Come Follow Me: Ephesians (September 30–October 13) Part one Preparing for General Conference

Edit: Thank you for being patience with me again!  The post has been updated :)

I did not forget about Come Follow Me lesson helps but I was unexpectedly busy today and late as usual getting this posted :)  Ephesians will be studied over the next two weeks and I'm going to be posting the lesson helps/ideas in pieces over the next week.  Tonight I have a couple of ideas to help you teach Ephesians 2:19–22; 4:11–16. "The Church is founded on apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone." (individual and family manual) I love that this goes perfect with preparing for General Conference next weekend.  Tomorrow I will share an additional idea that works for this topic or can be used as more of a countdown-it will be added to this post (edit it has now been added).  Then Tuesday or Wednesday I'll be sharing some fun General Conference activities.  If you have any requests for me to make please let me know and I'll try and accommodate :)  Then Friday or Saturday I'll post lesson helps for the rest of Ephesians for you to use the following week.  

For Family Night we are going to talk about the importance of having a living prophet.  I found this article on churchofjesuschrist.org. I plan to share these quotes from President Uchtdorf and then the video clip on that page as well. I also included a journal page.  Older kids can share their testimony of the prophet, maybe thoughts on a favorite talk or any thing they want.  Younger kids may like to draw a picture of President Nelson or of something he has asked us to do.

We are also going to talk about way we can prepare for general conference.  I used this article as a reference. There are actually 11 ideas on the page but I narrowed it down 6 and hopefully picked ways your kids can participate as well.  This can be done as a family or individually.  

Before the lesson cut out the cup and hot chocolate pieces.  As a family start with number 1 and build the hot chocolate cup.  There is a page of quotes that go with this that you can also use.  You can finish your lesson with a delicious cup of cocoa OR use the checklist page turn this in to a week long activity.  The idea is to do each of these steps during the week and as the step is completed you will earn something to help them make a yummy treat to enjoy during General Conference.  In this case hot chocolate (I was going to do ice cream sundaes but it is freezing here so I switched it).  Print of the checklist and as the task is done circle the item you get to enjoy.  During conference have your hot cocoa bar set up and let your family members make their treat based on their preparation.  For example if you "dedicated yourself to truly listening" then you will get a cup or a mug or if you you prpared your home and cleared your schedule then you get whip cream.  The last one is a candy cane but you can use any topping-maybe sprinkles! Explain that General Conference will only be as special and meaningful if we prepare ourselves to listen to the messages and act on the prompting we receive.  If we put little effort into it we will receive little just like with our hot chocolate if we only add an ingredient or two our hot chocolate their won't be much to it.

I'm not sure if my explanation made much sense so please don't hesitate to ask any questions!  I will be including some fun printables and activities to go along with this theme in the Conference pack.

To help with studying past talks I included this activity.  This is another one that can be used in one night or spread through out the week.  Print the leaves and the quotes (glue or tape the matching cards back to back).  I plan to pick 1-3 a day and read the quote.  This will be in place of our normal scripture study.  If you would like to use these to learn more about the apostles and prophet you can find some fun fact cards in the fishing post linked below.  You can hide the leaves around the house and have your family collect them, maybe add paper clips and a magnetic fishing pole to gather the leaves, or you can keep it simple and place them in a bowl.  I did include a basket that you can cut, fold, and tape the sides.  This would be a fun way to store and save your leaves.  I also included some planning sheets.  I like to use these with my kids and let them plan an fhe.  I know some of you do mini devotionals so I added that option and I added a page for personal study.  Use what works for you. 

That's everything for now :)  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.  Also quickly send in any requests for activities!  See you soon.

Download the printables here! 

additional ideas here

and here

Come Follow Me:Matthew 16-17, Mark 9, and Luke 9 (Part 1) April 1-14

The Come Follow Me chapters for the next two weeks cover Matthew 16-17, Mark 9, and Luke 9.  Since we have two weeks to cover these chapters I decided we are going to use this week to learn about testimonies.  We are going to focus on how we gain a testimony, cover Matthew 16:13-17 (Peter's Testimony), and prepare for General Conference by getting to know a little more about the prophet and apostles and reading their testimonies of the Savior.

The first activity can be done two ways.  You can do it in one night OR you can do one or two a day and use it as more of a count down to General Conference.  Before I explain how we are going to do this activity here's a quick run through on what's included in the download for this activity.

Get to know you cards for the prophet and apostles.  Each card has their picture and some fun facts about them (pictures and facts found on lds.org).  Print preferably on cardstock. If you want to save some ink you can find a power point version in this post.  Easy to pull up on your computer each day.  I've updated the file and there is a fun fishing game you can use as well or instead of the activity below. 

Testimonies of the prophet and apostles.  I was so excited to find this article.  When they were in Rome for the temple dedication they shared excerpts from the Living Christ (I plan to show the video clip ) and their personal witness of Jesus Christ.  I put these on individual hearts.  They can be printed and left as is or print on the back of patterned or colored paper and fold into mini envelopes.  (you can find a tutorial here). You can place these in a basket, clip to a ribbon, tape them to the wall, or keep in a pile to pull out as needed. I need to finish cutting mine out but here's how I'm displaying my envelopes for the week.

 The 3rd part of this activity is the this quote page.  There is a black and white option.  To set up this activity read and display the quote below.  Each day pick a couple of hearts.  Read the testimony on the heart and find the matching person.  Read the fun facts about that person.  Display the heart and the fact card under the quote.  Add the hearts and fact cards through out the week.  I hope to have all of them displayed before conference starts.  This will be a fun reference to help your kids recognize the prophet and apostles as they speak.

After conference I plan to hole punch the top corner and add a book ring to create a mini book for our church bag.  I did laminate mine.  I like to spend some time introducing my children to the apostles and prophet before each conference because I've noticed if they recognize the person talking to them they are more likely to stop and listen.  They are little and sometimes they only stop for a couple of minutes but during those few minutes they hear the message of the gospel and have the opportunity to feel the spirit.  This is how they develop their own testimonies of the Savior and the gospel.  

The second activity for this week will be our FHE night. We are going to talk about gaining a testimony and how to find answers to our questions. To do this we are going to use steps President Nelson shared in his talk from last April's General Conference.  We did this fhe last year and I included the outline I used. I am following it pretty close when we do it this week.  I did change the game to a board game which is included in this post.  To play print the board and page of cards.  cut the cards apart and mix them up.  Place on the cards spot.  On your turn roll a dice and move the correct number of spaces.  Pick a card and do what it says.  Most are fun active movements.  There are 7 cards that are numbered and correspond with the steps in President Nelson's talk.  Set these aside and the player moves forward one extra space.  The goal is to find all 7 steps before every player reaches the end.  If you run out of cards mix the movement cards up and use again.   

In the original fhe post you will find the puppets I reference to in the outline and it has a life size version of this game instead of the board game.  Its played a little differently but has a lot of the same elements.

That's my plan for this week.  Early next week I'll be back with some updated Conference activities and a new game.  Next Friday I will post the 2nd half of this lesson covering much more of the assigned chapters and topics .  As always if you have any questions, find any mistakes, or have trouble downloading something please don't hesitate to let me know.  

Download this weeks lesson helps here

Preparing for General Conference FHE fishing game

General Conference is this weekend and I can't wait!  With that being said it kind of snuck up on me and I'm just now finishing our Family Home Evening for tonight.  If you don't find this in time you can still use these cute fish and fun bios during conference.  You may need to change it a little to fit your needs. I'm actually using a lot of this fhe I posted last year, its just updated.

We are going to be learning some fun facts about the apostle and prophets so they might recognize some of them as they speak but more importantly we are going to talk about why we have a prophet and apostle, why we have conference and how we can be spiritually prepare to hear their messages.  This is just my outline.  Add whatever you think would be best for your family.

You can download The game and bios here  and the power point here. I'm crossing my fingers I shared the power point right...let me know!  Update! The power point has been updates with some extra fun facts and you can get the printable card version with the updates in the download in this post.

The Theme is "Follow me, and I will make you Fishers of Men"

Start with  this clip (Bible story fishers of men)
Ask questions such as "what do you think Jesus was asking them to do?  What does it mean to be a fisher of men?  Do you think it would have been hard to leave?)

 Did you know the prophet and apostles in our day are also "Fishers of Men." Like the disciples in Jesus's time that left their nets and followed him they follow Jesus Christ and help spread his message.

I like this quote from Elder Scott D. Whiting  Talk found here. (If you have teens I think the beginning of this talk would be really good to use.)
"I have thought of this example many times as I have considered that those who stand at the head of the Church have responded with similar faith to the invitation to “follow me.” Like the ancient Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by prophets and apostles, who have forsaken their nets and their hard-earned professions and have developed new skills in order to serve and follow the Master."

Fishing Game. You can use this game however you want.  I included all 15 but you can use just a few or all them.   Print and cut out the fish and names.  You will want to put these in order so they will correspond with the power point slides.  Open up the power point.  For each turn show the number slide (1-15) then the next slide with just the picture. (Ask does anyone know who this is?)  Have someone fish for the number you just showed. Once the fish is caught read the name on the back (you can show the next slide).  Then pull up the next one and read a few fun facts about the prophet or apostle you just picked.  Work your way through the 15.

Additional info to make the game: Print (card stock works best) and Cut out the fish.  On the back glue/tape either the names or the pictures (also included in the download). Slide a paper clip on each fish (a magnet works too).  For the pole I like to use a wooden dowel, tie yarn to the end and glue 2 button magnets to the end on the yarn.

If you do not have or want to use power point I have included all of the bio cards in the pdf with the fishing game.  Print or share on your computer.  If you are using power point you do not need to print these (save some ink!).

All pictures and information came from lds.org

Ask How can we prepare for General Conference?

Finish with this video.  This is a short clip of some of the apostles and the prophet bearing testimony of the Savior.  Its my favorite.  I think its so important for my children not to just read the words of the prophet but to actually hear and see the prophet speak.  What better message then one of the Savior.

The link doesn't work but how cute would this be for a treat. (pretzels, licorice, and gold fish)

Adorable fish clip art from here.

Preparing for General Conference FHE (Fishers of Men)

Update October 2018: You can find the new apostles added in this post along with some fun facts! 


With General Conference this week I wanted to do something special for FHE.  I just finished putting this together and haven't even printed or tried it out but I wanted to get it to you as soon as possible.  With that being said let me know if anything needs to be fixed or have any questions.  I think my kids are really going to like it.

We are going to be learning some fun facts about the apostle and prophets so they might recognize some of them as they speak but more importantly we are going to talk about why we have a prophet and apostle, why we have conference and how we can be spiritually prepare to hear their messages.  This is just my outline.  Add whatever you think would be best for your family.

You can download The games and quote here. 

The Theme is "Follow me, and I will make you Fishers of Men"

Start with  this clip (Bible story fishers of men)
Ask questions such as "what do you think Jesus was asking them to do?  What does it mean to be a fisher of men?  Do you think it would have been hard to leave?)

Game (have them raise their hand when they know the answer but do not say it out loud):

He is also like the disciples in Jesus's time that left their nets and followed him.  The prophet and apostles in our day are also "Fishers of Men."  They Follow Jesus Christ and help spread his message.


I like this quote from Elder Scott D. Whiting  Talk found here. (If you have teens I think the beginning of this talk would be really good to use.)
"I have thought of this example many times as I have considered that those who stand at the head of the Church have responded with similar faith to the invitation to “follow me.” Like the ancient Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by prophets and apostles, who have forsaken their nets and their hard-earned professions and have developed new skills in order to serve and follow the Master."

Fishing Game. You can use this game however you want.  I included all 15 but you can use just a few or all them.   I am going to put the names on the back and use our apostle fact cards for the pictures. I was going to make my own but there are lots of great ones already (search pinterest) .  We are using this set.   LDS.org has all of their pictures and Bios here if you don't want to print anything out. When we catch a fish we will read the name find him in our book and read a few fun facts about him.  To make it a little harder match the name with the picture only.

To make the game: Print (card stock works best) and Cut out the fish.  On the back glue/tape either the names or the pictures (also included in the download). Slide a paper clip on each fish (a magnet works too).  For the pole I like to use a wooden dowel, tie yarn to the end and glue 2 button magnets to the end on the yarn.

Ask How can we prepare for General Conference?

Finish with this video.  This is a short clip of some of the apostles and the prophet bearing testimony of the Savior.  Its my favorite.  I think its so important for my children not to just read the words of the prophet but to actually hear and see the prophet speak.  What better message then one of the Savior.

The link doesn't work but how cute would this be for a treat. (pretzels, licorice, and gold fish)

Adorable fish clip art from here.

"Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives" FHE based on President Nelson General Conference talk

I'm back with another FHE and this one is based on President Nelson's General Conference talk "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives." (Find it here).  There is so much in this talk!  I loved reading and studying the words of our prophet.  I'm so grateful for him and his guidance. 

For this lesson I decided to focus on the few paragraphs on finding answers to our questions.  You can find the free download with all of my lesson printables at the end of this post.  

For our lessons I do not plan out word for word but like to ask questions along the way and see where our discussion takes us.  Here's my outline including the quotes I shared.

Here are the puppets for the story of the First Vision.  Print on cardstock and tape/glue to a Popsicle stick.

 (If you have a daughter in Activity Days you can have her tell the story to pass off one of her requirements.)

Life Size board game.  Place your pieces on the floor and your kids become the game pieces.  Another option would be to tape it to a poster board or lay on a table and use as a regular board game.  I printed all of my board game pieces on colored paper.  I also included a dice for you to print.  Print preferably on cardstock, cut, fold, and tape together.

There are 2 pages of cards with instructions. When you land on this card you must do what it says. My kids loved this!

There is also a page of blank cards for fillers.  I cut out 3 pages of these to create a longer board game.

There also 2 pages of octagons.  They are numbered 1-7.  Place these in order through out your game.  When you get to one of these you must stop.  Pick it up and read the step. (These are all from the talk).  Discuss then it can be set aside. The player that landed on it will move to the next box. The rectangle that says "as you repeat..." will be your Finish line.

I always like to create a printable that we leave up all week as a reminder of our lesson.   It's included in the download.

 If you just want the printable 

Click on the picture above.  Right click to save to your computer.

Print at home or send it to your favorite place to print pictures.

If printing at home I like to insert the picture in a word document.  Size and print on cardstock.

It's formatted as a 5x7 but can easily be resized to fit your needs.

Download your FHE pack here

You can find our other General Conference Family Home Evening here.

Adorable graphics from Melonheadz, & Chirp Graphics. Fonts by Hello Literacy

Family History and Temple Work FHE (based on General Conference talk by Elder Renlund)

General Conference is only a month a way!  How can that be?!?  We are still working our way using as many talks as we can for Family Night.  It has been such a wonderful experience.  I have gained so much rereading and studying these talks from conference.  I hope my family has too.  

Last week we focused on Elder Renlunds' talk Family History and Temple Work: Sealing and Healing. You can find all of the free printables in the download at the end of this  post.  

Here's my outline (these are quotes from the talk)

Temple blessing activity.  Print and cut apart the list of blessings.  Put them in a jar or print and put together this cute temple box found here.  I copied and pasted in a word document and sized it to fill the page.  Put the slips of paper inside and take turns drawing and reading the blessings.

Ask the following question and write in the answers on the page.  We keep ours displayed on the fridge.  We have younger kids and were still able to come up with a pretty good sized list.

Our final activity was was a temple match game.  Print both pages on cardstock and have fun. 

 Download your FHE pack here

You can find our other General Conference Family Home Evening here.

Adorable graphics from Melonheadz, LDS.org, & Mather's Music . Fonts by Hello Literacy

Precious Gifts from God FHE

We are working our way through April's General Conference talks for Family Home Evening.  This past week we picked President M. Russell Ballard's Talk "Precious Gifts from God." It has so much counsel that I didn't want to leave anything out.  (Find the talk here.)  This week for our lesson we went on a treasure hunt to learn more about some of the precious gifts our Heavenly Father has given us.

Going with a gift theme I made 8 presents, each with a gift that was mentioned in the talk. I did include a black and white set if you want to save on ink and color yourself.

 I also picked a quote from each topic and the are sized to fit behind the coordinating gift box.

Download the FHE pack below.  Cut around each gift and quote.  You'll need to match the quote with the coordinating present and tape it to the back.

They will look like this.

Hide the gifts around the room and let your kids find them.  We did one at a time and read the gift and the quote. 

This page is also included in the download.  I taped mine to a cookie sheet and we used magnets to attach the gifts to it.  You can also tape or glue them to make it more permanent. 

Continue until all the gifts are found.  Ask what are some other gifts from our Heavenly Father.

 

I always like to create a printable that we leave up all week as a reminder of our lesson.  This one is included in the download.

or you can find two other options here

Download you FHE Packet here

You can find our other General Conference Family Home Evening here.

Baptismal Covenants FHE (includes Free match game)

For Family Home Evening we used the General Conference talk "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" By Elder Gerrit W. Gong.  I loved hearing from the new apostles. This talk was actually a little harder for me to come up with a lesson plan but in the end it turned into a great discussion for our family.  The talk is not very long so you could read it together as a family or use it as a jumping off point for a few different topics.  I decided to focus on what he said about covenants and then specifically on reviewing the covenants we made when we were baptized.  Here's a quick over view of our lesson but what I love about using these talks is the conversation that develops during the lesson.  I don't plan word for word, a big part is asking and answering questions as they come.  

Play the first little story he shared about putting his kids to bed.  I played the actual clip so the could see who the new apostle was and its pretty cute to hear him sing :)

Next play the song found here

Read quote: "The song of our risen Savior’s redeeming love celebrates the harmony of covenants (that connect us to God and to each other) and the Atonement of Jesus Christ (that helps us put off the natural man and woman and yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit)."

Show "covenants" word strip and ask: What is a Covenant?  When do we make covenants?"  Discuss as prompted.  

For this activity I decided to focus on baptismal covenants and renewing them during the sacrament each week..  I asked "Can you think of a time we think of the Saviors Atonement and the covenants we made/make when we are baptized?"  You may need to add some hints until the say "during the sacrament"  Explain that when we take the sacrament we are renewing our baptismal covenants and if we listen closely to the prayer we will hear some of them.

Pull out the "I promise"  and "God Promises" cards and set to the side.  Use the rest of the cards for a match game.  As you find a match decide if it is a promise you make or God makes and put them under the correct card.

To make the game print on cardstock and cut.  I have my kids cut them for me :)

Sample of cards (Covenants found here and here)

I always like to create a printable that we leave up all week as a reminder of our lesson.   This week I made two different styles. Voth are included in the download along with the quote from the beginning,  Print your favorite.

 If you just want the printable 

Click on the picture above.  Right click to save to your computer.

Print at home or send it to your favorite place to print pictures.

If printing at home I like to insert the picture in a word document.  Size and print on cardstock.

It's formatted as a 5x7 but can easily be resized to fit your needs.

Download your FHE pack here

You can find our other General Conference Family Home Evening here.

Fonts from Hello Literacy 

After FHE the printables makes a great handout for the sisters you minister to and the match game is great for your church bag.