Willies Come Follow Me 2019

I snapped this cute pic of Soren after Church today. He read the book of Enos to me while I was cooking at the stove. Why Enos? Because he could read the “whole book” in one setting, and he wanted to choose a  prophet to study and share about in primary in two weeks. Bless this child’s bones for his will to obey and desire to do good and be good.  I purchased a variety Book of Mormon study guides for the varying ages in our home to study with and journal in, this year. We are only a few days in, but the kids really like it, so far. 

We finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family on New Years Eve. The last few days we put in an extra 30 minutes of reading so we could finish by the end of the year, but it was worth it because the children were so satisfied that we did it. Most of the pics are of varying scripture study,  FHE lessons, or Family Sunday Study Hour, throughout the past 6 months. The last pic is of the girls when a Bentonville Temple was announced in general conference. I love their excitement there. Using the Come Follow Me curriculum at home has been more challenging than we expected it to be. The curriculum is home based, church supported, so it really needs to begins and end with us. We were faced with some opposition and apprehension by a few children. Sitting quietly is not easy.  When one method did not worth, we mixed it up and gave a new approach....and that’s basically what we did for 12 months. I don’t feel like we reached that sweet spot of everyone reverently, joyfully, and actively participating in 2019. But I do feel like I reached the understanding that just because I’m met with opposition doesn’t mean I’m doing it wrong. I continually sought for guidance through the spirit and anytime something “worked” for most of the family, we stuck with it, but it was absolutely a year of trial and error and then some more trials 😂

 

We learned early in the year that our family is most successful when studying the Book of Mormon. 2019 Come Follow Me focused on New Testament, so we used that for all other studying, but returned to Book of Mormon for daily reading. Fortunately, 2020 Come Follow Me is Book of Mormon study, so there will be more opportunities to use the curriculum in our daily study. Here’s to another year of learning about God’s plan. 






Haha I love this one.  Book open, eyes closed. She actually isn’t usually like this but 5:45 is early, and sleepiness hits each of us sometimes. 

Sloane, on the other hand, IS like this often during early morning study.  I have a video of her asleep on the dining table with her pillow and blanket. 

Below are more random pics of every day moments I captured of our family learning and studying and growing together. It was special to take the children to some of the church history sites in New York and Ohio.  I think the early mornings and long hours of study were brought to life as the children witnessed the  Smith family home, Hill Cumorah, and Sacred Grove for themselves and learned about the sacrifices so many have made so we can have these sacred scriptures available to us.