A Memerable FHE

We had one of our best FHE's ever this week.  It evolved as a result of 2 things which coincided and I do not believe it was simply by chance.  On the 4th Monday of each month, we hold our family home evenings out of the Preach My Gospel manual.  This was a recommendation from our Bishop and has been a huge blessing for our family.  I love that I feel like I am doing all I can to help my boys prepare for their missions now and I feel like it helps us always stay focused on what is expected of them at the age of 19. 

Well, on Sunday, we had an awesome lesson in Young Women's that talked about the Plan of Salvation.  It equated our time on earth to a plane ride.  The teacher even had cute boarding passes that she handed out.  I loved the lesson and really wanted to use it for a FHE someday.  Well, imagine how excited I was when I looked up which lesson we were going to be on in Preach My Gospel and it was ALSO on the PLAN OF SALVATION!  How much more perfect can it get?! It was obviously "meant to be" for our family to have this discussion that night!

I had SO much fun planning this one!  I gave them each boarding passes on "Celestial Airlines" and when they entered the room, it was set up like this.  I welcomed them aboard the flight and told them where we were boarding from (pre-earth life), that we would have a brief stop on Earth and then would continue our journey to our final destination (eternal life)!  I reminded them that this week's lesson was from the Preach My Gospel manual and that this was also the week we focused on missionary things.

After that, I served peanuts and sparkling soda with ice and we had some "in-flight entertainment." We watched the Tyler Haws video - the PERFECT video for our family.  Our boys' dream of playing for BYU and yet, I want them to always remember how important it is for them to be good, well-rounded boys and to never forget  that they have a responsibility to serve their missions above all else.  This video summed up my feelings perfectly and was the perfect start to our missionary FHE.  After discussing the video, we moved on to the discussion the boys would teach - The Plan of Salvation.  We talked about how silly we would feel if we showed up to Hawaii in snow suits and big coats and jackets and compared this to how we would feel if we "pack" the wrong things on our journey to the Celestial Kingdom.  Then we discussed what we would want to have in our "suitcase" when we make it back to live with Heavenly Father again. I was so impressed with the kids' answers - even the Young Women didn't come up with answers that good!

After that, each of the boys committed to do all that they can to prepare to serve a mission and Kaitlin committed to keeping herself worthy to enter the temple.  Then they each signed and dated this certificate from LDS.org, which I laminated and hung on their bathroom mirror.

After that, we gave them each their $5 to put in their missionary fund. (We give them a specially marked $5 bill after each Preach My Gospel lesson.) and worked on memorizing our quote for the week.  I made this quote up using the concepts and a phrase from the Tyler Haws video.

This family home evening was special for us.  I do believe that our boys will have to make a decision very similar to the one that Tyler had to make.  The are gifted, they really are.  They each have been given an innate athleticism and they've been given each other.  I firmly believe that they best way to help them keep their focus in life is to help them decide right now that serving a mission at the age of 19 is what they will do.  I really can't imagine it and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of not only having them away from ME for 2 years, but also away from each other. I do think that it will be a challenge for all of us, but I believe that it is the most important thing they will ever do with their lives and know that if we begin preparing ourselves mentally, spiritually and financially NOW, it will make it that much easier to actually do when the time comes. 

I am so grateful for so many young men, like Tyler, that set such great examples for my boys.  There really are "heroes" out there for them to look up to. Since Monday night, we've watched this movie again at least 3 times.  They are fascinated by him! During the movie, they always have so many questions about where he is serving his mission and where his family is and when he'll come back and play basketball for BYU again and if I think he's sad that he isn't playing basketball right now.  I answer the ones that I can, but decided that they better just ask him some of those questions themselves.  I've gotten his mission address and the boys are working on letters right now.  We promised them that we would definitely go to the Marriott Center to watch Tyler play when he gets off his mission.  And you know what...they are thrilled with that.  There isn't anyone else (not a pro athlete even) that they would rather see...and I LOVE that!