General Conference

This is not going to be an actual lesson on Conference, but I wanted to let everyone know that lds.org has some spectacular new Conference ideas, particularly for young children.

If you click HERE you can check it out!

I hope you all enjoy General Conference this Sunday!

Service and the L.A.M.P.S. program!

The ward is starting the L.A.M.P.S. program. This stands for;

LIVING A MORE PERFECT SPIRIT.

As I have been looking for ideas for a lesson on service I have been amazed at how many great ideas and stories are out there! I am thinking I will break this up into a few lessons that will pop up over the next few weeks.

Begin this lesson by telling the story of The Savior washing the feet of his apostles. Have someone read the end of the story found in John 13:14-15 Ask the question why did Jesus wash his apostles feet? (to give us an example) The picture is found on page 55 of the Gospel Art Book.

Jesus asks us to follow Him, to learn of Him, to be like Him. He served his entire life. Not because he had to, not because it was his duty, Jesus served others because he loved them. When we can serve others out of love, we can start to live our lives with a Christlike sprit.

Tell the story of The Candy Bomber

Discuss with your family how Col. Halverson followed the spirit and started something wonderful for the children of Germany. Talk about the lives he was able to influence for good. Talk about how we can do the same things in our home and community by serving others.

Spend a few minutes as a family brainstorming ideas for service opportunities in the next few weeks.

Here are a few ideas:

Sending letters to missionaries or service men

Go on a Service Scavenger Hunt

Picking up trash in your neighborhood

Write Letters to sick children This is a link to a list of children that are sick. It tells you a little about each child, and their address.

REMEMBER: to take pictures of your family serving others and email them to Brother Fatkin at drfatkin@gmail.com.

AND...Remember when turning in your family's time of service count time for the WHOLE family. For example...A service project that takes and hour for a family of five is 5 hours of service for the LAMPS program.

Prayer

Sacrament Meeting was all about prayer today.

It was an excellent meeting. I felt it would be appropriate to post another lesson on Prayer. I have already posted a lesson on prayer on this blog. It is all about the language of prayer.

Click here if you want to go to it.

Locations For and Types of Prayer

Ask your family:

Where do we pray? Let everyone offer ideas of places to pray.

Ask the family to turn to Alma 34: 19-27 and read it aloud.

Where does Amulek tell us to pray? Give some suggestions such as "Could you pray in an elevator?" "Could you pray in the car?" Get the family to relate the scripture to our day.

How often does Amulek tell us to pray?

"We may pray to Him any time. No special equipment is needed. We don't even need to charge batteries or pay a monthly service fee." -Elder Russell M. Nelson, Ensign, May 2003, 7

Use the handout Here to teach the types of prayer. (I know that these puzzles are so simple I'm not sure if puzzle is the right term for them)

Give each member of the family one of the "puzzles" of the different types of prayer. As they put their puzzle together have them tell the family what type of prayer is being shown in the picture.

Take a moment to talk as a family about what is appropriate to occur during different prayers, and what is not.

Close with your testimony of what prayer means to you.

Okay, I also found this CUTE FHE about a Prayer Train on Sugardoodle. My son is SO into trains that I had to put a link to it! HAVE FUN! Prayer Train FHE by Melanie Day

Straw in the Manger

One activity my family discovered last year is "Prepearing the Manger for the Baby Jesus" Click here for the story. All you need is something to represent the manger, slips of paper with everyone's name on it, and a hat.

This is a great way to think more about Jesus this holiday season!

Thanksgiving

This FHE is really just a bunch of Thanksgiving stories and activities for you to choose from. So there some links, and you can choose what will be the best for your family!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Click HERE for Scholastic.com, First Thanksgiving activites

Click HERE for fun "First Thanksgiving" activities and ideas.

"Thanksgiving Surprise" Nov. 06 Friend

"The First Thanksgiving in Utah" Nov. 2004 Friend

Gratitude

My Cousin gave me this idea. In her preschool blog, she suggested that for the month of November you can make a family gratitude journal. We dubbed ours our "Thanksgiving Thankful Book".

The idea is that each night of the month...we started ours yesterday...everyone in the family adds something they are thankful for in the journal.

The catch is that there can be no repeats! This allows for the typical family, food and home entries, but also requires that you dig a bit deeper too in finding new things each day!

(Gideon is in a world of hurt, because he has already said he is thankful for trains!)

Our family has decided to keep the journal for a few years, (till the paper runs out) and make it a family tradition!

General Conference

I am really excited about this online book club my sister told me about.

It goes over one General Conference talk a week. Then in the comments section you can write what you felt about each talk. She posts a new talk each Sunday, and you have all week to read and listen to it. I am excited because I always start out after conference with the goal to read it all before the next one, and always run out of steam part way through.

I am going to try it. If you are interested click the button that says "General Conference Book Club" on the right of the screen!