July: How can I prepare to receive temple ordinances?

All Printouts and Videos are HERE

(Things to get in advance: For the Strength of Youth Pamphlets)

1. Introduction:

• I displayed a picture of the Salt Lake Temple on the table before class.
• Have the youth take turns reading the introduction in the For Strength of Youth.
• My church library only had 3 copies, so I had to ask around to get enough for my class. You could always have the youth share pamplets or you could print out the front cover and the intro.
• Ask the youth, "Why do you think that they chose a temple for the front cover?"

2. Learn Together

• Watch the "Temples" video
• Ask the youth what the temple means to them, whether it is doing baptisms for the dead, attending temple open houses, or visiting temple grounds.
• Temple Statistics
• When President Monson was called as an Apostle in 1963, there were 12 operating temples in the word. As of today, there are 156 operating temples. When all of the announced temples are dedicated there will be 182 temples. Wow!
• With the Cedar City and Saratoga Springs temple, there will be 18 temples in Utah alone.
• List of Temples by Year
• I found this awesome table of all of the temples sorted by year of dedication. I had to add my own page to update it to current. Make sure to print out part 1 and part 2.
• How many temples were there when you were born?
• How many temples were there when Mom and Dad or Grandpa and Grandma were born?
• Is there anything that sticks out to you? (I thought it was interesting how there were times when there was no temple or how there was a lot dedicated in 2000.)
• I told a story about my great grandparents who were married in North Carolina in 1934. They drove all the way to Salt Lake to be sealed in 1935. There were only 7 temples in the world.

3. Likening the Scriptures

• Elder Russell M. Nelson said, "As temples are prepared for the people, the people need to prepare themselves for the temple."
• Read Psalms 24:3-4
• What does this teach us about preparing to receive temple ordinances?
• Write a list on the board of other ways we can prepare to receive temples ordinances.

4. Teach Others

• Watch the first 3 minutes of Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk "Shipshape and Bristol Fashion: Be Temple Worthy—in Good Times and Bad Times" 
• Divide the class up into 4 groups. Have three of the groups study one of the principles listed in his talk. Have the last group study the article "Making the Temple a Part of Your Life".
• Have each group teach the class about their findings.

5. Making it Personal

• Let the youth write down three goals that they can work on to help them prepare for temple ordinances.

6. Conclusion

• Watch the "Always in our Sights" video
• I shared the special feelings I had when I was able to gather with my family in the Celestial Room for the first time and bore my testimony that it really is worth it.

Additional Resources:  I also printed off a copy of the "Commonly Asked Questions" about the temple from the Liahona. I thought it had some great explanations, just in case the kids asked questions.

July: How can I deepen my understanding of covenants?

All Printouts Found HERE

1. Introduction

• Making, Breaking, or Keeping Covenants Picture Activity
• Pass out the pictures representing making, breaking or keeping covenants
• Have each youth explain which category their picture(s) fall under

2. Learn Together

• As a class, read the section from True to the Faith titled "Covenants" 
• I have created a worksheet that has this section and the following questions for the youth to answer.
• What is a covenant?
• Why do we make covenants?
• What blessings do we receive when we keep them?
• Discuss answers
• Object Lesson from http://www.ambermaybe.com/2012/06/11/26-weeks-of-fhe-week-9/
• I didn't worry about the rubber ducky on top. I gathered three white cups and one red one. Then I told them that the red cup had to stay in the middle of the white cups. And the white cups couldn't move.
• Hand out "The Covenant Path" printout 
• I found this and I really liked how each of the covenants were laid out as we go through life. I wanted the youth to be able to keep a copy, so I sized it to fix in a standard set of scriptures.

3. Likening the Scriptures & Teaching Others

• Have the youth pick a covenant to learn about and teach to the class. If you have more than six youth, you could print off multiple copies or have them work in groups. (To be fair, I had my class roll a dice to see who got to pick first.) 
• For this activity, the youth are asked to read scriptures as well as excerpts from True to the Faith and a few other articles. If you want to save on printing, you could always bring True to the Faith books for the youth to use instead of the print outs from the True to the Faith.
• Also, if you wanted to save paper, you could always print out the Covenant worksheet from earlier in the lesson and the covenant they are going to learn about and teach double-sided. 

4. Making it Personal

• Pass out index cards and have the youth answer the following question: "Why is making and keeping covenants important to me?

5. Conclusion

• Read the quote from Elder Russell M. Nelson on the back of the Covenant Keeper Kit Kat handout from RuthAnne Strong.