Restoration Lesson

One evening the missionaries stopped by randomly and visited for a while. Before they left, they invited us to teach them a lesson from the Preach My Gospel manual that they use to teach investigators of the church. I think the point was to show us that the manual was something that we could use too, for our family or for sharing the gospel. Anyway, we set an appointment for the following Saturday evening for them to come back for the lesson. They said we could be creative so I put something together that the kids could be involved in and enjoy. The lesson was about the Restoration and we recreated it for Family Home Evening on Monday because we didn't think to record it when we did it for the missionaries. The kids were less shy without the missionaries there anyway.

The lesson talks about how Heavenly Father calls prophets to tell us of his will.  The kids are getting pictures from Mom of different prophets and acting as though they were getting simple messages from Heavenly Father through the prophets such as "Heavenly Father is pleased we're having family home evening," or "Heavenly Father wants us to sit nicely [during the lesson]."

The Lesson also talks about the apostasy, a period of time when everyone fell away from the church and Christ church was not found on the earth. In this video, you'll see that the kids build a Lego "church" and they're demonstrating a "falling away" from it as they fall backward onto a bean bag.

The kids also demonstrated that the church of Christ was destroyed. #1 Girl was a little TOO excited about destroying the Church of Jesus Christ. Frightening really =). This also shows how Heavenly Father called Joseph Smith to be a prophet and to restore or rebuild the church.

The kids continue rebuilding the church.

The lesson talks about how part of the restoration was bringing the Book of Mormon to light. #1 Girl demonstrates reading from the Book of Mormon...once she gets it right side up.


In the lesson we talked about how the church was restored and that Heavenly Father did this because he loves us and he wants us and our families to be blessed and happy. To demonstrate this, we sing our own rendition of "We Are a Happy Family."

After we gave the lesson to the missionaries, one of the Elders had promised that they would sing and play the ukulele in return (he is Samoan). This big elder played the ukulele while he and his companion sang a great song about wanting to be like Book of Mormon prophets. I really wish we had got that on tape.

One Little Drop

On Monday, the kids were playing outside. It started to slowly rain. #2 Boy said, "one little drop got me right there" pointing to his forehead, "they are those from up there" as he pointed to the clouds. A few minutes later the rain was really coming down and #3 Girl and #2 Boy went back outside. #2 Boy puts his hands above his head and started waving them around. To be even more silly he started slapping his head exclaiming, "AHH AHH AHHHH." #3 Girl thought that sounded like a great idea and joined in.

That's Just Part of being a Family

Last week for Family Home Evening we talked about doing chores. We started and ended with a prayer and the song, "When We're Helping." The words for that are "When we're helping, we're happy and we sing as we go; And we like to help mother; for we all love her so. Tra la la la la la, Tra la la la la la; Tra la la la la la la, Tra la la la la la." The kids enjoyed the first verse but really loved the second verse and would break out in laughter, to sing 'tra la la la' instead of words.
During the lesson we talked about the things that it takes to keep our house in good condition and have a happy home. We also talked about how being a family means that we have to work together to keep our house looking nice. The kids have helped with chores when I have asked but this lesson let them know that these are things they need to do to help out. The new chores for the kids...

In the morning
-Get dressed
-Put p.j.s away
-Say prayers
-Brush Teeth

After Meals
-#1 Girl sweeps-#2 Boy puts silverware in the dishwasher
-#1 Girl/#3 Girl puts silverware in the drawer
-#2 Boy/#3 Girl sanitizes the table (after I wipe it off)

Laundry
-Helps sort clothes into piles
-Fold rags and towels and put them away

Other
-Everyone gets to help put toys away
-Help vacuum stairs and rooms

Evenings
-Get dressed in p.j.s
-Put clothes away
-Brush Teeth
-Say prayers

Today #1 Girl was helping sweeping and I asked #2 Boy to come help wipe the tables. As he came in he must have been asking why we had to do it because I heard #1 Girl reply, "that's just part of being a family!"