Handout Backgrounds Templates

I've had a bit of fun making some blank YW backgrounds for handouts. Just add the words, titles, etc. to these already made templates. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know and I can adjust or re-create. Enjoy!

Associations With Others

I really like the Young Women Manual 3 Lesson 43 lesson about Associations With Others. This explains why we were not meant to be hermits or to give into shyness, etc. Here is the handout I created for this lesson.

Recently, I read a question asking if we could spend a lifetime of nothing but learning and reading without anybody else and simply devote our life to reading, and "understanding humanity on a more broader level than what the majority of people know?" I thought that a very bold and naive conclusion that we can only understand people by being away from them. I appreciated the answer one person gave...

"We do spend our life learning.... and living life in it's fullness still allows plenty of time for a lot of reading. It just takes less TV time.

The ONLY way to understand humanity on a more broader level IS to live with people, associate with them, and even better and more especially with your companion or soul mate.

It would be a gullible assumption to think that one can understand better than the majority through isolation and books. It takes a well-rounded education and experiences to obtain that which you have described. A great objective, none-the-less, and one that we should all be striving is to understand more about each other and to immerse ourselves in good books where we can draw from the experiences of other folks to help enhance our own understanding and personal growth."

The Test

Tonight for Family Home Evening we read President Boyd K. Packer's November 2008 Conference Talk, The Test. What I really liked about this talk is the reminder to hold a higher standard when dealing with those who mistreat us. The world would try to convince us that the response would be revenge, but Pres. Packer reminds us that "something much stronger than human nature [can] prevail...."

I can think of a few times in my life when someone does me wrong it can be very frustrating and tempting to fight back with equal determination. Then, to remember that this life is a test and I don't want to fail that test.

Lesson 41 Being Dependable

Today's lesson was on Being Dependable. We had opening exercises in Relief Society then we all went to the YW room. We had three young women, a very small class. So, rather than splitting the classes we met together. Our plan worked perfectly. In fact, it worked too perfectly. We walked into the room and I announced that since we were meeting together today Sis. D. would be teaching. Well, Sis. D., the advisor, wasn't scheduled to teach until Fast Sunday's. So, it was easy for her to say she wasn't prepared. Oh, NO! Whose teaching?! I looked around at the other leaders and asked them if they had prepared. Nope. No one had, they said. What is the lesson about? Don't Know! What was last week's lesson and one of the girls reminded us it was on learning to love ourselves. Does anyone have a book? Nope. Oh, then I will just look in my purse and see what I have in there. One YW said we could just make something up, maybe discuss something from the For Strength of Youth Pamphlet. How sweet. I pulled out of my purse some colored paper that I had printed the lesson onto so that I wouldn't have to bring my manual along. I announced that today's lesson would be about "Being Dependable" I had the lesson, quotes to handout, a skit to play (the Cindy story found here), and handouts (see above). One yw said "Wow, you're really prepared!" I thought they had figured it out. I must've forgotten to really make it clear that we had played a practical joke on them because at the end when we were talking about our "mix-up" at the beginning of the class the leaders and I were laughing because we weren't sure if we could pull it off without laughing or being believable. I admitted that I'm not a very good actress and cannot usually pull something like that off. Then, the one YW said "That was all acting!?" The other said she couldn't figure out if was a joke or not but found it coincidental that the lesson being taught fit so well that it must've been planned. How funny! We all had a good laugh. I hope this will be one they will remember for a long time. I just wish all of the other YW had been there, too.

Preparing for Change

This next Sunday's Young Women lesson is from Manual 3, Chapter 42, Preparing for Change. I have made this handout for the lesson. I thought about incorporating a bit of the book "Who Moved My Cheese" but decided against it because it's really not church approved.

The Word of God as a Standard

For the Young Women Manual 3 Lesson 37, The Word of God as a Standard, I prepared the following visual aids and handout.

To distinguish between Worldly Philosophies and Gospel Principles and Truths I created this table in order to discuss the topics one by one.

As we discuss the topics one by one, I prepared The Word of God as a Standard document for the youth to reference as we read and discussed them together. They are separated by the YW value colors.

Finally, I prepared this handout for the YW to take home.

None of the three Laurels that I teach attended this Sunday. So, I joined the Beehive class instead. In addition to using the Worldly Issue Poster, she used an orange with commandments written on it in permanent marker. She discussed how we are like the inside of that orange and when we follow those commandments that they help keep us afloat. Then, she placed the orange in a clear bowl of water to demonstrate that the orange floats while the peel representing those commandments is still surrounding the orange. After that she removed the peel and demonstrated how the orange now sinks to the bottom of the bowl. The commandments give us the ability, tools, and strength through our lives. (Idea found at Sugardoodle and described as follows: for an object lesson she had taken an orange and with a permanent pen wrote: chastity, temple marriage, pro-life, honesty, etc. She had a bowl of water and dropped the orange in it, after a second or two, it floated up!! She talked about the skin of the orange being kind of like a life jacket - keeping the orange a float - she likened this to the standards of our church. She then peeled the orange and asked the girls what they thought would happen if she put it back in the bowl - it sank of course! I thought this was a great object lesson for the girls that they could relate to. It was also good for them to hear each other talk about the differences between the world's view and ours. (Idea shared by Lynette Packard))

Scavenger Hunt

We had the most fun with this Scavenger Hunt. Even the adults wanted to join in. This is how it went. My counselor took pictures that morning of the building. She made sure to use items that would not move, would be there (like the cars), or they could access (meaning not using any rooms where classes would be taking place.) She made sure that within the picture there was enough information to distinguish between similar choices. For instance, the exit sign. It was the only one to the left of the door, rather than above the door. The outside windows, they were the only ones that had one smaller to the right of the larger with a bush, and so on. She did such a terrific job making us guess. I couldn't figure out how she took pictures of screwdrivers (see #2) that were even at the church and wouldn't be moved by that night. It turned out to be a New Era Mormonad behind the glass case/bulletin board. Do you know which one?

Here are the photos she took. She divided the girls into two teams. Each team had a different set of photos and a blank answer sheet numbered with numbers corrisponding with those in their set of pictures. The girls had so much fun running all over the building and outside of the building. It turned out only one item had been moved, which was the wood. She didn't realized that the YM were going to be using it that night and they had taken it.