Sunday night we had our "New Beginnings" program.  I came home with my heart so full I thought it would burst. Full of love for these great ladies and for each of our young women.
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

Last week when we went to do sealings, Brother Larsen said he had a book to give back to me. It was one of the books I had given him for the church history collection of things from the Tahitian mission.  I guess they had one of these books already. 

Anyway, we were talking about the book and he was telling us that it's a collection of the fundamentals of the gospel  and favorite scriptures that they used to teach investigators.

He said what was interesting though was that he noticed while he was looking through the book that the person that wrote it was President Stevens...Brother Larsen said that President Stevens was his mission President too.  He went on about what a great man he was and how loved him and his wife were by all the missionaries.  Oh how I wished I could talk to daddy about these things!  I got to thinking about it after I got home and was putting the book away with daddy's other things from Tahiti.  I noticed daddy's journal from his mission and started thumbing through it.  I started reading and haven't been able to put it down.  I decided since I'm reading, I might as well get it typed into the computer while I read...then everyone can enjoy it.  It's been so great to learn about this part of daddy's life.  He used to say a few things every now and then,  and he did talk to Kelley quite a bit about his time on his mission and in the war, but I really didn't know what it was like for him.  When we went through the trunks he brought home from his mission, we were amazed at the amount of things he was able to bring home.  He had tons of shells, and neat things made out of shells (belts, purses,) lots of pretty things made out of coconut shells and woven out of the leaves, and some real nice grass skirts that were all decked out with shells.  We all wished we had sat down and talked to him about all these things so we could learn the story behind them.  Now I think we may be able to do just that.  I've only gotten through the first couple months of his mission, but I've already learned a lot about what it was like for him and how he felt about what he was doing...just reading this, I can picture daddy on the ship  "Limrick" and on the island of Pepeete. He tells about his companion Elder Chugg ( also from Providence) and mentioned President Stevens several times and it sounds like he felt the same way about him as Brother Larsen did. He is very descriptive and real in his writing  and has such a way with words, I feel like I could be right there talking with him. 

This is the journal he wrote in...I think "Tere" was his Tahitian name. 

 This is how he started his journal...

Just when I think I can't love my dad any more, my heart has been filled to overflowing as the years he spent on his mission are opened up before me.

 In honor of his birthday on Saturday...a few other  pictures from his younger life

 Love and miss you daddy.

 

We had a fun activity last night for Young Women.  It was the combined night and we were in charge this time. 

So we had planned on going ice fishing, and the girls were all about it, but the boys didn't want to.  HA!  go figure.

So we got to talking about it and Bonnie said she had this book with lots of fun ways to decorate cupcakes, so we decided to have a night of "Cupcake Wars"

Bonnie picked 5 of the cutest cupcakes in the book and printed off the picture of them.  Then she gathered all the supplies needed to make that cupcake  ( a ton of work!  Thanks so much to Bonnie!)

We divided the kids into teams and let them go to work.

 Seemed like everyone was having a good time.  Then the finished product...

 Snowmen...my personal favorite of course

 These were supposed to be dogs...that was a hard one

 The sharks must have been kind of tricky too

 Penguins and little people in bed ( I don't have a good picture of them except the one Chantel is holding) were really cute.

 Bishopric came in to judge and give out awards

 These trophies Devan made were super cute

We let the kids eat all the left over candy and cupcakes so with that much sugar flowing, a good time was had by all.

Isn't Valentines Day the best?  I try to do it all the time but it's great to have an official reason to show people how much you love them!

Saw this fun idea on pinterest and made one for my sweetheart.

Kelley said it probably took me a while to think of 52 things I loved about him...nope...only took me a few minutes.

It was fun to put together valentines for Liv and Sam and even funner to see the pictures of them opening them.  Wish I was there to give them big valentine squeezes.

Liv even made me a cute picture on her new lite brite

I woke up to a wonderful surprise on Valentines day...Kelley had slipped the receipt for a plane ticket to Arizona to visit the kids inside his card.  How sweet is that!  He knows I've been dying here without them.

Thank goodness Camille sends me pictures...seriously gets me through...

 Olivia's been losing her baby teeth..she's going to clean out the tooth fairy if she keeps this up!

 Rose got a shave

 Sam's been giving Camille and Kellen fits lately. He doesn't want to wear clothes and has a  BIG tantrum when they try to get him dressed. So most days he looks like this. Good thing it's warm where they live!

 Ha ha got his arm stuck in the ball popper toy.  This kid is all boy.

 Uber jealous of their warm weather...Camille said it was 80 degrees that day.  Maybe it's just worse because we are having the winter that will never end here...Cold... grey...inversion...snow...cold...blahhhh.

This is right before she lost that front tooth that looks all wonky.  Still cute as a bug.