Mormon Life - Lesson Helps

“Finding Joy Now” – YW Lesson 6, Manual 1

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:10:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

Lesson 6‘s title instantly directed me to two talks by Pres. Uchtdorf and a scripture in Moses. Some of those who commented, here (on an older post, incidentally) and at Beginnings New, expressed some concern about last week’s lesson topic as being too focused on the future, and specifically on a future situation (mothering) that might not even happen for some of the young women in our classrooms. Perhaps this lesson is a subtle recognition of that fact: this week’s question is how do we have joy, now?

This situation is so well addressed by Pres. Uchtdorf’s image of the “Golden Ticket” in his talk Forget Me Not that I couldn’t write a post without quoting it:

Choose The Right Song Helps and Ideas

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:12:00 -0700

source: sofiasprimaryideas.blogspot.com

I know what you are thinking:

1. These look a little like toilet seats. 2. That's some pretty awesome photography... not. 3. You should add a hot guy in the picture with the caption, "Hey girl... these plate rings make me want to choose the right."

February 2012 Visiting Teaching Printable: Guardians of the Hearth

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:07:00 -0700

source: mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com

The February 2012 Visiting Teaching message is called Guardians of the Hearth, and focuses on how ALL women, regardless of their marital or familial standing, have a responsibility to nurture and strengthen the family. We are all members of God's kingdom, and we are all members of His family.

Visiting Teaching Message (Feb ’12)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:47:00 -0700

source: visitingteaching.net

Study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.

“You are the guardians of the hearth,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) as he introduced “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” in the general Relief Society meeting in 1995. “You are the bearers of the children. You are they who nurture them and establish within them the habits of their lives. No other work reaches so close to divinity as does the nurturing of the sons and daughters of God.”1

Relief Society Lesson 3: Our Testimony of Jesus Christ

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:35:00 -0700

source: the-exponent.com

(I highly recommend teachers either buy or download Words of Wisdom: A Collection of Quotes for LDS Women to supplement this lesson. The book has many wonderful quotes by LDS women leaders about Jesus, and using some of them throughout will enhance the lesson. Another word of advice to you teachers out there: get on Amazon and buy some Chieko Okazaki books. She invariably has something insightful to say on almost any topic. Aloha is one of my favorites. You can find copies for $.01 plus shipping.)

Introduction:

Book of Mormon Lesson #5: Hearken to the Truth, and Give Heed unto It, 1 Nephi 16-18, and 19-22

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

This lesson is supposed to finish off First Nephi, though chapters 19-22 are something of a tack-on (included only under “Additional Teaching Ideas”). I’ll tackle all seven chapters, I guess, though I’ll have to be a bit more spare than I’ve been in the previous couple of posts. I’ll proceed as follows. First, I’ll address briefly the parallel plot lines of 1 Nephi 16 and 1 Nephi 18. Second, I’ll give a bit more attention, at the theological level, to 1 Nephi 17. Third, I’ll add a brief discussion about the wrap-up of 1 Nephi 18 and its complex relationship to 1 Nephi 19. Fourth, I’ll say a handful of things about 1 Nephi 19-22 more generally. Fifth and finally, I’ll take up 1 Nephi 20-21, that is, Isaiah 48-49.

That’s a lot to tackle. But I’ll see what I can do here. Oh, and let me note yet again that very little of what I’m doing here will make sense without familiarity with my “preliminaries on Nephi post. Now, to work!

FHE: Name Written Always on Your Hearts

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:30:00 -0700

source: sofiasprimaryideas.blogspot.com

Mosiah 5:12 " I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you."

Book of Mormon Lesson #4: “The Things Which I Saw While I Was Carried Away in the Spirit,” 1 Nephi 12-14 (Sunday School)

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:27:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

As I noted in my previous post, this third lesson on Nephi’s writings is meant to focus only on 1 Nephi 12-14, while the preceding lesson focuses on 1 Nephi 11 and 1 Nephi 15 (in connection with 1 Nephi 8). In order to follow as closely as possible what Nephi himself seems to be doing with his own chapter breaks and the like, I focused in my notes on lesson 2 on the whole of 1 Nephi 6-10, and I’ll take as my focus here the whole of 1 Nephi 11-15. I think it’ll become clear why it’s important to do that.

I have, nonetheless, thus split 1 Nephi 10 off from 1 Nephi 11-14, which is illegitimate in my eyes. The whole of 1 Nephi 10-14 is a single chapter in the original Book of Mormon (and thus according to Nephi’s own chapter breaks). And we should note the fact that 1 Nephi 11:1 opens with “For,” clearly indicating that the experience Nephi recounts here has to be understood in connection with what he’s just been saying in the final, transitional verses of 1 Nephi 10. I thus refer you back to what I had to say about 1 Nephi 10 in my last post. But here I’ll get to work on Nephi’s vision itself, as well as—more briefly—on Nephi’s exchange with his brothers subsequent to his visionary experience.

And, as before, I’ll note from the beginning that much of what I’ll be saying here presupposes familiarity with my preliminaries post from a couple weeks ago. It’s of particular importance to be familiar with what I said in that post concerning the structural importance of this vision in Nephi’s larger record. It plays, as I showed there, a vital role that I won’t be able to detail again here.

Okay, to work!

January 2012 Week 4 LDS Primary Sharing Time

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:02:00 -0700

source: sofiasprimaryideas.blogspot.com

Speaking Parts:

Narrator 1, 2, 3

Angel #1,2, 3

Joseph Smith

Non speaking parts:

Sign holder

Sun, Moon, Stars

2 helpers to make “waves”

A child to plant seeds and a child to be a plant and grow

Sidenotes:

* Click HERE to see tips on how to do a Reader's Theater... be confident, it will be fun!

Relief Society Lesson 2: Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:21:00 -0700

source: the-exponent.com

I thought this section in the manual was great. Then again, I think the subject is about the best one imaginable. I don’t think we can ever teach love too often. I’ve left in everything in the lesson, and put extra quotes, discussion questions, and my own thoughts in italics throughout.

FHE: New Year Individual and Family Goals

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:35:00 -0700

source: family-home-evenings.com

Purpose: Setting goals and establishing resolutions is the number one way people begin the New Year. The most important aspect is to plan according to what you really want to accomplish in realistic time frames. You can plan for one long-term goal(s), something to focus on throughout the year and you can also do smaller, short-term goals to work on for a few months at a time, or even shorter. The most important aspect is “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

This lesson is to help jump-start individuals and families to set goals to for the New Year.

Download January 2012 visiting teaching handout

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:21:00 -0700

source: mormonmommyblogs.blogspot.com

The January 2012 Visiting Teaching Message is about *drumroll* VISITING TEACHING!

If you haven't made a resolution for the year, we'd like to suggest this: Get to know the sisters you visit. Don't just make it another box to check on your to-do list. Talk to the sisters, pray for them and with them, and really make an effort to be the kind of Visiting Teacher you know you can be.

Visiting Teaching Message (Jan ’12)

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:09:00 -0700

source: visitingteaching.net

Study this material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an active part of your own life.

“Charity [means] far more than a feeling of benevolence,” taught President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency. “Charity is born of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is an effect of His Atonement.”1 For Relief Society sisters, visiting teaching can be charity in action, an important way to exercise our faith in the Savior.

FAIR Study Aids for the Book of Mormon

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:21:00 -0700

source: fairblog.org

With the upcoming year of Book of Mormon study in Gospel Doctrine classes, FAIR has decided to put together a new study resource. We are calling it “FAIR Study Aids,” and it can be accessed on our wiki here.

Similar efforts have been made in the past, and the fruits of those labors have also been collected on that page for easy access. This information is a resource for class members and also a preparatory resource for gospel doctrine teachers to help them formulate answers to questions that might arise during their class. It is, of course, not in any way a substitute for the Gospel Doctrine manual, nor should instructors make these topics the focus of class instruction. This information is provided with the understanding that it is an additional resource only.

As A Child of God - LDS Primary Song Helps and Ideas

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:59:00 -0700

source: sofiasprimaryideas.blogspot.com

As a note, these are ideas once you've learned the basic song. You'll need some sort of visual to teach the words to the children... these are in addition to that visual.

* Power to Choose Stick- Make a little wooden stick the primary's power to choose stick. While singing the song a primary friend can hold the stick up front as long as they like, within reason, and then they can point it to another primary friend- they have the power to choose! That friend then comes to the front and you keep on pointing, choosing and singing. Remember, the person up front has to sing too!

Getting Ready for Book of Mormon Lessons 2-11: Some Preliminaries on Nephi

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:01:00 -0700

source: feastuponthewordblog.org

There are eleven lessons in the manual on the writings of Nephi. Nephi’s writings are so profoundly complex and remarkably rich that I can’t resist putting together an introduction to all eleven lessons. Ten weeks is enough time, of course, only to begin to reflect on Nephi’s record, but I’ll be providing too much information in my lesson notes anyway. This introduction will be, in many ways, crucial to making sense of anything I have to say about Nephi’s record over the course of lessons 2-11.

I, Nephi

Fawn Brodie said the following about Joseph Smith: “There are few men … who have written so much and told so little about themselves. To search his six-volume autobiography for the inner springs of his character is to come away baffled. … His story is the antithesis of a confession” (No Man Knows My History, p. vii). Referring to Joseph Smith with these words, I think Brodie was bafflingly wrong, but had she been referring to Nephi, she couldn’t have said something more accurate.

January 2011 LDS Primary Sharing Time Helps and Ideas

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:51:00 -0700

source: sofiasprimaryideas.blogspot.com

Monthly Theme: Agency Is the Gift to Choose for Ourselves

Monthly Scripture: "Wherefore, men are free . . . to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men" (2 Nephi 2:27).

Week 1 and 2: Agency is the gift to choose for ourselves.

* God bless whoever invented ice cream! Who has ever enjoyed going into an ice cream shop and having a bunch of flavors to choose from? What are some favorites? Personally, it's Rocky Road or bust for me! Have an ice cream cone and different colored ice cream scoops made out of paper. Write scriptures, questions and songs having to do with agency on the back of the scoops. Invite a child to choose a scoop, then do what it says on back and build a tall cone on the black board! There are a lot of choices out there and it's God's gift of agency to us, to let us choose!!!

Online Resource Guides for YM/YW Lessons

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:43:00 -0700

source: ldsmediatalk.com

If you teach Young Women or Aaronic Priesthood lessons, you may know that the manuals are available on LDS.org. The Church also publishes a Resource Guide each year that supplements the lessons by providing additional discussion questions, as well as words of the prophets from recent General Conference talks, media suggestions, and links to Personal Progress and Duty to God.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: The parable of BYU-Hawaii

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:44:00 -0700

source: ldschurchnews.com

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve told BYU-Hawaii’s graduating students that they must get over their insecurities and look to the future with faith. Elder Holland spoke to more than 200 graduates on Saturday, Dec. 17, in commencement exercises held in the Cannon Activities Center on the university’s campus in Laie, Hawaii.

“First of all, it is incumbent upon us as students, as Latter-day Saints, and as children of God to see the divine potential in ourselves, to believe in ourselves to know that with God’s help there is quite literally nothing in righteousness that we cannot become,” Elder Holland said. “That is the parable of this school’s history and it ought to be the parable of your history.”

Practical applications for Daughters in My Kingdom

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:23:00 -0700

source: the-exponent.com

This week, our ward Relief Society received our copies of the new book, Daughters in My Kingdom. I was so excited to see it finally passed out!