Guidelines for home, family, and personal enrichment meetings and activities have been revised to provide greater flexibility at the local level and greater focus on the home and family (see First Presidency letter, August 19, 2005).

Enrichment Update

We hope you have caught the vision of the wonderful possibilities that can bless the lives of Relief Society sisters in your units through the new guidelines for home, family, and personal enrichment meetings and activities.

With the implementation of these new guidelines, you, as leaders, will have the blessings of rising to a higher level of leadership—with the Lord providing the answers to the questions you have. You will have inspiration from above guiding your plans to meet the needs of all sisters through enrichment meetings and activities. Remember the words of Elder Richard G. Scott: “There is an irrigation analogy normally used in the Church of ‘getting the water to the end of the row.’ However, at stake and ward levels, it would be far better for you priesthood leaders and auxiliary officers to simply ‘let it rain’ from heaven. Your sacred callings give you the divine right to inspiration. Confidently seek it. Wherever you live in the world, in the smallest branch or the largest ward, a struggling district or a fully organized stake, you have the right to be guided in fulfilling your inspired assignment to best meet the needs of those you serve” (“The Doctrinal Foundation of the Auxiliaries,” Ensign, Aug. 2005, 67).

Counsel with your presidencies and priesthood leaders to assess needs and determine what will bless sisters in your stakes and districts and wards and branches. Use the guidelines and the Church Handbook of Instructions as companion resources. Remember the purposes of home, family, and personal enrichment are to strengthen faith in Jesus Christ, to teach parenting and homemaking skills, and to socialize, learn, and be uplifted.

Enrichment meetings and activities can create a sense of belonging among sisters of all ages. As we come together to socialize, learn, and be uplifted, sisters will learn and share ways to strengthen homes, families, and individuals. May the Lord bless you in this new season of inspired leadership. As you implement these new guidelines, “Let it rain from heaven.”

For answers to frequently asked questions regarding the new guidelines, click here.