Elder Michael John U. Teh (April '21): "Our Personal Savior"

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 As I read this talk I was moved to make a more sincere, consistent effort to know my Heavenly Father.  

The Activity:

  1. Ask the class members to think about what they would tell someone who came to them and asked how they might come to know God.  What would their answers entail?  This should be done silently for a moment.
  2. After a couple of moments, have them turn to a partner and discuss what they came up with.  Tell the partners to try to come up with a short answer that they can both agree on.
  3. In another couple of moments, ask each partnership to join with one other partnerships (for groups of 4) and to share what each group came up with.  Ask these new groups to unitedly come up with a single sentence answer that they feel encompasses the most important aspects of how we come to know our Heavenly Father.
  4. After the groups have had some time, come back together and invite the groups to share their one sentence answers.  Write them on the board (or some of them).
  5. Ask the class members to review Elder Teh's talk and infer what he might say about this or what aspects of the ideas listed on the board are found in his talk.

Using the Activity:

This talk is primarily designed to help the class members spend time pondering and talking about their own ideas.  Then, they will compare them or enhance their own insights with what they find in Elder Teh's talk.  Having an activity that is so centered in the lived experiences, ideas, and feelings of the class members is, in my opinion, one aspect of what it means to have a home-centered, church-supported gospel learning experience.  Hence, this activity.  

Another important aspect of this activity is that it begins with a single person's idea and then gradually expands until multiple ideas are pushed together.  Remember, there is NO one correct answer in this activity.  Multiple ideas and sentiments will probably be expressed.  That is one reason why this activity is potentially powerful.  

Thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope this idea is useful to you.

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