Elder Hugo Montoya (Oct. '22): "The Eternal Principle of Love"

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 I am so grateful for the opportunity to study this talk (and all of them really).  As I studied this talk I saw much deeper what Elder Montoya was teaching in a talk that did not strike me as rich as it turned out to be.  I gained greater insight into love as a three-dimensional thing.  What a blessing.

The Activity:

  1. Make sure that everyone has access to a copy of the talk either digitally or phyiscally.
  2. In the center of the board, write the word "love."
  3. Explain that Elder Montoya talks about four different manifestations of love-- and each one teaches something a little different about love. 
  4. Invite the class members to read over the first three of these sections (the last one is for later) and talk with those around them about what Elder Montoya teaches about love in general by focusing on a specific manifestation.  These sections are as follows:
    1. Par. 1-8 (Love they neighbor)  "The eternal principle . . . in this life."
    2. Par. 9-25 (Love God)  "Why is love . . . as He is."
    3. Par. 26-28 (Family Love)  "My wife and . . . with our children."
  5. After a few minutes, come back together as a class and discuss what they learned from their reading and talking.
  6. As ideas are shared write them on the board and discuss each one.  As you discuss these, you might consider questions such as:
    1. How does this aspect of love apply to love of a different kind (e.g. an idea of loving they neighbor might also apply to loving God or loving your family)?
    2. How can we develop that approach to love?

Using the Activity:

This activity is designed around the experience I had studying this talk-- an experience that might be so simple I should avoid mentioning it.  I was struck by how an exploration of each of these areas of love taken separately taught individual specific things about love more generally.  

Also, it should be noted that the fourth area of love I noticed in this talk is God's love for us, and it felt like it should be treated differently.  Hence, this activity focuses on the first three areas. You could probably include the fourth area in this activity as well; it just feels different to me.  

As always, thank you for visiting my site.  I really appreciate it and hope that it helped you.  

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