New Beginnings

For just over a year, I have been in charge of Personal Progress for the girls in my ward. I am also in charge of New Beginnings and Young Women in Excellence. I have forgotten to take pictures of last year's New Beginnings and Young Women in Excellence. I was determined to remember to take pictures this time. Well, on the morning of the set-up (January 24th), I did remember my camera! Success! The only thing I failed to check was the battery. Ugh! I did manage to get 2 photos of some of the things we set up.

The theme this year is Arise and Shine Forth. Going along with that theme, I had a table for candles from each of the girls. It was supposed to represent their light - how each candle (girl) can be so different and all so beautiful and shine light. I think it all turned out pretty well.

I introduced the theme and coupled the theme with Matthew 5:14-16. That is the first thing that popped into my head as I heard what the theme was going to be for the year. The YW sang, "Celebrating the Light" which I remember from when my mom was in Young Women's. Each of the girls chose a value to speak about and how they can shine their light through one of the personal progress experiences/projects.

One of my favorite moments of the evening was when one young woman who is mentally/developmentally challenged got up to speak with her mother. Her words just touched my heart. She chose to talk about knowledge because she is working on speaking and writing. Her mom had written out what she was saying on a card for everyone to read while the young woman spoke. It was just beautiful!

We spotlighted the 2 new young women who are entering Beehives this year, along with the young women who had moved here in the past year. We have a pretty large young women's group - close to 30 girls. I love how all the girls work together and lift each other up. They really are an amazing group! I learn so much from them every week!

Here are the pictures of the some of the decorations. Not pictured are our YW flags (which are completely amazing!), the YW theme, our table for refreshments that had Christmas balls in almost all the YW value colors and our table at the entrance with the programs and my cross stitching of the YW values (from when I was in YW).

The table with the candles on it. It was filled with candles that night.

This is what you saw when you walked in the room. I think it turned out awesome!