personal progress - faith value project complete!

an update on my memorizing of "The Living Christ" for my faith value project

i am super excited to report that i am done!  i finished it!  i did it!  i memorized the entire thing!

personal progress faith project check-in

this is where i am currently.  i have this whole page basically memorized, but it is still a little rusty.

the middle part of this paragraph was easy because it is a scripture reference that i hear quite frequently, so I knew basically what it said.  but it was still a little bit of a challenge to get all of the words just right and in the right order.

sometimes i want to add extra an extra "the" or "and" or an "s" on the end of a word.

so i will polish it up this weekend and then start on next week's poster:

personal progress - faith value experience #3

the faith value experience #3 requirement are:

Living gospel principles requires faith. Read about faith in the Bible Dictionaryor True to the Faith. Faith in the Savior Jesus Christ leads to action. Choose a principle such as prayer, tithing, fasting, repentance, or keeping the Sabbath day holy. In your own home or another setting, plan and present a family home evening lesson about how faith helps you live that gospel principle. If possible, ask a family member to share an experience that has strengthened his or her faith. Share your own experiences as well. In your journal write down one of those experiences and describe your feelings about faith.

since fasting is always a struggle at our house, i decided to do my fhe lesson on fasting.

i utilized a great lesson plan put together by thegoldenseven.blogspot.com.  my kids especially loved the game of building their spiritual fasting muscles.

i asked nathan to share an experience of when fasting has helped increase his faith.  he shared stories from his mission when he and his companions would fast for investigators, to find investigators, or when they needed help with certain things during their mission.

i also asked my mom, a few days later, to share an experience that strengthened her faith.  she shared an experience about a time she finished reading the Book of Mormon.  she had prayed about Moroni's promise prior to starting to read that day, knowing that she would finish the book.  as soon as she finished, she received her witness that the Book or Mormon is the word of God.  i don't want to go into too much detail about it because it was a personal experience, but her sharing this experience with me strengthened my faith as well.

another personal progress - faith value project update

just another check-in on my progress.

i am now working on the poster for week 7 and have memorized the first sentence.  this is a long one and it kind of scares me a little.

i'm trying to come up with more ways to keep me going.  progress is a little slower than i had hoped.  but i think i need to give myself a little more credit.

• i am caring for four children and a husband - cooking, cleaning, homework, quality time, etc...
• i am working outside my home full-time.
• i have a calling that requires my attention every sunday and one evening every week, not to mention time spent during the week preparing lessons.
• i am trying to finish the book of mormon before i head to girl's camp the first week in june. (trying to pass of my value project for virtue.)
• i am helping to plan and carryout our ward's youth trek the week after girl's camp.
• working on my character flaws (gasp... i know it is shocking to learn that i am not perfect)
• taking care of myself... sometimes :)

that's a lot of stuff to do all at once.  sometimes i need to step back and realize that i'm not super woman.  i am a super - woman.  but i am not super woman.  i don't have magical powers beyond the limitations of my human body and mind.  

plus i need to realize and be grateful that i am able to do all of the things.  i love my family.  i love that i am happier in my mother role these days than have ever been and it is because i have taken the opportunity to do more and be more at home.  i still have room for improvement there, but my progress thus far is pretty good.

i love my calling!  the young woman in my ward are amazing.  the new curriculum we are teaching from this year is challenging me in so many ways, but the rewards are equally great.  i am learning and growing in ways i thought only happened to other people.  i'm sure over time, my lessons will get better but i'm still making progress.

the book of mormon is becoming "delicious" to me.  don't know how else to explain it.

i am making progress in what i see as my character flaws.  i am FAR from perfect, mind you.  but i do see improvements.  this past week (nathan would say 2 weeks) was rough.  with the outside commitments i have going on and the progress i am trying to make inside my home, throw in a double shot of hormones (tmi???) and you've set yourself up for the perfect storm.  i'm glad to say that i weathered this storm far better than i would have a year ago.

i'm not sure what my point was here and i believe i've just started rambling.  at any rate... even though memorizing "The Living Christ" is taking longer than i had desired, i am making progress.  and i am making progress in other areas of my life and that is what personal progress is about after all.

an update for personal progress - faith value project

i blogged last week that i was memorizing "The Living Christ".  well, i am making progress.  it's slower progress than i would like, but it is still progress.  i am currently on my 5th poster and have memorized to the word, "mankind".

this week's poster is easier than last week's poster.  don't know what it was about last week's poster, but i struggled to remember the order and wording.

i'll check in again in about a week.  gotta keep myself accountable to keep going.

personal progress - faith value project

i recently started working on my value project for faith since i have completed the required value experiences.

After you have completed six faith value experiences, create a project that will help you practice what you have learned. This should be a significant effort that will take at least ten hours to complete. Prayerfully seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost to select a meaningful project. 

one of the suggested value projects is this:

Memorize “The Living Christ”.  As you do,consider the Savior’s influence in your life and how your faith in Him has increased.  Practice following the Savior’s example

i chose to memorize "The Living Christ".  this publication, expresses my church's witness and my own personal beliefs on Jesus Christ.

each value project is supposed to take you at least 10 hours, and this one definitely will.  i started to look around the internet for some help.

i found an awesome resource here that i decided to use, but there are some other awesome helps here and here.

then i started to memorize.  but it was slow going because i would forget that i was working on it for days at a time.

so i decided to get serious.

i downloaded an app onto my phone of the words so that i would have it with me all the time to work on.

i took the posters that i printed from "discover the scriptures" and hung them on the wall in my hallway so i would see them all the time.  they suggest you memorize one poster a week.  i'm trying to do it faster than that.

i hung up the first 4 posters

and then just decided to hang up the rest.
here are all 12 in a row, waiting for me to memorize them.

i'm currently memorizing lines from this one. I've memorized through "raising the dead."

 i'll check back in a week or so and let you know how it's coming along.

personal progress - faith #6 (come follow me lesson: what is the plan of salvation?)

as a young woman leader, i do not have to complete the "additional value experiences" to get my young womanhood recognition award, but when the requirements are something that i can work on with my girls, i'll do it.

that was the case with faith value experience #6, which says,

Increase your understanding of the plan of salvation. Resources for study include 1 Corinthians 15:22; Revelation 12:7–9; 2 Nephi 9:1–28; 11:4–7; Doctrine and Covenants 76:50–113; 93:33–34; Moses 4:1–4; and Abraham 3:24–27. Draw or obtain a picture that depicts the plan of salvation, including the premortal existence, birth, mortal life, death, judgment, and life after judgment. Using this picture, explain the plan of salvation to your class, your family, or a friend. Discuss how knowledge of the plan affects your actions, helps you understand your identity, and has strengthened your faith.

during the whole month of february, our sunday lessons focused on the plan of salvation. i was able to give our combined lesson focusing mainly on, "what is the plan of salvation?"

i wanted to provide a visual for the girls of what the basic rundown of the plan looked like so, i looked around and found this great pdf that can be adapted for different age levels. i blew up the pictures to make a posterboard sized plan, but i also printed them some regular-sized ones so that they could put them in their scripture journals if they wanted to, kind of like this:

of course, what i wrote is what i felt was important to me and what i learned and wanted to remember from what i read in the scriptures listed.  i also studied the material from the lesson plan and added some of that information as well.

i started out by telling the girls that Alma 42 was written by Alma to his son Corianton who had committed sexual sins.  i asked them why they thought Alma would teach about the plan of salvation to his son because of his sins.  would we make different choices if we didn't understand the plan of salvation?  how does an understanding of this plan affect the decisions you make?

then i had the girls read different verses in Alma 42 to find the different titles given to this plan and why the names applied.  those we discussed were:

• plan of salvation
• plan of happiness
• plan of redemption
• plan of mercy

i noticed that many of the depictions of the plan of salvation exclude anything to do with the creation, the fall and the atonement.  this may be for simplicity or for ease of use for young children, but i found this a little concerning.  those 3 events are what make the whole plan of salvation possible!  i made sure to focus heavily on the creation, the fall and the atonement in my lesson and hopefully the girls realized how important they are.

as i spoke about the creation, i put out some play dough and then talked about how in order for the plan of salvation to begin, we needed a place to come to, gain bodies, and be tested and tried.

when i spoke about the fall, i set out an apple.  the fall brought about spiritual death (being cut off from God) and physical death (our body and spirit being separated).

then i set out a sacrament cup.  i spoke about the atonement.  the atonement helps us to overcome spiritual and physical death.  we discussed grace and mercy and the steps we must take to apply the atonement:

1. have faith in Jesus Christ
2. repent
3. be baptized
4. receive the Holy Ghost
5. endure to the end

i also made sure to point out that the atonement began in Gethsemane, included His suffering and death and the cross and ended with His resurrection.  Jesus Christ overcame spiritual death for us in His suffering and physical death by His resurrection.

i wanted to give them something smaller that depicted the plan of salvation with those 3 key elements, so again i searched online.  i really like this printable and gave the girls each a copy at the end of the lesson to use as a bookmark.  i also really like this graphic as well that could be printed as a bookmark, but unfortunately, it didn't get published until after i had given my lesson and completed this personal progress goal.

since i taught the girls a sunday lesson on the plan of salvation, i completed the portion of this value experience which is to explain it to a class, family or friend.  during the lesson we also discussed how a knowledge of the plan affects our actions, how it strengthens our faith and how it helps us understand our identity.