Guide to the Friend

The Guide to the Friend can help you find stories or articles for preparing lessons or talks for church or for family home evening. Also included is subscription and submission information.

Family Home Evening Ideas

If your parents ask you to help plan a family home evening, you may want to use an idea from the Friend. Here are some ideas in this issue that you may like (look for the FHE symbol on the [original magazine] pages mentioned):

1. Tell the story “Baptized by the Prophet” (pages 2–5). Talk about Thomas’s love for the Prophet Joseph Smith and about his courage in deciding to follow Brigham Young to the West. How do you follow the prophet today? Ask a brother or sister to learn and recite “The President of the Church” (page 35).

2. Read the Friend to Friend interview “Learning Gospel Principles” (pages 6–7). What did Sister Reynolds learn from her family? Remember and share some of the gospel lessons you have learned in your home. Offer a prayer of thanks.

3. Make valentines for your neighbors (page 15; card, picture frame). Add a message of love and appreciation to each valentine and deliver them secretly.

4. Together read “Time for Family Home Evening!” (pages 16–17). Using some of the ideas in the poem, plan several family home evenings. Plan a special evening you could invite a friend or neighbor to.

5. Do the “President David O. McKay Crossword” (page 23). Then use the pictures to tell the story “David O. McKay Receives an Answer” (pages 38–39). Talk about the ways Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

6. Share the article “President Gordon B. Hinckley, Prophet, Seer, Revelator” (pages 40–41). Make a copy of the dot-to-dot puzzle for each family member to do. Hang the finished puzzles up to remind yourselves to follow the prophet.

7. Make the “Cherry-Chocolate Cake” (page 21) for refreshments.