Use Your Bright Minds to Memorize the Articles of Faith by Elder Perry

One of you recently asked me in a comment, when we do these General Conference Review Lessons.  We do them whenever we can squeeze them in (before school mainly) or during FHE or on Sunday, or whenever we "need" an activity.  

Saturday morning, we needed something.  We talked about Elder Perry's talk from Priesthood session called The Doctrines and Principles Contained in The Articles of Faith.

I was so excited when I heard this talk in General Conference, because as a family, we had just memorized The Articles and Faith and the names and faces of the Brethren.  It is so fun and rewarding to hear the Apostles mention something in Conference that you are already doing.  The Spirit testifies that we are moving in the right direction.

Now that we have this valuable knowledge in our testimony tool belts, I like to refer to them as often as possible.  

For instance, it's a lot more fun now for them to play the Articles of Faith game on The Friend website, and it's way more interesting and rewarding for them to listen to church lessons and talks and even General Conference, because whenever they hear an Article of Faith referenced, they immediately feel "in the know."  (The same goes for memorizing My Gospel Standards!)

For our activity, I downloaded the Articles of Faith cards found at All Things Bright and Beautiful.  I just love her printables.  I shrunk the images down and threw together an Articles of Faith Memory game for my children to enjoy.  And enjoy, they did!  

This is another way to re-enforce what they have learned and to give them a sense of accomplishment that they can indeed match up these articles, because they put in the work to first "acquire the word."

Now, something that I have been doing more and more lately with teaching my children is incorporating the teaching style found in "Come, Follow Me."  Recently, I taught a training session on this curriculum to the YW leaders of our stake.  I felt compelled to stretch myself to teach the leaders how to use the curriculum by using the Come, Follow Me teaching methods (instead of falling into the old ways of teaching.)  I prayed for inspiration.  I watched all of the teacher help videos online, and I worried over it to get it just right.

That weekend, I was amazed as I saw that these teaching principles really do work (both in YW and other settings) and are just amazing.  I had taught Come, Follow me previously when I was serving in YW at the ward level, but a little extra time, attention, study, practice, and earnest effort can really help us get better at this teaching style...and it becomes second-nature.

I now find myself automatically incorporating the Come, Follow Me style of teaching into my gospel teaching in our home (just like I did in the Nursery when I served there briefly last year).  It is contagious!  And I am very happy with the results.

I noticed that Guy wasn't playing the memory game with the girls, and because he had been at the Priesthood session and heard the talk previously, I asked him if he would teach this lesson to the family.  At first, he resisted, until I mentioned that as part of his preparation I wanted him to take the Ipad upstairs and watch Elder Perry's talk again.

He eagerly did so (thank you, IPad) and I was pleased when I came upstairs and found him like this on his bed, watching Elder Perry, and diligently "writing down key words" and ideas he had to teach this lesson to the family.  (I didn't tell him to do that!) Cute!

Guy showed us brief sections of the video, and paused in between selections to ask us questions to make sure we understood what was being taught.

It was so neat to watch my little future missionary teaching these principles of the gospel to his sisters, especially because the point that I wanted to bring out from Elder Perry's talk was this:

"I encourage you to use your bright minds to study and learn the Articles of Faith and the doctrines they teach. They are among the most important and certainly the most concise statements of doctrine in the Church. If you will use them as a guide to direct your studies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will find yourself prepared to declare your witness of the restored truth to the world. You will be able to declare in simple, straightforward, and profound ways the core beliefs you hold dear as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"You will find yourself prepared to declare your witness of the restored truth to the world." 

As it turns out, I didn't have to say any of this explicitly.  It was just happening right before our eyes.  My children know that this is true, because they are doing it.

I love the gospel.

Here are our General Conference Review Lessons for the October 2013 Conference so far:

The Stronger the Wind, The Stronger the Trees - President Monson

Angels to Watch over Us - President Eyring

Come, Join With Us - President Uchtdorf

The Key to Spiritual Protection - President Packer

The Articles of Faith - Elder Perry

Like a Broken Vessel - Elder Holland

Trust in the Lord - Elder Ballard

No Other Gods - Elder Oaks

Beware of Bondage - Elder Cook

Decisions for Eternity  - Elder Nelson

Repentance: The Hope-filled Path - Elder Scott

The Moral Force of Women - Elder Christofferson

Windows, Priesthood & Tithing - Elder Bednar & Elder Andersen

"Oh, How We Need General Conference!" - Elder Hales