The Blessings of Personal Progress

The following is the talk I gave at church this morning:

I was asked to speak by Bishop Ferrin about a month ago, and I have been putting up a good fight because public speaking is my least favorite thing to do. It terrifies me even more than spiders. But the subject that I have been asked to speak about has become near and dear to my heart over the last year.

As most of you probably already know, I am a convert to the church. I joined the church in April of 2000 just a few weeks before my 21st birthday. Since I joined as an adult I never had the opportunity to be in Primary as a child or Young Women as a teenager. I also have never had a calling in Young Women until I moved here. So serving in the Young Women program has been a very new experience for me, and I absolutely love working with the Youth in this ward especially the Young Women.

Over the last year I have been introduced to Personal Progress. This is the program that the leaders of the church have developed for the young women of the church between the ages of 12 and 18.

The Young Women Theme says:
We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us ,and we love Him.
We will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:
Faith* Divine Nature* Individual Worth* Knowledge* Choice & Accountability* Good Works* Integrity and Virtue
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Through Personal Progress the Young Women are able to strengthen their faith in and testimony of Jesus Christ by learning His teachings and regularly applying them to their lives. It helps to strengthen both their present families and future families. It helps to prepare them to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple. And it will prepare them to be faithful, contributing members of the church.

The Personal Progress program uses the eight Young Women values to help these young girls more fully understand who they are, why they are here on Earth and what they should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day they go to the temple to make sacred covenants. It will also help them prepare for their future roles as faithful women, wives, mothers, and leaders in God’s kingdom. It teaches them to make commitments, carry them out and report their progress to a parent or leader. They will establish personal daily habits such as prayer, scripture study, service and journal keeping as they work on Personal Progress. These habits will help them learn and improve throughout theirs lives as they increase their testimonies.

In order for a Young Women to complete her Personal Progress she will need to:
● Regularly attend sacrament meeting.
● Live the standards in For the Strength of Youth.
● Keep a personal journal.
● Attend seminary or participate in independent study.
● Read the Book of Mormon regularly.
● Record her testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.
● Complete the value experiences and value project for each of the eight values.

Each of the values except virtue has three required value experiences that they must complete. They also have three additional value experiences to complete that can be selected from the options in their book or they can write up to two of their own experiences that must be approved by a parent or leader. The virtue value has four required value experiences. Each of the values also has a value project that must take at least ten hour to complete. Virtue has a required project of reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. While reading they must regularly record their thoughts in their journals, and then, after completion, record their testimony.

Now I am going to touch on each of the individual values and the blessings that they will receive from them.

The first value is faith. In Alma 32:21 it says: “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” By completing the experiences and project for faith they will know that they are a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves them. They will have faith in His eternal plan which centers on the Savior Jesus Christ.

The second value is divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4-7 states: “Be partakers of the divine nature...Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” By completing the experiences and project for divine nature they will know that they inherited divine qualities and strive to develop them.

The third value is individual worth. By completing the experiences and project for individual worth they will know of their infinite worth with their own divine mission to fulfill. In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 18 verse 10 it says: “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God”

Fourth we have the value of knowledge. It says in Doctrine and Covenants 88:118: “Seek learning, even by study and also by faith” Through completing the value experiences and project for knowledge they will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth.

Choice & accountability is the fifth value. Upon completion of the experiences and project for choice & accountability they will be able to choose good over evil and accept responsibility for their decisions. Joshua 24:15 states: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve;. . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”

The next value is good works. “Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” 3 Nephi 12:16. By completing the experiences and project for knowledge they will help others and build the kingdom through righteous service.

The seventh value is integrity. In Job chapter 27 verse 5 is says: “Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me” They will have the moral courage to make their actions consistent with their knowledge of right and wrong when they complete the value experiences and project for integrity.

The final and newest value is virtue. Upon completion of the experiences and project for virtue the Young Women will prepare to enter the temple and remain pure and worthy. Their thoughts and actions will be based on high moral standards. In Proverbs 31:10 it says: “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies”

My Young Womanhood Medallion earned December 19, 2010

After completing all the value experiences and projects for the eight Young Women values she will have an interview with the bishop and be able to receive her Young Womanhood Recognition certificate and medallion. But even more important, she will have received the habits, knowledge and skills to help her throughout her mortal and eternal life.

President Ezra Taft Benson in “To the Young Women of the Church” said, “Give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity.”

I know that Personal Progress is a divine program that was developed to prepare Young Women for their eternal roles. That by completing this program they “will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation”. I leave this with you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.