This is one of the monthly topics given by the General Relief Society Presidency. These are class ideas that can go along with this topic.

April is our Spiritual Development month.

The Theme is “Grow your Spiritual Garden”. Our classes will be:
• Family scripture study
• a class on the importance of going to the temple titled “Do you have my name?”. Our ward is having a Christmas in June and the purpose is to have as many members as possible be ready to go to the temple. We thought this class would help with that effort.
• 100 + ways to keep the Sabbath day holy.
We have also asked the Sisters to give us their recipes for Quick and Easy meals for the Sabbath. It can be crock-pot meals, freezer meals, chicken salad, etc.. We are going to put a little Sabbath Day Cookbook together and the food committee is going to chose 2-3 different ones to make up and have on our taster table. We will have invitations and decorations done, all in flowers.
-Taina

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Theme: Scripture Study
The prize will be scripture marking pens, etc. We also have other ideas for capturing the interest of the sisters:
Mini-classes:
*class for part-member families on how they manage to observe the Sabbath day
*The Primary scripture and theme for the year will be presented so that families can study these with their children outside of Primary
*A class on family scripture study ideas… what works and what doesn’t
*A class on personal scripture study
All of these classes are to last tops 10 minutes, so everyone will be able to attend the ones they want to without feeling bored. As refreshments we are asking everyone to bring 1 cup of something to make a trail mix… fun, easy and healthy.
Anonymous on the HFPE board…
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We had a theme of “Improving our Mary and Martha Quotient”
We held it as a round robin. We had two classes. One was a class on getting more out of your scripture study. The sister who taught it is extremely creative in her teaching and it went over extremely well. The other class was Home Organization ideas as a way to increase your families spirituality.
Contributed by: Janice Thomas

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We did the meeting on the Sabbath Day that Em in Phoenix suggested. It was great. We did three classes:

Quick and Easy Meals
Ideas for Scripture Study
Fun, Sabbath Appropriate Activities.
We had four children’s games that people could put together. We asked the sisters to contribute their quick recipes and compiled them in a booklet. We had samples of a couple of the recipes for them to try. We served ice cream sundaes as she suggested. It was great.
-Cherise Dobson

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Presentation: Spiritual Development
Opening Hymn: How Beautiful Thy Temples, Lord #288
Invocation:
15 Minute Lesson: Our Genealogical Responsibilities The Latter-day Saint Woman, Basic Manual for Women, Part B, 167.
Mini-class Subjects:
1. Temple worship
Purpose: To help the sisters prepare for the Temple and enhance their Temple experience
Preparation: Assign a sister to teach this class. A good resource article is Enhancing Our Temple Experience by L. Lionel Kendrick, Ensign, May 2001, 78
Procedure: This could be a lecture but wouldn’t it be exciting to have the sisters form a circle and let them share what they do and have done to enhance their temple experience sometime during this presentation?
Conclusion: This lesson could end with a handout/bookmark with the scripture from the article, D&C 50:24 “That which is of God is light; and he that . . . continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” or one of the quotes could be used.
2. Personal prayer and scripture study
Purpose: To help the sisters and their families improve their personal prayer and scripture study time.
Preparation: Assign a sister to teach this class. Two good resource articles are, Helping Teens stay Strong by Brent L. Top and Bruce A. Chadwick, Ensign, Mar 1999, 26, and Likening The Scriptures Unto Ourselves by Stephen R. Covey, Ensign, Sep 1974, 77.
Procedure: This could be a lecture but it might be more fun to break the class up into two groups, one doing Personal Prayer and one doing Scripture Study and then give time at the end for the groups to report to each other.
Conclusion: This lesson could end by reading the following lyrics to Line upon Line from Saturday’s Warrior , Embryo Music Co. or if the music is available, the class could sing this or listen to a recording.
Line upon Line
Line upon line, precept on precept,
That is how he lifts us.
That is how He teaches His children.
Line upon line, precept on precept,
Like a summer shower,
Giving us each hour His wisdom.
If we are patient, we shall see
How the pieces fit together in harmony.
We’ll know who we are in this big universe
And then we’ll live with Him forever!
But until it happens
Line upon line, precept on precept,
Like a summer shower giving us each hour His wisdom.
3. Sabbath-day Observance
Purpose: To help the sisters and their families find appropriate activities for the Sabbath
Preparation: Assign a sister to teach this class. A good resource article is “Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy by Earl C. Tingey, Ensign, Feb 2000, 49. Make copies of the handouts, Sunday A to Z and Sunday Box.
Procedure: This could be a lecture but it is also appropriate to have the sisters make a Sunday Box. The items on the two handouts could be cut into strips and put into a container that the sisters have an opportunity to decorate. This works for both homes with or without children. The sister assigned to teach this class could take time during or before to present ideas from the article.
Conclusion: The sisters will have something to take home to remind them of ways to honor the Sabbath.
-by: Toni Honeycutt

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For spiritual development we are planning to have a pjs night (prayer, journals, scriptures) We will meet at a sister’s home asking everyone to wear their pajamas. We will have classes on the three topics. For the journal class, a sister in our ward has a tradition of making memory books asking each family member to contribute a memory of their own to add to the book. Every person has a book of their own so enough copies must be made for everyone. We are going to decorate a cover page for these books and have the sister share her ideas her family has used.
-Sherri McCombs

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I’ve got the following plans for the May Senatobia, MS Ward HFPE night. This is our second month on a Spiritual theme, but I felt like it was appropriate. The RS president agreed.

1) A Fast Way to the Spirit
This will be a class on fasting. I’m a convert. We have other converts in the ward and I’m not totally sure we’ve had anything on this in 3 years or so. It’s a good thing to teach from time to time.

2) Gardens of the Spirit
This will be class about creating your own little bit of Eden; a place of peaceful meditation. It can be huge or tiny. I’ve selected a sister who is a passionate gardener to teach the class. I’m a MS Master Gardener. Together we will help the sisters make a container garden to take home.

The RS president has volunteered to make a Dirt Cake in honor of our take-home project.

We have a swap table each month. I’m trying to encourage myself and the sisters to simplify our lives through de-cluttering. Any items that are left behind at the end of the evening go to a local thrift shop.
-Tommie
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Our December enrichment was a great success! We did the Silent Lesson (thanks to Deb, for the great script, and to Khristine, for timing the Powerpoint slides).

We advertised with posters that had a silhouette of a Bethlehem-type city at the bottom, and a bright star at the top, and in between we put “Believe: a night of spiritual enlightenment”. We asked the sisters to bring their scriptures, but told them nothing else about the program.
We had a sign-up for sisters to bring their own china and centerpieces and decorate the tables for dinner. This turned out beautifully; the tables were all works of art!

For dinner, we wanted to treat the sisters and not have them bring anything for once. We had enough in our budget, so we had roast beef, roasted red potatoes and carrots, a green salad with feta cheese, cranberries, and poppy seed dressing, rolls, and assorted pies for dessert. My EL did most of the food; she was awesome and it turned out delicious. We planned for 60 people, but I guess we underestimated — we had 40 show up, and it was just enough food! Lucky we didn’t have 60, huh?

After dinner, we instructed everyone to go to the R.S. room and enter silently for the program. Unfortunately, I think there were a few who didn’t hear this announcement (because they were chatting), so the program didn’t turn out as “silent” as it should have, at least at first. Everyone quieted down a few minutes into it, though. I had borrowed a copy of the slideshow from a sister who used to be in the HFPE Group, and it was beautiful. My husband came and set up a speaker system, so the music sounded amazing!
We had decorated the room with lots of fake trees and greenery, and lots of white Christmas lights. We also put about six electric candles around, to provide just enough light for the sisters to read their scriptures. It was beautiful.
After the program, the sisters lingered (but not talking!) because the spirit was so strong that they didn’t want to leave! I had a couple tell me it was the best enrichment night they had ever attended, and several said it
was “just what they needed” at this hectic time of year. I’m so relieved it went well! I don’t know why I was worried … I guess it’s just my nature to worry a bit.

–Cami in Mesa, AZ
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Theme: PJ’S party (prayer, journal, scriptures)

o Class 1: Prayer - how to be consistent and more meaningful
o Class 2: Journals - special experiences from sisters
o Class 3: Scriptures - how to study more effectively

Refreshments: snack foods
-Heather Bruck
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Last month we focused on Patriarchal Blessings. We did the color coding activity and made the envelopes. We had a handout and bundled 4 colored pencils together with raffia for the sisters to take home as only a couple brought their blessings with them. Our Stake got a new Patriarch recently and we had hoped he would come speak but he was unavailable. Instead, we had a lesson taken from Conference talks on the subject. It was a great reminder that they truly are our own personal guides.

-DKHays77
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For our May enrichment night we are going to do a “Bread of Life” night. Our lesson will be about basic, bread of life type gospel essentials such as scripture study, prayer, church and temple attendance, etc. We will then have a bread making demonstration. For refreshments we will have different types of bread (homemade, Asiago cheese, banana, sweet bread, etc.) with homemade jam, oil and vinegar dip, etc.
-Julie Boyle

This month we covered self defense. Our invitation was a karate man. We just made it sound like a party invitation.

Our mini classes we had:

Spiritual Self Defense - the teacher taught how to be spiritually prepared

Emergency First Aid- he taught basic first aid (the Sunday before we had a sister go into a diabetic coma after sacrament) This brought a lot of sisters out.

3rd mini was Self Defense-a brother who is a black belt and teaches karate gave demonstrations and helped the sisters learn basic maneuvers on how to get loose from certain holds.

We served chicken salad croissants and fruit on a stick to the early birds.
-Kaie Potter
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We met in the cultural hall but used the soft chairs from the RS room. We had two guest speakers - one sister was a convert to the gospel in her adult years and gave a real spiritual conversion story and how she was looking for an “eternal kind of love” and found the gospel through her husband and his family. Lots of tears.

Then we had a counselor in the bishopric speak (along with his wife) about spiritual experiences in the temple. More tears. The cultural hall was decorated with 4 round tables with white tablecloths and a temple statue as a centerpiece.

Our Enrichment Leader made white chocolate temples to go along with our jello sponge cake for refreshments. She also made temples using a type of paper mache for the sisters to take home. Very nice!
It was a very spiritual evening. Our ward has a good reputation for Enrichment Night and we were very pleased at the turn out for a more spiritual night.