Family Home Evening with Brian and Fam

A few days after going to the beach with Brian and his kids, he wanted to thank us for inviting them to go with us, so he made us pizza for dinner.  We appreciated it because we don’t eat pizza here like we did in the states except for when we splurge at the Italian pizza place down the street.  Pizza is not a traditional Angolan food.  :)  We decided to make a night of it and had them stay for “Family Home Evening.”  Family Home Evening is what members in the LDS church try to do once a week, generally on Monday nights if it’s possible.  It’s a night that focuses on strengthening the family.  It hardly ever goes “perfectly” with well-behaved children the whole time.  But it usually involves singing some primary songs or church hymns, having a spiritual thought or lesson, and if you’re really on the ball, some sort of treat after (so that means that my kids don't get a lot of treats :) ).  We try to give everyone something to be in charge of like a prayer, conducting and choosing the music, sharing a scripture/thought, doing the lesson, or conducting the family home evening.  

A month ago, I purchased a book “Fun in a Flash…Gospel Activities” that a friend recommended to me.  It is full of prepared lessons and colorful visual aids that are very appealing to the kids.  I bought it because it’s an easy way to involve the kids in teaching a lesson (usually they say that they don’t know what to teach) and get them used to being in charge of it and in the teacher’s role.  So on this particular night, Thomas’ assignment was the lesson.  He prepared a lesson on being a “happy camper” versus a “sad camper” in our families.  This camping theme was appreciated by Brian since he’s from Montana.  All of the kids had to decide what sort of items (behaviors) would be in the backpack of the happy camper versus the sad camper.  Everyone was involved and engaged.  Thomas did a great job leading the discussion.  And to go along with the camping theme, we ate s'mores for the treat.  I ordered the ingredients a few months ago (we loved making s'mores in Utah in our own campfire pit) and have been waiting for a fun occasion to use them.  We had our own “campfire” on the t.v. screen to help set the mood.  You do what you can do!

After the lesson, with Thomas' visual aids to the right on the wall.

Roasting our marshmallows for the s'mores.

All of the lessons that the kids have taught over the last 3 weeks.  Thomas taught about ways we can be happy campers in our family, Savvy taught about following Jesus, and Rhea taught about inviting the Holy Ghost into our lives.

We all had a nice time and were glad that our friends joined us.  It was fun as a family to sing “Families can be Together Forever” in English first and then Portuguese for them as one of the songs.  We worked on memorizing it in Portuguese so we could sing it to our parents/grandparents when we Skyped them on Christmas.  We love and appreciate our families!

Song:  Families can be Together Forever  

I have a family here on earth,
They are so good to me.
I want to share my life with them through all eternity.

Chorus:
Families can be together forever
Through Heavenly Father's plan,
I always want to be with my own family,
And the Lord has shown me how I can,
The Lord has shown me how I can.

To listen:  https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/families-can-be-together-forever?lang=eng