Pres. Dallin H. Oaks (Apr. '20): The Great Plan"

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A NOTE:
Maintaining this blog at this time might be one of the most optimistic things I have done in recent memory :), although I am sure we will eventually be meeting together again for church.  I just have no idea when that will be.  Still, I want to continue this blog even in these times as an expression of hope.  In the meantime, I have begun a separate blog that focuses on sharing ideas to explore the messages of general conference in our homes.  That blog can be found here. 

 I have always been struck by the verse in I Nephi that tells us Laman and Lemuel murmur because they do not understand how God works with people (I Ne. 2:12).  In par. 22 of this talk, Pres. Oaks reiterates that idea and makes it even more clear that at least a portion of this misunderstanding is a lack of understanding of God's plan for us.  So, this activity is designed to help class members dig into the specifics that Pres. Oaks shares in his talk.

 The Activity:

  1. Make sure that everyone has access to their own copy of the talk.
  2. Read and discuss Par. 22 ("Many of our . . . the restored Church").
  3. Divide the class into four groups and assign each group a different part of the talk (roughly following the divisions Pres. Oaks makes in the talk):
    1. The Plan (par. 3-4)
    2. Mortality and the Spirit World, 1 (par. 5-11)
    3. Mortality and the Spirit World, 2 (par. 12-17)
    4. What Next? (par. 18-21)
  4. Ask the groups to make two lists as they read their section of the talk.
    1. Facts about the Plan
    2. Blessings of the Plan
  5. Bring the lists back together and discuss what is on them.
  6. Discuss how understanding these things can help us to answer many of the questions we may have about the gospel.
Using the Activity:

You can obviously vary how you structure steps 3 and 4 depending on the size of your class and the needs of your class members.  The strength of this activity and something that you will need to keep an eye on is that no one simply lists what they think they know about the plan.  There are even moments when Pres. Oaks says that we know a bit but not all of the details (see for example, par. 4 "in ways that . . . circumstances in mortality").  Beware that class members, no matter how good-hearted, do not mix their views with what Pres. Oaks says.  You could even preface this discussion with something along the lines of "Pres. Oaks doesn't give us all of the details of the plan jsut some highlights, but for the purposes of our discussions today, we are going to limit ourselves to just what is said in this talk."

Also, it bears noting that step 6 could open up a can of worms.  Judge that for yourself with the aid of the Spirit, but remember we can simply make the point that knowing the plan of salvation can help us answer some of our questions about the gospel and bear testimony about it without going into a deep discussion of everyone's questions.  And we should be able to testify of this fact. First, we are not saying that this will answer every question ever asked about the gospel/Church-- just a good number of them.  Also, we have the promise from an apostle that such is the case.  We can stand behind that.  Finally, if people bring up a question, be respectful.  Everyone has different questions and those questions are more likely to be answered while we are with the body of saints as opposed to after we have separated ourselves from the body of the saints because someone was rude or insensitive to our thoughts.  

I hope that this activity is helpful.  Please let me know, if I can improve anything.

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