Family Home Evening Lesson 1 Your Purpose in Nauvoo: Serve with Love

Family Home Evening Lesson 1 Í Í Í Your Purpose in Nauvoo: Serve with Love

Focus of the lesson: Love for the gospel and our Savior motivates us to serve others and share our testimonies with them through the pageant.

Suggested Songs: “Called to Serve” (Hymns, no. 249), “We’ll Bring the World His Truth” (Children’s Songbook, p. 172-173), or Nauvoo Pageant version of “Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise” (see Appendix B)

Suggested Preparation: Select from the following gospel principles, quotes, stories, lesson activities, and follow-up activities those that are most appropriate for the ages and needs of your family members. These materials are intended to facilitate meaningful discussion.

Introduction to Your Pageant Purpose As participants in the Nauvoo Pageant, our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ. We do this by demonstrating and discussing the principles of His restored gospel through our interactions and the pageant performance.

“There is neither man or woman in this Church who is not on a mission. That mission will last as long as they live, and it is to do good, to promote righteousness, to teach the principles of truth, and to prevail upon themselves and everybody around them to live those principles that they may obtain eternal life.” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, page 322)

To help us invite and retain the Spirit so that we may testify to others, five guiding principles are offered as a basis for our pageant service. Following these principles will aid us in cultivating and responding with the Spirit in every aspect of our pageant participation.

Guiding Principles of the Pageant These principles may be summarized briefly with 5 “L” words—Love, Listen, Learn, Lift, and Lead—and may be represented by the 5 fingers on a hand (see poster included in this guidebook and on the pageant participants website). Through these lessons, each principle will be discussed in greater detail.

You may wish to briefly review all 5 principles in this lesson as an overview (see pages 3 and 4 of the pageant guidebook). You may also wish to review Preach My Gospel, chapter 1 “What is My Purpose as a Missionary?” (pp. 1-15) and include insights that apply to pageant service.

Serve with Love The following questions, scripture references, and quotes are intended to facilitate meaningful discussion. Parents are encouraged to adapt these materials to the ages and needs of their family members.

Read and discuss Principle One on page 3 of the pageant guidebook.

What is Christ-like love? John 12:9-13, Moroni 7:45-48, Preach My Gospel “Charity and Love” page 118

How does love qualify us to do the Lord’s work? D&C 12:7-8, D&C 4:3-6, John 13:34-35

“True Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men. This is the spirit of missionary work.” (David O. McKay, Gospel Ideals, page 129)

How can we increase our love for the Savior and for Nauvoo? How will that prepare us to serve as we participate in the pageant? 1 Nephi 8:10-16, 10:21-23

“As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase.” (Preach My Gospel, page 2)

“What does the Atonement have to do with missionary work? Any time we experience the blessings of the Atonement in our lives, we cannot help but have a concern for the welfare of others.… A great indicator of one’s personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others.” (Howard W. Hunter, “The Atonement and Missionary Work,” quoted in Preach My Gospel, page 13)

You may wish to briefly share some of the history of Nauvoo. A short history of Nauvoo for children is included in the Supplemental Material at the end of these lessons. Ask a family member to share their feelings about the Savior, Nauvoo, or the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Suggested Activities The following activities may be used as part of the lesson to illustrate the principles above.

For children Use the pieces of the Nauvoo temple puzzle at right to represent various people we can love in Nauvoo: our family members, other pageant participants, the Nauvoo missionaries, the Prophet Joseph Smith and the early saints, people that live in Nauvoo now, visitors to the pageant, etc. As you put the puzzle together, discuss how you can love and serve each one. (A larger color version of this puzzle is available on the pageant participants website at www.nauvoopageant.org.)

For youth Give each family member a 3 foot long stick with a spoon taped to the end of it (wooden dowels work excellently for this purpose). Sit in a large circle and place in the center a bowl of peanuts, trail mix, or a similar food. Instruct the group that the only rule is they must hold the stick at the end opposite the spoon. The goal of the activity is to see if they will struggle to feed themselves or will feed each other. Discuss how service nourishes and allows us to grow in love for one another.

Suggested Follow-up The following activities may be used throughout the week as a follow-up to the lesson.

For children and youth SWAT Team – Service Without A Trace Ask each member of the family to perform an act of service for someone else each day this coming week. In your next family home evening lesson, ask family members about their experiences. How did their love for others grow as they served them? What simple and creative ways did they find to serve?

For adults If you have ancestors in Nauvoo, learn more about them. How did they join the Church? What brought them to Nauvoo? What experiences did they have there? You may wish to research your ancestors using www.familysearch.org or www.ldscousins.com.

Begin a personal or family study of Nauvoo history. You may wish to start with Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, available in the Gospel Library on www.lds.org or the Church History in the Fullness of Times institute manual available on www.ldsces.org.