Young Women-A Heritage of Righteous Traditions

Once a month for our Young Women's weekly activity we have a Personal Progress Power night.  We focus the night on Personal Progress and also choose a value for that month.  February's value is Divine Nature-I have inherited divine qualities which I will strive to develop.  All the young women were invited to participate by bringing a guest to share a fun/inspirational story of a righteous tradition in their family.  They were also invited to share a family heirloom and/or bring a family recipe for the taster's table.
It was an AWESOME night!
We gave each of the girls and their special guest an invitation.  Attached to the invitation was a little chocolate truffle.  Chocolate became a sweet tradition at my grandparents home.  My grandmother always had a little dish of chocolates on her living room table.  All the grandkids understood that as we sat and chatted with grandmother we were invited to sample the chocolates.  We LOVED to chat with our grandma!...and just maybe that tradition was the  inspiration for Chocolates for Breakfast

Many of the girls brought family heirlooms to display.












Many beautiful works of art showing labors of love and service given by ancestors.





The phone presented some comical relief for the night.  Many of the girls did not know how to dial the phone.  They kept pushing the hole where the number appeared and wondering why nothing happened.  After a little technical support the girls were amazed that dialing a phone could take so long.  One leader reminisced about the "olden days" when she could dial an entire phone number without even looking!

Our special guests told stories from their younger years.  They shared their testimonies of temple worship, of missionary service, of sharing and loving.  

We heard a story about a pregnant young woman from the Philippines on her way to the temple to receive the sealing blessings.  While on the ferry she delivered the baby and decided that this trip to the temple was much more important than a little discomfort.  She and her family, with a newborn baby continued their trip and were sealed for time and all eternity.
A former Mrs.Utah shared her story of being entered into the pageant by a friend and then how she had to perform specific tasks to compete--like cooking, child care, how to manage finances, and about 7 other related topics.  She won Mrs. Utah and then went on to the Mrs. America pageant and became a 2nd runner up.

Another guest talked about making hundreds of donuts for the young women she served.  She also remembered a MiaMaid activity from her youth...skinny dipping!  She said it was a great bonding activity.  This Mia Maid class from years ago still get together several times a year and continue to look out for one another.  As we listened to these stories we gained a greater understanding and respect for the sacrifices of our ancestors and their righteous traditions.

We ended the evening sampling from the taster's table.  All kinds of family recipes for soda cracker candy, homemade donuts, cake pops, danish cookies, and all kinds of other fancy yummies.





As the young women prepared to leave we gave them a little brown paper sack filled with a Valentine treat (it was a week before Valentine's Day), a few conference articles that related to Divine Nature, and the list of 1916 Beehive Requirements.  
The list included goals like: 
How to successfully care for a hive of bees 
Learn to float in Great Salt Lake and propel yourself 50 feet
Whitewash your toilet inside and out
For three months, take care of milk and cream from at least one cow and see that the pails, pans, strainer, and separator are thoroughly cleansed.  


I think we all decided that we are grateful for the modern day Personal Progress goals!