Pres. Henry B. Eyring (Apr. 18): "Inspired Ministering"

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The Activity:
  1. Ask group members to think of a time that they were witness to or a recipient of inspired ministering.  Ask them to spend a moment remembering the experience in detail.  Perhaps even ask them to jot down some notes about it.
  2. In groups of 3-4 people, ask class members to share the experience they are thinking of.
  3. As they share these stories, ask the groups to look for common principles that underlie the ministering they are talking about.
  4. After a few minutes, discuss what the groups identified and write the principles on the board.
  5. Read paragraph 9 ("Municipal wards . . . trying to help).
  6. Return to the list and mark the items on the list with either a C (for those items which demonstrate charity) or an H (for those items which demonstrate the guidance/help of the Holy Ghost).
  7. Discuss how to increase these two things in the lives of the class members.
Using the Activity:
This activity could be used at any point of the lesson, although I think it might work best at the beginning.  The idea is to help the class members tie what Pres. Eyring talks about with their own lived experiences in the past as a way for them to see kind of a roadmap going forward.  Many times it is easy for us to think that the teachings of the prophets and apostles are simply out of our reach.  I would hope that this activity would have the opposite effect-- to make us aware that we already know much about this.  And since we already know a lot about how to do this, perhaps our biggest need is to simply make it more of a priority in our lives. 

You could augment this activity by bringing back around later in the lesson (at the end, maybe) and ask the class members to think again about the experience they thought of in this activity and the princples that were listed on the board.  Then, ask them to make a commitment to incorporate one action or one principle more fully in their lives as they move forward. 

I hope this activity is useful to you.  Please let me know, if it is and/or how I can improve this site.  Thank you so much and God bless you in your callings.

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