It's all about the chocolate...

I mean, It's all about U... that's right. That was our theme for our Enrichment night at church. We have a ward where people have moved in and moved out a lot during the past year. I have been here about 14 months and I am considered an "oldie". Therefore, we decided that our women's activity should center around getting to know one another better. For the past 6 weeks we have been taking photos and collecting surveys from the 70 women in our Relief Society. It has taken a lot of work and a lot of organization. Debbie (my Enrich. leader) and myself have been calling, emailing, and sometimes harassing the women at church to get these things in.

What we did with all that information was so much fun. First of all, we made a slideshow DVD using all of the women's pictures. It was set to 3 different LDS songs that are about women. It made me cry when I watched all the faces of the women with the songs in the background. I was so pleased with myself, I have to admit, for learning how to make it on iDVD and actually succeeding! I didn't expect that to happen! Anyway, we had this playing as people were coming in and sitting down. We also had "U" statements posted all around the room with things like "U are a daughter of God" and "U are needed" and "U have divine potential".



Next, we compiled all the information from the surveys into a sort of Relief Society 'scrapbook'. On each page there are about 8 small photos going down the left side and to the right of the photo is the woman's name and a small biography describing the woman, her birthdate, her hobbies, most daring feat, favorite quote, favorite dessert, etc. It was so enjoyable to learn all about the women in my ward. I was so surprised by some of the answers, like who had been bungee jumping or skydiving, was a ballroom dancer, one was a pastry chef, and more. It's great to find that so many of us share common likes and hobbies.



Last, from the information we gathered we created 3 different games which we played at the Enrichment night. In one game you were given 6 clues about someone and had to find out who it was. We were in 4 teams and each team was finding a different person. When the team got it right they had to set off a 'popper' to announce they'd won. We read out the clues and answers to each so that people got to know the person. Next we had a table with about 12 objects from different sisters in the ward. The object had to be something that described them. One girl who sings brought a songbook, one brought her favorite flip flops b/c she loves the beach, one brought a funny Yoga statue b/c she loves Star Wars, etc etc. So we had to match up whose item was whose. Each person stood to tell why they chose the object to represent themselves. The third game was like "Imaginiff". We created about 15 questions about different people with multiple choice answers. The one about our RS President went, "Imaginiff Bronwyn was a shoe, would she be a)Nike running shoe b)dance shoe c)leopard print heels d)boots. The answer is definitely c for her. It was a lot of fun. We gave out prizes for all the winners and had 4 door prizes through the night. We put a sign in one of the bathroom stalls saying "You are the winner", one on a plate, one under a chair, and one in a balloon and people won relaxing CDs, notepads, stationary, and bath gel.

The games went pretty well. Some of the questions were hard but it made people talk with one another, trying to decide who it was, etc. A few times people were really laughing a lot at the answers or questions and we were so happy to see people having fun with one another and enjoying each other. This was the whole point of the night- just have fun and relax.



Before we dished up our cake and dove into the chocolate fountain, the highlight of the night, we watched a short video about "Lessons from Geese". Lauriegave me this idea to share and I loved it. I was going to have 5 women stand up and read the different lessons but a girl in my ward told me that her mom had a DVD with the lessons on it. I got the DVD and it was great. It was a nice, short spiritual thought for the night (we were mainly there to have fun, but wanted to emphasize the unity idea). Then it was time for the cakes! We had the best cakes made by 5 people in the ward. I couldn't decide which one to eat they were all so gorgeous. Between that and the fruit & chocolate fountain, we were all in heaven. It was a huge hit.



So the great news is that we had 40 people come. In our ward this is FABulous! We have about 70 on the roll, but really 56 is the real number of those who come (at least now and then). Of those 40 who came, there was like half a dozen individuals who we don't see very often. We were so glad they came! There was also 2-3 nonmember friends who came. I don't know why I am still up typing this at 11:45. I wanted to remember the details. I am exhausted but I guess there is a little bit of a high... it was fun and people loved it. Glad it's done!!!