Come, Follow Me Jul 29-Aug 4: "A Minister and a Witness"

Welcome back! We have another great week of Simply Family Home Evening lesson plan ideas to help you with your Come, Follow Me study. This week we are are studying Acts 22-28 and the lesson title is "A Minister and a Witness." We get to talk about prophets, how our Heavenly Father and Jesus can help us when things are hard and we get to practice bearing our testimonies. It's such a great week and Simply Family Home Evening is ready to help you start planning your family home evening study. Let's get started!

If this is your first time here, make sure to check out THIS POST which will give you an overview of the layout for our lessons.

July 29 - August 4
Acts 22-28
"A Minister and a Witness"

Simply Family Home Evening Lesson Plan

• A Minister and a Witness

The lesson idea we decided to focus on for Family Home Evening this week is:

Prophets warn me of danger

Preparation: If you plan to use the older kids lesson idea you can print out President Nelson's conference talk or have it pulled up and ready to view.
Opening Song: Follow the Prophet (Children's Songbook pg. 110)
Scriptures: Acts 27
Videos:
     Blessed and Happy Are Those Who Keep the Commandments of God
Lesson: 
Watch the videos; read the scriptures or use a combination of both.
Have the kids play follow the leader. Let each kid have a turn. After everyone has had a turn, tell your kids that we have a special leader to follow, our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson. 
Explain that a prophet is a man who speaks with God—God tells the prophet what we should do. Tell your kids that if we follow the prophet, we will be happy and Heavenly Father will bless us. 
Explain that to follow the prophet means to do the things he tells us to do.

Read Paul’s warnings in Acts 27:9–11

Why didn’t the people listen to Paul? (see verse 11)

Read verses 18–20 and 40–44 to find out what happened as a result. Explain that because the people followed Paul’s later counsel to stay on the ship, no one died in the shipwreck; see verses 30–32.

Bear your testimony about how following the prophet has blessed your life and how it can bless the lives of your family.

Adapt for older kids: Have a copy of President Nelson’s most recent conference address and have your kids pick out any blessings the prophet promises and any warnings he gives us. Talk about what we can do to heed these warnings.

Activity Ideas:

Make paper boats and have a boat race! Here is a tutorial to help you! 

Additional Lesson or Discussion Ideas:

Heavenly Father and Jesus care about me and will help me during hard times

Preparation: None
Scriptures: 
Acts 23:10–11
Videos:
Bible Video: 
     Be of Good Cheer 
Lesson: 
Watch the videos; read the scriptures or use a combination of both.

Ask your kids why Paul could “Be of good cheer” even though he was in prison?

Tell your kids about when you were going through a really hard time, but knew that Christ was with you, so you could handle the trial better.

Activity Ideas:
Is there someone you and your family know that is going through a trial right now? How could you be the hands of Christ here on earth for this family to help them "be of good cheer"? Discuss it as a family and see if you can find a way to serve them together.

I can share my testimony with others

Preparation: Get out your Bee-lieve activity. If you haven't made on yet you can find all our links in our very first lesson for this year. Dec 31- Jan 6. Print out this week's primary handout.

Scriptures: 

Acts 26:1–29

Videos: 
New Testament Stories: 
     Chapter 63: Paul Finishes His Mission

Lesson: 
Read the scriptures, as you read Paul’s testimony to King Agrippa in Acts 26:1–29 talk about why it might have been hard for Paul to bear his testimony to the king. Watch the video. Is there anything else they learned about Paul's testimony? Use the Bee-lieve activity from Dec 31 lesson to have the kids practice their testimony. We referenced this same lesson just a couple weeks ago so hopefully your kids will already remember how to do it and you can see how they've grown in bearing their testimony.
Adapt for older kids: Have each of the kids talk about a gospel truth they know to be true. Then have them think of someone they know that might benefit from hearing their testimony of that truth. Use this week’s primary handout to have the kids practice what they would say to that person.

Let us know what worked for your family this week. We want to know how it went! Feel free to comment below, or show us how it's going using #simplyfamilyhomeevening on social media. You can also tag us in your photos on Instagram and Facebook. We'd love to see you there!

Check out the other discussion topics, videos and General Authority Messages below for other things you can discuss as a family:

Discussion Topics:

• Heavenly Father and Jesus care about me and will help me during hard times. Acts 23:10–11 
• Prophets warn me of danger. Acts 27 
• I can boldly share my testimony of Jesus Christ. Acts 26:1–29 
• When I face adversity, God does not forsake me. Acts 23:10–11; 27:18–26; 28:1–6 
• Prophets warn me of danger. Acts 27 
• I can share my testimony with others. Acts 26:1–29 

Bible Videos:

• Be of Good Cheer 

New Testament Stories:

• Chapter 63: Paul Finishes His Mission 

General Authority Messages:

• President Monson To Learn, to Do, to Be 
• Elder Christopherson The Voice of Warning 
• Elder Ballard Pure Testimony 
• Elder Beck Your Sacred Duty to Minister 
• Elder Rasband Standing with the Leaders of the Church 

Additional Videos:

• Blessed and Happy Are Those Who Keep the Commandments of God 
• The Miracle of The Roof 

Other Resources From The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:

Link to Come, Follow Me for Primary
Link to Come, Follow Me for Individuals and Families
The Friend - For ideas on how to use The Friend Magazine see our Activity Ideas page