Hi. I’m Krista and I’m currently the 2nd Counselor in my ward’s Young Women’s Presidency. Back in April though, I was the Mia Maid adviser and had heard about a Young Men’s counselor in a neighboring ward who had challenged his Young Men to read a Conference talk every day. This sounded like such an interesting challenge, but I wondered if anyone would want to do it with me. I mean, when you first think about it, it does seem to be a really big commitment.
As I was thinking about extending the challenge to my Young Women, I heard Sister Cook’s talk at the General Young Women meeting during Conference weekend. At one point she said, “Daily habits of righteous behavior will … help you to continually hold fast to the [iron] rod. As a Young Women general presidency we have invited all of the young women in the world to develop three daily habits: First, pray to your Father in Heaven, morning and night, every day. Second, read the Book of Mormon for at least five minutes every day. And third, smile! Why? We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings us true happiness.”
After hearing that I knew I wanted to somehow help my girls not only accept this invitation from the General Presidency, but also better learn the important messages from our modern-day prophets and apostles. So I created the “Smile Challenge.” At the end of my lesson on the following Sunday, I explained the “rules” to my girls and told them that if they could do it everyday until the next General Conference weekend, that I would reward them with a special celebration banquet. All of them excitedly signed up!
And so for the last six months we’ve been working on this challenge as a class. We all helped each other along, reminding each other to read and pray, and as of this past October conference all of us had completed our first six months. As promised I prepared a special luncheon to celebrate what we’d accomplished. It was a wonderful afternoon and all the girls decided to continue with the commitment AND invite their friends and youth from around the world to join them.
It was a life-changing experience for all of us. We’re so glad you’re joining with us! And we hope you share it with your friends.