Working in the YW is WORK!

I always admired YW leaders from a far as I knew their work was of great importance and these girls are at such a crucial time in life.  I was happy serving in the Relief Society and for the ward and primary, all of which have been challenging/rewarding but this calling calls me to my knees almost daily as I'm praying for these girls to draw close to their Savior.  Satan is doing everything he can to bring them down to misery and I pray they will safe guard themselves daily through scripture study and prayer.  And that their thoughts will be of God, virtuous in every way, as we become what we think.

So here are some projects we've made and things we've been doing.

1.  A quote board for them to hang all the handouts we give this with inspirational thoughts that will prepare them to be married in the temple.  I took their photos and asked them what their favorite temple was and our YW Pres. does vinyl lettering, and the girls creatively made their clips the value colors.

2.  Scripture bag so they can easily bring their scriptures, personal progress books, journals, etc. with them to church.  (you YW leaders know how hard it is for them to do this =)  We helped them sew their bag from a placemat and then they decorated it to fit their personality.

3.  We held a Princess Protection Night where we discussed the great V word...I'm talking about Virtue.  I was in charge of decorations so I thought surrounding ourselves with white wedding dresses would be appropriate (wish I would have taken a picture of the entire room, but was too busy).  Our YW President talked about their divinity, we showed a creative Chastity clip from lds.org, broke out into age groups and had a more intimate discussion about the sacred powers of procreation, challenged them to remain virtuous and to keep themselves pure for a temple marriage as this leads to great joy.  Then we shared another clip about youth from other faiths and ours who wait to have sex until they are married.  A member of the bishopric spoke about "remembering", as it is easy to commit to do these things now when surrounded by people who support you, and how with time, they need to remember these commitments always.  Each of the girls were given a Princess Protection "diploma" in a glass slipper along with a special letter from their parents and a leader.  We showed a video slide show I put together of the girls to the song "Guardians of Virtue."

I prayed so hard that these girls' hearts would be touch by the Holy Ghost and inspire them to live a virtuous life.  The YW presidency (well, they're pregnant, but those who could) and the Bishopric and some mom's joined us in our fast for these girls as this evening came in a much needed time when many of these girls are on the edge of choice decisions and some who've even struggled with the loss of virtue.  My heart just yearns for them view themselves the way the Lord does.  That their parents will support them and help safeguard their daughters virtue as well.