Pres. Dallin H. Oaks (Apr. '20): "The Great Plan"

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Explanation:

The ideas in this blog are meant to be used in small, home-like environments (2-5 people), although any of them could be adapted for other contexts.  I am also envisioning these activities as guided by a parent(s), but again that need not be the case.  For teaching ideas to use in Relief Society and Elders Quorum classes see my other blog here.  

For Adults:

  1. Make sure that everyone has access to their own copy of the talk.
  2. Read and discuss Par. 22 ("Many of our . . . the restored Church").
  3. Divide the talk into four parts (these roughly follow the divisions Pres. Oaks makes in the talk):
    1. The Plan (par. 3-4)
    2. Mortality and the Spirit World, 1 (par. 5-11)
    3. Mortality and the Spirit World, 2 (par. 12-17)
    4. What Next? (par. 18-21)
  4. Ask a different person to read each section and create two lists from what they read.
    1. Facts about the Plan
    2. Blessings of the Plan
  5. Bring the lists back together and discuss what is on them and how understanding these things can help us to answer many questions we may have about the gospel.

For Teens:

  1. Same as above OR
  2. Introduce the idea that this talk helps us to learn the why of many things.
  3. Present/ask questions such as the following (vary the questions you ask and how many you ask on the needs of your teens):
    1. Why do we have a plan of salvation? 
    2. Why did we leave Father's presence? 
    3. Why did Father allow Jesus to suffer? 
    4. Why are we here on Earth? 
    5. Why is there suffering here on Earth? 
    6. Why do we have commandments? 
    7. Why is marriage important?  
    8. Why do we have the law of chastity? 
    9. Why will we receive the eternal reward we do? 
    10. Why are we taught the plan of salvation so often? 
  4. Ask the teens to find the answer to one or two of these questions (by all means, join in with them).
  5. Come back together and discuss the answers.  
  6. You could also ask the teens if they have any questions that they found answers to in this talk or consider what parts of the plan might help them understand their questions.

For Tweens:

  1. Take a piece of paper and draw 2 vertical lines down it so the paper is divided roughly into thirds.
  2. In the first column, write down everything the tweens can remember about the plan of salvation.
  3. In the second column, write down any questions the tweens have about the plan of salvation.
  4. Take time to read together the talk, looking for answers or other things they did not know about the plan.  You may want to point out that many of these answers may be answers about why certain things are they way they are, e.g. why families are important in the plan of salvation.
  5. After reading through the talk, recored anything the tweens learned in the last column.  
  6. Hang the chart somewhere that it can be added to/reviewed in the coming days.

For Kids:

  1. Get an assortment of blocks and try to rest a large block on a single smaller one (kind of like you are trying to build a table); then on two smaller ones; on three; and finally on four.
  2. Discuss which of these was the most stable (four legs).
  3. Explain that the Atonement gives us four blessings that means we can rest our lives stably on it.
  4. Rebuild the table with four legs from before and explain that each leg stands for one of these blessings.
    1. Forgiveness of sin (par. 9)
    2. Divine aid for tough things (par. 10)
    3. Resurrection (par. 11)
    4. Continued progress after this life (par. 14)
  5. Depending on the age/maturity/knoweldge of the kids you could read parts of the talk that pertain to each piece as you put it in place.
  6. Afterwards, ask the kids to rebuild the table and explain to you what the four blessings of the Atonement are.

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