Elder Sean Douglas (Oct. '21): "Facing Our Spiritual Hurricanes by Believing in Christ"

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 I was so impressed with the depth of knowledge that Elder Douglas has of the words of Pres. Nelson.  Elder Douglas has obviously spent a great deal of time studying and pondering Pres. Nelson's talks.  Plus, he has pushed those ideas into conversation with the scriptures in meaningful ways.

The Activity:

  1. Make sure that everyone has access to the talk either digitally or physically.
  2. Draw a vertical line down the middle of the board.  Label one side "Belief/Faith" and the other side "Doubt."
  3. Ask the class members to review the talk to identify what Elder Douglas taught about each of these two concepts.
  4. As items are mentioned, write them on the appropriate side of the board.
  5. As much as possible, contrast the two sides.  You may want to talk about issues such as the following:
    1. The author of each.
    2. How each is cultivated
    3. The consequences of each.  

Using the Activity:

At least for me, one way to deepen my understanding of a topic is to contrast it with another principle to notice differences and similarities.  While this activity is focused on the differences, the purpose behind it is simply to deepen our understandings of these topics.  I would be surprised if in the course of this activity brand new, never-before-considered insights came up.  Gospel learning seldom looks like that.  However, gospel learning is most often a deepening of conversion.  After a powerful lesson, the words we would use to explain our knowledge are often unchanged, but the conviction behind those words is deepened.  That is what this activity is designed to do, hopefully.  And it does it by pushing these two concepts up against each other.

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