INGREDIENTS AND RECIPE

I have been serving as the 1st Counselor in The Young Women's Presidency of the Boulder Mountain Ward in the Apache Junction Stake in Mesa Arizona for the past 3 1/2 years.  I work with the MiaMaids who are 14 and 15 years old.

I enjoy my calling and love my girls.  As I teach these young women and we share activities I feel strongly that I should not ask them to do something unless I,myself, am prepared to do what I have asked of them.

One activity we challenged the MiaMaids to do was a journal in a jar. We gave them a jar filled with questions on a slip of paper and a composition book. These questions when answered will help them begin writing their personal history. On the front of the composition book it read: My Life In A Jar.

INGREDIENTS:
Life was not meant to be bottled up forever! This jar is jam packed with deliciously interesting questions to inspire you to celebrate something very important......You!

RECIPE:
Combine a generous slice of your life history with a dash of nostalgia and several cups of facts and feelings. If you follow this recipe you will soon find that you have a very delicious, personal history finished. Draw out a slip of paper,tape or staple it to the top of the page. Spend a few minutes thinking about the question, and write a detailed answer.  Don't worry about spelling,handwriting,etc. Just tell YOUR story! This jar was prepared to preserve your stories. Enjoy the scrumptious memories.

I have accepted this challenge and I have decided to answer my questions of this blog entitled "Rhonda's Journal in a Jar".

I was born November 30,1956 in the city of Orange,Orange County California. I came into this world a little earlier than expected.

My parents are George Paul Wimsatt Jr. and Ina Mae Wadsworth Wimsatt.

They named me Rhonda Loie Wimsatt.

A few fun facts about the origin of my name.

My mother loves to read and when she was a young woman she read the book- Gone with the Wind.  In this book ( not in the movie) there is a character named Rhonda.  This was the first time my mother had heard the name Rhonda and she liked it. One of the  grand southern plantations in Gone With the Wind was called - Tara. She was vacillating between the two names and obviously Rhonda won.

My middle name is very special to me.  My maternal grandmother,known as Granny by her grandchildren, was Lois Stewart Wadsworth.  All those who knew her and loved her called her Loie. She was a wonderful lady and I loved her. The sound of my granddad calling out to his wife with love -Loie, is etched into my brain. I have always been proud to be her namesake. My beautiful first born granddaughter is named Nixin Loie Colburn after me. I love it.

Let the journal in a jar journey begin............