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Sunday, November 23, 2014

Personal Progress: Evening in Excellence


On March 23, 2014, I met with Bishop Layton to receive my Young Womanhood Recognition Award, also known as my Young Women’s Award. I stood up in sacrament meeting on March 30, 2014 and was presented with my medallion. Unfortunately, it was 3 days after I had Carpal Tunnel surgery and was hopped up on pain meds, so I don’t remember as much as I want to.  But I do remember how spiritually happy I felt. As soon as I turned 12 and went into Young Women’s, I made it a goal to finish my personal progress as soon as I could. So when I did, I felt so blessed and I knew my Heavenly Father was proud of me.
            I started looking through my book as soon as Jeanette Singleton, MiKell Flamm, and my Mom gave it to me. But soon after that, I let it go. A couple months later, I began to get really serious about it. I brought it to church with me and constantly thought about what I could do. Throughout the week, I would try to complete as many value experiences as I could. I remember thinking I wanted to complete all of my stuff by the time I became a Mia Maid. Sadly that didn’t happen. One of the reasons was due to my mom being released from young women’s and another, because of Junior High and the adjustment to it and the homework.
            When I did became a Mia Maid, I looked back through the book and saw how many value experiences I completed already. I was able to check off almost every single one through mutual and my own experiences. Then I just needed to worry about the Projects. I was too worried to even try for a few months. But then I looked through those as well and I found that I had started practically all of them. I just needed to continue to put in the hours and get the approval from my leaders. My leaders also asked me to put together a couple of power points and help out with other things that could actually contribute to my projects. At one point, I had actually had 3 projects going on at the same time.
            It took me, surprisingly a long time, to complete my very last project. I started in December of 2013 and it took until March of 2014. Normally, I could get one done in a month. I chalked it all up to the stress of High School, sickness and pain, and surgeries. But boy did I feel so good when I did.
            My favorite project of all time is a toss up between my Faith project, Good Works project, and my Virtue project.  Faith was a compilation of my photography, Good Works was a video of my Young Women, and of course my Virtue was reading the book of Mormon for the first time. I think I would have to say Good Works though. That is the one where I specifically designated it for my project and I worked with a lot of people to complete it. I was able to learn how to use the technology to make a fun movie of our adventures throughout the year 2011. My leaders got me all the pictures that we have taken and they put in tons of input. It let me learn more about technology, because I love doing that. It helped me reminisce about girl’s camp, boating, and other fun young women’s activities. It also made me feel really good because it made everyone happy.
            Personal Progress has helped me to know that I am a daughter of God. I have a Heavenly Father who loves and cares for me. I have worked on these things for 4 years now and if I were to look back, I know that I never felt my Heavenly Fathers love more than I do now. He has always loved me, but now I can recognize it. I have discovered my true worth. I have faith. I have a divine nature. My individual worth is great. I have the most abundant knowledge. I am accountable for the choices I make. I have done many good works. I have integrity. I have virtue. I know that I am a daughter of a King. I would like to bear my testimony that I know this church is true. I love this gospel with all of my heart. I try to live it every single day. I know that we all have a great worth. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.