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The following
ideas were passed on to me from Sharma Worthen Anderson, she has collected
these over the years, if some one recognizes an idea that is theirs,
please let me know and I will give you full credit! Thanks Liz
Many
have asked if I have more info on some of this ideas, I wish I could help,
unfortunate these ideas are ones that Sharma sent to me, I don't have
any other information or email address to the people responsible from the
start! She gather these ideas form email lists she was on over the years.
IDEAS
FOR HELPING YOUNG WOMEN MAKE THE TRANSITION TO RELIEF SOCIETY
"Relief Society can be a blessing for young adult sisters.
Within a loving sisterhood they can enlarge their understanding of gospel
principles, build firm testimonies, and give Christlike service."
(Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, p. 206)
"Young women ordinarily move into the Relief Society when they
reach their 18th birthday. However, because of special
circumstances, such as individual maturity, desire to continue with peer
group associates, school graduation, and college attendance, a young
woman may move into Relief society early or remain in Young Women longer.
Such exceptions should occur after the young woman consults with her
parents and the bishop and receives their approval.
"Young Women and Relief Society presidencies work together to
make the transition into Relief Society successful."
(Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, p. 214)
EARLY PREPARATION
1. All sisters should be positive and supportive of Relief Society, setting
a good example. They must be aware that their attitude toward Relief
Society leaders and the work of Relief Society has a great impact on young
women, as well as other sisters.
2. Young Women and Relief Society leaders should build positive
relationships with each other, all working together to prepare young women
for their transition into Relief Society. Brainstorm with Relief Society
leaders and Young Women leaders for other transition ideas.
Work together and calendar events together all year. PLAN AHEAD!!
3. Have one mother-daughter (all ages) Enrichment night during each year.
Start early, even Primary age, so girls become familiar and comfortable
with Relief Society and Relief Society Sisters. Sister Mary Ellen
Smoot suggested we start "when they are infants" to prepare
girls for Relief Society.
DURING YOUNG WOMEN YEARS
4. Continue inviting young women to occasional Enrichment meetings and
other appropriate activities. Learn what their interests are and
incorporate them into your planning.
5. Coordinate with Young Women leaders to offer some Enrichment classes
that will help young women pass off Personal Progress requirements..
6. Encourage sisters to get to know them, learn their names, talk to them,
sit by them, love them, show them they are cared for.
7. Invite young women to participate in compassionate service or community
service with Relief Society sisters.
8. Be sure there are lessons taught in Young Women about Relief Society,
preparing the young women and encouraging them to be excited about Relief
Society. Help them develop testimonies of Relief Society before they
become part of Relief Society.
9. Don't assume that when a young sister goes away to college, she will
then learn about Relief Society. Some fall through the cracks.
10. Work with the Young Women presidency to make graduating from Young
Women a womanhood experience, a crossing over, a preparation for their
life as a sister in Relief Society.
IN THE YEAR BEFORE GRADUATION
11. A young adult specialist
could be assigned to help young women make the transition to RS.
12. The Relief Society Secretary works with Young Women leaders and
mothers, identifying Laurels for the Relief Society presidency, becoming
acquainted with their talents, interests, abilities, accomplishments.
13. When planning for the new year, examine the Sunday lesson schedules for
Relief Society and Laurels and when the topics can be integrated, invite
the Laurels to attend a Sunday lesson in Relief Society.
Laurels could be invited to attend Sunday Relief Society 4 times a year.
14. Continue inviting Laurels to Enrichment, and other appropriate
activities or socials, keeping their interests in mind.
15. A ward Relief Society luncheon or dinner for graduating Laurels could
be planned by the ward Relief Society presidency and Young Women
leaders. A special presentation on Relief Society could be made by the
Relief Society and Young Women Presidencies. Explain the Purpose and
Objectives of Relief Society (see General Handbook of Instructions, Book
2, p. 193). Give the Young Women the opportunity to ask questions
about Relief Society, perhaps submitting them ahead of time.
16. The
Laurel
class could teach a Relief Society lesson on Sunday or at HFPE.
17. Assign Visiting Teachers in the month before graduation and plan for
the transitioning young women to be Visiting Teachers, teaching them the
responsibilities of Visiting Teachers (see General Handbook of
Instructions, Book 2, p.203) and pairing them with an experienced
'trainer'.
AT TRANSITION TIME
18. Remember where these young women are coming from. In Young Women they
were peer leaders. Now they are the newbies. Some may feel
inadequate at first. Remember, each young woman's needs are
different.
19. Suggest to your Bishop that he call 18 year old Young Women to a
"lifetime of service in Relief Society".
20. Be aware of where the mother of an 18 year old young woman is serving
during the transition time. If the opportunity is there, make sure
the mother can accompany her daughter to Relief Society. Some girls
won't need this, some will.
21. Prepare a 'welcome packet' containing a Relief Society manual,
Relief Society Declaration bookmark, Pursuit of Excellence booklet, list
of the Relief Society objectives, scripture marking pencil,
pencil, notepad, or other appropriate items. Have each new
sister fill out a survey to see what she is interested in learning and
what she could share.
22. When she attends Relief Society for the first time, the graduating
Laurel
could be spotlighted in Relief Society. With previous notification,
she could tell about herself or if she is shy a member of the Relief
Society presidency or her mother could tell about her. At the close
of the meeting, the Relief Society president could stand at the door with
the new Relief Society sister to be introduced personally to each older
sister.
23. An individual interview or home visit could be made by the Relief
Society president alone or with the ward single adult representative. If
desired, introduce her to Pursuit of Excellence program. Give
recognition as she achieves her goals.
24. Train teachers to keep these young sisters in mind as they prepare
their lessons, including items relating directly to them with an
understanding of their needs and concerns in life.
25. Involve these young sisters! A. Assign them as Visiting
Teachers, preferably with older, conscientious sisters who are
instructed in their responsibilities to train the young sisters in
Visiting Teaching. B. They could teach a miniclass. Draw on their
talents or give them a subject and a book. They can learn then
teach. Your Enrichment leader or another sister could work with
them. C. They can be on a committee; entertainment,
decorations or food, etc for a social. D. Ask them to participate in
compassionate service. E. Assist/ mentor them whenever they are called on
to serve. Use their moms or another sister.
26. Give each young woman a responsibility, a friend, and nurture her with
the good word of God. (Sound familiar??)
submitted by Ann Amadori, Frederick, MD Stake RS
Our
ward just completed a wonderful activity for the YW that was organized by
the RS! It was our RS presidents idea.
They assigned a RS sister to each of the YW in our ward to be her
secret sister for 6 weeks. When they presented the idea in RS to the
sisters the RS President asked for the sisters to only sign up if they
were willing to follow through for the entire six weeks.
They were to secretly give little notes/letters and small gifts to the
girls once each week for six weeks. They were told to share
scriptures, testimony of RS, positive thoughts about being a wife and
mother. The letters were to be of a spiritual nature. They
started it the first week in January. Then last night we had a
combined YW and RS Enrichment night where the girls found out who their
secret sister was. The RS had a dinner and after dinner they had
each girl come up and tell a little bit about what her secret sister had
done for her and how she felt about it. Then the sister who had her
would reveal herself and come up and give her a red carnation. It
was so much fun. Each week in opening exercises the girls were all a
buzz talking about what the got and what their letters said. They
were really excited about it. Then last night it was great to see
how much the RS sisters and girls had come to love each other through
this. They all gave each other hugs. There was a special bond
between them now that will always be there. For our graduating
Laurels it was wonderful! They now have a special friend waiting for
them in RS when they leave YW. It will help make the transition a
bit easier for them.
One YW said in her comments that because she didn't know who her secret
sister was she felt a great love for all the sisters in the ward, because
it could have been any of them.
April
Laurel
Graduation Brunch
We
have a laurel graduation brunch with graduating laurels and their
mother's. We also invite laurel advisers and relief society
presidency. We start with prayer, brunch, then while we are eating
we have the laurels tell us what their future plans are. We have
the YW president speak on the mutual theme of the year and how it will
apply to them as they go forward with their lives. Then we have the
relief society president speak on transitioning to RS. We then have
each mother say a little something about their daughter and by this time
everyone is usually in tears. We end with a testimony meeting.
We have made giving the graduating laurels a temple bag which we make from
a lacey material along with the magazine
Temples
. Our YW love this and look forward to it when it is their turn.
Hope this helps.
Pam
"Two
of the women in our RS presidency gave the lesson in the
Laurel
class this last Sunday. They came into opening exercises, in dresses that
they wouldn't wear, sloppy lipstick, knee highs, and grandma type stuff in
their purses, etc. Their point was to look like the image that these
laurels have in their mind about RS women. I guess they gave a great
lesson and even gave the girls "Pop Rocks" and put a little
paper over "pop" and wrote Relief
Society. When they gave them those, they danced around"
When
I was in the RS presidency, I put together a special welcome package and
letter. The letter explained how similar the RS is to the YW - right
down to a focus of a theme. We included a copy of the declaration
and put it in the welcome package.
Now that I'm in YW, we've done the following to help:
* starting in January through graduation in May, we have the laurels
attend RS once a month for the lesson. We choose the 2nd Sunday
because that's when a former YW leader teaches and we've found they relate
better with this connection.
* RS invites our laurels to all the Home Family & Personal
Enrichment meetings and does a special one in May for their graduation
where the tables are decorated with pictures/details of the graduating
laurels and a special welcome dinner is held. Our YW leaders make a
special effort to be there and buddy up with the laurels at Enrichment
night
* RS calls a sister to be a "mentor" to the new girls coming
in - usually this is a former YW leader when possible. This sister
is sometimes called to be her VT companion, and usually makes an extra
effort to be friendly on Sunday and sit by them during RS.
* We do special things for the senior sisters in our ward like Widow
Valentines, Secret Grandma's etc. for activities to get the girls
interacting with some of the older RS sisters.
Those are a few of the things we've been doing and they seem to be
helping a ton!
Hugs,
Holly
For
Enrichment in July the Relief Society has invited the young women to a
"Girls night out". It is going to be like a little
girls tea party with cookies and punch and a program etc.
The program is going to be fun and light with stories and music
by women and girls. Then at the end they will turn a little
more serious and talk about how we are all girls, just different
ages, sizes, etc etc. Some one will end by singing the song, "Angels
amoung us." Anyway the young women leaders have been asked to
do a dance to the tune of "Girls just want to have
fun". They want us to write new words to it that say
something like "Girls just want to be friends"
talking about how we are all sisters and we can enjoy each other and
have fun together. (They want to make the point that RS isn't
just for old fuddy duddies.) They want us to dress up and make it
funny.
We
have a Laurel Legacy just before camp to get our Laurels jazzed up to be
YCLs, but we incorporate mini-classes that they suggest, and it has been
great for the last two years! You might think about doing something like
that in conjunction with the Stake, maybe, so your girls don't feel like
they are being singled out.
Here is what we have done:
We had our LL at the
Institute
Building
(I am in
Raleigh
, BTW), and the Institute president was thrilled to have the girls there.
They now know where it is, and by being in the building, they can see some
of what goes on there.
We did an all-morning activity, with a brunch and 3 or 4 mini classes that
the girl's rotated through. We all met together afterwards to do camp
stuff, and have a lesson on how to give a devotional.
The classes were taught by sisters in our Stake, and one that has been
requested twice was "The REAL World - Life After High School".
Last year, it was taught by a sister that had just gotten her degree at a
local University, and was heading out into the workforce. This year, it
was taught by a young sister from my ward that is starting her third year
at BYU-Idaho. They both talked about how they adjusted to roommates, how
important college has been to them not only in their dating and social
lives, but how it has
strengthened their testimonies. They also pointed out that 1/3 of the
women in the Church are single, whether never-married or divorced or
widowed, and it is good to have a career path that you can take to be able
to support yourself (and your family) if you need to.
Other classes (in the last two years) have been: "Recognizing and
listening to the Spirit", "Modesty Chic", "Dating
Family Feud - what the YM are REALLY thinking", "Self
Worth" and "The Dating Game - Creative Dating Ideas". If
you want information on any of these classes, let me know.
Hope this helps! We still have YW talking about the LL from 2003, and the
2004 one was at the same time as "Time Out for Women", but the
ones that came really enjoyed the classes!
Christy
www.christysclipart.com
When
I was in the RS Presidency just before being called as our YW President,
we
did a special ice cream social with our presidency and the new girls
coming in. It was very informal. We met at the President's home and made
our sundaes and shared interests with each other. We talked to the girls
about what their plans were and learned more about them. Then we put
together some special welcome packages for each on that we delivered the
following Sunday. We included a copy of the Relief Society declaration and
a special letter from us, (the president wrote a sweet note about how the
RS sisters are not just all old and serious and we explained that just as
they had a theme in YW, the RS had
one too - the declaration) a magnet with our presidency information, the
monthly RS
bulletin, a RS logo pendant and RS list. Our entire presidency went in the
following Sunday to present the graduating girls with their packages.
One
thing that a mother shared with me a few months ago was how she'd like to
see the RS sisters duplicate what you experience in the temple when you go
your first time. She shared how the sweet matrons are so friendly
and abundant! You can't go to the wrong place because they're all
there to help you and they make you feel so welcome. She said that
she'd like to see the secret grandma concept reversed and have a group at
least 6 women take on a secret grand-daughter who is soon to come into RS.
She shared her vision of how they could do little things for the girl and
get to know her making her
transition easier. I thought it was a GREAT idea!
Hugs,
Holly
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"Choose
you this day
whom ye will
serve
but for me
and my
house we will
serve the Lord "
