We've been attending New Beginnings for quite a few years now - nine years in fact! And we'll be attending them for about another fifteen! I have pictures of me at my New Beginnings, just before I turned twelve, but of my daughters, this is the first time we've had pictures!
Jenna will be our fifth daughter entering the Young Women's program, and she can't wait! Daddy got to introduce her and tell everyone a little bit about how wonderful she is.
Our theme for the evening was the new youth theme for the year:
"Stand ye in holy places and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come:
for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord."
Doctrine & Covenants 87:8
We tried to decorate one corner of the room to look special - like a holy place. (It was nice to be able to reuse lots of wedding decorations!) And it was so nice that someone in our ward already had the theme on an old window in her home!
The front of the room we decorated in the value colours. We assigned eight girls to each do one table . . . Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability . . .
. . . Good Works, Integrity and Virtue. The girls did a great job and the tables looked so pretty. The value colour scarves and framed words were already in the YW cupboard - we just reused things from the past! Simplify is my motto!!!
Richie and I with our soon-to-be three YW. Jordyn and Carlee are both MiaMaids right now.
Our four new Beehives each got a lovely little bouquet.
Some of the YW after they had decorated their tables and helped with the chair covers and sashes. Some were decorating and some were preparing food, and then they visited while waiting for New Beginnings to start.
We had a lovely program that the Beehives were in charge of. Every girl was either in the program or did a table - we used them all and they all did wonderfully. I gave a talk on the new theme. Laurels were in charge of decorations and MiaMaids did all the food. Secretary did all the little details like invitations, theme bookmarks, photos, etc. Our deligation of the responsiblities worked really well - I recommend it!!!
YW Value colours fruit Kabobs - so pretty and delicious, especially with the fun fruit dip! There is a gold ribbon tied at the bottom to represent Virtue - it's hard to find gold coloured fruit!!!
And there's our new Young Women's presidency - they're all amazing women who I love dearly!
Tammy, me, Cindy (also my VT comp) and Olivia.
That was our New Beginnings for 2013. We did it on a Sunday evening, Jan. 6, because our first girl was turning twelve on the 10th. It was a simple yet fun and spiritual evening, and the girls really enjoyed helping. None of my daughters have ever been asked to help before (apart from setting up their own display at YW in Excellence). I think it meant more to the YW because they helped - and as we train future leaders, they need to learn how everything works - from the planning, setting up, the actual event and the clean up!
And now Jenna will always remember her New Beginnings - it's been blogged about!!!
