What's in Your Purse?

Our Stake 11 Year Old Girls' Activity Day theme was "What's in Your Purse?: 'Purse-onal' Preparation for the Temple."  We took that theme from Elder Cook's April 2011 General Conference talk.  He told a story of some young women leaders who found a purse and were able to identify what kind of young woman owned the purse by the items they found inside.

We asked each girl to bring a purse or a bag for the day.  They would place items from each class they attended into their purse.

For the gathering activity, the girls made a clip-on flower to attach to their purse.  Some of the girls put them in their hair.  So cute!

One of the classes the girls attended was about scripture study and journaling.  They each made an adorable journal with writing prompts.

Another class was on "Purse-uing Kindness" through service.  The girls helped make and decorate temple-shaped jars for the primary children to collect pennies to donate to the Gilbert Temple fund.

The girls also made "conducting wands" and learned the basics of conducting music.

The remaining class was my favorite!  The girls learned about "Purse-onal Safety" and how to protect themselves while they are online.  They were also able to practice some sweet self-defense moves!

Niki was in Utah that Saturday, so MaryAnn, Jennifer, and I held down the fort.  MaryAnn and Jen's darling daughters were such hard workers and helped us out so much!

I, of course, didn't have a daughter that day, but loved being involved in all the girly stuff!

We are always humbled and amazed by the dedication of those in our Stake who help make these activities go so well.  I particularly loved the inspiration of the sister who decorated the tables.  She put a purse in the center and surrounded it with items like those that were pulled from the young woman's purse in Elder Cook's talk.  It turned out so cute!

The food was awesome.

The speaker was awesome.  Of course, President McClellan is always awesome.  His talk was about the pioneers and what essentials they were able to carry with them in their wagons.  Beautiful.

And then, to remind the girls to continue their preparation to attend the temple, we gave each of them a block with a picture of the new Gilbert temple on it.  We love these girls and were so impressed by them and their leaders.  What a blessing it is to serve.