided she would play with Calle and Jana.  Then on Sunday, she didn't come to church so we didn't know if she was still really planning on it.  I tried to contact her all afternoon on Sunday, but she didn't respond to my texts or answer her phone.  I didn't really know what to do, so I just put her name on the program.  When Calle got there Sunday night, I asked her if Allyssa was going to play with her.  She said she didn't think so, that she hadn't talked to her about it.  Then right before it started, Allyssa comes in with her violin.  They had never practiced together so they went into the other room and went over it while we started the program.  Ahhhhhhhhh!  They did the version out of the primary song book which was different from what Calle had learned so it kind of threw her off, but they came together for the end part and it was nice.  Merrilee told me after that Allyssa had really stewed over it and had practiced a lot.  That took a lot of courage and I was really proud of them.

The other girls all did their parts and did a good job with them.  I talked about  memorizing The Living Christ, then the bishop gave a great talk and the girls and leaders finished up the program singing "Walk in the light" ( a great song Bonnie found that was written by a lady in our stake, Carolyn Brunson)

It was a good night...I was reminded of some important things... don't stress over things I can't control, Have a little faith in the girls,  It doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful, and to listen and act upon promptings I receive. Sometimes I feel so out of touch with these girls...some of them have been hard to get close to but I've been shown time after time that this is where I am supposed to be right now and that Heavenly Father is trying to guide me in my calling.  He knows what these girls need.  I just need to be in tune so I can hear and do what He asks.  It's pretty cool how you are blessed to sincerely love those you serve and have a stewardship over.  It's a good thing I do love them so much or I might have murdered a few of them this past month.