Bishop W. Christopher Waddell (Oct. 17): "Turn to the Lord"

The Activity:

1.     Ask class members to look in their Topical Guides at the entries for “hope,” “joy,” and/or “peace.”

2.     Give them about five minutes to find a verse of scripture that seems to them to be especially pertinent to Bishop Waddell’s message and their own experiences.

3.     Ask class members to form small groups (4-5 people)

4.     Have them share their scriptures in their small groups and explain why they chose that scripture

5.     Discuss as a class, what was shared and discussed in the groups.

Using the Activity:

This is an activity that I think could easily and profitably be modified to use with any of the conference talks.  For me, making connections between the scriptures and conference talks is a powerful way for me to remember and better understand both scripture and general conference talks.  Science tells us that the more things we can connect to a piece of knowledge, the easier it is to recall when we need it.  So, the more things we can connect to counsel given us, the better off we will be. 

This type of activity does rely on a class that is fairly large.  If you are not in a class with enough people, you could always conduct the small group discussion simply as a whole class discussion.  In this case, be sure to participate yourself with your own scripture. 

Finally, you might consider writing down all of the scriptures chosen by the class members and sending out a list to everyone in class (don’t forget those serving in other auxiliaries, e.g. primary, young women, young men).  This would be a good way of helping this lesson have more permanence.   

God bless you.