Sardines - A Great Idea for a Family Home Evening Game

How to Play

Step 1
Declare the boundaries where kids can hide ("only in our backyard" or "only in the basement").

Step 2
Choose one child to be It. He hides while the rest of the group counts slowly to 20 (or higher).

Step 3
The players then split up to search independently for whoever's It. When a seeker finds him, he or she joins It in the hiding place, trying to stay as quiet as possible. (Ideally the hiding place should be somewhere that will just barely accommodate all players, and as others find It and crowd in, the silent squeeze becomes tighter — and sillier.)

Step 4
When the last person finds the hiding place, the game's over, and play resumes with the last person as It.

Most fun with:

* A yard with trees, or a big house
* Four or more players
* Kids ages 2 and up

Jenny Family Home Evening Idea

Theme: Preparing Children For Arrival of a New Baby (by Jenny Moyer)

Last night (February 4, 2008) we had a great family home evening. We talked about being nice to our brother and sister. The kids were so cute and really participated. I held up pictures of them and told funny stories about them when they were babies. Then I had them swaddle and cuddle one of their teddy bear dolls and show me some nice things they can do to Mason (our new baby coming on March 27th). It was so cute to watch Taylor pretend the teddy was Mason. She had so much affection written all over her face and was soo gentle.

Activity: Afterwards, I set up an obstacle/golf course in the house using some cans of foods. I made sticks out of cardboard tubes and more cardboard and decorated them like Mickey Mouse. Then Taylor and Cooper played a game of golf around the house with their sticks and ball. They loved it. Taylor was screaming with excitement. It was fun to do that with them.

Testimonies of President Eyring and President Uchtdorf

Family Home Evening Activity:

Here we have the opportunity to listen to and watch President Eyring and President Uchtdorf bear their testimonies. President Eyring speaks of our reverence for holy temples as part of his testimony. President Uchtdorf testifies on the importance of having our own testimony.

President Monson's Testimony

Family Home Evening Activity

It would be good for each grandchild to hear President Monson bear his testimony of teh restoration of the gospel.

Called by a Prophet

Journal Entry, December 20, 2005.

Today at 11:45 a.m., we received a call to preside over a French-speaking mission in July 2006, by President Thomas Spencer Monson. He said that if a couple did not know what was happening by now, they would be pretty slow and that they did not want a couple like that. (We had been invited to visit in Elder Wirthlin's office with Elder Cook, just before Thanksgiving, and they had asked us questions about serving a mission, but were careful to say it wasn't a call and that we would hear from a member of the First Presidency between Thanksgiving and Christmas.)

President Monson then proceeded to ask us about each child and their family, one by one, starting with Joelle. He put us at ease by telling us the history of two sketches in his office which had just been given to him by the mother of the artist--a 17 year old boy who drowned trying to save his dog. He then told us about his photo op with Elder A Theodore Tuttle's granddaughter who had just been married on Salt Lake Temple Square--he said their schedule was so hectic they no long had time to go to the temple grounds for photo sessions. Never once did he say that he had just been with President Hinckley for the past hour. He related to us peer-to-peer on our level.

While speaking to us about our many granddaughters and one grandson (at the time), he told stories of friends who made dresses for granddaughters--only to keep getting grandsons. When the child was finally a girl, she had dozens of dresses. He told how Elder Nelson raised a pair of coveralls up the flag pole to announce the birth of his only son--out of ten children.

When we reached the story of Jeremy and Jamie--President Monson discovered they were born in Toronto and then began to tell us his experiences in Toronto as mission president. He came around from behind the desk and showed us his report to the First Presidency of his mission. He turned the pages slowly and quoted from each page. He pointed out the progress going from 2.16 baptisms per missionary to 5.63. When he completed the mission, they baptized 1000 souls -- up from 300 the first year. The 300th Stake of the Church was created in Toronto while he was mission president. He and his wife had signed the report he showed us.

He told us stories of his children in Canada--a sister (nonmember) who taught his little daughter and was impressed that she could bear her testimony of the Church after reading her an article from the Friend magazine. The lady's name was Mrs. Pepper. She visited the Salt Lake Temple Square before she died and left them a note of her impressions. His daughter did Mrs. Pepper's temple work after she passed on. President Monson's son had his first paper-route in Canada. Their cook mixed chocolate cake in with the soup to make it edible. (She was not a good cook). He spoke of a special, private spot behind the mission home at 123 Loma (next to Casa Loma) in a ravine--where he would retire to pray. He made a promise to the Lord to do everything he could to magnify his calling as a mission president and asked the Lord one thing in return--that he wouldn't lose one missionary. One died of lung cancer six weeks after the mission and two or three tried to run off from the mission but came back. He "rescued" one from Arizona (where H. Burke Peterson was the bishop of the boy). He plotted out a route where the elder had a different bishop to feed him and him him fuel his car every 400 miles back to Toronto. He also got an Elder who tried to run away to Ogden to come back.

President Monson then gave me a memo card with his name on it and had me write three things using his fancy black pen: (These are the words of counsel Harold B. Lee gave him as a new mission president)
1. Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies
2. When you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitled to the Lord's help
3. The Lord shapes the back to bear the burdens placed upon it.

President Monson taught us about the key to getting referrals from members. He said you don't challenge the wards to get 20 baptisms, but rather 20 home teachers to strengthen the ward. He said members should approach these four types of individuals:
1) those suffering the loss of a loved one
2)those who have experienced a birth in the family
3) new move-ins
4) those who have a troubled teen

Throughout the interview, President Monson would pat Diane's hand as he talked to us. He complimented her red and black colors (it was a Christmas outfit because he said it was the color of West High. He went to West High and his wife with to East High. When I told him I taught the living prophets class and often told how he met his wife, he said his father-in-law (to be) cried when they first met.

He also taught of two types of mission presidents--a mother had twins in different missions. She thought one president was good and the other was bad. The one sent pictures of the mission president and their missionary. The other never did. In essence, the latter was the stronger president, but you could never persuade the mother of those boys to believe that.

A truly great and memorable experience with a prophet of God. What a great day for us.

Additional insights from the experience with President Monson:
1) Always pray about transfers so you can tell the missionaries you prayed about it.
2) Don't let your zone leaders butter you up to get a preferred choice of transfers.
3) Take time to date your companion while on the mission.

Family Home Activity:

Retell in your own words the lessons grandpa and grandma learned from President Thomas Spencer Monson.

Thomas S. Monson, 16th President of the Church

President Thomas Spencer Monson, Our New Prophet.

Here is the article from the associated press: SALT LAKE CITY: Thomas S. Monson, a leader who became known for his folksy storytelling as he ascended through church ranks, was introduced Monday as the 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Monson, 80, succeeds Gordon B. Hinckley, who died last month at age 97. Out of respect for the deceased president, the Mormon church never names a successor until after funeral services. Hinckley was buried Saturday.

The church relies on a pattern of apostolic succession in selecting a new president. Since the early part of the 20th century, the position has always passed to the most-senior member of its Council of Twelve Apostles, the second-tier of church leadership. President Thomas S. Monson was formally chosen Sunday and ordained in a private ceremony inside the Salt Lake Temple.

President Monson said he was prepared to follow President Hinckley, and intends to travel the world to be among church members and to continue President Hinckley's legacy of building small temples in places where the church is growing.

"It's not difficult because he blazed the trail," President Monson said at a news conference. "I worked with him for so long — 44 years. We knew each other so well. I knew and testify afresh that he was the Lord's prophet."

Latter-day Saints know President Monson as a compassionate storyteller whose parables recount the stories of individuals resolving their struggles through faith.

As a senior church leader, President Monson has served as an international envoy for the church and supervised the expansion of humanitarian programs. He's also known for forming ecumenical partnership with other faiths — an effort President Monson said he planned to continue as church president.

"I think it's important that we eliminate the weakness of one standing alone and substitute for it the strength of people working together," he said.

President Monson was called to the Council of Twelve Apostles in October 1963 at the age of 36, after serving as a local church bishop and as director of the church's Canadian missionary activities in Toronto.

He went on to serve as counselor to President Hinckley and two previous presidents in the church's highest leadership circle, the First Presidency.

He is the youngest man to hold the presidency since President Spencer W. Kimball, who was 78 when named president in 1973. Mormon presidents serve for life.

As president, President Monson will shepherd a growing church with 13 million members in 160 countries. Of those, about 5.7 million are in the United States. One-third of church members live in Utah.

President Monson, a Navy World War II veteran, is a graduate of the University of Utah and holds a master's degree in business administration from the church-owned Brigham Young University in Provo.

Professionally, he worked for the church's secular businesses, including the Deseret Morning News and the Deseret News Press. He was also the representative who served on the boards of other church-owned businesses, including KSL-TV and Beneficial Life Insurance Co.

He has been married to Frances Beverly Johnson since 1948. The couple has three children. eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

President Monson named as his two top advisers First Counselor Henry B. Eyring, 74, and Second Counselor Dieter F. Uchtdorf.

President Eyring previously served as Hinckley's second counselor.

Presidents Uchtdorf and Monson have known each other since the 1980s. He was a regional church leader in Germany when President Monson was working as an envoy to nations behind the Iron Curtain and dedicated a Mormon temple in Freiberg, then part of East Germany. (End of Article)

Yesterday (February 3), in the Salt Lake Temple, President Monson was ordained and set apart as the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

Family Home Evening Questions:

1. When was President Monson called to be an apostle?
2. What number of Prophet is President Monson in this dispensation?
3. Where did President Monson serve as a Mission President?
4. How many children do President and Sister Monson have?
5. How old is President Monson?

1. 44 years ago
2. 16th
3. Toronto, Canada
4. Three
5. 80 years old

Elder Uchtdorf, Newest Member of First Presidency

Taking Flight
It was 1 October 2004, just a day before the annual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf was taking a stroll with his wife, Harriet, when the conversation turned to the historic nature of the meeting where not one, but two modern-day apostles would be sustained. The more they walked and talked, the more anxious Elder Uchtdorf and Harriet became for the yet unidentified men whose lives would be changed forever by the lifelong appointment.

“As soon as we returned home we got down on our knees and prayed for these men and their families,” Elder Uchtdorf said. The very next day, a stunned Elder Uchtdorf was summoned to President Gordon B. Hinckley’s office and asked to become a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That weekend he stood before thousands of Church members assembled in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, with millions more watching via satellite around the world. Expressing his reaction to becoming an apostle he said, “I have a great sense of inadequacy, and I have felt a sweet agony from a deep and often painful examination of my soul during the many hours which have passed day and night since Friday morning of this week.”

Becoming an apostle was an unlikely capstone to a life that began in Mahrisch-Ostrau, Czechoslovakia, on 6 November 1940. Elder Uchtdorf was the youngest of four children in a family that would flee as refugees two times during his childhood. When his father, Karl, was conscripted into the German army and taken from his family, Elder Uchtdorf’s mother, Hildegard wanted to get as close as possible to the western front. She left all their possessions and took her small family to Zwickau, Germany.

Karl Uchtdorf survived the war but was a bitter opponent of both the Nazi and the Communist regimes. Labeled a dissident, he fled with his family to the safety of Frankfurt, West Germany. Elder Uchtdorf described his father as a very idealistic man with a strong personal character. “He taught us to do what you know is right and follow that path and don’t worry about consequences.”

Of his childhood Elder Uchtdorf said, “I played in bombed-out houses and grew up with the ever-present consequences of a lost war and the awareness that my own country had inflicted terrible pain on many nations during the horrific World War II.”
It was his mother who provided sweet moments for the young Dieter at great personal sacrifice. At Christmastime he recalled there was little money for the necessities of life, much less for presents, but his mother surprised the children with “stollen,” a traditional German Christmas cake. It was only later in his life looking at pictures that Elder Uchtdorf realized his mother had gone without. “She was almost like you see in war movies and the people who were starving. That’s how she looked at that time when she was providing for us.”

Despite the harsh circumstances living in postwar Germany, Elder Uchtdorf said the Lord was looking after his family through the efforts of a single elderly woman who invited his grandmother to attend a service at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “My grandmother and my parents accepted the invitation,” he said. “They went to church, felt the Spirit, were uplifted by the kindness of the members and were baptized.”

When Dieter turned 8 years old, he too was baptized, in an indoor swimming pool. He vividly recalls his apprehension of going into the water because he had never learned to swim. “I will always remember the feeling of warmth, safety, and importance as I came out of the water after this sacred ordinance had been performed,” he said. The family was quite dedicated to their new faith. Elder Uchtdorf fondly remembers his father and two older brothers deciding who would wear the one suit they all shared to church each Sunday.

It was during Elder Uchtdorf’s teenage years that he discovered his love for flying. He started riding his bicycle to the Frankfurt airport to watch the airplanes land and take flight and imagining what it would be like to one day take to the skies.
Following his dream, he started with an engineering education at age 18, followed by six years in the German air force. Then, in a reciprocal relationship between the German and U.S. governments, he entered fighter pilot training school in Texas where, as a German, he won wings in the American Air Force. At the young age of 29 he was made a captain with Lufthansa airlines and swiftly rose to the top of the organization, being named as senior vice president of flight operations in 1982.
In the midst of his occupational successes he was called to numerous Church positions in Germany and eventually into full-time Church service in 1994. Those who have worked with Elder Uchtdorf praise his leadership qualities and ability to reach out to others. Elder Dean Larsen said, “Elder Uchtdorf so genuinely loves people and is so engagingly personable that wherever he went he was embraced literally and figuratively.”

Applying lessons learned from his childhood, Elder Uchtdorf faced opposition with optimism. He helped convince the German government that Mormonism should not be included in a list of “sects” — being included on such a list would have seriously hindered the work the Church in the country. His colleagues noted that Elder Uchtdorf’s position with Lufthansa gave government officials confidence they had nothing to fear from the Mormon faith.

Although Elder Uchtdorf carried heavy responsibilities, his heart was in the home with his family. He met his wife, Harriet, at a Church meeting and several years later they married, on 14 December 1962.
“She’s really wonderful, she’s the best companion I could ask for in my life,” Elder Uchtdorf said. Longtime friend and Church associate Hanno Luschin agrees: “In spite of his professional recognition and his varied Church callings, a great measure of his success in his life is the quality of his marriage, as expressed in his absolute loyalty to Harriet and her unfailing support for him.”
The Uchtdorfs eventually welcomed two children into their home, Guido and Antje. Antje said the enthusiasm of her parents made for a charmed childhood. “Everything is exciting to Mom, and Dad makes things exciting. He made everything an adventure — even going to the grocery store. They took us on some of the most exciting family vacations a child could imagine.”

Though Guido and Antje live overseas with their own families, they understand their father’s commitment to his calling as a special witness of Jesus Christ throughout the world. As he performs his duties, imprinted on his memory are his mother’s efforts to build him up when times were tough. Her example is one Elder Uchtdorf follows today. “When we go out and meet with the people of the world, we’re there to uplift and to help and to strengthen those who need being strengthened, strengthen the feeble knees and lift up the heads which hang down. These are really the things that she did.” (Source: LDS Office of Public Affairs, Feb. 4, 2008)

Family Home Evening Questions:

1. What number in seniority is President Uchtdorf?
2. What quorum is the new quorum for Elder Uchtdorf?
3. What is startling about President Uchtdorf's childhood?
4. Name the other member of the First Presidency and his order of seniority?
5. What was President Uchtdorf's career before becoming an apostle?

Answers:

1. 12th (Elder Bednar is 13th, Elder Cook is 14th, and the new apostle will be sustained in April General Conference)
2. First Presidency (highest quorum in the Church)
3. His childhood home was bombed out twice
4. President Henry B. Eyring (12th)
5. Airline Pilot