Pres. Russell M. Nelson (Oct. 19): "Spiritual Treasures"

I hope that there are priesthood quorums that decide to teach this talk.  Not only does it deal with women and the priesthood (more on that in a sentence or two), but it is also an excellent talk on how to access the powers of the priesthood-- and many of us men could do better at that. 

I did not listen to this talk as it was given, but my mom told me how much it meant to her (my father passed away about three years ago) and that she wished it had been given earlier because so many of her friends would have received so much comfort from it.  So, President Nelson brought comfort to my mom and now I have one more reason to love him.

Several times in the talk, President Nelson discusses actions that we can take that will increase our ability to access the power of God, priesthood power.  These are items beyond the things he mentioned in D&C 25.  This activity is designed to explore these specific pieces of counsel.

The Activity:

1. Prior to class, prepare four sheets of paper (large or poster sized paper will be best).  One each sheet of paper should be written one of the counsels Pres. Nelson gave to us.  
1. Putting aside the things of the world-- par. 14-15
2. Serving in the temple-- par. 17
3. Serving others-- par. 28
4. Increasing our understanding of the truths of the priesthood-- par. 29
2. Post these around the room.  Space them fairly far from each other.
3. During class, explain the purpose of this activity and point out the four posters around the room.
4. Divide the class into four groups and ask each group to go stand by a different poster.  Make sure that each group has at least one marker.
5. Ask the groups to discuss their poster (what does it mean/how have they seen this in their lives/how could they do better at this/etc.) and to record their ideas.
6. After 2 or 3 minutes, have the groups rotate.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until everyone has been to every poster
8. When they are back at the first poster, ask them to read over the information there and add any last thoughts (only give them about a minute).
9. Come back together as a class and discuss anything that stood out to the class members as they talked and read what others had said.

Using the Activity:

This is another activity that is designed to provide opportunities for more people to participate than a traditional whole-class discussion.  Also, this activity is valuable because it asks people to read what others have written without context and think about those comments.  While we may not always know exactly what was meant by a particular post, thinking about it and trying to connect it to our own ideas and experiences can open the door for greater revelation and inspiration.  

One caution on this activity.  If you teach a class with people who have trouble moving around, you might want to pass the posters rather than have the people move.  It will still be effective (although movement is valuable to our learning).  Another option, if you have a large class, you might divide the class into two larger groups and then divide those groups into four smaller groups.  Then, you could conduct the activity with eight stations instead of simply four.  Too many people in a group make it too easy for a person or two to simply opt out of the activity.  

Please let me know how these ideas work for you.  I strive to provide useful ideas both in terms of specific activities as well as in terms of notes about good teaching.  If there is a way that I can better do this, please feel free to let me know.  Thank you.