We had a fifth Sunday coming up but we were told by the Bishopric that we wouldn't be having a combined meeting so we had the freedom to choose what we wanted to do. Our Relief Society presidency just got changed around, and I was really the only one that stayed but I've only been in this calling a few months. They released me as 2nd counselor and called me to be the 1st counselor. Thankfully the new president was happy to have me continue planning the activities because I love doing it so much! Our new presidency had a meeting and agreed we needed to focus on getting the visiting teaching stats kicked up. So we decided to have our lesson on visiting teaching. We wanted to make it fun and spiritual so they gave me the assignment to gather some ideas and report back the next week.
I must say there were so many awesome ideas on Pinterest! I really loved the Wizard of Oz ideas that were on there and for a single adult ward it's definitely going to be popular! As I was trying to put a plan together in my brain for how and what etc., the scripture came to mind that's found in 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the Spirit of fear but of power, and love, and of a sound mind." If you think about it, this scripture fits perfectly in with the Wizard of Oz characters!!! Power, love, and a sound mind would correlate to the Lion, Tin man, and Scarecrow! Once I had the scripture to go off of, it was easy for me to put everything else into place.
Now, I must admit that my original idea was for if they allowed us 1 1/2-2 hrs for the lesson. As it was, we only had one hour. It was probably a better fit for a weekday/weekend activity since it involved a skit etc. Thankfully, there are other people in the presidency besides myself who can tell when I've gone overboard and help me whittle my idea down to the essentials. So, the end result is really an inspiration from Heavenly Father that helped us to carry the message of visiting teaching to the heart of the sisters in the Arlington YSA ward.
The beginning of the lesson started with a funny video that the RS president made with some of the sisters and one of the sisters dog (hello?? It's obviously Toto!) I'm going to see if I can get her to send me a copy of the video so I can put it here but right now you'll just have to use your imagination. The video showed the RS president whose name was Glinda visiting Dorothy and Sister Toto who are visiting teaching companions. Glinda is visiting the two sisters to check up on their visiting teaching because they haven't been to visit their sisters yet. Dorothy and Sister Toto express their fears of visiting teaching. Yes, Sister Toto did speak her own mind (the RS president got her niece to record a voice over for Sister Toto. it was hilarious!!!!!!) Glinda pulled out her scriptures and asked Dorothy to read the reference in 2 Tim. 1:7 and said that she had some people who could help them overcome their fears.
The video cut off and a picture popped up of the Cowardly Lion (which was me!!!) Since it was Sunday we didn't really feel like it was appropriate to wear costumes but we did sort of dress in ways that communicated that we were our respective characters. For me, as the Lion, I just wore red, brown, and gold. I even had a really cool necklace that kind of looked like a badge of courage :) My part of the lesson was to talk about power. The Holy Ghost gives us power in our visiting teaching in three way--preparing the lesson, teaching the lesson, and listening (to the promptings of the Spirit but also when we listen to the sisters we visit teach, we can know how to help them). I found some scriptures to help illustrate those points (there's some great scriptures in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel by the way!) and bore my testimony about the power of the Spirit.
Our next guest was the Tin Man (or I guess in this case she would be the Tin Woman) which was the 2nd counselor. She wore white and gray and had a cute silver heart necklace. She had also found a plastic funnel that she painted silver and wore on her head. She looked really cute! Her lesson was, of course, about the importance of loving our sisters. Some of the sisters shared experiences where they felt like their visiting teacher had really shown true love. One sister even shared an experience she had with a nonmember who was going through a very rough time, and said she felt very alone. This sister told us she was so grateful for Relief Society because you aren't ever alone in the gospel.
The secretary was the Scarecrow. She wore a plaid shirt over her Sunday outfit with a straw hat. She talked about the basics of visiting teaching. Most of the sisters in our ward we thought might not know how to actually do visiting teaching so the Scarecrow told us that we need to prepare a lesson with our companion, make an appointment with the sister, teach the lesson, and fellowship continually with the sister etc. She also had some VERY cute ideas of things you could take your sisters each month like a jar of jam with a little note that said, "If you're ever in a jam, call your visiting teachers!" Things like that. The sisters really loved the ideas!
Glinda closed out the meeting with importance of visiting teaching, and how the gospel relates to the Wizard of Oz. Like how we are all trying to reach the Emerald City (or Celestial Kingdom), and how the yellow brick road (or iron rod) is the way to get there. She passed out the visiting teaching lists and routes and invited them to find their companions or sisters they visit teach and get to know them for a few minutes.
The fun stuff we had for them were plaques with the scripture verse from 2 Timothy and the secretary (who is also the Bishop's wife) made some wonderful food!
The plaques were my project, and I had a lot of fun making them! I work in an office where we have a shipping and receiving warehouse for machine parts. About a month before the event I had to go back there for something and saw one of the workers about to throw away a bunch of wood blocks. They're about 4x6 and 1/2" thick. I ran over and asked if I could have them. He packaged them up for me and I took them home to use on some project. I didn't know what project that was going to be but I do art projects all the time so I figured I could find a good use for them. I decided to make plaques with some sort of quote or something to remind them of the lesson, and to remind them to do their visiting teaching. So this is what I did with them!
The quote I came up with was actually the scripture from the lesson-- 2 Timothy 1:7. But in order to connect the scripture with this lesson specifically I decided to put the silhouettes of our characters into the design. It took me a lot longer than I expected but this is the design I eventually came up with (yes I made this):
UPDATE: I have received several emails from people asking to use my design which makes me very excited and happy! So I decided to redo the design because I had used someone else's silhouettes in the original design for time's sake. Below is the updated design. These are my own silhouettes that I drew using Inkscape.
UPDATE 2: A digital copy is now available for ONLY $5 in my Etsy shop HERE. As soon as you purchase it online, it will be available for download. If you have any issues with the purchase, please email me: themusegirl@gmail.com Previously, this was a free graphic that I would send but I have gotten so many requests that I decided to put it up for sell for a small fee. Please make sure to review the Terms of Use in the item details. If you'd like to use this design for commercial or professional purposes, please purchase the necessary license HERE for commercial use.
Thanks for your interest, and I hope you get inspired!
It takes a lot to get the right fonts and sizing and spacing etc. I searched through Googled images of this scripture reference, found a design I liked, and tried to copy it. Overall, I was really happy and excited with the result and was excited to continue the next steps.
I did actually paint both sides and the edges with the red paint with a big brush (the modge podge comes in at the very end by the way) but I think it only took me about 1 1/2 hrs. I know because I watched Pocahontas on Netflix while I did it. I had about 30 pieces to do, and acrylic is great paint for crafts because it dries quickly. If I had to do the project over, I would have gone with a different shade. There was too much orange in the shade, and not ruby red enough (like Dorothy's slippers of course!) I didn't prime them or put more than one coat on. The design, I knew, would take up most of the front space so you wouldn't really be able to tell if it was a bit of a thin coat.
The modge podge process was a learning one. I read online how to do it but you kind of learn as you go if you've never done it before. The foam brush in the picture is the best brush for modge podge. I put one layer of modge podge on the wood plaque after the paint dried. Then I lay the paper on top. With a plastic card I smoothed out any wrinkles/bubbles, and made sure that it was flat flat flat. The reason why is because I printed the designs out on regular printing paper which is very lightweight. When paper soaks up liquid, it tends to curl up or get wrinkly, and the lighter weight the paper is, the worse the wrinkles are. So you have to smooth and flatten it out as much as you can so that when the modge podge dries, there's no wrinkles. Another layer or two of modge podge, and I was done! I LOVED them, and so did everyone else!
Another fun thing we had was themed food. The secretary had prepared a cute menu, and did an amazing job making all the food! I think she found them on Pinterest somewhere haha Can you guess which dish disappeared the quickest?
The monkey bread disappeared super fast, and everyone loved it! As a presidency, we had fun planning and presenting but we know the sisters enjoyed our little mini conference as well. Comment with questions (or comments)!
