News Release

Celebrating 100 years of Family Home Evening in Miri, Malaysia

 

Hundreds celebrate 100 years

Members of the Miri congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints celebrated the 100th year of the inspired Family Home Evening program. Balloons, banners, birthday cakes, photo booth, instructional classes and video were all part of the fun evening. 

Three families were filmed having their own Family Home Evening sessions. The edited video was shown at the birthday party to give attendees ideas  and insight for holding their own FHE. The families highlighted were all different to  illustrated that Family Home Evening can be done by everyone.  One family with married children gathered for scripture reading and discussion, another family with teenage children shared their FHE with missionaries, and a third showed FHE with little children.  It was fun to see the variety of ways Family Home Evening can be successfully done.

Monday night is the traditional time Mormons across the world gather with their families to enjoy being together.  The evening most often begins with singing, followed by a prayer and a message of spiritual value such as kindness, honesty, respect or service.  This is followed by games or other family fun and often a family favorite treat!  

At the Miri birthday party event, participants divided into four groups and rotated between four stations where they learned how to successfully conduct a Home Evening with their loved ones. Each were given a Home Evening book with ideas for lessons. They were taught fun songs to sing together, played new family games and given an organization chart to use for their family night planning.

“This is so fun!” laughed a little boy as he twisted and turned with his family in a new game called “Family knots”.  Members were excited to receive their FHE charts and some planned to put them on their walls as soon as they returned home.

In 1915, the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began the program, promising that love at home would increase and great blessings would flow. The Church encourages everyone to have one night a week set apart for Family Home Evening. Church President Thomas S. Monson said “This heaven-inspired program can bring spiritual growth to each member of the family, helping him or her to withstand the temptations which are everywhere. The lessons learned in the home are those that last the longest.”

In Miri, families posed together for crazy, fun pictures in the photo booth, ate dinner and enjoyed the birthday cake. It was a wonderful time together, which is just what Family Home Evening should be.

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