Church Callings & Yard Sales

Even though I don't have many pictures to post of these smaller events, I still don't want to forget about them.

  **Garage Sales
--My sister had two garage sales to help raise money for IVF.  The first one we hosted at our house in July.  My mom brought by a TON of stuff, and we contributed to it, as well as Rebecca and Kyhle.  It was a huge sale!  Eli set up his picnic table in the front yard and had a little lemonade and baked good sale.  On his first sale he made $5!  (nice neighbor).  He had a lot of fun being a mini salesman and trying to get people to buy some lemonade and brownies.  My dad came to visit and hang out during the sale (my mom was out of state).  Dad and Eli played some t-ball and golf in the yard.

Couldn't catch a real smile here!

We didn't sell near enough stuff at that sale, so Rebecca had another sale at my parent's in September.  Eli and Clara spent that day at my parent's while David and I went to the temple in Louisville.  (Our first time getting there since before Clara was born.  Great to be back, and so anxious for our Indy temple that will be finished in the spring!)  There was still soo much leftover after that sale as well, so everything else just got donated to Goodwill.

**Primary Program
--Eli participated in his first Primary Program at church!  The primary kids sat on the stand during ALL of sacrament meeting.  Since Eli's the youngest Primary kid, I just kept him with us until their program started.  He was so excited to get to sit up in the front, and knew his line, "I can obey Mommy."  (Although we could only see the tip of his head when he said it at the podium.)  I know he knew at least some of the songs they sang, because we had sung them at home together.  The chapel was so packed, though, that we were stuck in the far back and could barely see Eli.  We could, however, see him being rascally with a classmate and get put in a different place where we then couldn't see him at all!  It's okay, on the way home he told me, "Sister White (his teacher) said I'm going to be in LOTS of Primary Programs!"  My parents and Becky and Kyhle came up to see the program, and we had a nice lunch together afterwards.

**Young Women
--I've been enjoying my calling doing Personal Progress with the Young Women at church.  I try to interview the YW on a regular basis to see what they're accomplishing and to help them set new goals.  I make little handout reminders once-a-month that say things such as "Have a JOLLY good time doing your Personal Progress!" with a jolly rancher attached,

I've put together a few mutual personal progress activities so far.  One night when discussing Individual Worth, I showed Colbie Caillat's music video "Try," then gave a short talk on beauty/worth.  We then did this activity--http://kellyallenphoto.smugmug.com/Baby-Children/Westfield-YW/n-HxdQL/i-rfKT3hj.  Each girl stood in front of the chalkboard while everyone wrote nice qualities about that girl.  A photographer from another ward took photos of the girls in front of their chalkboard of attributes.  It was such a spirit booster!  We'll be framing the pictures and giving them to the girls for Christmas.

After the pictures, the photographer taught us tips on posing for the camera, ways to look flattering, etc.  It was a terrific evening!

Another activity I put together was a night of workshops about serving and teaching in the church.  One of our very talented young women taught everyone (very creatively) how to conduct hymns.  She had the girls use glow sticks and turned out the lights while they practiced conducting after being taught how.  The second workshop was the sister missionaries teaching about daily missionary life, and how to go up to people and teach them.  The young women were able to ask lots of questions and then practice role-playing.  The third workshop was about teaching and preparing lessons in the church.  All were very successful, fun, and informative!