Teaching Three Lessons in Four Days

#1: Sunday I taught a super intense lesson to my young women on living virtuous lives, staying sexually pure and being a light of goodness in a dark world.  I feel so passionately about this topic, I couldn't help but cry a few times.  Sometimes I feel so desperately the need to shake these girls and warn them of all the dangers around them, to beg them to hold true to their faith and their virtue.  I had Burke come in and talk for a few minutes to sort of enlighten them on the teenage male brain.  He did such a great job.  And they actually seemed to be listening.  Of course, I would listen to a hot man like Burke too if I was a teenager...just sayin.

I think this video is powerful for youth of all denominations.

I had Daphne's baby blessing dress hanging, a picture of a girl in her baptism dress (none of us YW leaders still have our baptism dresses) and then my wedding gown on display.  I loved pulling out my dress the day before and reminiscing about that special day.  I loved putting my tiara and veil on Daphne, swathing her in a white cloud that reached her precious chubby toes.  I loved having Burke tell me he loves me even more today than he did then.  I wanted to show the girls the progression we can make in our lives of covenant making and covenant keeping and the tremendous blessings that can come by marrying in the temple of God for eternity.  I hope they not only listened, but heard what I said.  I hope that they felt the truth of my words and will apply it in their lives.

#2: Then last night I switched gears and gave a presentation on food storage for a ward relief society night.  ME....teaching food storage....what?!  I know, I was as shocked as you were when they asked me because

A) I don't cook very well,
B) I don't own food storage and
C) I don't cook with food storage.

Thankfully, I have a fantastic mother-in-law who is terrific at all of the above and gave me several tips on how to cook with wheat, etc.  I made a wheat pudding and wheat bread for the ladies to sample, gave them some very small and simple steps to building food storage and allowed them plenty of opportunities to laugh at my expense.  I had been so stressed about it, worried that I wouldn't have anything to teach these ladies, but I was so pleased at how receptive they were and so grateful for their comments that helped enhance the lesson.  And, I have to admit that I prayed at least 3 times that my bread would turn out alright...and it did!  Burke admitted after that he had prayed for me too.  :)

 Besides giving the ladies a copy of the church produced "All is Safely Gathered in Pamphlet" (that you can find online HERE), I also made this handout with some super simple recipes for utilizing the wheat in your food storage.  If I can successfully make these, I guarantee you can too.  The blender pancakes were actually awesome and I plan on making them regularly.

Didn't know how to turn my word file into a jpg, so I just took a picture of the computer screen.  Leave your email if you want an emailed copy of it.

#3: My third lesson/activity I am in charge of is tonight for our young women group's weekly activity night.  We are covering notebooks with gospel art cut out from old Ensign magazines and making cute fabric covered flower pens so they have a place to write their notes for General Conference this weekend.  We're also going to play sound bites from April's conference sessions and see if they can identify the names 12 apostles and first presidency from their voices.  It's making me excited to listen to the prophet just typing about this!

With all the lesson preparations this past week, I feel like I've been completely neglecting my baby girl, our house, and my Burkie.  I so appreciate how supportive he is.  Last night he patiently let me practice my food storage presentation in front of him, willingly watched Daphne and got her to bed while I was gone and when I came home the entire house had been cleaned, including the huge pile of dishes I had left behind after making bread.  I could have kissed that man of mine for being so thoughtful!  Oh wait - I did! :)