Relief society Lessons Online

Hey anyone who is interested. I have written up two Relief Society lessons online, which I will probably continue doing. I figure it could possibly be a resource for people who teach to exchange ideas. I took a lot of things out of them, such as the "does anyone have an expreince with X" type of discussion. But I am not big on that anyway. And I also flavored it a bit for a general audience, so it isn't exactly how I would give the lesson.

This article corresponds with lesson eleven, in the Relief Society manual, about th April 6 organization of the church.
http://www.helium.com/items/1088260-when-was-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saings-founded-how-much-has-changed-since-then

Things I added for this lesson. The church has a theme going where a pattern is established, and that pattern repeats itself in various ways in various dispensations. In fact the concept of dispensation is a pattern, in which there is a foundational patriarch, an exodous, a strengthening and then a diaspora. We are now hopefully doing a bit of the strengthening and then hopefully once people stop huddling in the mountain west, a diaspora.

Patterns from Joseph Smith in this lesson can be seen in many things that we do in the church today. His description of the firs meeting on April sixth has a lot of elements of meetings today, including prayer, business, priesthood ordinance and sustaining, and scripture and testimony.

And so because His house is a house of order, this helps in the efficiency and effectiveness of meetings today. We don't have to wonder what we are going to do week to week or rely on some pastor to come up with an effective new idea. That concept is also helpful in life. I don't really have to wonder too much what to do with my time, it is pretty much outlined for me. There is also a pattern in the organization of the church across periods of history.


This article needs a bit of help as I am just now trying to start getting things online before my lessons so others can see them, but it is lesson 12 on the missionary program. It is kind of dry. It has been kind of a stretch for them to get the topics they want in the manual to correspond with the source material, in my opinion.

http://www.helium.com/items/1101306-preparing-to-proselite-history-of-the-lds-missionary-program

Things I will bring up for discussion are Joseph Smith's zeal to preach the gospel and why it was so important for the early church, despite their other problems. I would like to ask people about the various differences they might have experienced in periods of their lives in wanting to be missionaries.

I will also point out that we shouldn't always compare ourselves to people that feel realy gung ho about doing it. Some people, and I mention Slade in this lesson, never really thought that going on a mission was going to be his thing. He didn't believe for a second that he would ever come home talking about how it was the best two years of his life. And I think the fact that some people DO talk that way, might scare some young men away from the prospect of serving missions, or young women or adults for that matter. They figure that if they aren't on fire about it perhaps it isn't right for them. Except that it is a commandment and all. And of course some of the benefits of doing it come even though we don't happen to feel as though we enjoy it.