Personal Progress?

So, the church has this program for the Young Women akin to scouting for the Young Men. It's called Personal Progress. There are 7 values: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works and integrity. Within each value are 3 mandatory "experiences", 3 elective "experiences" and one 10 hour project to be completed. When you have done all of those things for all 7 values, you receive the Young Women's Personal Progress Medallion.

The goal of the program is to help our girls prepare for their roles as wives, mothers and grown women. More importantly, the program helps them to draw closer to Christ and recognize their worth as daughters of our Heavenly Father. They have 6 years to complete the program. Once you have turned 18 and left the Young Women's program, you cannot earn the medallion. UNLESS, you are a Young Women's leader for at least a year. After your year's time and while in that call, you may earn your medallion. The requirements are about 1/2 of what the girls must do. I've been encouraging the current presidency, myself included, to earn their medallions. Currently, I'm about 1/2 way there.

Here is an example of one of the experiences:
Faith Experience #6
Increase your understanding of the plan of salvation. Resources for study include 2 Nephi 9:1-28, 11:4-7, Moses 4:1-4, Revelation 12:7-9, Doctrine and Covenants 76:50-113, 93:33-34, Abraham 3:24-27, and 1 Corinthians 15:22. Draw or obtain a picture that depicts the plan of salvation, including the premortal existence, birth, mortal life, death, judgment, and life after judgment. Using the picture, explain the plan of salvation to your class, your family or a friend. Discuss how knowledge of the plan affects your actions.

Allen and I were teaching a family for about a year and one night I chose to use this for the lesson. It was pretty easy to do and was a great experience for everyone involved.

Here's an example of a 10 hour project:
Individual Worth
Carry out a project to improve the living situation of someone in need.

Marti was at a cross roads and we both determined that living with us would probably be a good thing for her. She was with us for about 4-5 months. During that time, we tried to keep a home where the Spirit was welcome, love her, encourage her, and of course, have a lot of fun just being together again. Again, not too difficult and very rewarding.

My biggest hold up on completing my personal progress is the journaling. Many of the experiences require a person to read scripture, practice their new behavior/goal for 2 weeks and then journal. I do not like to journal and I rarely remember to do so. However, blogging has been something I really like. So, I'm going to use this blog as my journal for PP. For those of you that are in YW and want to join in, come on! For the rest of you, my spiritual, emotional and personal growth will be at your fingertips. Can't hardly wait for the first entry, can you?

(The title of this entry is a link to the LDS website for the official explanation of PP, the purposes, helps, etc.)