Learning About President Nelson FHE

I've just got to say, I love FHE.  

I didn't even realize that I did until recently.  

I realized it because I noticed how much my children anticipate spending this crucial time together.  Our children haven't had to go to school for any of the Mondays in January this year (awesome, right?). That's four Mondays off in a row!  So a couple of times they've asked, so what are we doing for FHE and I'll say, well, we'll be together all day Monday, isn't that enough?  "NO!" is their reply.

Hearing their disappointed responses to the idea that we might not have a formal FHE, I thought, "Wow, THIS is the glue for our family. The absolute glue."  This is not to say that they always act like angels while we're doing it, but I'm so glad we didn't miss the chance to fortify our relationships through this inspired program. 

We've plowed through having home evening EVERY WEEK, not just when it's convenient, not just when the kids feel like it, not just when I have a fun plan in mind or when we don't have anything else going on, but every week, basically without fail.  We did it every week as an act of obedience at first and a proof of our faith and trust in our leaders, and a hope that the promises attached to holding family home evening will come through, and I believe that they have been coming through for us.  We've had to say no to some things in order to preserve Monday night for our family, but it has been worth it.

Deciding together how we will spend Sunday and how we will spend Monday night makes us feel like we have control over certain aspects of our lives.  We aren't running on anyone else's schedules.  Whatever else happens during the week those are still our times, sacred times.

So, enough rambling, tonight I knew I wanted to learn more about President Nelson, because we had discussed what the topic for FHE would be last night at family council.  However, I hadn't really prepared a lesson.  Thank goodness we have so many online resources!  What a blessing!  

I quickly found this article called "11 Things You Didn't Know About President Nelson."

Since we were starting later, we started FHE as dinner was wrapping up. I asked everyone to write down as many things as they thought they knew about President Nelson in two minutes.

I was surprised by how much they did know:

They were able to recall a few of the lessons we've learned from his General Conference talks, etc. But I also had a good laugh when my daughter asked, "Isn't he a heart virgin?"

Close...(He's a heart surgeon, of course!)

After we shared what we thought we knew about President Nelson, we read the article I mentioned above.

Before I read each point, I gave them the chance to guess what I'd say next.

As we read, we were delighted to learn these and more fun facts about our new prophet...(pictured as a child below.)

Honor, who earlier today, hid her sandwich that she didn't want to eat in the garbage, was tickled pink to learn that President Nelson used to hide food he didn't like in his pockets so he could avoid eating it! (The food he hates to eat is liver!)

Scarlett, my daughter who is always singing, will now always remember that President Nelson has perfect pitch!

Guy guessed correctly that President Nelson was a convert to the church, baptized at the age of 16.

And we all took note of how obedient President Nelson is when we learned that when President Kimball suggested during a meeting that all should take up learning Chinese, President Nelson went out and learned Mandarin, which I am sure is no small feat.

I bore my testimony to our children that I know that President Nelson is a prophet of God and the one chosen to lead His church at this time.  I promised them that I would follow this good man and I hoped that they would as well.

Then I promised if they cleared the dishes and got ready for bed they could enjoy a handful of sweet tart candy hearts.

Our family home evening lessons are usually just this simple, but I'm glad to know that every Monday night we spend together brings us together in more ways that I can count.

I hope you are also having a good cummulative experience with Monday nights.  It will pay off, I promise!