Family Home Evening with the Rays

Back in May, the Ray clan had a couple Family Home Evenings that were picture worthy.

The first one is of our Missionary FHE. We talked a little bit about what full-time missionaries do. We spent the majority of the time discussing why we need to be good examples and share the gospel with our friends. I wrote down some questions down on slips of paper that people might ask us and we practiced answering them. We thought it would be fun to have the kids practice being missionaries and asked them the questions and come up with answers together.

Here's Elder Ray and Elder Ray

Here they are answering one of the questions from the bowl. Graham looks so deep in thought. He really took this role seriously ;) .

The kids would go into the room under the stairs and knock on it like it was our door. We answered and they introduced themselves. Here's Sister and Elder Ray.
Cheeser Ben-O was an awesome investigator.

These other pictures are from a lesson that Jason gave on the importance of work. He really just wanted help getting our nasty back yard weeded and cleaned up. He shared some quotes from Pres. Hinckley and then we all got in our grubs and worked.

Ben cheered us on as he played with his super heroes.


As we dug through the dirt, we came across a whole lotta snails. Graham started a "snail collection" of his very own. Here they are with a couple of their finds. Notice the two of them found it necessary to wear their soccer cleats (we had our first practice that same week).

Funny Lucy strikin' a pose.

As our kids get a little older, I'm finding our Family Home Evenings to be more enjoyable. There are still many times when I wonder why I bothered because it seems that I yelled at them more than I taught them. But, the more consistent we are, the more effective and worthwhile they become. Yes, we miss more than we should and sometimes it's just a quick little review on what they learned in church that week and then we just play. But, I know that we have been promised that if we put forth the effort, our families will be blessed.

I know that our Heavenly Father wants us to be successful as parents and wants our children to thrive. He gave us families to help us through this tough life. I'm so grateful for my little family and my extended family. I am truly blessed.