Elder Vaiangina Sikahema (Oct. '21): "A House of Sequential Order"

 Sequence is instructive.  My son shared this concept with me after returning from his mission and I have this principle to be helpful much more than one might think.  

The Activity:

1. Prior to the lesson, review Pres. Nelson's principle conference talks since he has become prophet.  On separate strips of paper write a singe sentence/phrase that encapsulates the main message of each talk.
2. Tape these strips of paper to the board in preparation for class.
3. During the lesson, read par. 14-15 "Elder Bednar concludes: . . . children, important principles."
4. Explain to the class members that you are going to put this to the test and see what can be learned.
5. Point out the strips of paper and explain that each strip of paper represents one of the talks that Pres. Nelson has given since he became prophet.
6. Ask the class members to work together to put these strips in order.
7. Help them as needed.
8. Once the list is in order, ask the class members to consider the order of messages received and to identify lessons that can be taken from the sequence of principles addressed.  
9. Discuss these ideas as a class.

Using the Activity:

So, this activity is different in that the focus is not on the message of the talk itself in a way; rather it is on what we can learn from applying the principle from the talk.  Please note there is no right/wrong answer that I am aware of to the order of President Nelson's talks.  In fact, I have not done this, but the Spirit seemed to lead me here and so this is what I did.  You could substitute in something else from the Church in place of those, but they feel the most pertinent.  For example, I think there are patterns of development from prophet to prophet.  In my own memory (to give one case), Pres. Benson stressed to us as prophet to read the Book of Mormon every day.  As the church membership did this, then we were prepared for Pres. Hunter to tell us that we should make the temple the symbol of our church membership and that we were to always have a current temple recommend regardless of how far from a temple we lived.  As the church membership embraced this idea then, we were ready for Pres. Hinckley to reveal the design of small temples which has revolutionized temple attendance and worship throughout the Church.  That order to me is instructive.  Then, we can push this forward even further and consider how this expanded access to the temple has become so necessary for us in the 21st century.  

As always, I hope that you have found this activity to be of some use to you.  Please let me know how it goes.  I do enjoy hearing from you.