General Conference

Enjoy General Conference this weekend! We will miss you on Sunday, but we're glad you get to stay in your pjs. :)

Please take the opportunity to listen to the leaders of our church. Their messages are inspired of the Lord. Go into General Conference with an open mind and heart. If there are answers you're looking for, pray about them beforehand and the Lord will tell you what you need to hear. Just make sure you're paying attention!

We love you and are grateful for all of the good you do! See you next week at the temple!

Pillow Cases

Sister Judy Pearce had us over at her home and taught us how to sew! We made pillow cases from two pieces of fabric, and we included French seams. Pretty fancy, right? They all turned out SO well! Props to our young women for their direction-following skills and their pillow-case-sewing skills!

Sister Maureen Speed was also able to come and help us out.

There were enough borrowed sewing machines there that each young woman and each leader was able to sit at her own. Thanks to everyone who brought a sewing machine!!

We had a lot of "pressing" issues to attend to throughout the project!

We had a ton of fun and were even getting a little silly by the end...

Here's the finished product. Everyone did such a great job on their pillow cases!

Thank you, SO MUCH, Sister Pearce and Sister Speed for teaching us how to make these awesome pillow cases!

Sister Pearce also sent an email to help us make another pillow case on our own:

I hope the girls enjoyed their sewing experience last night.  They all did such a good job on making their pillowcases.

For the pillowcases we made, we used the following fabrics:
                3/4 yard fabric 1
                1/3 yard fabric 2

A step-by-step how-to is given at the following website:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases/instructions/RollItUp.pdf

I just trimmed off the selvage edges of the fabric and used the amount of fabric that was left – not trimming it down further to fit the dimensions given on the pattern. 

One can also add an accent fabric between the two pieces of fabric.  This site shows how to do that:

http://www.rainydayquiltschool.com/Rolled%20Pillowcase%20Pattern.pdf

Just Google “free pillowcase patterns” and you can find all types of pillowcase patterns.

Hearts, Hearts, Hearts!

For our Valentine's Day activity this year, we met at the church at 7pm. Sister Iverson brought us cupcakes to decorate and eat while we also decorated Valentine's cards and Brittany brought us oragami kits so we could make oragami hearts. The girls were so creative with their decorations! It sounded like the week was going pretty slowly for most of the young women, so it was nice to unwind and eat cupcakes!

And then, after the cupcakes were eaten and the cards decorated, we took some cupcakes with us and heart-attacked each of the bishopric members' houses. It was a blast!

Iron Chef--Mar 9th

This week for our activity, we will be having an Iron Chef competition! We are meeting in the Primary room at 7pm on Wednesday the 9th. Let us know if you need rides!

Please encourage your girls' creativity as the secret ingredient is cream cheese. They must make any dish of their choice, as long as it has cream cheese in it, before they come to the church for the activity. It can be an entree, a dessert, or a side dish. They will be judged in three categories:

1. Taste--it should taste good.

2. Presentation--it should look good.

3. Originality--it should be unique.
Our three judges will be the three members of the bishopric. The 1st and 2nd place winners will each receive a $5 gift certificate to Sonic!

Please let us know if any of the girls need help obtaining or preparing the food- we are more than happy to assist them.

Interesting fact: The original "Iron Chef" TV show was created in Japan.

Just Dance!--Feb 24th

This week's activity will be a ton of fun! We will be playing "Just Dance!" on the Wii at Ali Bustos' home. Her address is 3911 75th. Please bring your girls and pick them up from this address. Make sure they wear comfortable clothes, we'll be working up a sweat while we get our groove on!

Also, please note that this activity will only be 1 hour. Please be ready to come and get your girls at 8:00pm.

Sewing Skills--Feb 17th

This week we will be learning some sewing skills. Sister Pearce will be teaching us how to make pillow cases from two fabrics as well as mini decorative pillows.

We're meeting at the Pearce residence, 4814 60th St, at 7pm on Thursday. If you have a sewing machine you wouldn't mind us borrowing, please bring it and meet us there a few minutes early. Please call us if you need a ride!

Personal Progress Special :)

We had an interesting-looking group of young women at the church for our personal progress special. Thanks so much for being so supportive of this! We, as leaders, were so impressed with how seriously they took the instructions to wear anything and everything they had that started with the letter 'p', to help us think about Personal Progress. As an example: Polka dots, Plaid, Purple, Pink, Pillbox hat, Peacoat, Pigtails, Ponytail, Purse, Pearls, and the list goes on and on. The girls were so creative as to how they put it all together. The girl with the most 'p''s on won a gift card to Sonic and the runner up and most creative got some luxurious lotions. Taylor Webster won with over 40 p's, Amy Aldana was the runner up, and Winter McGinty won most creative. Here's a picture of our group:

That night was the start of a new adventure. We, as leaders, flew all of the girls out for a vacation to Maine! But we forgot something... OOPS... the return flight! The girls must now earn miles and money to get to where we can have some fun in the sun: Hawaii! If all of the girls make it by June, completing two entire values*, we get a pool party!

How it works:

The young women will be divided into teams. Each team must earn points by doing their Personal Progress. Those points can either be cashed in for money or for miles. Money will be used for things like buying a vehicle, gas, food, and plane or ferry tickets. The miles will be used to move their vehicle of choice across the country on the way to Hawaii.

Points System:

 Each day it takes to complete a value experience is worth 100 points.

All completed value projects are worth 10,000 points!

For example:

If I complete a value experience that took me one day, I will earn 100 points.

If I complete a value experience that took me two weeks, I will earn 1400 points.

If I complete a value project, I will earn 10,000 points!

The young women will also receive the points for the value experience and projects that their mothers/mentors/friends complete!!

There will be several motivating prizes offered to:

-The team that reaches Hawaii first.

-The team that gets the most points.

-The individual girl who gets the most points.

*Completing two entire values will guarantee a young woman a ticket straight to Hawaii, regardless of where her team is when the game is ended. However, she must still earn points to help her team cross the country.