General Conference Preparation

Next week is General Conference.  It's important that we encourage the children to listen or engage somehow to Conference.

Find several pictures of prophets through the ages, including Pres. Monson, and place them for the children to see.

Sing the first verse and chorus of Follow the Prophet, p. 110.  Tell them about General conference next week and ask them why we have Conference. (Answers will vary)  Sing the chorus again.

Ask the children to look at the pictures and think about the following questions:

• Can you name one of the prophets?
• Did they speak to the people of their time?
• Were they accepted well or did the people try to kill them?
• Can you think of any prophets that were killed by the unbelievers?
• Why do we have prophets?
• Can we learn from ancient prophets like Alma, Abinidi, Nephi, Moses, Abraham, etc.?
• What do learn from Joseph Smith?
• What can we learn from Pres. Monson?

You can come up with your own questions and add to the list.

Intersperse the questions with the following songs:

• Follow the Prophet, p. 110  (sing one verse at a time)
• Latter-day Prophets p. 134
• Stand for the Right p. 159
• Keep the Commandments p.146
• We'll Bring the World His Truth p.172
• Choose the Right hymn # 239
• Book of Mormon Stories p.118
• End with the last verse of Follow the Prophet p. 110

"Nephi's Courage" Review

Review Nephi's Courage, pg. 120, with the following activity:

• Assign each class a word from the song and stand every time it is sung.
• Command, commandment or commanded
• courageous
• obey
• try
• go
• do

An alternative activities are:

• Write the words on the board and ask the children to raise their hand every time they sing one of the words.
• Have the children stand whenever they sing: command, commandment or commanded
• Boys stand when they sing go.  Girls stand when they sing do. 

Nephi's Courage

This song will stick to children throughout life!  It's a favorite to sing, also. Using visuals helps children and adults remember the words as well as the meaning of the song.

You will need the following:

• word strips of: Commands, Commandments, Commanded, Reply
• a picture of "the plates"
• cutouts of Laban, Laman, Lemuel and Nephi (use an outlined picture of any biblical man and color the clothes differently and label each one with one of the names.)
• picture or cutout of a boat

Verse 1 and 2

• Sing one line at a time using the pictures, then have the children sing it with you.
• Hold up the word strips as you sing the word or tape them to the board and point to them as you sing the word. 
• Point our that there are rhyming words at the end of the lines (phrases).  Ask the children to see if they can hear them.

Verse 3

• 1st phrase - sing this phrase and ask, "What commandments does Heavenly Father give us?  How do we obey them?  Sing the phrase with the children.
• 2nd phrase - sing this phrase and ask, "How are we tempted to make wrong choices?"
• Sing the next 2 phrases about being discouraged and courageous.  Ask the children if they have ever been discouraged and then had the courage to do what's right.  Sing the two phrases with the children.

Chorus

• Sing the chorus and ask how many times you sang  "commands?"  Sing it again if necessary.
• Ask the children if any of the phrases in the chorus are repeated.  You may need to sing the chorus again.
• Ask how the Lord provides a way for to keep his commandments.
• Why does Heavenly Father want us to obey?
• Sing the whole chorus - with exuberance.

Sing the entire song and ask the children to tally how many times they sing "command, commandments and commanded."