Merry Christmas!

Love is…

The great commandment
The healing balm that repairs rifts in personal and family relationships
The bond that unites families, communities, and nations.
The power that initiates friendship, tolerance, civility, and respect
The source that overcomes divisiveness and hate
The fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope
The defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ
The source of the highest bliss and the heaviest burdens
The motive that transports simple words into sacred scripture
The factor that transforms reluctant compliance with God’s commandments into blessed dedication and consecration
The guiding light that illuminates the disciple’s path and fills our daily walk with life, meaning, and wonder
The measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

challenge course pictures

Youth Conference Pictures

Our awesome campsite at Heber Valley camp

The inside of one of the cabins

The youth played catch when there wasn't anything else to do

great cobbler dessert!

President Yadon gave a great fireside

Jenessa was trying to tell a story without using her hands!

Listening....

Relaxing by the fire

Yummy!

Saturday morning scripture scavenger hunt

Sister Thayne put the scavenger hunt together... it was great!

Our short hike to the challenge course

Brother Compton helped cook the food

Our fearless YM leaders

waiting for the zip line

still waiting

good morning breakfast of baggie omelets, fruit and muffins!

enjoying the food

Youth love to eat!

One of the challenges... get each person through one hole in the net

another challenge... get 4 people from one end to the other without falling off

the net

Youth conference this weekend

Traverse Mountain 3rd ward
Youth Conference!
Sept. 25-26

We are going to camp at Heber Valley Camp in the mountains outside of Heber city. The activities available are volleyball, hiking, group challenge course, campfire with a special guest, games, and lots of yummy food! Please be prepared to leave after school(around 4 pm) on Friday, the 25th. We will be returning around 5 PM on Saturday, the 26th.
Here's a list of the items you will need to pack for the overnight:

sleeping bag & pillow
sleeping pad (there are wooden bunks to sleep on)
pajamas
toiletries (toothbrush, hairbrush, shampoo, deodorant, etc. There are showers available!)
sneakers (close toed shoes, no sandals)
change of clothes for Saturday
scriptures and journal

Call Sister Smith (766-1564) or Brother Bettinson (407-6486) with questions

Welcome New Young Women!

Just recently, we've had a few new Young Women move into our ward! We are so excited to have the new Beehives, Gessie, Maddie, and Haley, Mia Maids Lexi and Kiera, and Laurels Mallory and Jessica! We hope everyone will get to know these YW. We leaders are so grateful to be in our callings and have such awesome YW in our ward!

Recipes

The YW have mentioned that they'd like to have a cooking class. For the last few weeks, we've had our mutual activities at Sis. Smith's house and the YW have learned some new recipes. One week, Sis. Dieterle and Sis. Smith taught Cranberry Chicken and Spinach Salad, and the next week, Maika and Jessica taught Miso soup and Green Rice. Here's the recipes:

Cranberry Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts
Russian salad dressing
1 can cranberries (we also used 1 c. Craisins)

Cook in crockpot on low for 5 or 6 hours


Spinach Salad

1 bag spinach, washed and dried
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 can mandarin oranges
1/2 c. toasted slivered almonds

Dressing:
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 c. oil
3 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1/8 chopped red onion

Pour dressing over salad and toss just before serving.

Green Rice

Spinach
rice
water
chicken bouillon (or you can use chicken broth in place of water)

Cover the bottom of a pot with cooking oil, and pour your rice in to brown while you're preparing the spinach mixture.

Chop 1/2 bag of spinach in blender with water. The ratio for water to rice is 2/1, so if you are cooking 2 cups of rice, use 4 cups of water or chicken broth. When the spinach is chopped well, add to the rice and cook until done. (about 1/2 hour)


Miso soup

5 cups water
dashi
tofu
miso paste
green onion

Warm the water, but not to a full boil. Dice the amount of tofu you would like in your soup and add it to the water. Vegetables can also be added. With another spoon, help melt the miso by stirring/moving it inside the measuring spoon. Don't rush this step, dissolve it thoroughly. Add more if it tastes too watery. After it is dissolved all the way, warm it up if it has cooled down at all (but don't boil). Chop the green onion into tiny pieces and sprinkle to liking just before serving.

Girls Camp 2009

It was a great camp this year because we got to camp with our ward members (last year the first years were together, 2nd years, etc.) We only had 6 girls from our ward at camp, and 2 were in the YCL cabin, but we had a great time anyway. Everyone "totally bonded" as we learned to be more virtuous on the stake's "Virtue Cruise" and our ward was "anchored in virtue."(it took us a long time to come up with a ward theme, but it worked well). We had a great Camp director, Melissa Thayne, who was really prepared for the week. It was not as busy and tiring as last year, so we had some down time to hang out in our cabin and just relax. Both the groups got lost on the hike again (doesn't that happen every year?) and we got a great rainstorm on Wed. night again when Bro. Brad Christensen (Katie's uncle) came to camp for a fireside. We also had a fireside with Carmen Rasmussen Herbert, from American Idol season 2. She is married with a child now and in our stake. Her message was about standing for righteousness during her time on AI and it was very well delivered and received by the YW in our stake. She sang "Lead, kindly light" acapella for us. It was awesome. The camp was beautiful, and we always feel so grateful to have the nice cabins/pavilion/beautiful forest of Heber Valley camp.

If any of you young women would like to comment about your camp experience, that would be totally appropriate!