Assess Your Learning 9

Mormon 7–Ether 15

young man leaning against tree

Reflecting on and assessing your spiritual learning can help you draw closer to the Savior. This lesson can help you remember and evaluate how your experiences with Mormon 7–Ether 15 have helped you grow spiritually.

Help students use self-assessment to come unto Christ. Regular and consistent assessment can help students see how they are becoming more like the Savior. Invite students to prayerfully consider what they know and feel about Jesus Christ. Encourage them to sincerely evaluate their progress and consider changes they can make as they strive to live His gospel.

Student preparation: Invite students to review what they have learned by finishing the following statement: “One lesson from Mormon 7–Ether 15 that I would want to share with a friend is …”

Possible Learning Activities

In this lesson students will have opportunities to explain the Book of Mormon’s importance in the Restoration of the gospel and to reflect on their efforts to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Your class’s study of Mormon 7–Ether 15 may have emphasized truths other than those in the following activities. If so, you could adapt the activities to include those truths.

Tree rings

This portion of the lesson is intended to prepare students to explain some of what they learned and to evaluate goals they may have set during their study of Mormon 7–Ether 15. This could be a good time to invite students to share their answers from the preparation activity.

Display an image of tree rings and ask students to share what we can learn about a tree by examining its rings.

tree stump with tree rings

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then of the First Presidency, taught:

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

It’s remarkable how much we can learn about life by studying nature. For example, scientists can look at the rings of trees and make educated guesses about climate and growing conditions hundreds and even thousands of years ago. One of the things we learn from studying the growth of trees is that during seasons when conditions are ideal, trees grow at a normal rate. However, during seasons when growing conditions are not ideal, trees slow down their growth and devote their energy to the basic elements necessary for survival. (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Of Things That Matter Most,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 19)

Like trees, we have periods of growth and times when we may feel like we are just trying to survive. Each of us experiences growth in different ways and at different rates. Think about times in your life when you may have experienced spiritual growth.

• What were some of the conditions that helped you grow spiritually? What kind of growth did you experience?

• What are some ways we can periodically evaluate our spiritual growth?

In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to explain some of what you learned and evaluate goals you may have set while studying Mormon 7–Ether 15.

Explain the importance of the Book of Mormon

In this part of the lesson, students will be invited to explain the importance of the Book of Mormon in the Restoration of the gospel. They can draw upon what they studied in Mormon 8. If desired, you could expand the activity to include the role of the Book of Mormon in helping to gather Israel, drawing upon 3 Nephi 21.

You might want to place students in companionships, like missionaries. One way to do this is to write different places or countries for a mission assignment on strips of paper. Write each mission assignment on two separate strips of paper. Then distribute the papers to the class. Students can find their companion by searching for the person with the same mission assignment.

Imagine you are a missionary who is explaining the importance of the Book of Mormon in the Restoration of the gospel. You are about to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to someone to read.

Prepare what you would say using one or more scripture passages in Mormon 8. You could also use the title page of the Book of Mormon. Look for opportunities to explain how the Book of Mormon helps us believe in Jesus Christ.

Move around the classroom, assisting companionships as needed. If students need help identifying scripture passages, you might direct them to Mormon 8:14–16, 25–26, 34–35. If needed, remind them that verses 16 and 25 refer to Joseph Smith.

After sufficient time, invite the companionships to role-play the situation with another companionship. Time permitting, companionships could practice explaining again to a different companionship.

Reflect on plans to exercise faith in Jesus Christ

This portion of the lesson can help students reflect on their efforts to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Students can compare exercising faith in Jesus Christ to baking bread.

If possible, bring a mixing bowl and the ingredients to make a loaf of bread. You might even bring a loaf of bread to share with the students. Invite students to briefly explain the process of making bread by asking questions like the following:

bread

• What are some ingredients in a loaf of bread?

• Besides combining the ingredients, what else do you need to do to make bread?

The ingredients in a loaf of bread could include flour, yeast, salt, and water. You also may need time for the bread to rise, and you need to bake it.

Baking bread can be compared to exercising faith in Jesus Christ. The results, witness, or miracle you seek is like the finished loaf of bread. Your efforts to exercise faith in Jesus Christ can be compared to the ingredients, rising time, and baking of the bread. In recent lessons, you studied accounts of individuals who exercised faith in Jesus Christ (see Ether 3:1–16; 12:6–22). You also studied the words of prophets inviting you to exercise faith in the Lord and to seek miracles (see Mormon 9:15–27; Ether 12:6–9).

You could more closely compare exercising faith to making bread by discussing some of the following: waiting on the Lord is like the rising time (see Isaiah 40:31), keeping our covenants is like the salt (see Doctrine and Covenants 101:39), and the Savior’s power is like the water (see John 4:14).

Read Mormon 9:19–21; Ether 3:9; 12:6–9 to help you remember what you studied about faith in Jesus Christ and plans you may have made.

Invite students to think about the results, witness, or miracle they seek as they answer the following questions. You may want to display the questions and invite students to answer in their study journals.

• What have you done to exercise faith in Jesus Christ?

• If exercising faith in Jesus Christ is like baking bread, what part of the process are you currently in? Are you still gathering or mixing the ingredients? Are you waiting for it to rise? Is the bread baking? Or have you already eaten the bread? Explain why.

• What are some challenges you have had or still need to overcome? What has helped or could help you overcome them?

• How do you feel like you have been blessed for the efforts you have made to exercise faith in Jesus Christ?

Invite willing students to share their experiences exercising faith in Jesus Christ and the impact it has had on their lives. Consider sharing your testimony of how you have been blessed by exercising faith in Jesus Christ.