Getting to Know the Girls

Our YW president has encouraged us to get to know our girls one on one.  We've been challenged to try to do something every week to get make contact with at least one girl.  I don't share this to toot  my horn, but have found these experience extremely helpful in getting to know the girls and understand their home life and their needs.  Here are a few ideas:

• Facebook:  really, where else do you get the true low down?  Plus I've even been treated to sweet messages on my wall and in my inbox on occasion.  This way I know who is sick, who has a big paper due, who is studying for a test, and who is having  a downer day and on the flip side who just went on a fun trip or had something exciting happen.
• Ice Cream: the president and I are trying to take one of the girls out every week until we've seen them all.  This has been AMAZING!  They open up so much and tell you about their dreams and what is bothering them and we always ask "what can we do as YW leaders to make this a better experience for you?"  My favorite reply was "Just check up on me so I have someone to be accountable too."  (This came from a girl who hasn't received permission to be baptized yet.)
• Sending notes: our president is awesome about snapping a picture of the leaders and making costco cards to send out for every holiday, telling the girls we love them.  She also encourages us to send out thank you notes to the girls when they've helped with a program or accomplished something for YW's.
• Phone calls: we had a season of "discord" among some of the girls and it was amazing how much a phone call just to see how they were doing meant to them.  I had one girl break down on the phone and really share her heart with me.  I think they really appreciated the fact that I noticed they were unhappy and cared enough to call.
• Notice events:  One girl had her wisdom teeth out but I didn't find out until Sunday when she wasn't at church.  I wanted to bring her something but couldn't go to the store, so I just put a ribbon on a box of pudding and brought it over.  We ended up visiting for 1/2 hour and it was a great way to get to know her better.  Showing up at other events like plays, games, or performances are things I need to do better at, but I'm sure would be fun and meaningful to the girls.

What are your ideas?  I'd love to hear your ideas of works for you to get to know your girls!!!!

Skipping a Few Weeks

I noticed there a few  people following the blog, so I just wanted to let you know I haven't dropped off the planet since I'm not posting right now.  We had stake visitors on Sunday, so I'm postponing my parents lesson for a two weeks because we have ward conference this week and I don't teach then either.  So I'll be back to posting lesson ideas in a couple weeks.

Honoring Parents

Lesson 9- Honoring Parents


I felt very strongly that I needed to ask the parents to participate in this lesson. I sent an email to the parents (you can get a lot of their addresses from off the ward membership directory on the church website) and asked them to secretly send me a letter written to their daughter. I asked them to include talents, ways she brings the Spirit in their home, and what makes their daughter special to them. Most importantly I asked them to express their love. They will email their letter back so I can print it out on stationary and have it ready for class. (I thought this was the best way to keep it secret.) I'll send out a reminder on Friday.

So far I've found the parents to be very grateful for the opportunity to do this and one mother who is not a member of our faith and her daughter is not a member but comes with a friend, was really excited to participate. I can't wait to see the girls reactions on Sunday!