Callings, commitments, and blessings

My main activity for the week was YW in Excellence.  We put it on for the whole stake as the previous president had discovered that this would really help our ward YW Presidents.  The theme (on left) was Daughter of a King.  Jieun came over and did the chalk art on the chalkboard, while the YW presidency was blowing up balloons, and putting together the rest of our decorations.  We spent about 1 hr. and 45 minutes Tuesday night putting up tables, etc. then on Wednesday, we spent another several hours doing the balloon valances.  Caitlyn helped by putting crowns and swans on all the cupcakes, before joining us in making the balloon art.  Clean-up was lots simpler--we popped all those balloons in minutes.  Just as we got all the tables put away, another ward came in to set up for their Christmas Party--they got out almost all the tables we had just taken down.

We have 142 girls in our stake, so displaying all of their accomplishments was daunting.  Sara came up with the idea to have all the girls decorate a quart jar to represent their interests.  The girls were very creative with their jars.
Everything went well.  We kept the program short and simple--the Stake President was the only speaker and he was brief.  We recognized quite a lot of the girls from the stake.  It was impressive how many of them stuck with the program and finished up with their goals.

I have been thinking a lot about covenants, faith, and choices.  I am completely out of my comfort zone in this Stake Young Women calling.  I could never do it alone, and I'm grateful for the help I have--my counselors and secretary, my family who step in to help on occasion, and of course, my Heavenly Father.  Why do I accept a calling that is difficult for me.  The main reason is that I have made covenants and promises.  Also, I know that through my life my callings have shaped me and helped me to grow.  As with everything else--it is a choice.  I choose to make those promises, and I choose to follow through with them to the best of my ability.  I have been greatly blessed in my life because of this commitment.  Elder Rasband, at the recent general conference tells us that keeping promises (or commitments) is not a habit, but a characteristic of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  The greatest hope I have for my posterity is that all of you will stay on the covenant path.  That you will make promises and commitments to our Heavenly Father and then follow through with them.  I know that we fall short--I fall short every day--but we have the gift of repentance.  We can decide to continually use that gift and move forward.

Roy bought a cute car this week:

Gunnar came over Saturday and helped his grandpa in the yard for an hour or so.  He also did some sewing and made a Christmas pillow to take home. 

We also enjoyed several of our family members on Sunday evening where we had breakfast for dinner.