Mormon Share > Search results for 'Missionary'

Search Results for: Missionary

Number of Results: 413

President Faust’s Prophetic Prediction About Personal Progress in 2016

April 16, 2016

Back as a beehive, I remember having a mutual Personal Progress night where we’d been asked to find a talk on womanhood to discuss together. We all came excited to discuss and share, and when it came time to read, it turns out we all had the same talk (thanks to the fact that it ranked #1 of LDS.org’s search). It was President Faust’s “Womanhood; The Highest Place of Honor” from the year 2000. And so we discussed it really in depth and had a great experience. The brownies didn’t hurt either.

I don’t think I’ve read the talk since I read it six years ago with my Beehive class, but I recently felt inspired to take a glimpse at it again. I was reminded of being a beehive, brand new to Personal Progress. I was strolling through memory lane, when something really cool stood out to me. President Faust totally predicted what it would be like in 2016! Specifically, how Personal Progress would’ve changed by 2016.

We wonder what the Young Women requirements for Personal Progress awards will be like in the year 2016. Hopefully the values and standards of Young Women will be increasingly focused on spirituality and service to others.

Personal Progress has changed significantly since the year 2000. Back then, young women were still using the program started in 1985. This program included the seven YW values, each with a selection of experiences. There was a set number of experiences you needed to complete each year as a Beehive and a Mia Maid, and then as a Laurel you were supposed to complete two 20-30 hours projects centered around a Young Women value.

In 2002, they changed the structure of the program around quite a bit. They kept the seven values, and the experiences and projects, but now instead of pacing out the experiences and projects based on age, you could go at your own pace. The other significant change was that you now needed to complete a project for each value, following six experiences per value.

Most recently in 2009, they changed the program again. They kept the structure the same (though changing a few experiences and minor guidelines) but added the value of Virtue. This value is unique because it has fewer experiences, and has a required project of reading the Book of Mormon.

Now that we’ve had that brief history lesson, what does it have to do with President Faust’s statement?

He mentions two specific things which he hoped Young Women would be increasingly focused on: spirituality and service to others.

SPIRITUALITY

A huge element of spirituality is self-reliance, and the way the program has changed is definitely designed for increasing self-reliance. The program restructure in 2002 enabled Young Women to work at their own pace without the pressure of deadlines every birthday. It also gave them more freedom in selecting the experiences and projects which would help them grow the most.

Another significant change which has definitely encouraged a spiritual increase is making reading The Book of Mormon mandatory. With the 2002 program, reading one of the Standard Works was a suggestion for a Faith value project. Now that it’s required, and especially under the value of Virtue, it has prompted Young Women around the world to actively increase their testimony of The Book of Mormon.
Just this past April 2016 Conference, Elder Rasband shared


What did we learn [from the Youth]? We learned that our youth love the Lord, sustain their leaders, and desire to have their questions answered! Questions are an indication of a further desire to learn, to add to those truths already in place in our testimonies, and to be better prepared to “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.”

This newly-called Apostle has noted this spiritual growth among youth in the church, and the fact that they’re actively seeking further knowledge of this Gospel.

SERVICE TO OTHERS

Personal Progress has always heavily emphasized service. The way Personal Progress enables service hasn’t changed much–but the opportunities for youth to serve have never been so plentiful. Youth are getting involved in their communities more and more. Studies have shown that millennials are more compassionate and charitable than previous generations, and chances are good that that trend will continue to grow.

Another huge and unprecedented way young women and finding service opportunities is through the growth of missionary and family history work on the internet. Young women are blogging, Snapchatting, Tweeting, Instagramming, and everything-elsing about the way the gospel (and Personal Progress) is blessing their lives. There are Missionaries who are required to use Facebook for missionary work!

And family history and temple work are moving forward in ways nobody could imagine 16 years ago. Research has never been easier, and temples are being built at an excelerated rate. Indexing millions of records takes only 5 minutes at a time. Elder Bednar shared:

Your fingers have been trained to text and tweet to accelerate and advance the work of the Lord—not just to communicate quickly with your friends. The skills and aptitude evident among many young people today are a preparation to contribute to the work of salvation.

Personal Progress is the greatest tool available to young women in 2016 to help them increase their spirituality and service to others. Not because it’s a great to-do list, or because it keeps you perfectly on track, but because it’s designed to help you with YOUR personal progress. It helps you to stay focused on what is spiritually important, while going at your own pace and focusing on your interests.

President Faust was certainly following inspiration when he made that statement. If he were alive today, he would certainly be impressed with the virtuous young women of 2016. So let’s keep going!

Feed Items

, ,

#Hallelujah 3×4-inch Pocket Scrapbooking Cards from Persnickety Prints [Free Download]

March 20, 2016

I work closely with my friend, Jennifer Wilson of Simple Scrapper, and love how she inspires everyone to record their memories. No matter if you are a seasoned scrapbooker (digital or paper) or just a grandma… More

Feed Items

, , , , , , , , ,

Simple and Clear

March 2, 2016

I sat in on a missionary discussion the other night. It was with a woman and her son who both had recently joined the church. They were being taught a follow up lesson on the Plan of Salvation. I was with two really good missionaries. They teach well and they teach well together, almost seamless in their transitions from one teaching to the other. After the lesson we three talked about it and they both agreed that it wasn’t their strongest teaching effort. I offered, as I always do, to give them some feedback and they readily accepted, as they always do.

The feedback was this: they taught the Plan of Salvation in an unnecessarily complicated way. They taught it in the standard way that we all seem to use, with circles and lines representing different spheres of existence and transitions to and from those spheres. But it took over 30 minutes to get all of that on paper. And the reason it took so long is that there were dozens of digressions.

The Plan is vast and it touches at the very heart of what we believe. It helps us understand where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. As we begin to talk about it and teach its truths, we are easily distracted by another example, another appendage to it, another story we’ve heard about one of the facets of the plan, by any number of things that keep us from communicating simply and clearly what that Plan of Salvation really is.  We, the teachers, are not bothered by the digressions because we understand the basics, but those trying to learn them get confused by what is really important and what is less so. And when the lesson is over they are not really sure which points are critical. If we can’t teach the Plan in a straightforward way, we lose people who can’t hack their way through the dense forest of facts we have built for them in order to see the truth at the center.

The lesson of the feedback was this: the best teaching is clear and simple. It is always clear and simple. The circle and line drawing can be put on paper in 10 minutes. It can be clearly explained in not much more time than that. If we teach it in that manner and the Spirit is present, the student/learner will have questions. She will begin to ask questions about the parts and pieces she is interested in and that she doesn’t understand. We can then address those. It will be a much more useful learning experience.

I’m not short-changing the beauty of the plan in suggesting that we can teach it very well in a much shorter time. What I am saying is that this particular subject is so filled with details that we could talk about it for hours, explaining more and filling in more with scriptural backing. That is not only unnecessary but confusing to a beginning learning of these things.

If we lay it out simply and clearly it will be easier understood and will create in the learner an increased desire to understand more.

One of the marks of an effective teacher is this: can he teach simply and clearly.

Feed Items

, , , ,

Scripture Mastery Devotional Preparation Activity Day

February 12, 2016 1 Comment

Scripture Mastery Games

This information was originally published at http://kenalford.com/semlist/2002/02feb02.htm and sent out as part of Ken Alford’s email list to Seminary teachers. Scripture Mastery Devotional Preparation Activity Day This idea is similar to the idea above, but students are given time to prepare devotionals. If your students are like mine, devotionals are too often done “on the fly”. This activity day gives you and your students the opportunity to “fix it”. To make…
Read more

Scripture Mastery Games, Teaching Techniques

Teaching Tips: How to Prepare During a Break

February 12, 2016

This information was originally published at http://kenalford.com/semlist/2002/02jan04.htm and sent out as part of Ken Alford’s email list to Seminary teachers. Christmas break is a perfect time to “get a jump” on the remainder of the school year. Time invested during the Christmas break can pay dividends throughout the entire year. Here are a few things that you may wish to consider doing during the Christmas break: Take time to prayerfully evaluate…
Read more

We Stagnate Without Feedback

January 11, 2016

            I have not posted anything in this space since last June. When I retired from my teaching career that month I stepped away not only from teaching but also from thinking about it. It was just a natural response to not being directly connected with the teaching/learning process professionally.


            Last week my wife and I began a 2 year mission for our church – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and will be in the Boston area for that time. Since missionary work is real teaching work I now have a new motivation to begin seriously thinking about teaching and learning again. I am going to write about things that come to me as a full time missionary, related to the subject at hand. Here is the first one.


            When we were in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) last week I had forcefully come to mind two very basic thoughts about teaching the gospel. The first was that a teacher can never improve without practice and feedback. It can’t be done. We can watch and listen and observe all we want. We can go into our classrooms and try on our own. Nothing will change until we open ourselves to an observer who loves us and cares for our progress and is willing to be bold enough to tell us what was seen and offer some ways to improve. Lacking that, we will limp along forever in our old habits, perhaps trying very hard but not making any real improvements.


            In the MTC we had to role play at teaching on 3 of the 5 days there. Most people did not want to do it because it is a new thing and becomes painful when we have to discover that we missed the mark, either slightly or by a lot. But we all had to participate – no one was exempt. When the little teaching session was over, there was competent feedback and by the end of the week there was obvious improvement seen among many people. The cycle that leads to this improvement is: instruction, practice, feedback, and correction – repeat as often as necessary until competency rises. If you are a teacher who wants to improve, there is no short cut around this process.


            The second thing driven home again to me is how much the Spirit is involved in gospel teaching. My wife was nervous about the role playing but once she opened her mouth and allowed her reliance on the Spirit to shine through, she was great. One time our instructor was listening to her specifically and when she finished the instructor started to applaud. It was that good, from a woman who didn’t think she could teach very well. On our own, none of us is very good but with the Spirit we can all rise up and be very effective.


            Keep practicing, continue to seek competent feedback, and remember where the power comes from in gospel teaching. Learn to trust the Spirit in the gospel classroom.

Feed Items

, , , ,

Mormon Share is not owned by the LDS Church.  Copyright 2018, MormonShare.com, LLC.

THIS WEBSITE WILL CEASE OPERATIONS ON DEC 31, 2018.
We are moving to http://NoBoringLessons.com/ where you can find Come Follow Me Lesson ideas for the new 2019 curriculum Dismiss