President Russell M. Nelson (Apr. 19): "We Can Do Better and Be Better"

I could say this about every talk, but I really loved this talk by Pres. Nelson.  It was a call to action that I grew from when I heard it and even more as I have read it.  I have created two activities for this talk.  One feels to me like a beginning the class activity and the other feels like an end of class activity, although they would be able to be used at any time.  I hope they serve you well.

The Activity 1:

1. On the board write the following questions (or prepare a handout with them on it):
1. What does it mean to repent?
2. What are the blessings of repentance?
3. What is Satan doing to prevent us from repenting?
4. Why do we need to increase our efforts to repent at this time?
2. Make sure that everyone has access to a copy of the talk.
3. Divide the class into small groups (2-4 people per group)
4. Ask the groups to look through the talk and find the best quote(s) from Pres. Nelson's talk to answer each of the questions above.
5. Give the groups a few minutes.  
6. When it feels appropriate, come back together as a class and discuss what the groups found in the talk to answer the questions above.

The Activity 2:

1. Provide every class member with an index card or post-it note and something to write with.
2. Read par. 12 "Brethren, prayerfully seek . . . than ever before."
3. Ask the class members to silently ponder what is stopping them from repenting, pride, laziness, anger, etc.
4. After a couple of minutes, ask the class members to silently ponder how they can overcome whatever obstacles are keeping them from repenting.
5. Have the class members write on their index card on small step they can take this week to make repentance a more fulfilling part of their lives.
6. Have the class members put their index cards in their scriptures or somewhere that they can see it.
7. Challenge them to implement this change in their lives.
8. Read par. 25 "I bless you . . . in your life"
9. Bear testimony of this and challenge them to notice the miracles and to thank God for them.

Using the Activities:

The first activity is designed to promote a close reading of the prophet's words, a reading that is more than simply reading the words.  It is also a way to teach people how to read a prophet's words (looking for answers to questions).  Of course, you should feel comfortable changing the suggested questions to anything the Spirit tells you to.  The idea is that by pushing for quotes, the class members are hopefully internalizing the words.  Also, this activity provides a greater opportunity for all class members to share and express themselves, i.e. to exercise faith, than might be possible in a whole class situation.  Still, by bringing the discussion back to the whole class, it allows everyone to benefit from the insights of all others in the class.

The second activity is designed to help class members apply the prophet's words in their own lives.  Specifically, in this activity, time is set aside to consider, under the influence of the Spirit, how to appropriately respond to a specific challenge from our prophet.  Also, by asking them to write down their goals and to keep them, this activity helps them to be more likely to follow through.  In this case, it is especially helpful if you have applied this activity to yourself previously.  It will strengthen your testimony of God's willingness to help.  

As always, I hope that these activities will prove useful to you by either being usable as they are or by inspiring you with a different activity.  I do believe that it is increasingly important that we have the words of our prophets written on our hearts.  May God bless you in your efforts to teach His gospel.