For the Strength of Youth
A Year of
Activities:
For the Strength of Youth
January- Dating
Etiquette Dinner- Plan a several course dinner and serve it in the cultural hall. Make it as close to a real restaurant as possible. Have waiters and hosts or hostesses. Everyone must be dressed in Sunday best. They must have a party to be seated. They must follow the host or hostess, ladies first. They must use the proper forks and eat using their best manners. While they eat, have someone give an entertaining talk about what to do when phoning, introducing, dining, going to shows, thanking, etc. (Possible Schedule)
Creative Dating Night- have several speakers share ideas and pass out handouts on creative dating. Give ideas for clean, well-lit, uplifting places to go that will encourage keeping high standards. See the Dating Section of this site for good date ideas.
What Kind of Man Do You Want to Marry Night --modify if for young men as well.
See Dating under Idea Index.
February- Dress and Appearance
Go to the mall wearing strings under your clothes where the garment lines will be and find modest outfits that the girls can wear even with temple garments on.
Prom Dress Blues- look through a prom issue of a magazine and see if anything meets the Lord's standards. Try designing a modest prom or party dress. Go to a cloth store and pick out modest patterns. Or see what it would take to make a pattern more modest. Find pretty fabric, lace, etc. that would make a beautiful, elegant, fun, yet modest dress. Write down the information for the girls to keep. Bring moms along!
Have a My Fair Lady Night
March- Friendshipping
Find out about one of your less active girls and plan an activity when she can make it doing something that she likes to do. Prepare the girls by letting them know some things about her, so they can talk to her and make her feel comfortable. Make a special effort in invite every girl to the activity well in advance so that she has no excuse not to attend.
Have everyone bring a friend. Introduce everyone to each other. Play fun games with names, "Do you Love Your Neighbor," a clean game of truth or dare, Oink, or have everyone tell stories.
Play FTSOY Jeopardy!
April- Honesty
Play Balderdash (try using unfamiliar words from the Bible dictionary or from Mormon Doctrine). Afterwards discuss the effect dishonesty has on relationships. Now play a different game while being totally honest.
**Game Idea** Liars Club - Each person makes three statements about themselves. 2 statements are true, 1 is a lie. This is very fun because many people have done things that sound untrue. Everyone tries to guess. Very fun.
**Game Idea** This is a version of "To Tell the Truth". Everyone writes down on a slip of paper a few words describing a unique experience they had or something funny that happened to them that no one there knows about and also their names. Then you choose a slip of paper and call up that girl plus two others to sit in the front of the room. You let each girl read the paper to herself. The three of them tell a story as if the paper was theirs. The other girls have to guess who is telling the truth.
Share stories which illustrate integrity: including Horton Hatches an Egg by Dr. Suess.
Build a block structure, labelling the various parts. Then discuss what happens if the base of the structure were not true, not honest, or did not have integrity. Build a structure that is structurally sound (has integrity). You may want to volunteer for a Welfare farm building project, visit a temple construction site, help with a community building project, playground project, etc.
Write and act out a play based on scriptural stories demonstrating honesty (Joseph Smith did not deny his vision) or dishonesty (lawyers like Korihor or Zeezoram).
May- Language
Read Alma 24. Discuss what weapons of war each girl has. Some of them are the hurtful words we use towards ourselves and others. Write the hurtful words on slips of paper and bury them (in a garden, trash can, whatever). Promise not to use those weapons of war anymore. Practice using kind words by writing letters to people expressing appreciation for what they have done for you.
Play Operator--use whispering to pass phrases through a line of youth. At the end of the line, see how things got garbled and confused.
Share the clean humor in our LDS Humor section
June- Media: Movies, Television, Radio, Videocassettes, Books, and Magazines
Read good books to Primary children, to each other, or to lonely house-bound people. Give parents a break, provide each other with clean entertainment, or brighten someone's day.
Support one of the people in your ward by attending their performance--orchestra, band, choir, the school or community play, etc. Evaluate the performance on the basis of the Lord's standards.
Have a Book of Mormon Night
Have a Doctrine and Covenants Night
Have a Bible Night
July- Mental and Physical Health
Give service to people needing yard work or housework done. Cleanliness and order gives mental peace and work invigorates the body.
Invite friends and less active members to a outdoor game night. Play volleyball, softball, or other outdoor sports. Practice good sportsmanship. Have healthy treats, such as fruit juice slushes, cold milk, vegetables and low fat dip, or fruit slices and yogurt.
August- Music and Dancing
Read the information under Music and Dancing of the pamphlet "For the Strength of Youth." Have everyone bring in several of their tapes. Bring in tape players and have everybody listen to the words and sounds to determine if they would feel comfortable if their parents, grandparents, the bishop, or the prophet were to walk in and hear them listening to that song. Discuss how the appropriate songs make them feel in comparison to the inappropriate songs. Make lists of appropriate music and encourage the girls to either tape over or throw away the inappropriate songs.
Read scriptures relating to songs and dancing. Show how there is a definite difference between the dancing that the Lord likes and the dancing that Satan likes. Learn fun dances that are appropriate. Country dancing, line dancing, square dancing, and ballroom dancing are all fun. Make up your own special ward line dance and show off at the next youth dance. Share the fun with your friends and less actives.
September- Sexual Purity
Have the girls bring questions about moral standards, including dating, chastity, modesty, and physical affection to this activity. Write the questions anonymously on slips of paper. Have a panel which includes the bishop, a member of the stake presidency or a high council member, a young couple, an older couple, and several people older than the youth, but still young and single, answer the questions. (See Suggested Answers About Moral Standard and Dating)
October- Sunday Behavior
Gather materials for Sunday-appropriate activities. Materials may include paper for writing letters, addresses of people to visit, good books to read, good music to listen to, ideas for talks to prepare, Personal Progress goal materials, phone numbers of close friends or family to call, spiritually uplifting movies to watch, songs to sing or play on an instrument, or lists of firesides, choir practices, family activities, or meetings to attend.
November- Spiritual Help
Have leaders or girls prepare to share stories of times when they really needed God and He was there.
Play a game with several complicated rules and strategies, but only tell the girls one of the rules. Let them know that if they have any questions they can just ask you. They can successfully play the game for a short time with the one rule they know, but then they need to know more of the rules or strategy to progress. If they get frustrated, you may whisper to them that they have a way to receive answers to their questions by asking you for help. By the end of the game they should have learned all of the rules and utilized some of the strategy. Then liken the game to life. Heavenly Father wants us to succeed. He doesn't want to take away our agency, but He will answer our questions if we ask Him. Sometimes we forget, but the Holy Ghost can remind us to pray and seek the spiritual help we need.
December- Repentance
Read some of the stories of repentance in The New Era or The Ensign.
Have the Bishop talk about the repentance process and when his help is needed.
Read the story of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah to see how they repented of their very serious sins.
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