missionary lessons for kids #1 - restoration

i am going to be working on a series of blog posts called missionary lessons for kids.   my daughter is taking the lessons before her baptism and is inviting her friends over to take them with her.   we live in germany so some of the things i post will be translated into german.   i should have english and german or at least the reference to the english version.   i have been asking for help on an lds group on facebook.   i have been receiving contributions there so for credits, join the group.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/LDSSafeHaven/

the first lesson in the preach my gospel manual is the restoration.
one of the ideas is to label and stack cups to build a tower or pyramid.   then take some of the things from the tower and show how the church of Christ fell because these truths were taken away.  someone suggested to expand on that and just use jenga blocks.   another suggestion was to visualize a glass table and then imagine it was broken into little pieces.  people came and took what they could and built their own churches from the pieces.   this represents that people did what hey could, and the churches all have some truth but because the prophets and apostles were taken away, they did not have the whole gospel.

 i would combine these.   i have kids so i would use kids building blocks.  

ask what a church needs.   what did the church that Jesus led have?   prophets, apostles, revelation, scriptures, faith, followers or disciples, priesthood, prayer, etc.  each thing could have several blocks to represent it.   you might go with certain shapes, sizes, or colors to represent certain things.  

the people killed the apostles and prophets, take those blocks away.   when you take those away, you take revelation.   you still have inspiration but it is not the same thing as revelation.  

then you still have scripture, faith, knowledge of Jesus and the Atonement, these kinds of things.  now, everyone that is still a believer of Christ, wants the church so they come and take what is left and they do their best to build back up what they recognise as a church.   they still have inspiration but not revelation.   they still have scripture and knowledge, but not prophets and apostles.  

now, everyone has their own churches in front of them.   each has truth, each is the best they can do with what is left.   none are whole.  

explain how joseph smith was called to restore the whole truth, the whole gospel.   God gave back things like prophets and apostles, revelation, and priesthood.   put these blocks back on the table and begin building.   now we can take things like the scriptures, prayer, faith and all the pieces that were left and we have the whole truth built, the whole building built again.

the days of our many lives

as a kid i remember missionary farewells.   i remember wanting to speak at my uncle's farewell but being to scared, (i was like 6ish), and being so sad that i couldn't actually speak.   everyone was sad and yet happy to see the missionary go and so happy to see him come back.   as i got older, i enjoyed having the missionaries over for dinner and was sad to see them transferred,  but that is kind of part of it.   it wasn't until here in germany that i made another connection.   we still had the missionaries over all the time, but now, when they went home to america, they went to my home too.   i was sad to see them go because we enjoyed having them over.   i also enjoyed having fellow americans over.   then, as i kept up with them on facebook, i saw the welcome home they received, and it hit me.   it was one of those, "AH-HA!" moments that kind of makes you go, "duh!" at the same time.

a person is born into a family with parents that teach them.
they grow and learn as much as they can.
then they go from one place to another to have experiences that they cannot have where they have grown to this point.
they go.
the people around them have lost the presents and communication with them for a while.
it seems like an eternity but is actually a very short part of their entire existence.
they learn and they gain experience.
then they leave that place and return to their place of origin.
the people where they have been serving, learning and gaining experience, are sad to see them go and lose their presents with them.
the people who welcome them home, rejoice and celebrate their return.
they bring that experience with them into their life at home.

what i realized is that this story is the same for missionaries and every person that leaves their pre-mortal home to come to earth.   go ahead, read it again with the thought of premortal, mortal and afterlife in mind.   obviously, there are some differences.   one of the big ones is that the missionaries that go home, leave mortal life, and we can still keep up with them through facebook, email, etc.   this is painfully clear when you have friends or family that have moved onto the afterlife.  but it has reminded me that those people are still there and just moved onto another place and not just gone.   it has made the reality of an afterlife more tangible for me actually.

honestly, i think this realization also took me having family pass to the afterlife to really take hold.    of course i knew that my family was not gone, but this helped me really comprehend and accept it with my mortal mind.   we will see how it does when i have missionaries leaving my own home in years to come.

patches

i was patching my favorite pair of jeans today.   i love these jeans!   i inspected them and kept finding places that needed little reinforcements before they tore out.   i am determined to continue patching these jeans until i am patching patches and there is nothing left but patches.   in an effort to better use my time, i was also listening to a talk by craig a. cardon entitled, the Savior wants to forgive

i took me until the end of the talk to realize the object lesson in this.  

"Peter once inquired how many times he should forgive his brother and then asked, “Till seven times?” Surely that would be more than enough. But the Savior’s response opened wide the door to His merciful heart: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."

i realized that i was doing for my jeans, is what the Savior does for our spirits through the Atonement.   he patches, and patches, and patches, and patches.

as i was finding those thin spots, and applying some backing to strengthen them, i realized the same thing happens in our spirits as well.

"The Lord knows our weakness and the eternal consequences of “the world” upon imperfect men and women. ".   

ether 12:27  And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

 God strengthens us, He sees the weak spots and will bolster us so that those places do not completely wear through.     of course, we have to do our part.   like my jeans, passing through the heat of my iron, we have to read, pray, have faith, all of those simple primary answers that just seem too easy to have any effect.   all of those things put a patch on our weak spots.   the simple, daily things that God has asked us to do, strengthen us.    the Atonement repairs us.   Christ wants to patch us up, heal our souls, because he loves us.   He loves us more than i could ever love my jeans that i am putting so much work into.   He does so much more than patch.      

i don't know how crafty you are, but if you have ever have to patch a pair of pants, a tire, a stuffed animal, a roof, or anything else, use that moment to teach and learn something deeper.



the references for the underlined quotes from brother cardons talk
Matthew 18:21–22; emphasis added; see also Luke 17:1–4.

Doctrine and Covenants 64:2; emphasis added.

1 Nephi 20:9–11; Doctrine and Covenants 24:2; 50:41; 63:47;108:1–8.

snap back

there was a missionary that always had d rubber band around his wrist.   finally i asked him why.   he said that when things were tough and he was having a hard time or beginning to whine, he would pull it and snap himself.   it reminded him that things could be worse and that the painful times only last a little while.  just like the snapping of a rubber band.   it really hurts for a second but then it's gone with in moments.   it doesn't seem so bad once it's over.

through the button hole

we had the missionaries over for family home evening last night.   what a blast!

we used the games i wrote about here - missionary games.   we also gave them a positive packet that i describe here - perpetual positive propulsion packet.   in their packet, and as one of the activities while we ate, i gave them this object lesson.   i found the basic idea here - http://agwebservices.org/Content/RSSResources/Spain_MissionsObjectLesson.pdf

of course, i tweaked it a bit.

i wanted something that they could take with them and use on their mission, in life, family etc.    the original uses paper but i wanted it sturdy.   i thought about fabric but had no time, my sewing machine is not running and i was afraid that the fabric would give too much and thus , not really get the point across.   so, i used one of my favorite, go to, fixer upper, do it all, resources - duct tape!

i tore a piece about 10 inches long, folded it over, (probably the hardest part of this craft), and cut.   make sure that your holes at the bottom are not too big.   a slit or little oval is better than a hole.   it only needs to be as large as the center strip you cut.    i think the one you see laying out flat is the one that had a too large hole and i had to quickly make another one for my industrious missionary that was able to get his button out of the hole.

the buttons were fun to do and i probably overdid just because i like to crochet.   my excuse is that i wanted to make something sturdy.   that's my story and i'm sticking with it.


you could use buttons, sticks, pieces of wood, bottle caps or can tabs as long as your hole is smaller that what you use.  you may notice that my string is much shorter than the one in the original site.   my son was able to pull the string over the top and get the thing off that way.  even with the strings so short as i made them, one missionary got his off that way.   ok, so there is more than one way to solve a problem.  here's a basic on how i crocheted the buttons together.   just a tiny hook and pull the yarn through the holes.   i did 20 stitches between the buttons and it turned out about right.

 i let the boys struggle with these and listened to the conversations.   when someone thought they had it figured out, they would hide it under the table so no one else could see.   one young man got the buttons off but wasn't sure if he got it right and wanted to know how i had done it.  i showed him because he asked.

the object of the lesson is a bit more than the thought on the original site.  i told them that everyone is handed problems in life, everyone has struggles.   we have to do all we can to solve them.   we also know that it is possible, no matter how impossible it seems, God always provides a way.   then i pointed out that most of them had not asked for help.   i pointed out that we have to help each other in our troubles.   we all laughed about the helping each other in times of trouble because they had been really secret about their discoveries.   they had a little ah-ha moment about the way they had been teasing each other and telling each other not to cheat.   it was all fun and very light.  we all laughed about the lesson compared to the behavior.   i don't think ah-ha moments need to be serious all the time.  

i truly just kind of went with the spirit on this lesson, i had a basic idea and just went with whatever came out of it.

here's the finished product, (you can see that i did not measure in any way shape or form).    i hope you have fun with it and can use it in your object lessons.  

here's a quick how-to on getting the buttons on and off.   pull the center strip through the hole.   push the buttons through to get them on or pull them out to get them off.   that's all there is to it.   super simple once you know how.

what's on your sunday?

we had the missionaries over the other day and were talking about object lessons.   this one came up and i thought i would share.

the teacher comes in and sets down a box of ice cream and asks who wants some.  (our missionary happened to volunteer and pointed out that his birthday had just past so he should get to help out with this lesson.)   the teacher put some ice cream in a bowl and then asked what his volunteer's favorite sport was.  basketball - ketchup on the ice cream.   what's your favorite music? rock - mustard on the ice cream.   hobbies, books, games, all resulted in things pepper, salt, pickles etc being put on the ice cream.  the point being, the although all these things are good, and have a time and a place . . . they just don't belong on your sunday.

i love the play on words.   i'm wondering if he would have gotten some chocolate for his book had he said the scriptures or something.   obviously, our sunday is not the place for every other day things.

a light in the dark

i heard an intersting comparative in church today.   it was mentioned briefly to illistrate doc. & cov. 45:7  
for verily I say unto you that I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the light and the life of the world - a light that shines forth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.    I've been rolling this around in my head all day and it has gained more and more meaning.   i have gained different points of perspective on it.   it has been opening up new possibilities of object lessons all day.  

i have expanded the brief idea and i'm including my few thoughts for object lessons.   you could use a candle in a candle holder or a little Christmas house with a light in it.  

think about a house in the middle of the darkest night.  the house has lights on inside.   if you open the door, the dark does not come in, instead, the light shines out.   the dark can not come into the light.   the light wins and penetrates the darkness every time.   scientifically, darkness does not exist, it is only the absence of light.


now, compare this to God's light.   satan cast himself out of the light, he is in the absence of God's light.

how about being in the world and not of it?   we can shine into the light without stepping into it.

the Holy Ghost being in more than one place at a time.   people in different places can see the lights in the house all at the same time, the house does not move, but the light radiates.   the sun has been used to illustrate this as well.   half the earth can see and feel the sun all at the same time, the sun sits still but still affects half the earth all at once.   the Holy Ghost does not withdraw, we simply turn away from it.

don't think of yourself as being in the dark, but rather in an absence of light.   you can change that!   this is amazing missionary thought.

how about that same line of thinking just with positive thinking?   there may be negative darkness all around you but you can shine positive light into it.

God's love is always extended to us.   we may move away from the light, but the house and the light stay put, with an open door, waiting for us to come back inside, and into the light.