Young Women in Excellence

Last week on Wednesday was our stake Young Women in Excellence. We've been doing them on a ward level, so this was a little different this year but very nice. Each ward was assigned a value to work on. Our ward had Choice and Accountability. The girls had been working on this for several months. They decided to "choose to follow their church leaders and dress modestly". Starting back before summer, they chose to follow the stakes new dress code for girls camp, and each made fun shorts to wear (in previous years it was the trend to wear boxer shorts over leggings) since the new rules stated that no underwear could be worn as outerwear. All the girls picked out fun material and at two sewing nights completed their shorts. It was soo fun to see them wearing them at camp! Another activity they did was to cut out modest styles out of catalogs and made a poster. They wrote thank you letters to stores that had modest clothing. They also took an evening and went to the mall and tried on clothes, creating modest styles. They also had a fashion show where they brought clothes they had fixed to be modest. Another mutual night they created fashions on a model with newspaper. Anyway, at the YW in Excellence, each ward had a display showing what they had done, and each had a turn to come to the front and share what they did. They gave out red hots in baggies with " Modest is Hottest " labels. For our presentation, the girls all came to the front, a couple of them talked about what they had done and learned, did a short modeling of outfits (Melissa modeled Jennifer's prom dress that was made out of 3 dresses), and they sang a song (they had asked me to help them stage this). It was called "A More Modest Girl" (sung to Little Mermaid's "Part of your World") Rachel Densley sang the main part with all the girls joining in a certain phrases, and ooing, and doing motions. They did a good job, and it was very well received.
Here are the words:

Look at these clothes, wow- aren’t they neat?
Wouldn’t you think that my wardrobe’s complete?
Wouldn’t you say I’m the girl,
The girl who has everything?
Look at these jewels, colors so bold.
How many earrings can one earlobe hold?
Look in my drawers and you’d think:
“Sure, she’s got everything”.
I’ve got short skirts and low necks a plenty,
I’ve got sleeveless prom dresses galore.
You want tank tops? You’ve got twenty!
But who cares, no big deal, I want more!
I want to dress more modest!
I want to be where the standards are high.
I want to go to the temple someday.
Walkin’ around in nice dresses with -
What’s the word? Sleeves!
Showin’ my skin I won’t get very far,
Length is required for sitting, bending,
Miniskirts won’t cover -
What’s the word? ME!
I’m at my best, modestly dressed,
And if you’re listening, you will have guessed. . .
Just like me - you’ll want to be . . . A More Modest Girl!

It was a very nice evening. It was great to see what all the girls in the different wards in our stake worked on and see their presentations and displays. What wonderful, beautiful, young women in our church!

Our counselor in the Stake Presidency spoke at the end. He shared with us what Elder Oaks had told the priesthood leaders when he came for the Youth Fireside about California's Prop 8. He said the prophet and apostles had all gone to the temple fasting and praying and knew that it was something they should support. This was the first mention that I had heard from our church leaders here in Oregon. He said that our temple has been told that there will be a demonstration. (It has been interesting to hear stories of goings on from my California family members.) Anyway Pres Goodfellow told the girls that we need to be steadfast and immovable, through these trouble times that we will be facing more than ever. It was a wonderful evening, and we ended by eating cake. Filling evening- both spiritual, and physical.