Another fun night was we had a Service auction. Each sister brought an item that they had made, (2 homemade child size scarecrow costumes), a coupon for a lesson in something (canning), or a coupon for an act of service (one loaf of homemade bread and a dozen rolls.) We had “Mormon Mullah” money and a live auctioneer to auction off the items. The sisters earned “Mormon Mullah” by filling out a worksheet and earning money by such things as $30 if you have been married for over 25 years; $5.00 for every child you have; $10 if you can name every sister at your table; $15 if you served a mission; $20 if you told someone you love them today. You could add $50 bonus money if you would share your most embarrassing moment with the sisters! It was so much fun to laugh with each other and provide a service to a sister in the ward. It has been requested we make this an annual tradition.

-Monica White

What we did as a service auction did not have anything to do with real money. We had a way for the sisters to earn fake money and bid on real items and take them home. The items were donated. They included things like- a batch of chocolate chip cookies, computer lessons, helping with your child’s next birthday party, an hour of organization by our resident professional organizer, swim lessons…things like that. Babysitting. Dinner delivery. It was a lot of fun and the sisters got a chance to see each other as charitable people and “bid” on the charity that they would like to receive.

We invited a lot of non members and asked those who invited someone to please donate 2 services. One could be eatable like a pie or famous hot fudge sauce so everyone could get something at the end even if they were visiting. Most of the visitors brought their own baked good or treat. One even stopped by the local ice cream shop and got $5 in gift certificates. That was a popular one!

-Dereth

Our ward has done a service auction for the past two years. Rather than auction off service, we have everyone wrap their item or print up their idea and wrap it and we play the game where everyone entering the room is given a number. We sit in a circle and the person with #1 starts. She picks from the service items that are wrapped and sitting in the center of the room. The person with #2 either takes hers or picks another from the center and so on. I think the item was able to be stolen 3 times before it was frozen.

It has been a huge success. Lots of FHE treats for a month or window cleaning or homemade bread on fast Sunday one sister made a box of handmade cards which was stolen till frozen.

Also, we said the service had to be performed within the month so it didn’t drag out and get forgotten. We never had any negative feedback and it is one of our highest attended enrichment nights.

-Margie

One sister shared that in her ward they held a “Wish Upon a Star” night. Ahead of time, each sister writes a wish or need on a paper star that could be met by another sister. Then on EN each star is read and the sisters volunteer to meet the wishes or needs of each other. For example, “Jane Smith wants a night out with her husband. She needs babysitting for 3 hrs” Or something of that nature.

-Alice Johnson, Boerne, TX

If the board is nervous about a service auction try having a service exchange. It is like a white elephant gift exchange. You pick out of a basket and read it for everyone then it has a chance of getting stolen twice. We did this in December and it was a lot of fun.

-Camille

Here are my plans for our Service Auction in place of the Relief Society Birthday party.

First, we are making up invitations on a computer that look like B-day party invite and passing them out at church. Also, Sunday we will have them write down what service they are planning on doing-this will keep them from waiting until the last minute. Prepare! Prepare! We will also be having someone go into The primary & Young Women’s to announce and have them write down their auction donations.

*Have an auctioneer
*Have a person to write down the winner-keep track on points..

Notes:

We will set up everything in the gym-we will have long tables to one side for the food, and on the opposite side for the food (we will be having a Potato Bar & Salad) We will be bringing in the piano and a big chalkboard. The chalkboard will be for sticking all the Paper donations on, when we go to start the auction -beforehand, everything will be on the auction tables for viewing, so the ladies will know what to bid on. I am going to try and find a gavel for our auctioneer.

THAT NIGHT:
First, we welcome everyone and have announcements, you know the drill. Then we will hand out lessons that will combine the R.S , something to do with the birthday or importance of R.S. and then incorporate service in there. (We all know that can be done easily).

Then we will break to eat our Potato’s. (We will already be in the gym,) This will give the sisters a chance to look over the auction items up for grabs and eat.

After enough time, that they have finished eating, I will then read the auction poem. Which gives them their points to use.

I will pass out the auction paddles and we will get started.

With the one lady keeping in charge of the “final bidder” on an item, she will then present to the winner and “giver of the item” a paper stating so. (So that there is no confusion we are going to use a receipt book with triple carbon copies -from Office Depot, so we, the Presidency will have one, the giver and receiver will have one.)

Some of us in the presidency will be making 2 items so to make sure everyone gets something

-Christine Arnold

The service auction we did at enrichment was similar to the one you described. We call it a talent auction in our ward and have done it for three years now. We had people bring items or services to auction that could display one of their talents. We did not, however, use money to buy the items. We used a point system where all the sisters could collect points to auction with. We wrote a little poem for collecting points and it is posted in the Files section–it’s titled Talent Auction Poem. If you read that you will probably get a better idea of how we distributed points to use in the auction. I think we probably had a little bit of the same problem you did with people not actually getting to collect on the services they won at the auction. But there were also items (baked goods, stitched items, etc) that some people walked home with that night. The sisters in our ward love it–it is always the most highly attended enrichment of the year. Hope this helps.

-Jessica in AZ

This is how it went in our ward. It seemed to work out great! We only let those sisters bid on items who donated items, so we did get some last minute donations. We allowed everyone to purchase 2 items if they wanted to and had enough points to spread around. Lots of sisters saved up their points so they could get one good thing for sure, like a free family photo shoot or something. We set starting bids at around 100 points, but be sure you set each item at the same starting point, so no one gets their feelings hurt. The winners didn’t know who they purchased the item from until they received their certificate. I think this is the best way to do it, that way no one is embarrassed. Our enrichment committee decided ahead of time that if there was an item that wasn’t getting bids, that we would bid on it ourselves, at least to get things going. As for the extra points, we didn’t deal with them, just hoped that people used what they had! It was so fun and very successful. I hope you have a good time!

-Leslie Horn

Service Exchange

In our ward, this is what I did:
When the sisters arrived, on a table I had a poster explaining the game, and index cards for them to grab and write down their service.
They all wrote down something they were willing to do for another sister……ideas that came in were: Babysitting, dinner and dessert, gardening, house cleaning, silk plant cleaning!, baseboard cleaning, substituting in their primary class, homemade ice cream, FHE treats for a month, Hair cuts, etc. Then I collected the cards and put them face down on the RS table……

I called one sister up there to pick a card…she read it out loud and then sat down….. whoever’s name was on the card that she read…. I called up there to do the same thing…..

The 2nd sister had a choice…to take a new card, or to steal the 1st sister’s card!! I let them be stolen 3 times, then they were dead!! (With your time restraints, you could allow only 1 or 2). It was a lot of fun!!! The sisters were just cracking up and trying to hide their cards on the most popular ones! It was a great activity!

-Sister from the HFPE Group

Hi, my mom’s ward did this at the end of their Christmas Enrichment Night last year and our ward is going to do it this year. In mom’s ward this is how they did it:

The ward provided certificates that each sister took home and filled out and wrapped as a gift. Then they brought the wrapped gift to E.N. They played the “white elephant game”. Mom said it was so fun!!!! Here are a few examples of what was given in the way of service: any type of baked goods i.e. rolls, breads, pies, cookies, family home evening treats for a month, babysitting, a meal brought to the home, a candle light dinner made at the givers home, a massage, homemade greeting cards, lap quilt, car wash, frozen main dishes, etc. etc. etc. Mom said it was amazing what people came up with! Basically whatever your talent is, will be loved by someone else!

A friend’s ward just did this last month in the form of an auction, where they were given play money and the items were auctioned off - she said it was a blast! I hope this helps. I am very excited to do this in December.

-Sister from the HFPE Group

The general idea of the Auction is instead of sisters bring a “White Elephant” or silly gift like a typical game, the sisters will fill out a card with a service they will give as a gift. It might be babysitting, computer lessons, cooking dinner, scrap booking pages, etc. The ideas are endless. Then the sisters take turns drawing one of these cards out of a basket. They can keep the card they draw or take someone else’s card that has already been drawn.

We are doing this in combination with a dinner. Last year we did several large service projects, humanitarian aid projects, etc. This year we thought we would focus on service to each other in our ward. We have several new young families in our ward and thought this would be a fun way to get to know each other and a fun way to serve.

-Sister from the HFPE Group

Story told by Katie Lela

Once upon a time, there was an old soldier who was traveling through the country side on his way home from the war. At each village, he ask for food to eat, and was told that they didn’t have any extra to spare. Soon the soldier became very hungry. He knew he had to do something soon because he had not eaten in days. So at the next village, he decided the try something different. He approached a lady who was shelling peas. He ask for food. She told him that she only had enough for her family. He ask her if she would lend him a pot so that he could make stone soup. He also ask her if she knew where he could get some smooth stones for his soup.

Curious about the stone soup the lady took the old soldier to the river to find the best stones. The old soldier built a fire and sat the pot on the blaze. He then added water to the pot. When the water was heated he then added the stones. Tasting the soup made out of the stones he declared that it tasted good. But, it would taste even better if it had a little salt and onion. The lady amazed that the man made stone soup declared that she would go get some salt and onion.

On the way to the village she told her friends what the old man had done. She declared that the soup was good. Curiosity won out and a crowd gathered around the pot. After adding the onions and the salt the old man again tasted the soup. Again he declared the soup was good. But, would taste even better if it had a few potatoes in it. One of the crowd spoke up and said that they had a few potatoes to add to the pot.

Each time the old soldier tasted the soup, he declared it good but just needed something else. Soon the pot was full. Wonderful smells came from the pot and everyone wanted to taste the soup made from stones. Bowls were passed around and everyone tasted the soup. Each declaring that it was the “best soup” that they had ever eaten. The soldier went on his way with a full stomach and a happy heart.

Each person had contributed what they had. Any single thing was not enough to make a good soup. Together they had a full pot of good soup.

by: Janice Thomas

Have each lady in your group write her testimony down and have them hand it in to you or a member of the Presidency.

Type them up so each one is on a page. Include on the page the sister’s birthday, and any other information you deem worthy. Then make each sister in your ward a binder (we used the 1/2 inch 3 ring binder ones, with the slide in pouch on the front so you can slide a paper in it) and put a copy of each of the testimonies in it, so each sister has a copy of the other sister’s testimony.

Then you tell the sisters to “fill their binder” They will ask members of their family to submit a testimony, friends, aunts, uncles, whomever they choose. The people they ask don’t necessarily have to be LDS. They can just ask them to write their feelings down about God, Jesus Christ, or Religion in general. There are a lot of sisters who will have non-members or in-actives in their family. We want them included also.

They will now have a book of their loved ones testimonies. They can add to it whenever they please with whomever they choose.

You wouldn’t believe how much of a testimony builder it is to have on paper those testimonies of your peers, family and friends.

*This was share to me as a Young Women’s activity and I tailored it to enrichment night. This is also something that can be used for the Young Women!
If using for the YW, include the Leader’s testimonies too!

by: Alison B.

Here are some possibilities using the 4 areas of focus for our HFPE meeting, Sister Smoot talked about in her Fall 2001 open-house talk:

A. help sisters strengthen home and family
B. Provide gospel service
C. Build spiritual strength
D. Develop personal skills

January—Spiritual Development—”Resolve to Evolve”

A…Preparing for a family Sabbath-Sat prep
B…Freezing meals-OAMC (once a month cooking)
C…Meaningful prayer practices
D…The Creation plan of Homemaking-book
Taster’s table—Food storage bean recipes
* Start collecting hygiene kit items from the sisters

February—Homemaking Skills

A… Frugal living with abundance-Daybook by Sara Breathnach/Tightwad Gazette books
B…Caps for preemies-looms@ http://www.knittinglooms.bigstep.com
C…Developing a vibrant testimony
D…Decorating with fabric and wallpaper
cc. Homemade buns and bagels
Light Dinner

March—Marriage and Family Relations

A…One For the Money-based on booklet and Prophets talk on finances.
B…Service project-Preemie hats , cont’d
C…Sister Scriptorians
D…Organic gardening-Rodale books
cc. Make your own tortillas
Taster’s Table: tortilla recipes

April—Strengthening Relationships

A…How To Be A Perfect Wife and Other Myths-book
B.. Random Acts of Kindness-book
C…Maintaining friendships
D…Refinishing kitchen cabinets
cc. Dehydrating techniques
Light Dinner

May—Self-reliance

A…Super Woman, Molly Mormon and You!-Superwoman by Shirley Conran and internet
B…Service project-Quilts for local woman’s shelter
C…Becoming a Proverbs 31 Woman
D…Food storage: What to do with it! Plus computer up for calculating amounts
TT. Milk taste test=milk smoothies

June—Service

A…Family Councils
B…Service project-quilts-cont’d
C…7 Habits…by Stephen Covey
D…Temple Ready-computers
cc. Make your own cereals
Light Dinner

July—Physical and Emotional Health

A…Combating negative emotions
B…Service project-hygiene kits put together-collected since January*
C…The Healing Power of the Savior
D…Yoga for Women
cc. Great homemade pizza and foccacia
TT. Pizza and foccacia

August—Personal Development and Education

A…No fear pressure canning vegetables
B…Teaching As the Savior Taught
C…Learning Self-Discipline
D…Tole painting
Light Dinner

September—Literacy

A…Tax forms-written and computer
B…Sign Language 101
C…Formation of Great Church Literacy Club
D…Water Color 101
cc. homemade crackers and spreads
TT. Crackers and spreads

October—Cultural Arts

A…Fortifying Your Family from The Book of Mormon-Ensign article
B…Service project-Blizzard bags for Meals on Wheels
C…Music in your life
D…Creating your own pasta
Light Dinner-pasta

November—Thanksgiving

A…Long-distance grand mothering
B…Service project-wrap-up fpr blizzard bags
C…Praise class
D…Turkey basics and sides
TT: Turkey basics and sides

December…Christmas

A…Preparing for the temple-invite Laurels
B…Service project-Adult-care bibs http://www.sewing.org/html/csbibs.html
C…Gifts of the spirit
D…The winter garden
cc. A vision of chocolate
Light dinner

Just some thoughts: If your ward or branch couldn’t carry this many classes-delete some. If your sisters need more in the way of basic food prep for dinners-change the cc classes to cover basic food prep ideas. These are based on using food storage throughout the year. Most classes are based on Ensign articles using http://www.lds.org to find them. The others are based on books I own or library books. We generally have planned far in advance and given our teachers 3 months to prepare with suggested references printed out for them to use, in addition to their own sources.

I hope this gives ideas on how to use the focus of the HFPE program. Also handed out with this was a blank form with the 12 months for the counselors own planning.

by: Alison B.

Applying The Relief Society Declaration part 3

8. Stand for truth and righteousness.

Strengthening families——-A Vibrant Testimony-The How To’s.
Spiritual Development——-Ask, Seek, Knock-Become the Woman You Should Be
Increasing patience———-Solving Problem’s the Lord’s Way
Balanced Lives—————-Strong Women in the Scriptures pg. 139 RS
1977
Temple Blessings————Preparing For the Temple-Invite the YW
Friendship and Family T.-Teaching Children Responsibility -bk
Service————————–Be A Faithful Witness pg 20 RS 1978
Self-Reliance—————–The Word of Wisdom Diet-bk
*Personal and Family D.—Calligraphy 101-also Enrichment classes
Sacrifice and Consec.—–Pulling Down Blessings From Heaven-bk

9. Sustain the Priesthood as the authority of God on earth.
( I have to admit I had a ball coming up with a connection from these classes to the men!)

Strengthening Families——-Crock-pot cooking and recipe share
Spiritual Development———Superwoman, Molly Mormon, and YOU
*Increasing Patience———–Building Shelves in Your Home
Balanced Lives——————Humor As A Coping Mechanism
Temple Blessings————–Telling Isn’t Teaching-Teach Your Child
Friendship and Family T.—-Comfort Decorating-Your Bedroom
*Service—————————–Estate Planning/Wills
*Self-reliance———————-Frugal Gardening/Simple Home Repairs
Personal and Family D.——Weights For Women
Sacrifice and Consec.——–Follow the Brethren pg. 23 RS 1978 and a talk of Elder Eyrings-

10. Rejoice in the blessings of the temple, understand our divine destiny,
and strive for exaltation.

Strengthening Families——-Making A Good Marriage better
Spiritual Development———–Learning Self-discipline
Increasing Patience————Turn Your Weaknesses into Strengths pg. 78 RS 1977
*Balanced Lives——————Once A Month Cooking
Temple Blessings—————Temple Trip
Friendship and Family Ties–Planning for Sunday-clothes, food, etc.
Service——————————Involvement in Your Child’s School
*Self-Reliance———————Dehydration Techniques
Personal and Family D.——Family Traditions-A Quarterly Activity based on the book “Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions
Sacrifice and Consec.——-How to Be Happier

President Packer has asked us to include one basic class each month. We will call these Life-skills. Once learned they are yours for life.

* denotes a life skill class.

by: Alison B.

Applying The Relief Society Declaration

4. Dedicate ourselves to strengthening marriages, families, and homes.

Strengthening Families———-A Year’s Holidays w/ A Christ-like focus.
*Spiritual Development————-Clutter Free! by Don Aslett
Increasing patience…————The Art of Communicating
*Balanced Lives———————Basic t-shirts to sew
Temple Blessings—————–Filling Out Family Group Sheets
Friendship and Family T.——-Maintaining Friendships-pg 129 RS 77
Service——————————–Developing Christ-like Love
*Self-Reliance———————–Bread making By Hand
Personal and Family D.——–How To Be A Perfect Wife and other Myths-bk
Sacrifice and Consecration—Joy in the Sabbath-Sunday Sundaes

5. Find nobility in motherhood and joy in womanhood.

Strengthening families———Cooking when you don’t have time.
Spiritual development———-A spirit of Thanksgiving
Increasing patience————-Trust in God-pg.49 RS 77
Balanced lives——————–Making time for exercise
Temple Blessings—————Family Councils-how they work
Friendship and family T.——Likening the scriptures to our families.
Service——————————Time to listen
*Self-reliance———————–Relish and pickling skills
Personal and family D.——–Somebody’s watching mother’s example
Sacrifice and consecration———Are you having FHScreaming? How to’s

6. Delight in Service and good works.

Strengthening families——–Communicating w/ your teenager
Spiritual development———The Healing power of the Savior: Our wounds,
sorrows, and disappointments
*Increasing patience———–Sign language 101 w/ enrichment meetings
*Balanced lives——————Caring for furniture, rugs, and upholstery
Temple Blessings————Temple ready
Friendship and family T.—–Caring for elderly parents
Service—————————–Get a wish list from Access housing
*Self-reliance———————Learning to crochet leper bandages
Personal and family D.——Grandmothers can make a difference
Sacrifice and consec.———Community service and you

7. Love life and learning.

*Strengthening families——–Photography 101
*Spiritual Development———Pressure canning w/out fear
Increasing patience————How to have a 36-hour day-bk
Balanced lives—————— Go back to school?
Temple blessings—————What you can learn from the temple
Friendship and family T.—–Learning about yourself through journal-writing
*Service—————————–Filling out tax forms
*Self-reliance———————-Introduce your family to whole-wheat
Personal and family d.——-Revitalizing your body through yoga/nutrition/the outer you A 3-month class
Sacrifice and consec———Working miracles w/ your memory

In our ward we were REALLY having a hard time getting anyone to help with the children’s class. So we addressed this in announcement time and presented this plan. We have about 30 active participants in HFPE. If each volunteered in teams of two, it would be almost 2 years before they would need to volunteer again. It worked! Sometimes the sisters are prepared to teach the class and no children show up…then they can participate in the regular classes, but we have a more cooperative effort not and it’s wonderful!!!!

-Julianne in AL

Here is what we have found to work for our ward:

We called a sister to be “over” the children’s class. She prepares the lesson, craft/activity, treat and anything else that is to be done that night. She was responsible for either being in the class or finding someone to be in the class.

In our ward per the Bishop we cannot use Priesthood or YW/YM. Somehow it always worked out. We have an older ward with a small small nursery. We usually average between 5-8 kids. So far this has worked for us.

-Christine

“Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.” — Bern Williams

For our Home, Family and Personal Enrichment nights, table decorations (we have a meal every Enrichment). We’ve asked 4 sisters to be responsible for decorating a table. They are to bring things that represent themselves and/or family. They’re not to tell anyone and we will have a contest to see who can guess which table belongs to which person. We will also have place-cards at each setting with a prompt that that person will share with the table.

-Contributed by: Mischelle

Share yours! Leave a comment!

We have done several things that have worked successfully in our ward. Here are a few of them:

Trail Mix– each person signs up to bring one cup of their favorite snack, such as raisins, chocolate chips, pretzels, marshmallows, nuts, coconut, raisins, etc. Dump it all in a large bowl and mix together. It makes a great snack that takes almost no clean up or prep time. Everyone loved it!

Ice Cream Sundaes– The RS provides the ice cream and we send around a sign up sheet for the toppings. Yummy in hot weather!

Veggie Tray– We had people bring various vegetables, chips and dips and had a great healthy snack and had lemonade to drink.

Contributed by: Liz Brown

I am always looking for new ideas but these are a couple that we have done:

Pasta Bar: Relief Society provided the noodles and we had a sign up sheet for different sauces. (Marinara, clam, Alfredo, etc…)

Potato Bar, Taco Salad, and Bread bowls with soup. Yummy and we always get a great attendance when we have sign up sheets!

-Contributed by: Nicole Hepworth

We are having a cozy evening in front of the fireplace (fake). We are doing a dramatic reading of The Modern Magi by Carol Lynn Pearson, ISBN# 1-882723-21-X. I would recommend this story to any who haven’t read it. We read it to our family yearly. Keep the tissue box handy. We will have pauses during the story for singing Christmas carols. We will also have our secret sister reveling. Should be a good night. (I hope).
Take care and remember the reason for the season.

Lisa

Easy idea for a gift for Dec. Enrichment

We are focusing our Dec. enrichment program on service. We made the easiest gifts to go along with this. We got a 1 1/2 in solid wood block (if there is anyone in your ward who gets craft things wholesale, these are very inexpensive). Then, we painted them with ordinary craft paint — solid color of either all red, blue, green. Then, 15 minutes later they were dry, and we tied 1/8 inch ribbon in differing colors to make them look like presents. We had also typed up a scripture about service (Mos 2:17) onto cardstock and cut them out like a card and put a hole in them and tied them onto the ribbon on the present. They turned out great!

At Enrichment, we are going to challenged everyone there to take it home and do an anonymous act of service for their families over the next 24 hours. Then, they are to leave the present at the site of service. The recipient then has 24 hours to turn around and do an act of service for someone else in the family, leaving the present as well, and have the present keep going up till Christmas. If they are single or in a circumstance where they can’t physically leave the present, they can put it on their windowsill as a reminder to do an extra act of service (more than what they would typically do for someone) each day until Christmas.

We hope it will be great — the presents were all done for about $40 for 100 sisters!

Jennie in Sacramento

by: Shiloah Baker

Materials Needed:

Temple shaped wood piece (see pattern)
Spanish Moss
ribbon
small colored rosettes
Glitter
Whitish colored acrylic paint
glue gun
Paint brush

Cut the temple pattern out with a scroll saw.  Sand well.  Paint the temple white or off-white.  While wet-sprinkle iridescent glitter all over.  Let dry.

Glue Spanish moss at the base of the temple- all around it.  Then glue the rosettes on the Spanish moss.  Glue a small ribbon in the front.

And its now finished!

Click here see pattern photo.
Click file, print, to print the pattern.