Believe

I am in love with metal stamping right now.  My friend has a stamp kit and was good enough to let me borrow it for a bit.  She hadn't used it yet and I was nervous about being the first one to start pounding them with a hammer.

I stamped a couple dozen round metal washers

with the word BELIEVE for the Young Women to start the year.

• My initial thought was to have the Young Women switch out the bead each month (on Fast Sunday) to represent the monthly value focus.
• Then, I thought they could simply make the necklaces with jewels or beads representing all the values at once.
• But, then I decided the Young Women could design the necklaces the way they wanted to.  Hoping they might be more inclined to wear them more often.

*

The BELIEVE is still there as their reminder of this year's Mutual Theme,

Article of Faith 13:

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men;

indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul -

We believe all things, we hope all things,

we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things.

If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy,

we seek after these things."

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A few things I learned with this project:

• metal washers are inexpensive and fun to stamp (.10 a piece at Lowe's)
• missionary experiences are all around us if we open our mouths (Lowe's - awesome experience!)
• concrete (my garage) was the best place to do the stamping
• do not let your children use the hammer while you hold the stamp, injury will occur
• permanent markers can be used to fill in the stamped area (rub off excess with damp cloth)
• take apart unused/broken jewelry to use instead of purchasing new beads/jewels
• girls love jewelry (already knew this - but it was reconfirmed)