When I got released from being the Young Women’s president I knew I’d be sad because I adored (and still adore:) those girls.  But I also thought I would be relieved.  It was a LOT of work and there were so many other things on my plate that I could not keep up with for the life of me.

It was a very good thing I got released when I did because in the first three months I went without those wonderful girls I was in town three Sundays (there was SO much going on).

But man, I missed those girls more than I could have ever realized I would and the relief I expected took a long time in coming.

When I passed off all my stuff to the new Young Women president I could hardly bear it.  I had to take a picture of my lingering stuff I couldn’t quite pass on:

I lingered outside their classroom on the Sundays I was there and it felt so weird to drop off Elle and Max at their activities on Wednesday nights and not stay.

Gradually I started to feel how nice it was not to have to worry about all the logistics that went into every activity, every meeting, every group text, everything I was supposed to be doing and couldn’t quite get to.

Of course, other things have piled into my life and filled it up every nook and cranny Young Women things left behind, but oh how grateful I am for that experience with those girls and I will always have a special spot in my heart for them and all the wonderful things I learned as their leader. 

There are a couple things I never wrote about that I wanted to pass on.

Because good Young Women ideas need to be shared:

1) Personal Progress ideas.  

As far as the leader responsibilities go (a few questions were asked by blog readers about how we did that), we had
two advisers in each group. One helps more with activities and the
other is the Personal Progress point person and everyone rotates in
teaching on Sundays. Each one of those personal progress leaders emails
the girls and their parents each week to let them know what part of PP
was covered in the lesson on Sunday and what part of PP will be
involved in the mutual activity that week. That way the parents can be
involved more with their girls as they strengthen their testimonies. 
One of my favorite ideas we started right when I was getting released (the idea was from my amazing counselor Ashley who is now the new president) was the “personal progress ‘p'” idea.  
One girl starts with this metal “P” being placed in their yard.  It stays there until the girl completes a project in her Personal Progress book, then she passes it on to another girl to get her going.  If you are in the possession of the metal “P” at church on Sunday you wear this necklace to remind you to get in gear and get it done: 
2)  My friend invited us to do a speed dating activity.  It was fun because it got all the youth mingling with other kids in other high school boundaries. 
In our day and age of technology and facebook and texting I think any real, live mingling sure is a good thing.
The girls had so much fun and so did we. 

These are some of my girls.  Oh how I love them.
This guy came really prepared to impress the girls:


Our old presidency went out to lunch for old times sake a little bit ago.

Sure love those ladies.

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7 Comments

  1. I totally understand that feeling. I was called as RS President when pregnant with my fourth in a growing ward. When I was released I too was waiting for that feeling of relief, but at first, it felt like a loss– like I was grieving. I learned to love those ladies like a mother, even though some of them were older than me! Looking back, it was such a special experience, and He definitely finds a way to make all that crazy stuff fit. I'm still getting blessings for saying "yes" even if it was hard.

  2. Corinne–you and I are the same person!!! I could have (and a matter of fact HAVE) written the exact same thing. Pregnant with the fourth and everything. Wow–I just had to remark on that because I thought it was pretty cool.

    Anyway–I love the things you do in your ward down there. For the first time ever I am wishing we lived in an LDS community. It is almost like we do "Mormon Lite" here. It is really all I know, having been born & raised here, but I finally see the value in living somewhere where there are more LDS people. Enjoy it and don't it for granted!

  3. Wow. I can't even imagine having that many youth all together in one ward or even in our stake. Your youth are SO blessed. Our kids have to move away to college pretty much before they can find someone to date their age. It's so low in numbers around here.

    Love all the ideas!

  4. May I comment on the "P" letter thing? The girls have it in their yard AND around their neck on Sunday? Reminds of the scarlet letter thing — "You haven't done your PP yet and the world must know!" Hate to be such a downer on your blog because you do have such wonderful ideas and thoughts but I just had to comment on that part. Help me to understand what I'm missing here.

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