The Prophets Foretold Jesus Would Come to Earth

There are 2 lessons you can give this week to choose from! TWO is like we always do, and reiterate what was taught in Sharing Time. ONE is a short yet powerful video about the true meaning of Christmas!

LESSON ONE:
Watch this video with your family. Then ask each person 1 or 2 things they will give for Christmas. Personally, I'd like to see a little more sharing and obedience! http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001&cid=HPWE120413186

LESSON TWO:
SONG: http://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook/samuel-tells-of-the-baby-jesus?lang=eng

Have these pictures ready and set up in different places of the house:

Isaiah



Nephi


King Benjamin


Abinadi


Alma


Samuel the Lamanite


Have the kids get in a "car" and drive around to each of the places. Each place has a picture of a prophet who testified of the coming of Jesus to the Earth. Have your scriptures ready. Once the scripture is read for the prophet's picture, go over what it talked about and match the pictures below to each prophet so your child can visually see what was the prophecy.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a ^asign; ^bBehold, a^cvirgin shall conceive, and bear a ^dson, and shall call his name^eImmanuel.


1 Nephi 11:14 And it came to pass that I saw the ^aheavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?

 15 And I said unto him: A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins.

Mosiah 3:5-8 (King Benjamin) 5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the ^aLord ^bOmnipotent who ^creigneth, who was, and is from all ^deternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a ^etabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty ^fmiracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the^gblind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

 6 And he shall cast out ^adevils, or the ^bevil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

 7 And lo, he shall ^asuffer ^btemptations, and pain of body, ^chunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can ^dsuffer, except it be unto death; for behold, ^eblood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his ^fanguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

 8 And he shall be called ^aJesus ^bChrist, the ^cSon of God, the^dFather of heaven and earth, the ^eCreator of all things from the beginning; and his ^fmother shall be called Mary.
 

Mosiah 15:1 (Abinadi) And now Abinadi said unto them: I would that ye should understand that ^aGod himself shall ^bcome down among the children of men, and shall ^credeem his people.


Alma 7:10-12 (Alma) 10 And behold, he shall be ^aborn of Mary, at ^bJerusalem which is the ^cland of our forefathers, she being a ^dvirgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and ^econceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and ^aafflictions and^btemptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will ^ctake upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him ^adeath, that he may ^bloose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to ^csuccor his people according to their infirmities.

 

Helaman 14:1-5 (Samuel the Lamanite) 1 And now it came to pass that ^aSamuel, the Lamanite, did prophesy a great many more things which cannot be written.

 2 And behold, he said unto them: Behold, I give unto you a sign; for ^afive years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name.

 3 And behold, this will I give unto you for a ^asign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.

 4 Therefore, there shall be one ^aday and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign; for ye shall know of the rising of the sun and also of its setting; therefore they shall know of a surety that there shall be two days and a night; nevertheless the night shall not be darkened; and it shall be the night before he is ^bborn.

 5 And behold, there shall a new ^astar arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.

My Testimony is Strengthened When I Share the Gospel

SONG: I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

There are a few teaching opportunities we can do with this topic.

1.) First, WHAT IS THE "GOSPEL?"
You can explain that the gospel is the teachings of Jesus Christ.

2.) And the teachings of Jesus Christ are so wonderful that we can't just keep it to ourselves! We want to share it!

3.) And when we share it, our testimonies are strengthened.

So for numbers 1 and 2, we can teach our children what are the MAIN points of the gospel and of a testimony when we share it. To keep it simple and visual, I would recommend the Testimony Glove. If you are like our family, we have gloves around the house for gardening and cleaning. I know you can also get some at Dollar Tree.

Here are the pictures so you don't have to go looking for them:



For number 3, have each child put on the glove and go up in front of the family and practice giving their testimony! As far as understanding your testimony is strengthened each time you share it, our Primary used a jar of water and put food coloring drops into it. The more food coloring drops used, the darker (or stronger) the color got. I believe she might have gotten this idea from http://0e2adbce82be14fd6bcb-5584cc5742c63ca82c29a0709ec0b026.r46.cf2.rackcdn.com/Oct_week4_tesimony_strenghened_jr.pdf

Because I have boys, they like to fight (hiya!) and say they are "so strong." So I was thinking of the cliche: have a piece of thin string and see how easy it is to break, but with each finger of the glove, add more string so it's harder to break. So the more you share your testimony, the stronger the string is and can't break so easily. You can also use Popsicle sticks or whatever you have on hand.

Follow the Prophet

I guess they are allowing for 2 weeks on one topic: The Living Prophet Leads the Church Under the Direction of Jesus Christ.

So many great ideas from so many sources. I especially like quite a few from So You Think You Can Learn. (These are in case you don't want to use my lesson plan.) And I don't always like this source for young children (and because you have to pay for some stuff), but in this week's lesson plan, I actually really like it. I think I might use it for next week's FHE.

For FHE tomorrow we are going to start by singing "Follow the Prophet," of course.

We will begin by my husband whispering in my child's ear directions. Then my child will tell us what to do (jump up and down, wiggle our arms, wave our hands, stick out our tongues, etc.)

Then ask, "How did we know what Daddy wanted us to do?"
"....Because he whispered the directions to you!"

Then I'll hold up a picture of the prophet and ask, "Do you know who this is?"

"We followed [child's name] by wiggling our arms and sticking out our tongues! And who did [child] follow?"

"Who does the prophet follow? Did you know that Heavenly Father speaks to President Monson to tell us what to do?"

And then I'll hold up a picture of the Lord, and hold Him up to President Monson like He is whispering in his ear.

"And then President Monson tells us, during General Conference, what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want us to do!" And I'll hold up this picture:

"These are some of the things he tells us: Go to church, pray daily, be nice to family and friends, and read the scriptures."

Then for an activity, use the printout from this post at Latter-Day Chatter. You can also find directions for the activity in the link I provided for her blog post.

General Conference

I've MOVED!!!! I'm actually really excited for our house to close because it's sooooo much nicer than our old house! I am ready to be done with our old house...oh wait, we are! It's sold!

Needless to say, though, we have been so crazy busy and tonight I finally have time to sit down, but it's too late for today's post! :(

So I am going to provide an idea that I had for toddlers to help them get to know about our modern day prophets and apostles so that next General Conference they can pay attention and recognize these amazing priesthood leaders of the church.

I'm going to print this out and go over what a prophet means and who the 12 are. Then during conference, my son can circle the picture of the GA who is speaking at the time! (If anyone has an updated list of the seventy, etc. let me know please!) because that could be "extra credit!"