The Spirit Runeth Over

This lesson was about the Spirit. The power the Spirit has to teach and help people understand the Gospel.
To start with I set out a cake pan, with a glass bowl inside it, on the table, inside the glass bowl was some dishsoap (makes lots of bubbles), red food coloring (to help members see the explosion better) and vinegar. I explained that the glass bowl represented our bodies.
When we are teaching and talking about the Gospel we say lovely words to people. We can talk and talk but nothing really happens until you add the Holy Ghost. (This is when I added the baking soda and the bowl errupted in red foam and bubbles that rose to the top of the bowl and spilled over filling up the cake pan).
When we teach with the Spirit it will rise up out of us and spill out to the people we are talking to. Then when they hear the words we are saying, the Spirit will testify to them that what we are saying is true.

Gossip!

I did a Minute to Win it Gospel Doctrine style lesson this week and one of the games we played was with toothpaste.
2 volunteers were asked to come up and they were given 1 minute to empty a tube of toothpaste onto a paper plate. The toothpaste came out smoothly and quickly and it really only took 10 seconds.
Their spouses were then asked to come up and they were given 1 minute to put the toothpase back into the tube. It was messy, funny, and impossible.

We are like a tub of toothpaste, our words come out of our mouths quickly and smoothly, just like the toothpaste comes out of the tube. But trying to get those words back in our mouths is as impossible as it is to get the toothpaste back in the tube.

Be careful of what you say about other people, do not criticize others, or talk behind their backs because you can never take it back.

Magnify Your Calling

In Jacob, he takes his calling as Priesthood Leader very seriously and I focused my lesson on that subject. I took the "I Do, We Do, You Do" approach this lesson and it worked out perfectly.
I really wanted the members to evaluate their lives and see where they could magnify their callings.  So I started with Binoculars and a Magnifying glass.  I prepared papers for a volunteer to read with out the use of the tools, the small squares they just held in their hand, but the bigger rectangles were taped on the wall across the room. When the volunteers couldn't read what was written on then I gave them the tools to read what was on the papers.

Then we went into what they can do to magnify their callings. I started with "I Do"

Then we did the "We Do" and together as a class we filled out the form for Visiting and Home Teaching. 

Then it was the "You Do" part and I gave them their hand out and gave them 10  minutes to work on the paper.

After we talked about the blessings we will get when we magnify our callings. I testified that if we give back to the Lord by magnifying what he has asked us to do we will be blessed, and by blessed I do not mean "trial free", but we will have the power and the ability to battle through our trials and come out better people.



Spiritual Crocodiles

I started this one with some illusions that I found on the Internet. I then showed them some pictures of crocodiles hiding in the swamp just waiting to eat something. Then I showed them the video called Spiritual Crocodiles based on a talk given by President Boyd K Packard. Then I set up my watering hole with my cute family next to it. Then we talked about the spiritual crocodiles Nephi tried to warn his people about in 2 Nephi. We talked about the illusion that all is fine until the crocodile has you by the neck and is pulling you under the water BUT you have to get close enough for it to grab you...this is what sin is. You get closer and closer until Satan has you in his grasp and he will pull you down and drowned you.  Then we talked about the Spiritual Crocodiles we have today. We talked about what the world is teaching us versus what the Prophets, Scriptures, and Apostles are teaching us.
This was a very powerful lesson especially if you show the video, it is a bit uncomfortable watching the crocodile kill the animals. But the point is nailed home when you turn it to them, Satan is fighting as hard as he can and he is just as vicious and horrible as the crocodiles.

Nephi v The L's

I compared Nephi and Sam to Laman and Lemuel. Picking apart their atributes, their attitudes, their behaviors, and their testimonies. It was fun to see them side by side and to see which side we would be on, which side we should be on. It was a good visual to check our daily lives and see if we match up to Nephi.

Testimony of the Prophets

This lesson was very neat, it talked about the job of an Apostle. The 12 Apostles at the time of Christ the original 12, and the Apostles we have had throughout the years, they have the same job, it has never changed. It is to testify of Christ and his Church. 
Through the research I did, I found a church in Copenhagen called the Church of Our Lady. Inside this Church a sculpture named Bertel Thorvaldsen sculpted the Christus in the center of the room and along the walls is a statue of the original 12 apostles.

On one side of the chalkboard I displayed this beautiful picture on the other side of the chalk board I displayed pictures of the current 12 Apostles. The class used the scriptures to find the testimonies of the Original 12 Apostles and then they looked at the testimonies of the current 12 Apostles. We compared and contrasted putting them side by side and found that even though hundreds of years have passed between the men, their testimonies are the same. All the men said the same thing: Christ lived, was crucified for us, and was Resurrected, and lives still today.

The 12 Apostles have a charge to tell the world of their testimony, and I believe that we as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also have an obligation to testify to those around us of what we believe. I believe in Christ, I know he lives.

God Is Love

This was a great lesson on love. The love our Heavenly Father has for us, the love Jesus has for us, and the love we should have for each other.

Part of the lesson touched on what we love and what we desire is really where our heart and our intentions are.

Quote by President Uchtdorf

And the handout I made for each member of the class



Beattitudes

When Jesus was on the earth, he taught a new law, a Higher Law. This was a fun way to compare the Law of Moses and the New Higher Law given by Jesus.

The class had to match the scripture with the correct explanation and then match it under the Law of Moses or the New Law.

I made this handout for them to use as we were discussing what went where.

4 Switch Points and a side note...

Trains must follow the track. As long as they stay on the track and the track is set to the correct destination the train will arrive at the designated spot.  That is unless something goes wrong at the switch point.  If the switch point is off the train could end up thousands of miles off course with no way but to go all the way back and try it again.

Trains and their switch points are similar to us and our earth life.  We have an Eternal destination we are trying to get to and there are many switch points along the way that will either keep us on track, or turn us thousands of miles off course.  This lesson was about 4 switch points in our life that are especially important to pay attention to.

The side note:

These are great questions to post while people are coming in the room, gets their brains thinking and ready for the discussion.

Nephi's Vision

With Nephi's vision of future things, I made a time line with Letters A, B, C, D, E representing what Nephi saw and when it actually took place. 



Then I made envelopes that had the information for each letter.

In each envelope I put:
the event with the date,
scripture that describes what Nephi saw,
a picture of what Nephi saw,
and quotes from Prophets and Apostles supporting Nephi. 
I then divided the class into 5 groups.  I told them there were 3 objectives that they needed to accomplish in the class time:
1. to meet someone you didn't know
2. to learn something you didn't know
3.to share something with the group that you do know
Each group was then given their envelope and told them to open it up and read through it.  They were going to have 10 minutes to come up with a mini lesson to teach the entire group.

This lesson was a great way for a high turn over wards to meet knew people, a large ward to break into smaller more comfortable groups for discussion, or for when the teacher is sick and has lost her voice (as was my case!).



Book of Revelations

I was TERRIFIED to teach this lesson until I figured out a way to make the lessson interactive and informative.  I started with 7 DVD cases that I do not use at my house and taped them together forming 1 book with 7 sections.

Then I looked up the importance of the number 7 and found this:

I covered the DVD's to make it look like a book and put this on the front of it.  Each individual DVD case represented a sealed book talked about in the Book of Revelations.  Inside each "sealed book" I placed the time the book was to take place, the scripture that described what was to happen, quotes by Prophets and Apostles, and an explanation of the symbols that were in the scriptures.

With the use of LDS.org, the scriptures, and the book: New Testiment Made Easier this lesson was a great way to explain what it all means. 7 volunteers came up and opened up a sealed portion of the book, took out the contents, showed the class, read the quotes and scriptures, then we discussed what it meant as a class. This is a lesson I will never forget!