From Savannah: The new youth program, I think honestly has been better then what we had before with Faith in God, Duty to God, and Personal Progress. Before, we had a whole bunch of things we had to do. Checking boxes was the only thing that mattered. But now, with the new setting goals and working at our own pace, I have found I get more out of it than just doing it for the sake of doing it.
A few weeks ago, I decided to put reading Doctrine and Covenants 11 as a goal. Because I wanted to start reading the scriptures every day, and someone recommended section 11 to me so I decided to do that. I was challenging myself to read 10 versus a day and when I was reading, I would go through and write down in my journal and mark up the scriptures for what I thought stood out to me.
I had to readjust my schedule but that was something I was willing to do for what I got back. In my journal, there are three pages of notes, because I worked on this over 3 days, and as I look back, I see that in the moment, I didn't realize how important the scriptures were. It's really important to read the scriptures everyday and breaking it down makes it so much more meaningful.
Before this, I actually felt stressed about completing the Personal Progress. I said in my mind, “There's no way I'm going to finish this. There's no way I'm going to be able to complete this in a year” (we knew the program was changing a year after I became a "Beehive" in Latvia). Even if there had been more time, it wouldn't have done anything because there were still boxes to check and more things to do.
When I was still in primary (good old days), we had Faith In God and that was really helpful. Actually, I felt more inclined to prepare to become a young woman. But this new youth program has been so much more helpful in my everyday life. Because I can make anything I want into a goal and accomplish that goal. I have to make that conscious choice to do what I know is right. I think that's better than just doing it to check out the box.
We've had a few firesides and meetings about the new program for everyone to share ideas and hear from our leaders in Salt Lake. I love the new "Go and Do" theme song for 2020 too. I've wanted to learn the ASL signs to it too.
After one of the meetings, hanging out with our friend Eden.
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