President Russell M. Nelson (Oct. 19): "The Second Great Commandment"

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So, I heard some interesting takes on this conference talk, that I thought might be worthwhile to share-- if only so you would know where I am coming from on this talk.  My first take is that this talk is primarily gratitude to Church members for their generosity.  Kind of like-- you're doing great-- keep it up.  Second, I heard someone else say that it was kind of an accountability report to the Church of how the humanitarian moneys are used by the Church-- kind of like some of the talks that President Hinckley would give in Priesthood Session when he was a counselor leading without a visible president.  I could see this as well.  In the end, though, I am approaching this talk as a model for us in our personal efforts to act in more charitable ways.  I hope this helps.

The Activity:

  1. Read (and discuss?) the quote in Par. 40-41 "Regardless of where . . . of Jesus Christ"
  2. Explain that the purpose of this activity is to improve our abilities to "help our brothers and sisters" in Christ-like ways by examining the ways the Church reaches out to others.
  3. Divide the class into small groups (3-5 class members in each group is optimal)
  4. Ask each group to skim the examples of Church efforts and to identify principles of giving that they could (or already do) apply in their own lives.
    1. This section of the talk is primarily in paragraphs 13-18 and 25-36
    2. You may want to share an example of a principle they might find.  Two examples:
      1. Be prepared to serve (or serve before need)-- Par. 35
      2. Serve everyone without worrying about things like their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, etc.-- Par. 15
  5. Give the groups a few minutes to identify these principles and discuss them
  6. Come back together as a class and talk about these principles and how they might look in our individual lives.
Using the Activity:

This activity is based primarily on trying to apply the prophet's words to our lives.  Also, by using small groups, this activity allows for greater participation by members and it encourages class members to closely read the words of the prophet.  Obviously, you could structure this in different ways.  You could ask class members to look through and mark the principles they find individually and then have them come together in small groups or as a whole class and discuss what they found.  You could even identify the principles (or some principles) ahead of time, pass these out on pieces of paper and ask people to read the section in the talk that highlights each principle and then discuss them.

Another addition to this activity (or more likely as a separate point) you could tie this talk to part of King Benjamin's speech in Mosiah (4:16-27).

I hope that this activity is useful to you and may God bless you that you might teach with power and authority.

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