.
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

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?
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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).

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