What I did this year

One of the arts and crafts (a styrofoam ball with beans in a yogurt cup.)


Homemade candles (thanks to my fabulous assistant Jeane) - they were the handout at testimony meeting. "Let your light so shine ..."

Flowers - again using yogurt cups (good thing my kids eat a lot!) These were the handout for the Tree of Life activity, along with homemade truffles and letters from the girls' bishop.

Yet another handout - we did a lesson on King Benjamin instructing his people to open their tents towards the temple, how we have to open our homes to the gospel, etc.

Okay, so this was an awesome activity. We did a "Three Degrees of Glory" thing on the sly. We set up the main cabin with a whole bunch of activities, both 'church-y' and 'worldly' - movies, magazines, Nintendo, foosball, ping-pong, food, and even a clown cutout so they could throw sponges at the leaders. At each activity they had to get their "ticket" signed. We let them have a ball for an hour, and took them away a few at a time, telling them they had just passed away. At the "place of judgement," we had a message on the consequences of our choices ... and pretty much sent them all to hell. ;o) Of course, then they had to "pay" for their sins - manual labor. The ones with the worst marks were sent to clean the bathroom. We let them cry and grumble for a good ten minutes (and there was a lot of crying!) ... and then our beloved stake president approached them. He told them how much he loved them and how much he wanted them to go to the celestial kingdom ... so HE would pay for their sins. Then they stood there and watched him clean the toilets. Several refused, saying he didn't do anything, but he just replied, "No, I WILL pay for your sins. Now it's your choice if you want to go to the celestial kingdom or not." It was an awesome lesson on the Atonement. This was the handout at the 'celestial kingdom.'