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Finding
it hard to adjust from crafty
Homemaking
meetings
to spiritual
Home,
Family and Personal Enrichment?
Gospel
Chic is here to inspire you! Whether you're in the
presidency and you're planning Enrichment, or you're
an attendee, we have some helps for you!
By
Anne Bradshaw, staff writer
& author of Terracotta
Summer and Chamomile Winter
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| We
have had some exciting Home,
Family and Personal Enrichment nights in our ward
since the changeover from Homemaking, and all because
our Relief Society President caught the vision and
passed it on to her counselors and the rest of the
ward. I am the counselor responsible for this part
of Relief Society and work with an enthusiastic Leader
to carry out the combined decisions of our Presidency. |
Need
Enrichment Ideas?
Click
HERE
|
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We find
it works best to discuss the
goals for monthly events first as a Presidency, and then
bring in the Leader for further discussion and planning.
Our goal is to bring each sister unto Christ, through building
spiritual strength, developing personal skills, strengthening
the home and family, and providing gospel service.
For
those who love to be creative and
miss the crafts, why not begin a mid-week get-together
in sisters' homes? There's nothing to stop friends meeting
and having fun, especially when they encourage each other
to attend equally fun Enrichment nights!
We
try to have mini-classes or service projects that
relate to the spiritual topic chosen by the Stake for
the year, and we invite different teachers each month,
drawing from Primary and Young Women leaders and teachers,
and sisters from Relief Society generally. We have had
some wonderful, enlightening, and fun lessons on a wide
variety of subjects, and find that all age groups attend.
Good
and vigorous publicity would
appear to be the key to getting the word around that it
really IS Enrichment night this week! We advertise weeks
before, in Church, in meetings, from the pulpit, and via
a team of flyer-sisters who diligently tape flyers on
every door in the ward, whatever the weather. We make
sure to thank them abundantly.
The
Sunday before Enrichment night, we
have the conducting member of the Bishopric announce fun
details of the coming event, giving miniclasses unusual
and tempting titles whenever we can think of them. He
also asks husbands to stay home and look after little
ones so the sisters can enjoy a night out, learning how
to make homes happier and increase spiritual uplift.
It
is a good idea to involve sisters in
making sure their neighbors have someone with whom to
come. It would seem that many times sisters won't attend
because they don't like walking into a room on their own,
or are shy of talking first to another person, or think
no-one will notice them, or sit next to them. The buddy
system overcomes many hurdles and develops friendships
and sisterly love.
Some
of our greatest needs are
to be acknowledged, loved and accepted as we are, and
made to feel part of the whole. Enrichment night can help
us all achieve these blessings if we go with the attitude
of reaching out to someone else, rather than wishing for
others to reach us. If we make a point of sitting next
to someone who has no-one next to her - taking our buddy
with us if necessary - introducing each other - listening
more than talking, and using the sister's name, then love
will bounce around and good feelings shared. Sisters will
want to repeat the choice experience again and again.
I
have found that when I go to Enrichment meetings
with the determination to contribute at least once during
the evening, and plan on writing down something new I
have learned, I always come away feeling my time has been
well spent. Of course, it usually turns out there's more
than one thing of interest, and I'm always glad I didn't
miss out by not being there.
There
are many ideas for classes, some
of which are noted below. There are also excellent websites
available if more help is needed. One such site is at
www.reliefsociety.com (for similar sites, use a
search engine and type in the words Relief Society). |