Elder Gary E. Stevenson (Apr. '23): "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told"

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 At first blush, I felt like this talk was all about Easter.  It was a good talk and that portion of the talk was a powerful invitation to step up our games in terms of celebrating Easter; however, because of that I didn't see how it would be used often (if at all) for lessons in our classes/quorums.  As I re-read the talk though and paid more attention, I discovered that while there is a message about Easter, the more prevalent message is about the Book of Mormon.  This activity focuses on the blessings of studying the Book of Mormon that Elder Stevenson highlights.

The Activity:

  1. Point out that in this talk, Elder Stevenson makes at least five specific promises about reading the Book of Mormon:
    1. "Open your eyes to see new possibilities" (par. 29)
    2. "Increase your hope . . . fill you with charity" (par. 29)
    3. "build and strengthen . . . in Jesus Christ" (par. 29)
    4. "bless you with . . . a capital H" (par. 29)
    5. "help our family . . . bonds of death" (par. 36)
  2. Divide the class into 5 groups and assign each group one of the promises listed above.  Invite them to discuss
    1. How the Book of Mormon does this
    2. Specific parts of the Book of Mormon that help with this (they will share these).
  3. Allow the groups some time to discuss these things and the associated passages of the Book of Mormon.
  4. Bring the groups back together and ask each group to share their promise and one passage/verse/story from the Book of Mormon that they feel fulfills their assigned promise in some way.
  5. At the end discuss how these stories (individually, collectively, and as part of a larger book) have power in our lives.  You may ask the class members to share other favorite passages from the Book of Mormon that inspire/comfort/reassure them.

Using the Activity:

As with many of my activities, this one makes use of smaller groups to allow for greater participation.  Another way that this activity seeks to provide power to our teaching is the invitation to cite and talk about specific passages from the Book of Mormon as they pertain to promised blessings.  Sometimes, we hear something yet fail to see how it operates in the real world.  This is a fairly common experience for all of us across our daily lives.  When we are in this position, often the most helpful thing is to hear from others how they actually find the principle working.  For that reason, the sharing of specific passages from the Book of Mormon can be a powerful avenue for the class members to see how these blessings are realized.  Once we can see that, the dam will often burst and we can find a rush of growth and understanding.

As always, I pray this activity is helpful.  Thank you.

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