July 10

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 21, 23, 24

Relief Society/Priesthood: HWH - Lesson12 & 13

June 12

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 20: Word file

Gospel Doctrine:

BofM: L-20: My Soul Is Pained No More

Highlights: Alma and the sons of Mosiah teach us about a deeper level of conversion to the Lord. As a result of true conversion, the Nephites are able to absolve tensions and remain strong.

Scriptures:

• Mosiah 25: Limhi’s people baptized

• Mosiah 26-27:7 Some led away from the church

• Mosiah 27:8-31; 36: 3-23 Conversion of Alma and the four sons of Mosiah

• Mosiah 27:32-28:20 Alma and the sons of Mosiah dedicate themselves to missionary work.

à People of Nephi: Mulekites (Original residents of Zarahemla), Nephites who stayed in Zarahemla, people of Alma, people of Limhi

à How did the people respond when King Mosiah read the records of Alma and Limhi? (Mosiah 25: 7-11)

à Compare the feelings of Alma before and after his conversion. How is that meaningful for you?

Relief Society/Priesthood: Word file

Priesthood/Relief Society:

Teachings of Pres. Howard W. Hunter: Ch.11

 “True Greatness”

Highlights: “Realizing who we are and what we may become assures us that with God nothing is really impossible.”

A cerebral hemorrhage in 1981 left Claire unable to walk or speak. Nevertheless, President Hunter sometimes helped her out of her wheelchair and held her tightly so they could dance as they had done years earlier. Elder James E. Faust later said that President Hunter’s “tender loving care of his wife Claire for more than ten years while she was not well was the most noble devotion of a man to a woman that many of us have seen in our lives.”

Scripture: Matthew 25:21

His greatness emerged in periods of his life far from the spotlight as he made pivotal choices to work hard, to try again after failing, and to help his fellowman. Those attributes were reflected in his remarkable ability to succeed in endeavors as diverse as music, law, business, international relations, carpentry, and, above all, being a ‘good and faithful servant’ of the Lord.

June 5

Gospel Doctrine lesson 19: GD-L19

Gospel Doctrine:

BofM: L-19: None Could Deliver Them but the Lord

Highlights: The Lord could not prevent Alma’s people from suffering consequences, but, as he does with us, he strengthens us in our afflictions.

Scriptures: Mosiah 18-24

à What had Abinadi prophesied about King Noah’s death? (See Mosiah 12:3.) How was this prophecy fulfilled? (See Mosiah 19:18–20. Point out that the people who eventually valued Noah’s life “as a garment in a hot furnace” had at one time been blind to his wickedness, as shown in Mosiah 11:29.)

à After failing three times to defeat the Lamanites in battle, what did Limhi’s people finally do? (See Mosiah 21:13–14.) Why was the Lord slow to respond to their cries? (See Mosiah 21:15; see also D&C 101:1–9.) Although the Lord did not deliver them immediately, what did He do for them? (See Mosiah 21:15–16.) How does the Lord sometimes permit us to “prosper by degrees”?

Relief Society lesson: Elizabeth and Long-Suffering

Priesthood/Relief Society:

Elizabeth-Long-Suffering

 Highlights: Zacharias and Elisabeth were both descendants of Aaron, from whom all of the priests and the high priest of Israel were chosen. This means that John was a natural heir of the Aaronic Priesthood and its leadership. As his father was, John was also a priest and held the keys to the Aaronic Priesthood.

Scriptures:

Luke 1: 5-25 Zacharias has a vision in the temple that Elizabeth will conceive a son who’s name will be John. The Angel Gabriel, because of Zacharias’ unbelief, tells him he will be struck dumb until the prophesy is fulfilled.

Luke 1: 41-45 Elizabeth rejoices when Mary comes

Luke 1: 57-80 John is born

       Contrast Mary’s response to the Angel’s news with Zacharias’(vs. 38). How should we gauge our own reactions to promptings and messages from the Lord and his messengers?

May 29

Since it's the 5th Sunday, I only have a Gospel Doctrine handout.
Lesson 18: GD-L18

Gospel Doctrine:

BofM: L-18: God Himself-Shall Redeem His People

Highlights: President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world. Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ.”

Scriptures:

• Mosiah 12: Abinadi speaks repentance

Mosiah 12: 20-24 Priests asks Abinadi to interpret scripture from Isaiah

• Mosiah 13: Abinadi gives the purpose of the law of Moses

Mosiah 14: 5-6 Christ’s suffering and purpose

à How did Abinadi’s interpretation of scripture differ from the Priests?  (Mosiah 15: 10-19)

à What is the significance of 13:10?

à What would have happened if Abinadi has not chosen to fulfill his mission? How does this relate to us?

I loved working with these chapters. It was very rewarding to read Abinadi's explanation of the roles of Christ and the Father as well as how he explains Isaiah's vital teachings. If you look in the manual, President Hinckley shares a wonderful story that relates to how you never know the impact you may have in your mission. Here it is: 

4. The unseen results of missionary work

Explain that Abinadi may have died without knowing if anyone believed his teachings. But Alma was converted because of Abinadi’s efforts, and he and his descendants had a great influence on the Nephites for many generations. Share the following story told by President Gordon B. Hinckley:

“You don’t know how much good you can do; you can’t foresee the results of the effort you put in. Years ago, President Charles A. Callis, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, but who previously was president of the Southern States Mission for twenty-five years, told me this story. He said that he had a missionary in the southern [United States] who came in to get his release at the conclusion of his mission. His mission president said to him, ‘Have you had a good mission?’

“He said, ‘No.’

“‘How is that?’

“‘Well, I haven’t had any results from my work. I have wasted my time and my father’s money. It’s been a waste of time.’

“Brother Callis said, ‘Haven’t you baptized anyone?’

“He said, ‘I baptized only one person during the two years that I have been here. That was a twelve-year-old boy up in the back hollows of Tennessee.’

“He went home with a sense of failure. Brother Callis said, ‘I decided to follow that boy who had been baptized. I wanted to know what became of him. …

“… ‘I followed him through the years. He became the Sunday School Superintendent, and he eventually became the branch president. He married. He moved off the little tenant farm on which he and his parents before him had lived and got a piece of ground of his own and made it fruitful. He became the district president. He sold that piece of ground in Tennessee and moved to Idaho and bought a farm along the Snake River and prospered there. His children grew. They went on missions. They came home. They had children of their own who went on missions.’

“Brother Callis continued, ‘I’ve just spent a week up in Idaho looking up every member of that family that I could find and talking to them about their missionary service. I discovered that, as the result of the baptism of that one little boy in the back hollows of Tennessee by a missionary who thought he had failed, more than 1,100 people have come into the Church.’

“You never can foretell the consequences of your work, my beloved brethren and sisters, when you serve as missionaries” (Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 360–61).

Gospel Doctrine L-15: Word doc

Gospel Doctrine:

BofM: L-15: Eternally Indebted to Your Heavenly Father

Highlights: The warnings and promises of Nephi’s vision apply to us today.

Scriptures:  Mosiah 1-3

Questions:

•In the book of Mosiah, the first account of Benjamin is not about his reign as king but about his teachings as a father (Mosiah 1:2–8). What does this teach about King Benjamin? What can parents learn from this example?

•What effect did King Benjamin’s leadership have on his people? (See Mosiah 1:1; 6:7.)

•The angel said that “the natural man is an enemy to God” (Mosiah 3:19). What is the meaning of the phrase “natural man”? (See Alma 42:6–10).

May 15th

Gospel Doctrine: GD-L16 

Gospel Doctrine:

BofM: L-16: Ye Shall Be Called the Children of Christ

Highlights: King Benjamin told his people what they needed to do to be entitled to sit on the right hand of God. We can learn from King Benjamin’s words because the requirements are the same for us.

Scriptures:  Mosiah 4: 1-30; Mosiah 5: 2-15

Questions:

• What is so essential about recognizing our own nothingness? (Mosiah 4:5–8, 11–12.)

•Why do you think serving others helps us retain a remission of our sins? (Mosiah 4:26.)

•Once we have experienced a “mighty change … in our hearts” (Mosiah 5:2), what challenges do we face in maintaining this change? How can we meet these challenges?

Relief Society/Priesthood: HWH-ch10

Priesthood/Relief Society: May 15

Teachings of Pres. Howard W. Hunter: Ch.10

 “The Scriptures-Most Profitable of All Study”

Highlights: “When we … read and study the scriptures, benefits and blessings of many kinds come to us. This is the most profitable of all study in which we could engage.”

President Howard W. Hunter had a great love for the scriptures and was a dedicated student of them. This love and study were reflected in his teachings … Often when teaching a gospel principle, he selected at least one story from the scriptures, told it in detail, and drew applications from it.

Scripture: Mark 5: 22-24

And [Jairus] besought him greatly, saying, “My little daughter lieth at the point of death.” The tremor we hear in Jairus’s voice as he speaks of “My little daughter” stirs our souls with sympathy as we think of this man of high position in the synagogue on his knees before the Savior. When they got to the home of the ruler of the synagogue, Jesus took the little girl by the hand and raised her from the dead. In like manner, he will lift and raise every man to a new and better life who will permit the Savior to take him by the hand.

May 1st

Here's the Gospel Doctrine, Lesson 14 Word doc: GD-L14

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Gospel Doctrine

BofM: L-14: For a Wise Purpose

Highlights:  Think of something you would have forgotten if you hadn’t written it down. Enos prayed to the Lord to preserve the Nephite records.

Scriptures: • Enos 1; Jacob 7: 27; Jarom 1: 5, 7-12; Words of Mormon 1: 1-4, 6-7

à   Whom did Enos credit with teaching him the gospel? (See Enos 1:1.) Who was Enos’s father? (See Jacob 7:27.) How can the teaching and example of righteous parents help children develop faith in the Savior?

à   What did Jacob’s teachings influence Enos to do? (See Enos 1:3–4.)

à   After reading Jarom, what would you consider when looking at the habits and priorities of these people and their blessings from the Lord?

à   After reading Words of Mormon, when there was no apparent need, why did Mormon include them?

Relief Society/Priesthood: Esther-Courage

Priesthood/Relief Society

Queen Esther – Courage

Esther 2-9

Every day Mordecai came to the palace gate to find out if Esther was all right. One day Haman, the king’s chief minister, saw him. Haman demanded that Mordecai bow down to him. But Mordecai refused. He bowed only to God.

Haman was furious. He told the king that the Jews would not obey the laws and should be killed. The king sent out a decree that all of the Jews in the kingdom were to be killed.

When Queen Esther heard about the awful decree, she sent word to Mordecai. What should they do?

At the banquet Esther told the king how Haman had plotted to kill the Jews. She said that she was Jewish too. King Ahasuerus was very angry. He could not take back the decree, but he quickly sent riders on mules and camels with a new decree. It said the Jews could defend themselves against anyone who tried to kill them. The lives of many Jews were saved.

Scriptures:    Esther 9: 2-4

How did Esther and Mordecai’s influence sway others to defend the Jews? 

April 24

For Gospel Doctrine: Word file

Gospel Doctrine

BofM: L-13: The Allegory of the Olive Trees

Highlights: “I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that … it perish not” Jacob 5:4

Scriptures:

• D&C 33: 3-6; Jacob 5: 47; Jacob 6: 4

à   The master of the vineyard repeatedly worked with his servant to prune, dig about, and nourish his tree. What does this suggest about Jesus Christ’s involvement in the lives of His people?

     The olive tree …can produce much fruit. The tree must be carefully pruned to be fruitful and productive. For a wild olive tree to become tame and productive, its main stem must be cut back completely, and a branch from a tame olive tree must be grafted into the stem of the wild one. Some trees now growing in Israel have been producing abundantly for over 400 years. As a tree grows old and begins to die, its roots send up new shoots, which, if grafted and pruned, will mature. Thus, the root of the tree may go on producing new trees and fruit for thousands of years.

For 3rd Hour: Word file

Priesthood/Relief Society

Sister Carol McConkie: Here to Serve a Righteous Cause

 Highlights: “…Of [the] premortal covenant, Elder John A. Widtsoe explained: "We agreed, right then and there, to [not only be] saviors for ourselves but ... saviors for the whole human family. We went into a partnership with the Lord. The working out of the plan became then not merely the Father's work, and the Savior's work, but also our work. The least of us, the humblest, is in partnership with the Almighty in achieving the purpose of the eternal plan of salvation.”

Scriptures:

D&C 1:23 –By the weak and simple…

Mosiah 18:8-10 –Bear one another’s burdens…

     “We all experience times and seasons in our lives. But whether we are at school, at work, in the community, and especially in the home, we are the Lord's agents and we are always on His errand.”

April 17

Here's Lesson 12 for Gospel Doctrine: Word file

Text of handout:

Gospel Doctrine: 

BofM: L-17: A Seer-Becometh a Great Benefit to His Fellow Beings

Highlights: 2 Nephi 32:3 …Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

Scriptures:

• Mosiah 7-8 –Ammon discovers Limhi and the Jaredite plates: Mosiah, a seer can translate

• Mosiah 9-10 –Zeniff’s people

Mosiah 11: King Noah rules in wickedness

• BD: Seer, Urim and Thummim

à What titles did Ammon associate with the title of seer? (See Mosiah 8:13-16.)

 

à What were the results of Zeniff’s over-zealousness? (See Mosiah 9:3–12; 10:18.)

à Why do some people today reject servants of the Lord, like Abinadi, in favor of people like Noah? (Mosiah 8:16–18, D&C 1:38; 84:36–38.)

Picture:

Lesson 8 for third hour: Word file

Text of handout: 

Priesthood/Relief Society:

Teachings of Pres. Howard W. Hunter:

Ch. 8 “Taking the Gospel to All the World”

Highlights: “President Hunter’s eagerness to reach out to all of God’s children, regardless of nationality or creed, was evident in his work in the Middle East. The First Presidency gave him significant assignments in Jerusalem, including oversight of the construction of the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden and the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. Although proselyting was not allowed in that region, President Hunter built lasting friendships among those with whom he worked, both Jewish and Arabic people. “The purpose of the gospel of Jesus Christ is to bring about love, unity, and brotherhood of the highest order,” he said.4”

George Albert Smith said, “We have come not to take away from you the truth and virtue you possess. We have come not to find fault with you nor to criticize you. … Keep all the good that you have, and let us bring to you more good, in order that you may be happier and in order that you may be prepared to enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father.”

1 Nephi 8:12; Enos 1:9; Mosiah 18: 8-9; D&C 18:28

Picture: 

April 10th

The Relief Society/Priesthood lesson: Word file

Priesthood/Relief Society: April 10

Teachings of Pres. Howard W. Hunter:

Ch. 7 “Continuous Revelation through Living Prophets”

Highlights: “In assuming this responsibility, I acknowledge God’s miraculous hand in my life. He has repeatedly spared my life and restored my strength, has repeatedly brought me back from the edge of eternity, and has allowed me to continue in my mortal ministry for another season. I have wondered on occasion why my life has been spared…”

Righteous leadership has been needed in each dispensation of time, and God chose prophets for this purpose long before they came to this mortal existence [see Jeremiah 1:5; Abraham 3:23]

In a revelation to a modern oracle, Joseph Smith, the Lord said:

“For I am no respecter of persons, and will that all men shall know that the day speedily cometh; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand, when peace shall be taken from the earth, and the devil shall have power over his own dominion.

 “And also the Lord shall have power over his saints, and shall reign in their midst.” (D&C 1:35–36.)

Gospel Doctrine lesson 11: Word file

Gospel Doctrine: April 10

BofM: L-11: Press Forward with a Steadfastness in Christ

Highlights: 2 Nephi 32:3 …Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.

Scriptures:

• 2 Nephi 31-…with a perfect brightness of hope…

• 2 Nephi 32 –Receive the Holy Ghost, it shall…

• 2 Nephi 33 –If ye believe in Christ, then ye…

• Moroni 7: 13-17 -Spirit of Christ …to every man

• D&C 20: 37, 71-74 -The baptismal prayer

à What is the role of the Holy Ghost when pressing forward in Christ?

 

à How critical is that role to us on a daily basis?

à Gauge your awareness of the Holy Ghost in your life. What can you do to magnify that conscious awareness?

March 27: Easter Sunday

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 10

Relief Society/Priesthood: RS-P Through God's Eyes: word file

Happy Easter!!!

March 20

Gospel Doctrine: Lesson 9:

Relief Society/Priesthood: HWH: L6

March 13th

For Gospel Doctrine, it was lesson 8 from the manual.

Gospel Doctrine: March 13

BofM: L-8: O How Great the Goodness of Our God

Highlights: 2 Nephi 9:1–26, 39–54 -Jacob testifies of the Savior’s Atonement. He discusses principles that help us receive all the blessings of the Atonement.

Scriptures & Questions:

• Read 2 Nephi 6:17

• Read 7:2

• Read 8:3–6, 12

Look for words in these verses that show what the Savior does for us.

• Read 9:10 Why is the term ‘awful monster’ used?

•9:18 Why must we despise the shame of the world?

•9:39 How does our frame of mind affect us?

For Relief Society, it was lesson 5 of HWH:

Relief Society: March 13

Teachings of Pres. Howard W. Hunter:

Ch. 5 “Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration”

Highlights: “I testify that the boy prophet, who in so many ways remains the central miracle … of this church’s experience, is living proof that, within God’s hands and under the direction of the Savior of the world, weak and simple things should come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones.”

Those who rejected the Savior when he came to earth with the declaration that he was the Son of God said of him: “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Matthew 13:55.) When Joseph announced that he had seen a vision and had seen the Father and the Son, the query came to the minds and lips of the neighbors, the ministers, and the townspeople: “Is not this the farmer’s son?” Christ was persecuted and put to death, but time has been his vindicator. As with the carpenter’s son, so it has been with the farmer’s son.’

All men have spiritual sight but are not always privileged to use such sight unless quickened by the Spirit of the Lord.

Scriptures:   D&C 65:2; Daniel 2: 35; 2 Nephi 3:6, 15

March 6th

Here's the Gospel Doctrine lesson #7: Word file

Here's the lesson for Relief Society: Ruth-Loyalty: Word file