Got called to Young Women's, quick question.

[RachelleDrew]

So I was offered a calling to be the Young Women's counselor last week. I got sustained this morning and I start next week. I'm pretty excited about this calling, but a little lacking in information. For one, as a convert I was never in the YW program so I haven't the foggiest idea what they do in there besides study the stuff in the manuals. Second problem, our branch has one Young Woman and that's it. She's a laurel, and she's not even from our branch. Her family was called from a nearby ward to attend our branch for a while to strengthen our numbers a bit.

So she's all alone here, with no other YW or even YM in our branch. I'll give it to her though, she's got an awesome attitude and is just like "if this is where heavenly father wants our family then i'm happy to be here." She's the only Mormon in her school, so she's kind of used to this and she's easy to work with, but she's going to have her own set of challenges being the only one here. I feel bad for her, because the only place she HAD fellowship with other LDS kids was in her old Ward, and now she has none at all. It's got to be tough, but she's got a great spirit about her.

I just want her to enjoy herself and get something out of it. Just because she's the only one doesn't mean this program can't still benefit her in some way. My YW president isn't used to this situation either, we haven't had a program in a while and she was used to the LARGE YW program that we used to have before they all graduated and moved out west.

I mentioned this situation to some of the kids I manage at work. They are girls, mostly 15-17 years old. They are all really good girls, who are not LDS. But they don't swear or drink or smoke. They are also very sweet. When I told them about this young woman situation they wanted to help. They look up to me for some rediculous reason and they want to start coming to YW sometimes to keep her company. I told them about her and they think she sounds cool and they want to get to know her. Is it okay to open YW up to nonmembers? I think they are mostly only wanting to come so they can impress their boss : ) , but I think it could be benefitial to the solo YW to have some companionship. Plus who knows? The girls I work with could become interested in what the church actually teaches too.

Also, some of these girls already attend local churches, but their services are typically done by the time our Sunday School begins. One of the girl's parents called me and told me it was okay by her if her daughter came so long as I came and got her from her church and took her home afterwards. Which is not an issue, it's a few blocks away but too cold to walk right now. Another parent called and asked if I could come by with the missionaries and tell them what the church is about first. Again, not a problem. So it's obvious to me that at least some of them are serious about it if they are asking their parents for permission.

Sorry this is so long. This is all kind of uncharted territory for our branch. I don't think there is a wrong reason to become involved in the church, but is there someone out there who thinks differently?

[RachelleDrew]

On another note, when I penned the title I didn't realize that I had typed "quick" before question. Fail. Lol.

[Dravin]

Is it okay to open YW up to nonmembers?

Certainly, YW and YM can be an awesome missionary tool (and remember, all missionary work doesn't result in immediate baptism, greater understanding of what we believe and who we are is successful missionary work). The lettering on the side of the building says, "Visitors Welcome", that isn't limited to Sacrament.

[Wingnut]

The only thing with opening up to non-members is making sure that these girls' parents are all above board with it. Make sure they know where their daughters are and what's going on. The girls are still minors, so there could be a few snafus.

I was called as ward YW President at the end of September, and my ward has only 4 young women. One is 17 and doesn't come often, one is 15 and hardly ever comes, one is 13 and comes to everything, and one just barely turned 12 last month. I grew up in a large YW program, so I'm treading on new ground here. We have our own small class on Sunday, but we combine our weekly activities with another ward. The three wards closest to us all have relatively small (10 or less) programs as well. The first Tuesday of the month, my ward meets by itself; the second Tuesday, we have a four-ward combined activity, which rotates whichever ward is in charge; the third and fourth Tuesdays we combined with the one other ward in our building. I don't know where you live in proximity to other units, but perhaps you could suggest something like that to your ward YW President.

[Jbs2763]

on the bright side...you wont take long to learn names.....

[WillowTheWhisp]

What you have in mind sounds like a great idea. Your young woman says she believes she is where Heavenly Father wants her to be and it may well be that Heavenly Father wants the family there so that these 15-17 year old girls you speak about will come to know the restored gospel.

[RachelleDrew]

^Thats a good idea, but we are about an hour away from any other wards.

[beefche]

Rachelle, I think it is absolutely awesome that those non-members girls want to come. That is fantastic!

As long as you have permission from the parents, there shouldn't be any problem. And get your one YW involved as well--she can help them with Personal Progress--these girls can benefit from this program just as much as a member.

[mightynancy]

I'm YW president in my ward. Your one young woman sounds awesome!

Yes, yes, yes, let any 12-18 year old young lady attend! Your ward/branch is actually every person within its boundaries, and the YW presidency has stewardship over all the girls that age in the branch, not just the members. :)

Let your YW plan her activities with your help. Has she earned her YW medallion yet? They have just added an "honor bee" that they can earn in addition to the medallion, which is great. Also, I don't think a girl needs to be a member to do Personal Progress, either...it would be a wonderful tool for the nonmember girls.

My internet is being weird, or I'd link you to the Personal Progress stuff on lds.org. There's a good article in the January New Era (available online)...and there's a good downloadable video too, called A Brand New Year about this year's theme for the youth.

[mightynancy]

Okay, I'm back in business!

Youth area of the site

https://beta.lds.org/youth?locale=eng

Personal Progress (not yet updated to reflect updated printed materials)

LDS.org - Young Women Table of Contents - Young Women Personal Progress: Standing As a Witness of God

Re: new Personal Progress materials

LDS.org - New Era Article - What’s New in Personal Progress?

And sugardoodle.net has great ideas for lots of YW stuff!

[jadams_4040]

So I was offered a calling to be the Young Women's counselor last week. I got sustained this morning and I start next week. I'm pretty excited about this calling, but a little lacking in information. For one, as a convert I was never in the YW program so I haven't the foggiest idea what they do in there besides study the stuff in the manuals. Second problem, our branch has one Young Woman and that's it. She's a laurel, and she's not even from our branch. Her family was called from a nearby ward to attend our branch for a while to strengthen our numbers a bit.

So she's all alone here, with no other YW or even YM in our branch. I'll give it to her though, she's got an awesome attitude and is just like "if this is where heavenly father wants our family then i'm happy to be here." She's the only Mormon in her school, so she's kind of used to this and she's easy to work with, but she's going to have her own set of challenges being the only one here. I feel bad for her, because the only place she HAD fellowship with other LDS kids was in her old Ward, and now she has none at all. It's got to be tough, but she's got a great spirit about her.

I just want her to enjoy herself and get something out of it. Just because she's the only one doesn't mean this program can't still benefit her in some way. My YW president isn't used to this situation either, we haven't had a program in a while and she was used to the LARGE YW program that we used to have before they all graduated and moved out west.

I mentioned this situation to some of the kids I manage at work. They are girls, mostly 15-17 years old. They are all really good girls, who are not LDS. But they don't swear or drink or smoke. They are also very sweet. When I told them about this young woman situation they wanted to help. They look up to me for some rediculous reason and they want to start coming to YW sometimes to keep her company. I told them about her and they think she sounds cool and they want to get to know her. Is it okay to open YW up to nonmembers? I think they are mostly only wanting to come so they can impress their boss : ) , but I think it could be benefitial to the solo YW to have some companionship. Plus who knows? The girls I work with could become interested in what the church actually teaches too.

Also, some of these girls already attend local churches, but their services are typically done by the time our Sunday School begins. One of the girl's parents called me and told me it was okay by her if her daughter came so long as I came and got her from her church and took her home afterwards. Which is not an issue, it's a few blocks away but too cold to walk right now. Another parent called and asked if I could come by with the missionaries and tell them what the church is about first. Again, not a problem. So it's obvious to me that at least some of them are serious about it if they are asking their parents for permission.

Sorry this is so long. This is all kind of uncharted territory for our branch. I don't think there is a wrong reason to become involved in the church, but is there someone out there who thinks differently?

Rachelle with your life experiances especially recently it is obvious your abilities and wisdom are needed by someone in the young womens.:)

[Just_A_Guy]

I'd just suggest that you reinforce to the missionaries, if/when they meet that one girl's parents, that they keep things very low-key and no-pressure. If you can get sisters rather than elders to meet with them, so much the better (they might think it a little "odd" for two nineteen-year-old boys to come out and explain to parents about why their teenaged daughter should come to their church).

[Elgama]

She's a Laurel - how friendly is your Relief Society President? can she attend Relief Society once a month and maybe the Relief Society social events/other meetings? How many YM do you have? when we had a small number of both in our branch (1 or 2 of each), permission was granted from the Stake and they had 3 joint social meetings a month and 1 seperate.

Unless she is a good singer would ask her how she feels about singing the hymn? if not you can read it. Make sure you say the YW Theme with her. How many YW are on the records? realistically you won't need to spend the full time on the lesson, with a smaller number of children or only 1 it doesn't take as long, you can spend time putting together a newsletter, or cards for inactive YW

There are things you can do in a branch that wouldn't be allowed or tried in a larger ward.

[RachelleDrew]

Our RS pres is not going to be much help, i've already asked for her advice regarding this situation and was snubbed. No big deal, the YW pres and I will do it ourselves. And we have no YM as I mentioned in the original post. We also have none on the membership records, YM or YW. She is the only one, active or non active. The ones we had before all moved out west for college. The inactive youth that we had are no longer youth and are now the issue of EQ and RS. I do most of their visiting teaching now and they are all too old for youth programs.

She's a good singer, so is the YW pres and myself. So singing the hymn won't be a problem. I don't know the theme myself, so it will kind of be nice because she's going to teach me more than I will probably teach her. We've also decided to focus a lot on service projects because it's something that we can do regardless of the amount of participants. It's also something that will get the nonmember girls excited and that won't make them feel excluded.

I think involving them in the personal progress is an excellent idea. None of the values are really contradictory to their own beliefs so they shouldn't have any objections. I'm absolutely going to make sure the parents of the non-member girls are on board. I don't want to bring any negative attention to the YW program.

We don't really have sister missionaries available for us to work with. I thought of that myself, so the Elders will have to do. The parents that asked me to come over wanted to make sure that we were practicing satan worship or anything. : ) I thought the missionaries would be useful because they might be able to answer questions that i couldn't. They were game for it, and so were the Elders.

Thanks everyone for the responses. It's helping me out loads.

[lydlou]

talk about "every member a missonary" between you and your one young woman your ward/branch (whichever) mich just have a population explosion. remeber to pray for all the young women and therir familys.