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Week 8: Come Follow Me: Book of Mormon, Teaching Ideas and Free Resources

February 17th – 23rd

2 Nephi 11 – 25

Questions to Ponder:

Each Come Follow Me Lesson asks important and reflective questions. When I first began my individual study these questions threw me off. Simply because many of these questions required so much depth and individual reflection in order to answer honestly. My first approach to come follow me was to get in, get out, get it done, check it off. These questions simply didn’t allow me to do so. In fact, I felt a little sick when I would read a question like, “How does the spirit speak to you?” and I wouldn’t know the answer right away. After a time, and pondering on that specific question I realized IT’S OKAY. In fact, I think these questions were meant to be set aside, thought about, and pondered. When we try and come up with the quick easy, obvious, answer, we are depriving ourselves of an opportunity to reflect, ponder, pray, and RECEIVE REVELATION. Is this not the whole reason for Come Follow Me? Are we not trying to finetune and recognize how we, and how to receive personal revelation.

So each week I will list out some of the questions issued in Come Follow Me. Maybe you pick to ponder about all of them, maybe you pick just one. Whatever you do, ponder on this for the ENTIRE week. Pray about it, discuss it with loved ones, then at the start of the new week, take the time to write down your impressions or thoughts, share them with your family, testify of powerful insights.

• Why would Nephi go to the tedious effort of copying a large amount of Isaiah’s writings into his record?
• How you are helping fulfill the prophecies they describe?
  • What do you feel inspired to do to help gather God’s people?
• How are temple covenants helping you “walk in [the Lord’s] paths?
• How can we avoid being deceived by false ideas about good and evil?
• What are some specific things we can do to help fill the earth with “the knowledge of the Lord”?
• How can you help your family members “rejoice in Christ”?
• What does it mean to walk in God’s paths?
• Why is a mountain a good symbol for the temple?
• We live in a world where, as Isaiah prophesied, people call evil good and good evil. How can you help the children identify such deception?
• How can we detect his deceptions?
• Why does Satan disguise sin?
• Think of someone they|you would like to “persuade … to believe in Christ”
• How can we express to others the joy that the Savior brings into our lives?

Object Lesson: Sodas, Slushies, and Spiritual Consequences

An object lesson that promises to “FREEZE” your family|students in their tracks!

When deciding on what topic to focus on for this week’s object lesson the idea in 2 Nephi 15:20 really stuck out to me:

“Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

When I stumbled across this object lesson that was printed in the March 2014 New Era, I found it to be the perfect add on to the object lessons we’ve talked about in previous weeks of this years study of the Book of Mormon through Come Follow Me:

Week 6: Agency is not Free

Week 3: Plain and Precious Truths

Don’t let the timing of this activity scare you. It’s simple chemistry, or so my research tells me 😀 Essentially, this activity gives you a little magic, a yummy treat, but most importantly an impactful and memorable lesson about one of the ways Satan uses deception to deceive us.

Materials:

• Soft drink: Any soda or soft drink works for this, but it works especially well with 16-ounce or 20-ounce carbonated soft drinks. It’s also easiest to use a beverage in a plastic bottle.
• Freezer
• Chilled Serving Cups or Chilled Container (Think Metal or Glass Bowl\Cups)

Instructions:

1. 1. Start with a room temperature soda. You could use any temperature, but it’s easy to get a handle on how long it takes to freeze the liquid if you know your approximate starting temperature.
   2. Shake up the bottle and place it in a freezer. Do not disturb the soda while it is chilling or else it will simply freeze.
   3. After about three to three and a half hours, carefully remove the bottle from the freezer. Each freezer is a little different, so you may need to adjust the time for your conditions.
      • After about three hours in the freezer, the soda temperature will drop below freezing. But the soda will remain liquid because shaking the carbonation prolongs the freezing process.
   4. There are a couple of different ways to initiate freezing.
      • You could open the cap to release pressure, reseal the bottle, and simply turn the soda upside down. This will cause it to freeze in the bottle.
      • You could gently open the bottle, releasing the pressure slowly, and pour the soda into a chilled cup causing it to freeze into slush while you pour.
      • Pour the drink over an ice cube to get it to freeze.
      • Another option is to slowly pour the soda into a clean cup, keeping it liquified. Drop a piece of ice into the soda to initiate freezing. Here, you can watch the crystals form outward from the ice cube.

WARNING: Do not drink your supercooled liquid when it comes out of the freezer, as the liquid might expand between your teeth and injure you. Wait until it is in slush form before drinking

Don’t let the warning scare you off from trying this in your home or classroom, it’s just a friendly heads-up!

Procedure:

You may be scratching your head wondering where the application comes in… Let’s dig in.

Remember this activity will take a little scheduling|planning ahead. It will be most impactful if your family or students are able to see you|participate in shaking the soda pop… However, you could simply just tell them that before placing the soda pop in the freezer it was shaken. Give your bottle around 3 hours in the freezer. I would start this lesson around the 2 hour and 45-minute mark giving you 15 minutes to prep and set up the lesson, without giving to much leeway or allowing the bottle to be in the freezer any longer than 3 hours and 15 minutes. (If left in too long the liquid will simply freeze.)

Begin by having a discussion about choices and consequences. A GREAT review and tie in of the previous week’s materials. (2 Nephi 2 and Agency)

My 4-year-old son sadly had an impactful reminder of our ability to choose but not able to choose our consequences on Valentine’s Day. Sweet boy was given a fun Valentine’s Day Balloon and had spent the morning playing with it. It was a beautiful day so I left our backdoor open so the fresh air could fill our house. I had the feeling to warn him to be careful as he played with his balloon, that he should keep his balloon away from the open door because it could fly away. I actually reminded him multiple times of this choice and sure consequence. Feeling confident in my warning I went to the backrooms of our house to vacuum while he and his sister played in the living room. 

A few moments passed and the constant hum of the vacuum was interrupted by a blood curdling, bone-chilling, scream of fear and desperation. My heart was in my throat as I prepared for a trip to the emergency room as I rounded the corner of our hall afraid of the scene I was about to come upon. Both kids were crying. Benson was in hysterics. I quickly checked my daughter for injury grateful to find none. I then examined her brother and in between his cries, I pieced together the story. Despite warnings, and my clear explanation of what the outcome and consequence would be, Benson decided to experiment with his balloon and the open door to our back yard. After what felt like hours of agony and tears we were able to discuss choices and consequences. We may be free to choose, but agency is not free, and we are not able to choose our consequences. 

After reviewing the idea of choices and consequences ask your family or students what they know about making the choice to shake a soda? If you are dealing with littles or just want to add a little pizazz it’s not a bad idea to use a small can of soda to demonstrate what happens when you shake a soda. (Make sure to go outside for this one 😀 )

Now that there is a concrete understanding of the consequence of shaking a soda, you will throw all good judgment out the window and shake the bottle|bottles you are using until your heart’s content. Once the bottle|bottles have been properly shaken, add them to the freezer and start your timer.

About 15 minutes before it’s time to pull out your bottles the next discussion you are going to want to have is all about deception. Begin with the verse 2 Nephi: 15:20

“Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

You may even consider doing a scripture chase about Satan’s Deception: (2 Nephi 28:22).

21 And others will he ^apacify, and lull them away into carnal ^bsecurity, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the ^cdevil^dcheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.

22 And behold, others he ^aflattereth away, and telleth them there is no ^bhell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful ^cchains, from whence there is no deliverance.

• Moses 4:4
• Study Helps Deciet|Decieve
• Deceit, Deceive, Deception Additional Study Helps References

Before pulling the Soda bottle out of the freezer explain that like the verses you’ve read Satan is the author of deception. He will tell you that your choices don’t lead to consequences, that there is no such thing as sin, that just a little will not matter… Discuss with your family other lies or types of deception Satan uses to “Pacify, or Flattereth away.” This should be another natural way to link last week’s object lesson about the chain links and the subtlety of the chains. 

Though the video above is focused on addiction, it gives a beautiful illustration of the need for sin to be camoflauged, or to be viewed as harmless.

“C. S. Lewis gave us a keen insight into devilish tactics. In a fictional letter, the master devil, Screwtape, instructs the apprentice devil Wormwood, who is in training to become a more experienced devil:

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. … It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. … Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts” (The Screwtape Letters, New York: Macmillan, 1962, p. 56).

C. S. Lewis also wrote: “A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. … You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1960, p. 124).”

-Elder James E. Faust

So what are we to do with all of these lies, counterfeits, half-truths, and twisted lies. Surely, in today’s world, you have felt yourself asking, “What is truth?” Consider watching this video and discussing the absolute necessity of the Holy Ghost when determining Truth.

 

Application|Discusion:

So, what is this soda sensation all about? This activity is a lesson about deception. Nobody works harder at deception than the adversary, and one of the ways he deceives us is to convince us that our actions have no consequences. The prophet Nephi taught: “And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance”

Ask your students or family what they think will happen when you pull the soda from the freezer, what changes have likely happened. Likely, they will expect to see a frozen substance. Ask them what they think will happen after you open frozen soda? When you pull the soda from the freezer let your family or students notice that the substance is STILL liquid. This is where you need to make the parallel.

Now it’s time to bring out a soda from the freezer. Handle it carefully without jarring or shaking it, which could result in premature freezing. Ask your family if they notice anything unusual about this soda, which should appear perfectly normal if you found and used the right freeze time.

Very slowly, remove the lid. Ask them again if it still looks like a regular soda. (It should.)

There will come times in your life where you will be tempted to turn from the light, you will think or justify or rationalize that there will be no consequence from this action. This is a lie that Satan would have you believe. Connect the lie to the still liquid like soda. Satan wants you to believe that shaking the soda or making a bad choice will lead to no consequence.

If you have older children I definitely recommend taking the time to watch this Spiritual Crocodile Video, from an excerpt of a Boyd K. Packer talk. The same talk Bednar referenced in a General Conference when talking about his personal experience in Africa. If you have younger children consider stopping the video at 3:40 minute mark and discussing what you’ve watched and how it applies. If you keep watching know that the video will show the crocodile catching its prey! 

Also… The teacher in me can’t help but post the terms, vocabulary and science related to what’s happening. SO… In case you, are interested… Check this out. 

If you do this activity PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take pictures and tag me! Post to the Facebook group, or tag @livingonlemonlane on Instagram! Don’t forget to pin these images to your Pinterest. This is a SMALL and SIMPLE way to support the efforts of Living on Lemon Lane and sharing these ideas with your friends and family.

 

To stay up to date, and show your support make sure to follow @livingonlemonlane on Instagram!

Make sure to tag a friend to help spread the word. 

 

Watch or Listen To:

With a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, I understand the STRUGGLE and the attention span you are dealing with. Below are some of my favorite videos or audio recordings|podcasts you can listen to and watch with your children. My favorites right now are the Book of Mormon Story videos.**Different from the newly released B.O.M. videos. These are illustrated and READ stories to your children. THESE are PERFECT for when everyone is strapped in the car seat. My 4-year-old now requests these over the radio. Each segment is only 2-4 minutes long. This allows us to listen, review and discuss together, and listen again throughout the week.  Many of the videos I share can be found on the Saint’s Radio Channel App. (Formerly Mormon Channel App, If you don’t already have this, DOWNLOAD NOW.)

Read:

• Evelyn’s Temple Testimony: Cute story for our little friends about the temple. 
• A Picture of the Temple: A Poem, a great time to pick out a picture of a temple for your own child to hang in their room!

Activity Suggestions:

 

By now you know I also LOVE Ministering Simply’s resources and beautiful illustrations. This week she illustrated a Temple Matching game and my heart can’t handle her talents. 

You could also try this Animal Mask Activity where students pretend to be animals that are typically enemies, but Isaiah teaches us that during the Millenium that they will be friends.