Senior Spotlight: Janelle

Tonight was a combined YW/RS activity to spotlight our Senior girls!  It was held in Robyn Parry's backyard with a nice spread of food. (Only I ate a gluten free cracker that had either almond flour and flax seed in it, which made me really sick. I was kicking myself for not checking the ingredients first!) Thankfully I was able to make it through the program before becoming really sick.  Jaiden, Janelle, and Emily sang their beautiful rendition of "Come Thou Fount" and Jan Broberg sang "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables. Each of the moms were asked to fill out a questionnaire for their daughter's spotlight. I have included Janelle's below! They also showed a nice slideshow of pictures of the graduating girls. Those graduating were Janelle Jensen, Sophie Smith, and Tayli Morris. 

Senior Spotlight Questions:

Name: Janelle Jensen

Favorite book: The Hunger Games Series

Favorite food: Lasagna

Hobbies/Talents: Singing, Sleeping, Reading

Activities: Madrigals, Seminary Council, Musical Productions, hanging out with friends, hiking, working at Papa Murphy’s Pizza.   

Favorite movie: Doesn’t have one.

Biggest Fear: Isolation

Describe your daughter in 3 words: Pure, Spiritual, Compassionate

Interesting Fact: Janelle has always been very expressive and talkative. In the fifth grade she won first place in district in the Storytelling Festival. She was also a Hands in Harmony Caroler for several years.   

Plans after High school: Janelle plans to serve a mission and then pursue a degree in Occupational Therapy.

What is your favorite thing about your daughter?

Janelle cares about other people. She will often ask me about my day and expresses gratitude freely. One line in her patriarchal blessing states: “You have been blessed with eyes to see the hurt in others and with a heart to heal.” I love this sentiment and it describes Janelle perfectly!

Anything else you want to tell us about your daughter?

Janelle has always had a desire to do what is right. She regularly studies her scriptures and records spiritual insights in her study journal. She is a great teacher and will be an awesome missionary! Janelle is beautiful inside and out! I am so grateful that she is ours!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY4gmz5G9-g)

Graduating from Young Women

In Relief Society last Sunday the Relief Society Presidency invited the Young Women who are graduating from High School come in to Relief Society.  They displayed a picture of each girl and had each of the mom's give a spotlight about them.  I have included a little bit about Janika below:

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Janika is the oldest of our seven children and has always been a tremendous help to me.  She serves her family in numerous ways.  She takes care of her younger siblings and will do fun projects with them.  Her sisters love to have Janika paint their nails or give them make-overs.  She loves to cook and is often trying out new recipes as she makes meals for our family.  I have had many friends tell me, “Can I have her?  I really need a Janika at my house!”  

Janika had a very busy Senior year.  She represented her school as the Sterling Scholar in Family and Consumer Science (FACS) and also represented our city of Santa Clara as the Santa Clara Princess.  She was also the Seminary Council President this past year at Tuacahn High School.  Janika earned 17 credits of college credit through concurrent enrollment classes at Dixie University this past year along with her regular high school classes.    

Janika has received several academic scholarship, but has decided on Snow College.  She wants to attend a mission and eventually graduate from College as a marriage and family therapist.

Janika loves to sing and has performed throughout the community for many years in a variety of ways.  She was in madrigals at Snow Canyon High School and has also been a member of the Hands in Harmony Carolers ever since she was eight years old.  Janika even had the opportunity to perform in the Broadway show of Les Miserables at Tuacahn as young Eponine when she was twelve years old.  

Janika has many talents which include singing, performing, cooking, sign language, academics, taking care of children, and reaching out to others.  Janika enjoys creating things and loves to find new ideas for “do-it-yourself” projects on Pinterest. 

Janika is a remarkable young woman who truly exemplifies the young women values in all that she says and does!  She is very Christ-like and service oriented and is often doing things for other people. She is very responsible and dependable.   She is a wonderful example to her family.  I feel very privileged to have Janika for a daughter.  I have come to depend on her in so many ways and love to spend time with her.  I will really miss her when she goes off to college!  

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Tonight for Young Women's they had a little party for all of the Laurels who were graduating from Young Women's.  The Young Women's leader, Sister Lindsey, asked the parents to bring over a picture of their daughter as a Beehive along with a current picture to see how they had changed during their Young Women years.  Here are Janika's pictures.  She was beautiful then and now!

New Beginnings

Tonight was the Young Women's New Beginnings -- not only for Janika, but also for Janelle!  I can't believe she is going into Young Womens this year!  When they said that she was invited I thought, "But she isn't twelve until October!"  But "New Beginnings" is the official welcome for all of the girls who will be going in to Young Women's that year.  There are only two girls who will turn 12 this year -- Janelle and Baylee Cloward.  Those poor girls are in Sunday School with a whole class filled with boys.  It is the same way for Jenna -- she is the only girl in a class filled with boys. I guess they might like those odds when they are older!

Janika had been asked to sing a solo tonight ("Daughter of a King").  She was so worried because she still has this awful cough and has a difficult time speaking, let alone singing and she had to cancel her musical number last Sunday.  She said that every time she tried singing she would go into a coughing attack.  I really felt strongly that she should go ahead with it though and not cancel out at the last minute.  She asked her dad for a Priesthood blessing and we all prayed that she would be able to sing.  It took a great deal of faith for her to be able to stand up and sing knowing that she would have to rely on God's help to see her through.  But she did -- and she sounded beautiful.  We are truly grateful for this miracle!  (It has now a week later and she is STILL coughing all of the time).  Now we need to pray that this will clear up in time for her vocal audition at Snow College.  Several of the girls were chosen to share their experiences on each of the Young Women Values and Janika's was "Individual Worth."  She talked about Patriarchal Blessings and the wonderful guidance that hers has been to her and what a comfort it was to her when she had a friend pass away. 

Not only is Janika sick, but poor Janelle is sick too.  Her sickness is a little different than the rest of us and involves blowing her nose CONSTANTLY!!  It has been about three weeks for her and is really wearing her out.  I was asked to do a little Spotlight for Janelle tonight.  I talked about how compassionate and empathetic she is.  She is kind-hearted and cares about other people.  I talked about the sweet note that she wrote Rick and I for Christmas.  She often volunteers to say the prayer at meal-time or for family home evening (which makes her siblings a little antsy because she gives long and thorough prayers).  She also often volunteers to give the lesson in family home evening.  She is a great teacher.  She does very well in school and loves to read.  I often have to tell her to put her book down so that she can get her work done.  She has taken piano lessons for several years and loves to sing.  She in involved as a "Hands in Harmony Carolers" and is a natural little performer.  She took first place in District in the Storytelling Festival.  I expressed how much we love her and how glad we are that she is part of our family!! 

It was a wonderful program tonight and everything was decorated really cute.  They had a photographer (Hayley Bradshaw) take pictures of all the girls and used them to decorate the tables.  It is strange to think that I have a daughter who will soon be leaving Young Women's and another daughter who will soon be starting.  This certainly will be a "New Beginning" for both of them -- and I couldn't be more proud!