Tangled New beginnings

Disney's Tangled

So I wanted to share what happened at New Beginnings last month.  New Beginnings is a night where we invite all young women (ages 12-18) and their parents as well as those girls who will be turning 12 years old this year and their parents to a night where we give an overview of the Young Women Program in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

As we were setting up the room and getting ready for the program that night, we noticed that it had started snowing…pretty heavy actually.   After a winter of almost no snow, what are the changes the one night we need it to stay clear, it would snow?  I had a pretty big part in the program, I was asked to give THE main talk of the night. I was to combine the YW program, Personal Progress, this year’s theme and introduce the activity we have been planning for the end of the night. The theme this year is Arise and Shine (D&C 115:5) and we thought it would be a neat activity to have a lantern release like you see in the movie Tangled. So yeah we wouldn’t be able to release a bunch of paper lanterns (with a fuel cell on fire) in a snow storm!  So I had been watching the weather obsessively and wondering if I was going to have to figure out how to change the end of my talk at a moments notice.

It wasn't looking good, the closer it got to starting time, the more it snowed. I was really nervous I had been working on my talk for two weeks and I'm not so great with improve and just making something up  if I needed to.  What was I going to do to end the talk if we weren’t going to do the lanterns? My entire talk had ended up being based off the movie Tangled and the lanterns! While I sat at the window watching the snow worrying about my talk, the 2^ndcounselor in the Young Women's Presidency asked if we could say a prayer asking for a break in the weather long enough for us to finish out our program with the sun lanterns? It was pretty cute, she was so timid and asked if that was an appropriate thing to pray about! What a sweetie, I told her it never hurts to ask and that I thought it was a great idea. (too bad I didn’t think about it!) So we gathered all the leaders in the room, shut the door and offered a prayer.

After the prayer was said we debated whether we should unwrap and unfold the lanterns getting them ready for flight. The YW Pres was really worried about doing that, nights like this really stress her out anyway (who wouldn't), but also the paper thin lanterns can easily tear once they are unfolded so if we don’t use them they may have to been thrown away since the task of storing them or refold them without tearing them might be too hard. Throwing them away without even using them sounded not only awful but expen$ive! So as we debated our options on "what to do"  when The YW President’s husband walked up to us and said, “You guys said a prayer right? Then everything’s going to work out great, I’m going to go un-fold the lanterns!” Talk about faith in action! That level of faith and confidence really helped me calm down and be more confident in my talk.

I introduced my talk with the story Tangled and how it’s about a beautiful young girl who is born of royal birth. However, as she gets older she is told lie after lie to try and keep her from fulfilling her full potential. Rapunzel struggles between believing these lies and going out on her own and finding out who she really is…a Child of a King! I talked about the correlation of the first song she sings in the movie and how it seems a lot like personal progress how she is constantly learning and improving her talents and skills. "Then I'll read a book Or maybe two or three. I'll add a few new paintings to my gallery. I'll play guitar and knit and cook and basically, just wonder when will my life begin!"  We can strive to be like Rapunzel, strengthening our talents, finding our spiritual gifts and making goals.  I mentioned that Rapunzel’s dream (goal) is to find out what the lights in the sky on her birthday mean. Instead of sitting around wondering what they are she did something about it. 

Disney's Tangled

The King and Queen would light lanterns every year and send them up with a dream. The light was a symbol of their hope that their daughter would one day return home to them… Rapunzel saw the light and she was drawn to them. And because the king and queen were willing to share their light, the princess was found.

I told them we are all children of a King, that we were also born of Royal birth and our Heavenly Parents are waiting and hoping that we will see the light and one day return home to them. I then asked the girls to think of a dreams, or goal that they would like to accomplish. A talent to develop or a gift they would like to seek. I told them that we had enough lanterns for all of them and that they were to think of that dream, and when their lanterns were ready to fly, to not hold on to their dreams any longer, let those talents and gifts arise and shine "that they light may be a standard for the Nation." 

(Of course this is a very condensed version of my talk, this post is already long enough)

So after I finished talking we said a closing prayer and then I lead them all down the hallway towards the room with the lanterns and the YW's President's Husband was standing there and told us, “it’s STILL snowing.” What???   How can that be, we said a prayer, we had faith???  So Tami the YW Pres went outside to check and sure enough she confirmed that it was still snowing but it wasn’t the big heavy flakes anymore so she asked me what I thought.  I told her lets go ahead and try it. So everyone went and grabbed their coats and their lanterns and headed outside. As the first few people were walking outside we started getting reports that it had STOPPED snowing! 

As I was standing outside watching the girls and their parents light and release the lanterns not one snow flake fell from the sky! It was beautiful!

The rest of the ward had been told to be watching the sky at 7:30, but most people saw it snowing too hard so gave up. I text Shawn and he ran our kids outside so they were able to watch the lanterns climb into the sky!  

Then a half an hour later as we were cleaning up for the night one of the leaders came back into the building from taking something to her car and informed us all that it was snowing again! We laughed that the prayer offered asked only for a break in the weather long enough for us to complete our program and that is exactly what we got...not a minute more!

Anyway it was a really neat experience for me and I wanted to be able to share it with everyone.  God is real, He loves us and He wants us to return home to Him one day!