Birds-eye view screenshot of our church building and the pathways
PRIMARY 5 LESSON 12 IMPORTANT ORDINANCES ARE RESTORED
CLASSROOM PREP
How is life like a maze? ← write big on the board
- hand out chalk to each kid and tell them to write an answer underneath
OPENING ACTIVITY
- Hand out the maze from the manual with “gate” on one side and “eternal life” on the other
- Notice how there's only one path!
- How is life like a maze? (We can make many different decisions and follow different paths, only one path will lead us to eternal life with Heavenly Father and Jesus, the path of the gospel of Jesus Christ!)
- If the maze is life and the path is the gospel, and eternal life is after this life, what does the “gate” represent? What starts us on the path to eternal life? (Read 2 Nephi 31:17 - baptism/gate)
- What happens after our baptism that we receive? (gift of the Holy Ghost)
- Does this help us stay on the path? How? (protects us, guides us, etc.)
- And what do we do each Sunday that helps us remember our baptismal covenants? (sacrament)
SACRAMENT HYMNS
- Have one hymnbook per kid from the chapel, overflow, or library.
- Have them look up the Sacrament hymn that was sung just before (be sure to make note of this during Sacrament Meeting as it’s sometimes easy to forget!).
- Talk about why that hymn is a Sacrament hymn
- Look at the other hymns in the Sacrament section (show them the hymnbook and how they are listed and categorized) and discuss what baptism covenants, principals, thoughts, etc are shown in the lyrics of the various Sacrament hymns (this is a slight preview of an upcoming lesson about the hymnbook)
LESSON (6 STORIES - see below for stories!)
Have each story printed out on a separate page and give one to each kid in your class or to a pair (depending on how many are in your class). Give everyone 3+ minutes to read it and really know it and prepare to read/teach it to the class. There are discussion questions I've added that they can ask their classmates too.
MAZE OUTSIDE
- Use printed out birds-eye view of our church building and the walkways around it (use Google Maps satellite image to recreate this), have “gate” marked as the door you’ll leave the building from, have “eternal life” marked as the door you’ll come back into the building through. Have a tree chosen on the church grounds near the end (near the eternal life door) marked as “tree of life” on the map.
- Walk reverently around the building on the walkways as if you’re in a maze. Be sure to find the tree of life!
LEGO MAZE
Also bring a bag of extra LEGOs (squares and rectangle shapes)
When building, have part of the maze represent: baptism, confirmation, temple endowment, temple sealing. Best way might be to have these four elements color coded on the maze in the same color LEGOs that the marble will pass through on the way to the end, or in the same shape obstacle.
In class talk about the maze with them, that it also represents what the paper maze represented, and show them what each of the four above sections represent.
Have them take turns solving the marble maze.
- Talk about the "strait and narrow path" the marble is following to get to the end. How can we stay on the path? (praying, reading scriptures, obeying parents, going to church, listening to the holy ghost)
- Using the extra LEGOs, talk about the obstacles that can make it harder for us to stay on the path. Add in LEGOs to stop the marble or divert it to the wrong path (depends on how you built your maze...plan this all out in your design). This LEGO could represent a way we stray from the path - talk about what that could be? (being mean, not obeying parents, not going to church, fighting with others, lying).
- Keep adding more LEGOs for each difficult element in life/wrong choices we can make that make the path harder and cause us to leave the path.
- Jesus is the strait and narrow path that we must follow! We can repent and do better (remove extra pieces to restore the path).
TAKE HOME IDEA
- a maze kit in a Ziploc bag with a paper plate, straws, and a bead
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These stories are directly out of the manual. However for my age group of 8-year-olds, they probably could have used more summarized version as they didn't quite want to read the entire story in order to summarize it themselves. They wanted to just read the whole thing out loud. So for the younger ages I would recommend summarizing it first and then handing them that shorter version.
STORY ONE
Joseph Smith received a revelation that said all people who wanted to join the church of Jesus Christ must repent of their sins, become humble, and be willing to serve Jesus Christ (see D&C 20:37). They could then be baptized into the Church and have their sins forgiven.
At the meeting where the Church was organized, those people who had already been baptized were confirmed as members of the Church and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. The people at the meeting also partook of the sacrament. After the meeting other people were baptized, including the Prophet’s mother and father, Lucy Mack Smith and Joseph Smith Sr. The Prophet’s parents were very happy to be baptized, and Joseph was also filled with joy. Lucy Mack Smith wrote that when her husband came up out of the water where he was baptized, “Joseph stood upon the shore, and taking his father by the hand, he exclaimed, with tears of joy, ‘Praise to my God! that I lived to see my own father baptized into the true Church of Jesus Christ!’”
What have we learned from this story?
- When people make righteous decisions, it can make us very happy!
- It’s important to write down things in a journal (as Lucy Mack Smith did)
- We need to help our families (living and passed away) come to know and believe in Christ
STORY TWO
The Church began to grow. People listened to the teaching of Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and other missionaries, and many wanted to join the Church. Some people had already been baptized into other churches, and they wondered why it was necessary to be baptized again. Joseph inquired of the Lord and received the revelation recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 22. In this revelation the Lord explained that the people who had been baptized into other churches had not been baptized by someone with the proper priesthood authority, so they needed to be baptized again by someone who did have the authority.
What have we learned from this story?
- We can ask Heavenly Father when we have questions
- Priesthood authority is required for baptism
- When someone asks us this same question, we have the answer
- When we have a gospel question, we can ask the prophet (Thomas S Monson now)
STORY THREE
Two months after the Church was organized, Joseph and Emma Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and others traveled to Colesville, New York, because several people from that area wanted to be baptized.
When they arrived in Colesville, they built a dam in a stream to make a pond for the baptism.
But that night a mob of their enemies tore down the dam.
The next day was Sunday, and the Saints held a meeting where Oliver Cowdery preached and other people bore their testimonies of repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some members of the mob were at the meeting, and afterwards they insulted and bothered the Saints.
On Monday morning the Church members repaired the dam and held a baptismal service for the Prophet’s wife, Emma, and twelve other people. By the time the service was over, the mob had gathered again and threatened to harm the Saints. When the Saints went to a nearby home, the mob followed them, but Heavenly Father protected the Saints and the mob did not harm them.
What have we learned from this story?
- Heavenly Father protects us
- It’s important to not give us
- Important gospel things take sacrifice and take time
STORY FOUR
A meeting was planned that evening to confirm those who had been baptized that day, but just before the meeting began, a constable (law enforcement officer) came and arrested Joseph Smith for being a “disorderly person, … setting the country in an uproar by preaching the Book of Mormon” (History of the Church, 1:88). The constable knew that the mob was planning to harm Joseph, so he put Joseph in a wagon and drove away from the mob. As they drove away, one of the wagon wheels came off, and they were nearly surrounded again by the mob. They quickly replaced the wheel and drove on. The constable took Joseph to another town. That night the constable slept with a loaded gun by his side, in case he needed to protect Joseph from the mob.
The next day a trial was held, but Joseph was released because there was no evidence against him. He was immediately arrested again by a different constable and put on trial in another town, but again there was no evidence, and Joseph was finally allowed to go home.
What have we learned from this story?
- Our prophet is protected when it’s the Lord’s will
- Joseph Smith had a lot of enemies
- Joseph Smith was faithful and willing to be treated badly for the gospel
STORY FIVE
Meanwhile, the Saints in Colesville had been praying that Joseph would be safe and would be able to return and confirm them as members of the Church. At the end of August, Joseph and Oliver Cowdery returned with some other men to Colesville. On the way they came upon a large group of men working on the road. Some of these men were enemies of the Prophet, but although they looked closely at the Prophet and his friends, the men did not recognize any of them and allowed them to pass by. Because of this miracle, Joseph arrived safely in Colesville, and the members there were able to be confirmed and partake of the sacrament.
What have we learned from this?
- Early members of the church had a lot of faith enough to pray for the prophet
- The Lord can protect us even in miraculous ways
STORY SIX
Many people who desire to be baptized face challenges. For example, sometimes people do not have the support of their families and friends. In some countries where the Church is just starting to grow, it can be difficult to find a place to baptize people.
In the Republic of Kenya, Africa, Church members had to make many preparations to hold baptisms. They brought a water tank from a neighboring country. They spent five hours pumping water from a well and carrying it to the church building, which was four miles from the well. The level of the water in the tank was not high enough to completely immerse the person being baptized, so ten people stood inside the font to raise the level of the water.
- We should be grateful for our buildings and our baptismal fonts
- People sacrifice many things in order to be part of the Lord’s church
- When we have difficult problems, we can be inspired with creative solutions
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