Joseph Smith and the Gold Plates FHE

Well, its a new year which at the Johnson home means another chance to re-dedicate ourselves to having regular, MEANINGFUL, Family Home Evenings!  My husband and I have felt inspired to really dig into the Book of Mormon with our children this year and focus most of our FHE's on that subject!  I am so excited to have a somewhat set curriculum for our FHE's, and even more excited to help my kids (and myself!) learn more about this sacred book of scripture we have been blessed with.

Most weeks of the month we will have a family home evening based on a chapter from the church-issued Book of Mormon Stories book.  After we have had our lesson on Monday, we will spend the rest of the week reading the actual verses out of the Book of Mormon, reviewing what we learned and helping our kids become familiar with the language and wording.

To kick off our year-long study, we had our first lesson tonight.  The first lesson was absolutely perfect for us...How We Got the Book of Mormon.  It is a simple lesson that reviews Joseph Smith, the First Vision, and how he eventually received the Gold Plates.  

To start off I read this quote to the kids from the prophet, Joseph Smith:

Then we read the 1st chapter from Book of Mormon Stories.  We especially focused on what Joseph Smith went through AFTER Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared in the Sacred Grove.  I wanted to help my children feel the same appreciation that I do for the Prophet Joseph.  We talked about how it wasn't until 3 years after the First Vision that the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph...and then how he had to go to the Hill Cummorah once a year for 4 YEARS before he could finally receive the Gold Plates.

To help the kids understand that process just a LITTLE bit more, we did a really fun activity that they loved and helped them empathize with the Prophet Joseph just a teensy bit ;)

 

During the kids nap time I threw together these cute little Chocolate Scripture Treats that I found online at My Insanity.

All you do is hot glue 2 Hershey Nuggets together, cover with a white piece of paper, and hot glue a little strip of paper for your bookmark.  I was short on time so I just scribbled the lines...if you check out My Insanity she does hers WAY cuter ;)

After we had the lesson I told the kids that dad had a special treat for them, and they needed to go ask him where the treats were.  They RAN over to him and started excitedly asking for their treats.  He told them the treats were somewhere on the main floor of our house...but they needed to come back in 2 minutes to learn more about where they were.  They were a little bummed, but came and sat down quickly.  When 2 minutes passed, I sent them back.  He told them they were not only on the main floor, but in the kitchen.  However, they would need to wait 2 more minutes until he could tell them anything more.  2 agonizing minutes later they ran back and he told them they needed a chair to get their treats...and in 2 more minutes he would tell them a little bit more.  Finally the kids got their final clue to where the treats were, and ran to the cupboard and pulled out our cute Chocolate Scripture Treats.

As we all ate our chocolate we talked about how Joseph Smith had to go through something much harder than that.  Just like the kids needed to keep going back to learn more about the location of their treat, Joseph Smith had to go back and converse with the Angel Moroni so he could learn more about his Heavenly Father's will for Joseph and His church.  It took much patience and obedience, but because of the persecution he was willing to endure and the sacrifices that he made we have the Book of Mormon today.

I was grateful to have the opportunity to bear my testimony to the kids about the truthfulness of the First Vision.  I have stood in the Sacred Grove, and felt the spirit there.  I know that Joseph Smith saw the Father and the Son, and that through him the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored in our day on the earth.  

I am SO excited to begin this wonderful year of studying the Book of Mormon with my family!  Feel free to join along with us and PLEASE, as always, leave any comments about what kinds of things you are doing in your fhe's that are working for you!!