Personal Progress: Faith #6

For this activity, I walked the girls through the Plan of Salvation, reading scriptures and discussing each part.  We started in the premortal life where there was a war.  (My original plan was to have the girls cut out pictures from church magazines and make a poster representing the Plan of Salvation, but I didn't have the room or the resources.  So I had a bunch of old church magazines with no use, so I cut out pictures to decorate each station.)

Then we went through the door of birth,

 and to earth.

We talked about the creation, the fall, and the atonement.  We discussed various pictures that related to earth life.  Then we went through the door of death.

We went to the Spirit World, where our work continues and the Gospel is preached to those who haven't yet accepted it.

Then we went to judgment and resurrection, a door that is not possible without the Atonement of Christ.

We ended up in the Kingdoms of Glory. 

The front of the room was bright and the rear was dark. 

In the front (Celestial Kingdom), there were color pictures of temples and pictures of Christ.  In the middle (Terrestrial Kingdom), there were black and white pictures of temples. 

In the back, there were silhouettes and reflections of the temple. 

At the very back was Outer Darkness.

Afterward, I gave them a diagram of the Plan of Salvation and instructions to go explain it to someone else to pass off.

Throughout the activity, I handed out candy for various things: bringing scriptures, sitting on the front row, helping people, finding scriptures first.  At the end, I discussed how not everyone got the same amount.  In the end, we don't all end up in one generic heaven.  We go where we deserve to go--we get what we earn.

Hindsight advice: When it's this late in the year, it's too dark and cold to have "earth" outside. 

Personal Progress: Faith #3

This one is pretty involved, so it's gonna take me a long time to explain it. The requirement is for the YW to plan and present a Family Home Evening lesson about faith and how faith helps us keep a gospel principle. For the activity, the girls will be putting together their own lesson on faith and prayer while they participate in my lesson as I model it for them.
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As the girls arrive, I give them each a card from a deck of playing cards. That is so I can divide them into groups. (An old teaching trick.) The groups will be the 4 suits.
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The main activity is a scavenger hunt. I have picked 9 locations around the church building. At each location, they read something related to the lesson, pick up a part of the materials needed for their own lesson, and get the next clue. I am using scriptures as the clues so they are being challenged. Here is the course of the scavenger hunt (each group is going in a different order, though):

1. Kitchen (Exodus 23: 16) - Here they pick up a pack of recipe cards that they will use to make the scavenger hunt clues for their own FHE.
2. Relief Society room (1 Corinthians 13: 8) - A leader will read about faith from the Bible Dictionary. They will pick up a copy of the same (for all of these, the selection the leader reads is also given to them, unless noted).
3. Stage (2 Samuel 6: 14 - this is the most challenging clue) - A leader will read about faith from True to the Faith.
4. Cleaning closet (Isaiah 1: 16) - A leader will read a selection from True to the Faith that I have pieced together from the section on prayer.
5. Foyer near the chapel (Doctrine & Covenants 20: 75) - A leader will read the first verse of "A Child's Prayer." The girls will get a copy of the sheet music with the link to the song on the church website: http://tinyurl.com/childsprayer.
6. Library (Doctrine & Covenants 88: 118) - A leader will read a paragraph from the Bible Dictionary section on prayer (the paragraph about how prayer aligns God's will with ours).
7. Primary room (Matthew 19: 13-14) - A leader will read some scriptures about prayer (Alma 34: 17-27; Alma 37: 37). The girls will pick up a list of scriptures about prayer (Matthew 6: 6; Matthew 21: 22; 1 Thessalonians 5: 17-18; James 1: 5-6; Alma 34: 17-27; Alma 37: 37; Doctrine & Covenants 19: 28).
8. Coat racks (Genesis 3: 21) - A leader will read some scriptures about faith (Hebrews 11: 1, 3-9, 11, 13, 17, 20-31). The girls will pick up a list of scriptures about faith (Mark 11: 22; 2 Corinthians 5: 7; Hebrews 11: 1, 3-9, 11, 13, 17, 20-31; Alma 14: 26).
9. Young Women's room (Deuteronomy 31: 6; Joshua 1: 9 (the 2010 theme scriptures)) - The girls will be given a page with the instructions and outline for preparing their own Family Home Evening Lesson.

Wish me luck!

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Hindsight Advice: Explain to the leaders exactly what they need to do. They won't get it implicitly. Explain to the girls that the scriptures on the clue cards are clues to lead them to the next location. They won't get it implicitly.