UP!

Our first Relief Society Activity of the year! We wanted to loosely use the idea of New Year's Resolutions and highlight topics that invite personal growth. But we didn't want it to be boring.

Our rule for planning Enrichment activites is this: It needs to be worthwhile, ie. when the ladies come, they will learn something, be uplifted or strengthened, etc. AND the activity needs to have a fun element that allows the ladies to interact with each other and create friendships and sisterhood. We always put a large flyer in the binders that get passed around each Sunday. We also hand deliver a small size of the same flyer to each woman's home the morning of the activity. We are blessed to live in an LDS-rich neighborhood with small ward boundries. (Oregon) We split the ward up into 4 sections and each presidency member delivers a route. We stick the flyer on the front door with painters blue tape. We include all the less-active sisters and are starting to see some tentative responses! It takes us each about an hour.

The theme we decided to use was Rise UP with us! We used the Disney movie UP! as the basis of our decorating.  We met in the Cultural Hall (we are not in a Stake Center. If we were, we probably would have only used half of the gym.) which was set up like this:

We had 3 mini-classes, taught by some amazingly talented ladies in the ward. We had the ladies divide themselves into groups of 10-15 (we usualy get around 35 ladies at an activity) and start at any of the three classes. We purposely made the chairs in a semi-circle so that nobody was in the back. We wanted everybody to be included. We used one of the big, rolling chalkboards as a divider between two of the classes. It seemed to work perfectly.

Class 1: Brighten UP! was a class about attitude and outlook. The woman who taught it is a super example of always portraying life in the best possible way and always "looking at the glass as half-full." We just asked her to come up with a short 15 minute presentation that talked about how she is able to stay upbeat. She gave the ladies a short quiz (kind of a situation scenerio quiz) with prizes for certain funny responses. She did a team-building game with the ladies and talked about how she values the team of sisters and friends that help her when she is down. She reaches out for help instead of wallowing in her problems. She also talked about her social media rules for herself and how placing limits (1 hour per day total) has helped her as well.

Class 2: Shape UP! We have several fitness gurus in our ward. Several marathon runners, and many others who are religious about daily exercise. The lady who taught this class used to be overweight, but was able through diet and exercise to lose 50 pounds and keep it off. She used her 15 minutes to give some of her daily strategies for avoiding food temptation and how she does all of her exercise at home. She put together a list of good snacks to keep on hand for beating the munchies. She also showed several "chair exercises" that anyone can do.

Class 3: Look UP! was fantastic! The sweetest lady gave this presentation and was so humble about her approach. We had asked her to talk about what habits she has that help her to daily Look UP to Christ. She had some unique techniques of daily study that she employs and she showed us her journals and study aids that she creates for herself. She recieved a lot of questions as the ladies were touched and inspired by her words. She makes a notebook with journaling paper that includes the current General Conference Ensign. She reads a talk, or partial talk, each day and writes down the impressions, thoughts, and insights she recieves. She also keeps a small spiral notebook with her that she writes down any thoughts she recieves during any part of the day that pertain to her family, her calling or a friend. She reviews the notebook periodically and has found over time that those little thoughts are really personal revelation for her.

Ponderize Activity: We had paper, markers, and scriptures laid out on the table. Women could come and write out a scripture that they wanted to "ponderize" for the week/month. We also had 11x14 mats (the kind you put in a picture frame to mat an 8x10 photo) to put tape their verse behind. (Purchased at Walmart.) We had magnet tape they could stick on it as well. The idea was that they could hang it on their fridge and easily change the scripture. This was a fun place to sit and visit.

Refreshment tables: This was where we had our decorations. Three round tables with table cloths and veggie trays and pitchers of cold water. We had bunches of helium balloons attached to birdhouses on each table to bring in the UP! theme. We found that the cheapest way to get helium balloons was to rent a tank of helium (which came with 40 latex balloons) for $24. Otherwise, we would have had to pay around $1 per balloon.

We used our budget money for balloons, mats and veggies and were able to keep the activity around $50. We returned all the mats that weren't used.

This turned out to be such a fun activity. We recieved a lot of comments about it for several weeks afterwards.