YW in Excellence

J got her YW award last night at YW in Excellence. The girls all presented their projects and J gave a little talk. They asked me to speak, but then forgot so I didn't get to share amusing antidotes from J's childhood, which I am sure she was happy about :) She got her necklace and the stake came and gave her a beautiful statue. The Bishop spoke and he had the plaque with all the girls names on it that have received their awards in our ward, we have one more spot before we need a second plaque. Since S is half way done with her last project I think her name will finish off the plaque. He said he looked at all the names and of them there are 11 girls who he knows are married already and of the 11 eleven were married in the temple. Pretty neat :)

The girls sang a lovely song, their theme was "let your light so shine". They turned off the lights in the room and held glow stick wands while they sang, it was pretty. From where I sat I could see J and her friends glowing and singing. I could also see the glass container with one glow wand left in it sitting on the table behind them. That struck me as particularly poignant as I know several girls were not there and that one light represented those girls, that girl. I don't want any of our young women to be left behind, it's hard to make right choices and they really need the strength comes from good friendships, and from living the gospel.