Teaching Youth

In September I got moved to the 14-15 year old class. The teacher that was already teaching the class had already been asking the students if they had any missionary experiences from the previous week, and I added flecks of gold and writing them down and putting them on a board as a visual reminder of how much the Lord is in their lives. A few probably fell off, but the gold/brown are the flecks of gold and the green are missionary experiences. I loved it when a student would say they weren't sure if it was a fleck of gold or a missionary moment. YES! That's the point! The Lord is in everything. I've gotta tell you I've been super impressed with their missionary moments. Really good stuff and even a couple Books of Mormon given out. Now I get to start a new one for a new year and new class. I'm going to have to find a bigger board or end up with several for the year. I no longer have a permanent structure to just tape them all to (like I did when teaching seminary in my home) and leave it for the year, so we have to make do.

For the new year I also asked the kids to write down on slips of paper what things they wanted to learn and talk about this year. If they had questions they needed answers to or something they wanted to know more about. Sometimes I use the 'come follow me' lessons, but I just pray for inspiration on what my specific kids need and then go with it. My job is to prepare them for missions so I treat the class as an MTC and I care more about building unity with the class then anything else. You can't access true power without it. The power to learn, and to become converted will happen at a much higher success rate if you have unity and trust. I'm not talking about building unity with a big ole party attitude where we just goof off, that's not it at all. A good portion of my lesson time is spent not the flecks of gold and missionary experiences. After that if anyone has participated in the Sacrament meeting program by prayer, talk, song, or blessing the sacrament; each student takes a turn telling that person something they like or admire about them. I don't stress that both of those activities takes up a large portion of time and then I try to get anything I teach down to a micro bite. My tendencies in the past were to cram as much in as
I could because time is precious, but that didn't turn out to be very effective. It's definitely easier to do without a companion because you know you can just pick up where you left off the next time. You've really got to learn to let go when you've got a companion. I was only with my partner for a couple weeks and then she moved away. I was super sad because she was young and awesome. She is a semi recent returned missionary and newly married and just finished nursing school. The kids loved her and her husband because they are still cool and they love the gospel and take it seriously while having a good time. I felt bad that the students were stuck with an old person.

Below is the list of things I received back from the kids that they wanted to learn this year. The (2) means how many requested the same thing. Some of them were silly, but these are the things young people are thinking about. I hope that as we build unity I will start to get a list of things that they are unsure of because I know they are sitting there having some doubts, but are afraid to express them. I really try to help the kids feel safe and know that I don't think they are apostate because they have questions or doubts. Questions and doubts are opportunities to gain a testimony. Nothing scares me. I'll talk about anything in the framework of belief. Basically using (A) acquiring (S) spiritual (K)knowledge. I may need a min or a day to think about it, but I will always answer not deflect. I hate it when a teacher deflects. It shows their crack in testimony and kids (lets face it, adults too) will hone in a prey upon that and ultimately not feel validate or trust you or believe a word you say.

Here's their list:

Millennium

Second Coming  (2)

Patriarchal Blessings (2)

Staying strong in gospel (2) stay strong to your beliefs when everyone is awful

Premortal existence (2)

Patience

Personal revelation

How to be in world but not of it

How to stand out righteously

Understanding girls (I'm going to have to ponder this one. How can I help them in the framework of the gospel, women's divine nature, how husbands should treat wives etc... How can I give them what they're looking for and still tie it into those categories)

Why does it say we should fear God

Jesus (2)

Religion memes (I can make this one be about sharing the gospel on-line)

Sodom and Gomorrah and when it's going to happen again (2)

Family History (2)

Jumping ( I can't wait to see the look on the kids face when we actually do a lesson about jumping. I can make anything spiritual! hee hee!)