Elder Dieter F. Uchtodorf (Oct. 18): "Believe, Love, Do"

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Such a wonderful talk-- as always-- from Elder Uchtdorf.  It is important to note, however, that he is not talking about the disease of depression.  This talk refers, in my opinion, to a more general malaise that I see often in my work with people, inside and outside of the Church, which seems to be indicative of our times.

The Activity:
  1. Divide the class into three groups (if these groups are too large, you may need to further break these groups up into smaller groups-- groups of 5 or less would be ideal)
  2. Assign each group one part of the talk to read and discuss
    1. We Believe  paragraphs 29-32
    2. We Love      paragraphs 33-37
    3. We Do         paragraphs 38-43
  3. Ask the groups to look over that section of their assigned section of the talk and to discuss how their assigned topic (belief, love, action) helps us to:
    1. Live a more abundant, fulfilled life?
    2. Minister as Christ does/did?
    3. Build a more united, stronger church body?
  4. As the groups talk, ask them to try and come up with a bumper sticker message that encapsulates the ideas they are discussing.
  5. Give them time to come up with their bumper sticker message.  When it feels like the groups are ready, ask them to share.
  6. Write them on the board as people share
  7. Now ask the class members to read over what is on the board and try to make connections between two (or more) of the messages in a novel way.  
  8. After a moment, ask the class members to share the connections they noticed with a partner.
  9. Discuss as a class
Using the Activity:

The impetus of this activity is to try and get the class members to see the messages in Elder Uchtdorf's talk in mutiple ways-- that there is not one correct thing to take from this talk.  Also, this activity is really pushing the class members to spend time and push beyond the obvious insights about the message.  This idea comes from a training I had with Elder Bednar.  He had introduced a topic and we had discussed it for about 15 minutes.  There was a lull in the conversation and he said, "Good.  We have given all of the easy answers.  Now, let's get to the good ones."  After a moment's hesitation, the discusson picked back up.  This time, though, the answers and thoughts were much deeper.  That is what this activity is designed to do-- push everyone to a more robust understanding.

As part of that, this activity is designed to stretch our understandings by making us express them in fewer words.  This idea has been shown to produce a more focused understanding.  

I hope that this activity idea helps you and serves your class members' needs.  God bless.

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