Book of Mormon [MOSIAH 11-17] Creative Object Lessons with Maria Eckersley

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Welcome back, everybody.

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This is the creative side of week 20, where I'm going to give you three

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object lessons to help highlight a few of the key teachings of Abinadi

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and find creative ways to get them to apply to your kids and your classes.

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I'm going to take you through a quick summary first.

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And then I'll break down each one so that you can figure out how to

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apply it to your kids, your classes.

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If you're a teenager and you're trying to teach this to other

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teenagers, I'm hoping to give you some tools to give you a kickstart.

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So, let's get into the details.

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Okay, first, I wanted to add on to the printable that we talked about last week.

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Remember how I gave you those soda can totem poles?

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I call these totem pole towers because they're designed to teach

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you the story of the Book of Mosiah.

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And we're going to add to it this week.

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In fact, I'm giving you the whole second half of Mosiah this week.

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You won't use them all this week, but the tools that you need to teach this week's

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study are included in the printable.

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So for this one, you just need cardstock, some tape or glue, and then also, if you

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want to make it more fun and delicious, you want little tiny skinny soda cans.

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You just need five more this week.

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You needed 10 last week, five more this week, and you'll have enough to tell

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the entire story of the book of Mosiah.

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So that's coming your way.

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Second one.

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This one is all about keeping the commandments of God, because I think it's

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really interesting to see how Abinadi's message begins at the commandments

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because his message can't start in the same place that Benjamin's started in.

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Benjamin's people were ready to make covenants with God and we had

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already built up a level of faith.

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The people that Abinadi speaks to, King Noah's court, they are not

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ready and they're distorting the commandments of God and it causes

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all kinds of trouble for them.

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So I thought it would be really valuable for us to take a week

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to study the Ten Commandments.

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They are still a foundation for us to stand on in order to

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increase our relationship with God.

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So I'm pulling one of the games that we created for the Old Testament and

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I'm revamping it for Abinadi's message.

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This is called Sinai Scramble.

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This week it's Abinadi's Sinai Scramble, and it's going to help you

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practice the Ten Commandments and play a really fun game at the same

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time, so that by the time the game is over, your kids know which commandment

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has which number and what they mean.

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This will help.

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Third, this is an important week to talk about the godhead, because as your kids

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read the verses, especially those middle chapters where the father and the son

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are one and it gets kind of confusing to know what he's talking about, this is a

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good week to teach about the nature of the godhead being separate and distinct

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beings that have one common purpose.

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And my favorite way to teach that is with a light blending activity.

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So I call this the godhead trio of light.

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For this one, you just need the printable.

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It looks like this.

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Copy paper, cardstock work great.

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And then you also need three phones that have a flashlight.

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You could use real flashlights too, but you would need them all to be about the

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same height, which is kind of tricky.

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So we use iPhone flashlights and that worked great for us.

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But if you have three flashlights and the printable, you'll be all set.

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Okay, that's your supplies now.

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Let's get into the details.

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First off, we're going to add to our story of the Book of Mosiah.

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So just like last week, how I gave you these printable tools so that

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you could navigate this tricky book that's full of flashbacks and journeys

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and travels and different kings.

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It's just, It's hard to keep it all straight, so this week I'm

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adding to what we gave you last week in order to round out and

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finish out the whole book of Mosiah.

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Since we only cover Abinadi's chapters this week, you won't need all the

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pieces this week, but I'm giving you the printable that has all the pieces

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so that you have everything you need for the next three weeks all at once.

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But the fundamental part of this week's printable that's different

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than last week is this map.

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You guys, I made this map.

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a map because I searched all over the place to try and find a map that taught

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all the things that I wanted to be Taught about the book of Mosiah and I couldn't

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find one for the life of me So I spent like 10 hours and I don't know how

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many drafts making this map The reason I did it this way is I really wanted

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to color code it so my kids could tell which groups of people were going where.

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I wanted it to match with the other printables that we have so that they

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could use this as a storytelling tool.

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So you're going to find that all on this map.

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Basically, I walk you through all the different journeys, not just

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of those early chapters, but of all the chapters of the Book of Mosiah.

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So by the end, if you look down below, you can see that there's, you 12 steps total.

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These are 12 different parts of the story of the Book of Mosiah

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told in like chronological order rather than chapter order.

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And by the end you see the sons of Mosiah leaving to go

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on a mission to the Lamanites.

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So this is like a fuller picture and I'm hoping it helps guide

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your conversations since I know this is a big size for you to use.

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you know, in scripture study or in seminary.

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I'm also giving you this smaller one.

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So this one I designed to be like a bookmark.

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It's about the size that would fit in a standard quad.

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And you can open it and, you know, use it whenever you're in the Book

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of Mosiah and you're trying to figure out and get your bearings.

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So hopefully that will help you.

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I also give you the tools that you need to tell more of the story.

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So just like we had last week, you're going to get several totem poles, like

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you'll get Alma the first and Alma the second, you'll get the sons of Mosiah,

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you'll get the wicked priests, all of those go into play in this week.

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You also have two more cities to keep track of.

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So I give you the waters of Mormon that you'll use just at the end of this week.

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And then also Helam that becomes a really pivotal city for In the coming weeks.

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So those are on there as well.

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But hopefully all those tools will allow you to walk through the story.

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We did this with my kids.

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I combined these tools with the ones we created from last week, and they

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could teach each other the whole story.

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In fact, if you want to do it kind of more chapter by chapter, there's also

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a storyline guide in the description.

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in the printable.

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Just like there was last week, it kind of walks you through and tells

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you which can to move where and why.

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So you'll find one of those for the second half of the Book of Mosiah as well.

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Tons and tons of tools at your disposal so that hopefully this book becomes

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less cumbersome and complicated and the light of it shines out.

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Once they kind of get their bearings and they know where the cities are and

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they know which cans stack up because these are the same family line, Then all

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of a sudden, the words of these mighty prophets can kind of rise to the surface.

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Otherwise, they get a little bit lost.

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So I'm hoping these printable tools will help.

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It's been a minute since I shared a high speed, high stakes card

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game to teach the scriptures.

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I think the last one we did was when we were doing that game about

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Isaiah's writings in Nephi, but now we've got a new one on the table.

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And this is to help your kids know and understand the Ten Commandments.

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Abinadi, when he was concerned for these people, they thought

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they knew the commandments.

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They thought they understood, and they were way off course.

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And I think the same thing can happen to us.

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If we start to kind of push aside these commandments of God, or we

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forget what they're for, or what they're about, we run that same risk.

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So Abinadi took his time to teach these commandments one by one to

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these wicked priests in the hopes of converting hearts and tongues.

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Helping them build a foundation of choices.

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And the same thing can apply to us.

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I think we need to study and understand the Ten Commandments.

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I give you some quotes in the notes if you want to have some prophets

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tell you why this is important.

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But for me, the best way to do it is with a game.

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So this is Abinadi's Cyanide Scramble.

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So I've re ramped this printable a little bit to make it more

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applicable for this particular lesson.

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But the game is really simple.

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Essentially, what you have is a stack and a deck.

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You have a deck of 60 cards if you have like four to six players.

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If you have more than that, you can print more cards or break into different groups

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but you want to deal out seven cards to each player and the cards are simply the

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commandments so you can see like number three is orange and it says thou shalt

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not take the name of the lord thy god in vain so that's number three they're going

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to play these cards and race each other everybody plays at the same time basically

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you're going to Make a set in your hand.

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When you have two cards that match, you lay it down in front of you.

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The only thing that's tricky is if somebody else also has a number three,

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they can lay their card on top of your set and steal it for themselves.

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So this is a game where you basically are encouraged to steal

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to learn why we shouldn't steal, but it's a good one, I promise.

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So you're gonna play that.

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You have a minute timer.

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Everybody plays at rapid fire speed for one minute, and then at the end of the

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minute, you flip the top card over on all the sets that are in front of you.

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You do this because now this is the time when you have to get quizzed

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on what your commandments are.

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So whatever sets you've collected or stolen from your neighbors, now you

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can only see the number and you have to be able to tell me, based on the

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number, which commandment that is.

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And that's challenging, especially for our kids who haven't been studying

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the Ten Commandments recently.

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So if your kids struggle with that, that's why I made the game box the way I did.

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So on the front you have the cute little you know, description of what the game is.

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On the back you have these QR codes to two great tools that will help

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you teach about the Ten Commandments.

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So if you're a young woman and you're teaching others in your class, you

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could watch these videos in class and then play the game together to

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reinforce what you just learned.

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This top one, the top QR code, takes you to a short like you.

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minute and a half video teaching you about what the commandments

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of God are given for, that they're evidence of God's love for us, and

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they help guide us towards Him.

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The second one is maybe three minutes long, and it's the one that

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teaches you all the hand signals for the different ten commandments.

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If you remember in the Old Testament, we did this one together.

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I still love this.

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Violet and I worked on these Today, like, we practiced our hand signals

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so that we could remember what number one is, and what number five is,

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and what commandment number ten is.

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By practicing those hand signals, your class will get it, and then by

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playing the game, they'll reinforce it.

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So that by the end of the class, not only do they know their commandments

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better, but they've had fun learning them.

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all as a group.

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I just think that's what scripture study is supposed to feel like,

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so hopefully this printable game will help you pull that off.

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Last one.

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This is one of my favorites.

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I think, especially this week, where you hear Abinadi's teachings about

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Jesus Christ, and it sounds a little bit confusing because he calls him the

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Father and the Son, and where our kids would associate Father with Heavenly

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Father, that can get a bit murky.

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So I'm hoping this object lesson helps you articulate how they are different and

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separate beings with one common purpose.

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And there's a way to do that.

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with light.

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So this is one of my favorite ways to teach it.

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It was inspired by Hannah's science fair project, probably 10 years ago,

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we did this combination of light.

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And I remember projecting light up onto the wall and seeing how if you

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had red light and blue light and green light, and you let them all

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combine, they form this warm light.

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White.

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And that's what reminds me of the godhead.

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So if you go on the printable, you'll see that there's these

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overlapping circles, and you want to just print out on copy paper.

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At the bottom, down here, you're going to see some colored blocks.

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Those are designed to give you a way to cover your phone flashlight.

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So for us, you just want to cut out those paper blocks if you If your paper

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is really thin you could fold those in half so that you have a little more color

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to work with and lay it on top of your flashlight or your phone's flashlight.

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You just want to make sure that you're blocking all white light.

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Sometimes if your flashlights are bigger or if you have a case

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on some white light escapes.

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So if that's the case you want to cut as big of a blue piece or

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red piece or green piece as you need to cover that whole area.

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The best thing I found, in fact, if you have a chance, if you made the lightsabers

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with us back in the New Testament, we bought these little gels to go on top

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of our lightsabers to make them vibrant.

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You can use those same gels to do this object lesson and they are so much

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brighter with the gels than they are with the paper, but both of them can work.

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So this is basically how you set it up.

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You're going to make sure that the three phone flashlights are set to the highest

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brightness, and then you lay them face down on a table or a bed, somewhere that

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you can make the room really, really dark.

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You want as little ambient light as you can possibly get.

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And then you hit the lights and you put this paper right on top.

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You want to make it so that the red light shines right through that

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text, God the Father, the green light shines right through the Holy

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Ghost, and the blue light shines right through the text, Jesus Christ.

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And you're going to talk to your kids about how these colors

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look so separate and distinct.

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There's no mixing up red and green.

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They are so opposite from each other.

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They're so different, but they combine in a beautiful way.

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So that's when you lift up the paper.

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As you elevate that paper above the surface of the phones and those

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flashlights, that light fuses together and it becomes this soft white light.

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You can no longer see blue or red or green, you simply see white.

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And that to me is the nature of the Godhead.

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It is, it is something where they are separate and

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distinct but they work as one.

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And they create light for us to use and navigate by.

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In fact, if you look on the printable itself, one of the ways I updated

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it this time around is I added scriptures from the Book of Mormon to

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each of these circles that reinforce this idea of the Godhead being one.

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And then there's a QR code at the bottom, and this QR code takes you

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to a video that the church created.

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It's about six minutes, so you could easily teach it in a young women's

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lesson or a Sunday school class, and you could watch it together

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and then demonstrate the activity.

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Let them raise up that paper and see how things turn white and let them

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lower it back down and see how those lights are distinct and different.

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Do it a few times.

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In fact, one of my favorite things to do is if you wave your hand under

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the paper or another object under the paper, it looks white, but the shadow

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that it makes when you put a hand between the paper and the flashlights

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creates different colored shadows.

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So you can still see that there are different lights forming

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this beautiful white light.

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It's just a cool, very visual, very memorable object lesson to help

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your kids understand the Godhead.

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Help them understand it in a clear way so that they can testify and

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teach about why we believe the Godhead is separate and distinct,

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but unified in heart and in purpose.

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Thank you so much for being here you guys.

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That's it for week 20.

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Okay.

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I hope you enjoy your study There's so much goodness in Abinadi's words

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and that you have fun with the object lessons play games together Do cool

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science experiments and help your kids connect to their scriptures I think you

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have lots of tools at your disposal If you're part of the course remember you

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can find the printables right underneath the creative videos If you're not a

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subscriber to the course, you can also find these printables over in my Etsy

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shop So check them out Follow the links underneath this video and you can find

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everything you need, but hopefully you'll have lots of tools to teach well.

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Um, if you want to join me for more of the insights, to understand a

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little bit more about what happens in a more chapter by chapter approach,

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you can come find me on the live.

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So if you go to gather.

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mechmom.

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com, that's where you find the whole course and a chance to subscribe, but also

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you can join for free and chat with us.

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on the live, share some thoughts about these verses, get new ideas and insights

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about how to apply the object lessons.

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It's just a great way to interact both with me and with other

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people that are in the course.

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So whether you're a subscriber or not, you can find that over at gather.

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macmom.

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com.

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All right, you guys, I think that's it for this week.

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Enjoy Abinadi and then come on back next week as we head into the waters of Mormon.