President Henry B. Eyring (Oct. 17): "Fear Not to Do Good"

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In teaching this talk there are two possible areas of emphasis—the Book of Mormon and Following the Prophet.  As a result, I have designed an activity for each possible focus.

Activity #1: The Book of Mormon (this activity would work equally well as is for a discussion on following the prophet).

1.     Pres. Eyring records his obedience to Pres. Monson’s counsel to study the Book of Mormon.  He lists 5 blessings from doing so (Paragraph 6:  “In a season of increasing tumult . . .”)

a.      Increased testimony

b.     Driving out of doubt and fear

c.      Feelings of peace

d.     Increased optimism for the future

e.     Increased love for others

2.     Divide the class into 5 groups and assign each group one of the listed blessings.

3.     Ask class members to discuss with their groups times when they have witnessed these blessings in their own lives as they have studied the Book of Mormon

4.     Come back and discuss as a class what was talked about in the groups.

Activity #2:  Following the Prophet

1.     Read paragraphs 35-36 (“So, as much as we have already built . . .), focusing on the last line (“And above all else . . .).

2.     As a class, brainstorm a list of Pres. Monson’s teachings since being called as president of the church (Home Teaching, Reading the Book of Mormon, etc.)

3.     Ask class members to consider blessings that they have received from obeying any one of these counsels.

4.     Ask each of them to write their experience and testimony of being blessed by following the prophet.

Using these Activities:

Both of these activities really focus on the same principle—remembering.  Each activity asks class members to remember the blessings and sacred experiences that they have had in their own lives.  For many of us, remembering these past experiences is a gateway into reliving the experience and having a completely new spiritual experience.  Also, the last activity, reinforces that testimony and memory by asking class members to record it.  The act of writing can be powerful because it makes public and permanent something that could easily have stayed hidden in our own past.

Both of these strategies are fairly straight-forward, but still there is room for wrinkles and adjustments based on your class needs and the promptings of the Spirit.  You could introduce groups into the second activity using the same questions.  This would increase the opportunities to share.  In the first activity, you could easily incorporate the writing element from the second activity.  Just follow the Spirit.
I pray that one or both of these activities will prove useful to you in your teaching, even if it is simply as a catalyst for imagining a completely different activity.

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