FHE: 'Vast good will come'

Angi and Jon Hansen hold family home evening each week for two reasons. The first is because they have been promised by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that it will make a difference in their family. The second, Sister Hansen said, is that it does make a difference in their family.

"We go to great lengths to block out the demands of the world to spend time with just our family," she said. "We have seen the blessings of that through our children. They love to be with each other. They love to be with us."

Each week the family has a lesson and a short activity. In recent months the Hansens' 4-year-old twins have insisted on playing a hand-clapping game during family night.

The family, Sister Hansen said, has had to be creative and flexible to make family home evening happen. "But," she added, "we are determined to make it happen."

For almost 100 years, Mormon Church leaders have instructed Latter-day Saints to make time each week for family home evening. This is a time for families to study the gospel and participate in activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories and increase love.

The Churchwide effort began in 1915, when President Joseph F. Smith and his counselors in the First Presidency called on parents to gather their children together each week for home evening. Families were instructed to take time to pray and sing together, read the scriptures, teach the gospel to one another and participate in other activities that would build family unity.