Lesson 47: “To Keep Them in the Right Way" Moroni Teaches on Sacrament, A Friend, A Responsibility, and Nourishing by the Good Word of God.

Lesson 47: “To Keep Them in the Right Way" Moroni Teaches on Sacrament, A Friend, A Responsibility, and Nourishing by the Good Word of God.

Attention Activity:
Have class members write down everything that they did this week to get ready to come to Church today. Starting with when Church ended last week, what all do you have to do to be ready to come back in a week? (You might offer a treat to the person who comes up with the most if you are teaching a younger class. You can also talk about all the things you have to do to get others ready if you are teaching an older class.) Take some time to discuss answers.

Class Discussion:
Moroni gives us a slightly different list of things that we need to do to be ready for Church. “Based on what you know, what do we find in the first 6 chapters of Moroni?” (Give some hints until they mention the sacrament prayers.) Turn to the Sacrament prayers in Moroni 4 and 5. (You might take a minute here and point out in chapter 1 that Moroni wasn’t planning on writing any more. He thought that the end of the Book of Ether was it. But because he isn’t dead, and he has a little space, he decided to write some more. Obviously God wanted us to have this information!) Moroni is going to teach us what we need to do to get ready for the sacrament. Go to Moroni 6:1 and find out the first thing that we needed to do to be ready this week for the sacrament. (The answer is, “brought forth fruit meet that they were worthy of it.” Point out that he is talking about baptism. As the sacrament is the renewal of the baptismal covenant, the preparation ought to be the same.) The answer here is a lot of scripture talk that we don’t use much anymore. Take a minute to discuss what that means. You may want to use the foot note that takes you to TG Baptism, Qualifications for. You can simply discuss it as a class, or if you need to get the students more involved, put them in a group or pair them up and have them look in the Topical Guide for what some of the qualifications are. Now look in verses 2-3 for the rest of the list of things we need to do to prepare for taking the sacrament. Ask, “What are some of the things that you did this week to prepare yourself in this way? What are some of the things that you can do next week to be more prepared to take the sacrament?”
The next thing that Moroni teaches us is what we do once we get to church. Find as many things as you can in verses 6-9 that we should do in church. Take time to discuss the answers. You may ask, “Which item that Moroni lists is one of your favorite parts of church?” (You may point out that these verses match up perfectly with what President Hinckley said every convert needs, a calling, a friend, and nourishment with the good word of God.) I would also point out here that Moroni now uses three chapters to talk about us renewing our baptismal covenant. Particularly in chapter 6 he talks a lot about repentance and forgiveness. Church has never been a place for people to come and show off how righteous or smart they are, but rather a place to come, with humble hearts, admitting shortcomings and hoping to improve.

Application:
What are some things that we can do to be better prepared for the sacrament next week. When has church been a help to you in your efforts to improve your life? What are the best ways you have found to focus on self-improvement while at church?

Lesson #46 “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled” Moroni's Teaching on Faith

Lesson #46 “By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled” Moroni's Teaching on Faith

This lesson will be done slightly differently. I will put up some of the lesson and then add more in the next couple days, with the promise that it will be done in full by Friday night. Check back for the finishing touches and leave a comment on what you think of the lesson plan.

Attention Activity:
You should get to this lesson around Christmas time, so this will work. Ask the class to write down one physical thing they hope they will get for Christmas if money were not an option—there really is a Santa Claus. (Make sure to use the word “hope”) Now ask, “If you want to get that gift, what do you have to do? (Talk about how you would have to please Santa Claus or whoever is going to get you the gift.) Now assume it is your parents, spouse, or friend that is giving you the gift. What would you do to get them to give you the gift? Now we are going to look at this same process with a spiritual sense. Ask, “If we were making a list of spiritual gifts, what would you hope for most?”

Class Discussion:
Turn to Moroni 7:41. What does he say we should hope for? (eternal life through the atonement) Now turn to Ether 12:28. What other two things do we have to have? (Faith and charity). We will talk about charity in a couple weeks when we get to Moroni 7. Today was are going to talk about one of the other characteristics. “If we want eternal life, what are some of the things that are required of us?” (Try and stick with basic answers here; faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, endure to the end.) What is the purpose of all of these signs of faith? (You could use Hebrews 11:6 to point out that we are trying to please God.) “So if we are trying to please God, what do the scriptures teach is the best way to serve Him? (Mosiah 2:17) Another way to say this is that we have to have charity. (Ether 12:28) All three of these principles are connected. We have hope in eternal life so we work toward that goal with faith. The best way to show faith is through charity to others—particularly our families. (Two good quotes about focusing faith on the family are:

It is significant that after inviting us to have charity toward “all men,” the Lord added the phrase “and to the household of faith.” Why? Doesn’t “all men” include the household of faith? Consider the implications when this added phrase is understood to mean more specifically “your very own household of faith.” Unfortunately, there are a few within the Church who exhibit greater charity toward nonfamily members than toward their own spouses and children, siblings and parents. They may show feigned kindness publicly while privately sowing and cultivating seeds of contention, demeaning those who should be closest to them. These things should not be. (Craig A. Cardon, “Moving Closer to Him,” Ensign, Nov 2006, 94–96)

Many believe that for service to be meaningful it should consist of having elaborate plans and forming a committee. Although many of these worthwhile projects help, much of the service needed in the world today relates to our day-to-day associations with each other. Often we find these opportunities within the confines of our own home, neighborhood, and ward.
The following advice, given by the deceitful Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, describes a common malady afflicting many of us today: “Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbours whom he meets every day and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know. The malice thus becomes wholly real and the benevolence largely imaginary. Michael J. Teh, “Out of Small Things,” Ensign, Nov 2007, 35–37

We will now focus on what this chapter teaches about faith. From Ether 12:7-22 there are many examples of faith in the scriptures. Study a few of these examples and ask, "What do we learn about faith that is so important from this story that Moroni would have put it in this chapter?" (One thing that you might want to point out is that every one of these examples show faith by service to toher people. You might even do an activity for the students to find what faithful service was performed in each example.) Ask, "What story of faith would you have used that Moroni did not? Why that story?"

It is hard to teach Ether 12 without talking about verse 27. Try to leave some time for this verse. Bring in some small weights and set them on the table. Ask all the students to guess how many times they could lift the weights. "Why is there a limit? Why can't you go forever? (Your muscles are not strong enough.) What would be the course of action if you wanted to get stronger? (Get to the point that they understand that you have to attack this problem with a show of increased strength.) How is this different from how the Lord teaches about how to overcome our problems? Why do we have to show humility--what some might even call weakness--to get stronger? What does this teach us about the character of God? Why is it so hard to be humble when you face problems? How have you been able to show humility and faith to overcome your weaknesses?