Spring Gulch Ward Boy Scouts

In honor of September 11th and Patriot Day, the Boy Scouts from the Spring Gulch Ward helped with a flag ceremony at Coyote Creek Elementary.

Here's a video that explains more of what these wonderful young men did:

Spring Gulch Ward All Night Challenge!

The Young Women from the Spring Gulch Ward had one wonderful night a few weeks back! The YW gathered together for an all-night Book of Mormon Read-A-Thon.

Sister Shelle H. from their Young Women Presidency summed the activity up best:

"We decided to read the Book of Mormon in 24 hours for a few reasons. We had some girls who really wanted to do it to receive the stake presidents award in seminary and some other girls wanted to use it to complete their virtue project in the young women's personal progress program. 

We decided in order to allow ourselves a few hours of sleep in the middle of the night that we would have the girls read 1 Nephi and 2 Nephi the week before so we could start on Jacob 1 the night of the read-a-thon. We had the girls show up after school on Friday May 9th by 4:00 sharp so we could get settled and get started right at 4:15 p.m. The girls did a great job all getting there so we could get started right on time. 

When they showed up we gave each girl their personalized read-a-thon survival kit bag that we made ahead of time which had a scripture marking pencil, a note pad for inspirations, sticky tabs to mark a place if they got behind, a book mark, small water bottle, jolly ranchers, suckers, gum and a slim jim of course. ;-) They carried these with them throughout the night as we moved from room to room to mix it up and keep us awake. 

We had Bishop F. come help us kick it off by summarizing & discussing first and second Nephi with the girls and then he read Jacob 1 with us. The awesome Spring Gulch Relief Society brought in dinner for us at 6:30 p.m. We listened to the BOM on audio while we ate meals. We had multiple cameo appearances and visitors come to read to us every couple of hours throughout the whole 24 hours. Some dressed up in character such as Captain Moroni, complete with the title of liberty and Nephi-, the girls loved it! 

The Stake Young Women's Presidency were an awesome support as well, Sister Babbitt stopped in about 10:30 p.m. to bring the girls adorable Book of Mormon treats she made and yummy rice crispy treats. Bishop F. and his wife Britt came back at 11:30 p.m. to read with the girls again for about an hour and a half until 1:00 a.m. He mixed it up and read a little bit in Spanish which was really cool! They also brought yummy breadsticks with different dipping sauces. Yummy!!! 

We ended up reading until 2:00 a.m. to catch up, then we "slept" as much as we could with giggly girls--ha!....until 5:00 a.m. Truthfully we ended up with about 2 hours of sleep.... We started back up at 5:00 a.m. and had our first visitor, Captain Moroni come at 6:00 a.m. with Krispy Kreme doughnuts (those were a hit and helped wake the girls up). 

When we didn't have a visitor reading to us, we would mix it up about every 40-60 min. by either reading in small groups, alone, as a large group, or listen to audio. One of the moms, Donna B. brought us lunch on Saturday which was awesome! We wrapped it up about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 10th. Bishop F. came back to finish up Moroni 8-10 with us and have closing remarks and a prayer. This was a huge success, the girls LOVED it!!! It wasn't always easy but totally worth it!! It has opened many doors for missionary opportunities and discussions with friends of what this crazy activity was all about. Some of the girls had really amazing experiences and it has been a wonderful testimony builder for all involved! Totally recommend this activity for everyone!!!"

What a wonderful and memorable activity! Congratulations to everyone involved!

(Before we post these pictures, we want to remind everyone that we try to get permission before posting pictures. However, with such a large group as this one, it can prove difficult. If there is a picture that you would like taken off of the blog, simply e-mail us and we will immediately take it down. You can e-mail us at HighlandsRanchMormons@gmail.com. Thank you!)

 Congratulations, Young Women!!! We are so proud of you!!!

Food Drive Success!

Thank you to everyone who helped with the Hunger Stops Here Community Food Drive!

Some of our boy scouts from the Spring Gulch Ward helped to organize and deliver the food- thank you for all of your help and support! Ethan- a young man in the SG Ward- went above and beyond- making and distributing flyers to all his neighbors and collecting food from them to earn a merit badge. What a great example for all of us!!!!

Spring Gulch Ward Scripture Mastery Bishop's Challenge!

The Spring Gulch Ward recently held their annual Bishopric vs. Youth Scripture Mastery Challenge. This annual event has become a tradition in the Spring Gulch Ward (this was the sixth year). They invite one of their seminary teachers to moderate while all of the seminary youth and the bishopric participate. There is a point awarded for the fastest individual to find a verse, a point for the fastest table to find a verse, and then three points for restating the verse from memory. 

The bishopric has won this competition for the last two years. This year it came down to the wire. The youth were down by two points with one scripture remaining. David M. (a freshman at TRHS) was able to sing all three verses of Moroni 7:45, 47-48 to steal the victory by 1 point. Above is a video of the last portion of David's efforts. 

Way to go, David- and all the youth- and thank you for sharing this wonderful activity of yours with us!