Pres. Dallin H. Oaks (Apr. '24): "Covenants and Responsibilities"

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 It seems to me that in the last few conferences, Pres. Oaks has been remarkably in sync with Pres. Nelson.  Their talks often feel very complimentary to one another, and this is no exception.  The two talks work well together along the lines of priesthood keys, etc.  The activity that I outline below, however, focuses on the temple garment.  I think this is something that is often misunderstood both in and out of the Church.  Plus, there were more than one talk that directly addressed the wearing of garments and how they function in our lives.  So, I felt this was a good choice.

The Activity:

  1. Read par. 3 "Distinctive clothing or . . . wearers have assumed."
  2. Draw a Venn diagram on the board (two overlapping circles)
  3. Label one circle "uniform" and the other "garment"
  4. Explain how a Venn diagram works.  The characteristics of each thing (uniform and garment) go inside of the circle with that label with the elements they have in common going in the part where the two circles overlap.
  5. Invite the class members to consider these two things and how they might be alike and different.
  6. As class members share things, write them down in the appropriate spaces of the diagram.
  7. Ask the class members what we can learn about the role of garments in our lives from these similarities and differences.

Using the Activity:

For some people (myself included) seeing a graphic representation of ideas can spark greater insight.  Hence, the use of this Venn Diagram will be helpful to many people.  Additionally, it is a fairly common graphic in education and the professional world.  So, many class members will be somewhat familiar with it-- even if they do not know the name.  

By inviting the class to provide information to input into the diagram and then asking them what they have learned from these things can be a powerful way to help some in the class think in deeper and new ways about the garment.

As always, I hope that this activity is useful to you in your efforts to teach with power and authority.  Thank you for visiting my blog.

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