1995
Choices
July 1995


“Choices,” Friend, July 1995, 24

Choices

This is a family home evening project. You will need a copy of pages 24–25 for each family member.

Imagine that your family is going to journey into the wilderness, as Lehi and his family did, or as the LDS pioneers led by President Brigham Young did. You don’t know how long it will take you, what to expect for weather, or if the land will be flat or mountainous, but you know that you won’t return. You can take anything modern—as long as it doesn’t use electricity or other such power in any form!

Instructions

  1. Decide as a family what you will need, including things that are personally meaningful. Below are things to think about taking. Some are marked with an asterisk (*).

  2. Each family member draws pictures in the twelve spaces in his/her trunk of what he/she will take. You may take only what will fit in your trunk plus one asterisked item!

  3. Each Saturday, you must eliminate one item as being too heavy or useless to carry anymore. Cross out that item and put its number in the space for that day on the calendar. What do you have left in your trunk when you reach your final destination?

Things to think about taking:

Protection from the elements (tent*, umbrella); food (what can you stand to eat day after day after day?), water, and seeds; bedding; cooking utensils; clothing (underwear, shoes, winter wear, summer wear, material and sewing necessities); fuel; weapons; tools; medicine; scientific equipment; light (lantern, candles); animals (for food, for transportation, pets)*; cleaning and sanitation supplies; entertainment (musical instruments, toys, games, sports equipment, books); scriptures; educational materials. If you think of other things, would they fit in a trunk, or would they need an asterisk?

What changes might you make to turn your choices into things for seventy-two-hour emergency preparedness kits or your family’s year’s supply?

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney Kawasaki