musing on young women

Today as I drove up to Layton for dinner (still hamburgers and french fries after all these years...), I was thinking about being a YW adviser as I've now had this current calling for a just over a year now and it's the third or fourth time I've worked in YW. We only have about 10 active YW in my ward but they are some of the cutest, humblest, friendliest, good girls you'll ever meet. I got to thinking about some of my YW leaders oh so long ago in the Casselberry and Oviedo Wards in Florida.

I remember being a Beehive and sitting in the YW room of the Lake Mary Stake Center and watching Martha Hague rub her little pregnant belly and tell us how humbled she felt at becoming a mother. She cried as she looked at her stomach and looked back up at all of us and I distinctly remember feeling like becoming a Mom must be incredibly awesome. That little boy she was about to have is now a missionary.

I think I was a Mia Maid when I heard Janice Liljenquist and Kye Yeaman do a lesson on trials and how everyone's trials are different and personally suited to each of us. They each told a story about one of their children. One had a baby boy pass away soon after birth and she showed us the little blessing outfit he never wore. The other woman had a child fall out of a high chair and receive some slight brain damage. They talked about how, while their trial was hard, they couldn't have dealt with the challenge of their friend. I still think about this lesson whenever I look at other people and see what they're going through (or what I'm going through) and realize that Heavenly Father knows us and gives us just what we need and what we can actually get through.

At one point we had Sister Linda Humphries as a YW President and she had each one of us memorize the 23rd Psalm and say to in front of the whole YW. We got a pencil that said, "The Lord is my shepherd" on it-- I believe it was purple with a little white sheep. She did a lesson on the Psalm and how it was a prayer; she told a story about an older gentleman who recited it with feeling as if he believed the words, in contrast to a celebrated orator who could just repeat the lines. I still have it memorized.

I remember driving to the Orlando Temple to do baptisms with Jaquie Munns and listening to Kenneth Cope's, "The Woman at the Well" as she talked about the importance of listening to good music as you go to the temple. I still remember the feeling I had as we turned the corner and could suddenly see the temple on the hill surrounded by trees. No building had ever looked so inviting.

I had a leader as a Mia Maid who was single and 28 or so (geesh... that seems young and single now that I'm 32 and single and in YW!) and made amazing efforts to reactivate a girl in our class. She picked a couple of us active girls and the inactive one and drove us to the beach one Saturday in an effort to help us all be friends. We thought she was the coolest leader because she had a car phone. At the beach, we ended up going for a really long walk, getting really sunburned and so she took us all back to her house where we all showered and we sat on her guest bed watching "An Affair to Remember" and slathering on aloe vera. From her I remember that she liked us-- we weren't just a calling for her-- and spent an entire Saturday with a group of 14-15 year old girls to help us be friends. I saw this leader, Cheryl McCurdy (Christiansen), when I graduated with my Master's Degree because she teaches at the university in Phoenix now. It was great to see her and know that we'll be friends forever.

As a leader or a teacher, you never know if/when a lesson or example has sunk in, but I believe that it's safe to say that little things make an impact and you never know when that will happen. Sometimes, memories of lessons I've learned come back to me just when I need them most. Also, I remember lessons I heard as a youth when I prepare my lessons now, since they're the same books.

Thank you, Young Women leaders for all that you do and are for the youth of the Church! They may never tell you what you do for them, but someday when they have a challenge, they will remember you and offer a prayer of thanks for your influence in their life. I know, because I've done it!