Pres. M. Russell Ballard (Apr. '22): "Missionary Service Blessed My Life Forever"

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 Missionary service was a theme of this conference.  After a call from Pres. Nelson, Pres. Ballard started the conference off with this stirring talk about the influence his own mission had on his life and the effect it can have on anyone's life who serves.  This activity is designed to help us all consider the blessings that come from serving the Lord in this way and by considering how we might help others to realize these same blessings.  

The Activity:

  1. Divide the class into small groups (3-5 people in each one)
  2. Read the following quotes aloud (or provide them to each group to read in their groups):
    1. Par. 8 "My mission prepared . . . in His Church."
    2. Par. 10 "The Lord knows . . . rely on you."
    3. Par. 11-12 "I testify that . . . life of service"
  3. Ask the class members to discuss in their groups when they have seen these blessings in their lives or the lives of their family and friends.
  4. After a few minutes, come back together and discuss what was shared as a whole class.  Ask that some people share specific instances (you may want to invite a couple of people ahead of time so that they can think about what they want to share and be prepared).
  5. Discuss with the class how we might share with the youth these experiences and help them to "see and know how missionary service will forever bless [their] life."
  6. After discussing this question for a moment, ask each person to make note of one thing they were inspired to do to share these experiences with someone else.  Challenge them to follow up on this prompting in the coming week.

Using the Activity:

The purpose of putting the class members in small groups is to make it easier (and possible) for more people to participate.  As we participate, we are putting ourselves in a position to be acted upon by the Spirit.  Also, by asking the class members to remember the times they have been blessed is one way we can help the class members to remember Him always.  Finally, by challenging them listen for a prompting and to act on it, we are further encouraging our class members to do those things that will bring about conversion, which should be our goal in every lesson.  

As always, thank you for visiting my blog.  I hope that you found this helpful.  Please let me know if there is any way in which I can make this blog more helpful.  

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