Come, Follow Me Daily Study Guide for the week of May 3-9, 2021 covering Doctrine and Covenants 46-48. For personal and/or family study of the scriptures, geared towards families with teenagers.
*This is a suggested outline that coincides with the Come, Follow Me manual. These are my own thoughts and testimony combined with other resources that I have gathered. Everyone should study the scriptures in a way that’s best for them, but I do hope you find these outlines helpful.
*SCRIPTURE JOURNALS – I strongly suggest having a scripture journal. Many times my outlines will suggest writing something down in your scripture journal. These are also great for writing down any impressions or “Aha” moments that you might have as you study the scriptures.
*A free PDF DOWNLOAD of the Study Guide is available at the bottom of this post. You can also add Melanie’s Library to your mobile device home screen by following these instructions, click HERE
*SONGS – For a list of suggested songs for each day of the week, be sure and check out the blog called Music for Latter-day Life by clicking HERE. Suggestion for NON-SINGERS: Instead of singing, listen to the song suggested on Music for Latter-day Life and as you listen, write in our scripture journals how you have seen the hand of the Lord in your life or something you are grateful for. A great way to invite the Spirit to your scripture study.
FHE DAY
Start the week off right with a Family Home Evening that is focused around the upcoming week’s Come, Follow Me. Sign up for the Teach Me FHE email group and receive an FHE outline delivered right to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up at the bottom of this post.
GOD HAS GIVEN SPIRITUAL GIFTS TO BLESS HIS CHILDREN
BACKGROUND
(Adapted from Come Follow Me Through the Doctrine and Covenants)
ACTIVITY: Play the Compliment Game
Start by picking one person and then asking everyone else the question, “What is special about ______?” (insert their name) Have everyone talk about things they find special about that person. Then move on to the next person and have everyone compliment them and so on until everyone has been complimented.
MINI LESSON/PONDER & DISCUSS
We are all sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and we are special to Him and He has blessed each of us with special spiritual gifts. In D&C 46 the Lord teaches us more about these special spiritual gifts that He has given us.
These gifts are explained in the following video.
VIDEO: Chapter 20: Gifts of the Spirit (2:19), click HERE
Take a moment and ponder on all the gifts that were mentioned in the video. Note that these are not all the gifts that the Lord can bless us with. Other gifts may include the gift of listening, the gift of being able to avoid contention, the gift of empathy, the gift of not passing judgement, the gift of looking to God for guidance, and many more. In your scripture journals, write down which spiritual gifts you feel that you have. If you need help, ask someone close to you. You can also refer to your patriarchal blessing, it likely identifies gifts you have been given.
We are to use our gifts to serve and bless others. Watch how this person shared his extraordinary gift to bless others.
VIDEO: Extraordinary Gift (4:24), click HERE
How did Kuha’o bless the lives of others with his gift?
How are you using your spiritual gifts to serve and bless others? Is there anything more you can be doing? (Family members may wish to answer these questions out loud or in their scripture journals.)
SCRIPTURE
QUOTE BY ELDER ROBERT D. HALES: “These gifts are given to those who are faithful to Christ. They will help us know and teach the truths of the gospel. They will help us bless others. They will guide us back to our Heavenly Father” (“Gifts of the Spirit,” Ensign, Feb. 2002, 16).
READ: D&C 46:7-12
- Why it is important that you “always [remember] for what they are given” (verse 8)
- Can we receive additional spiritual gifts? If so, how? (Yes, if we “ask of God” and “seek ye earnestly”)
QUOTE BY GEORGE Q. CANNON: If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind….So with all the gifts of the Gospel. They are intended for this purpose.” (“Discourse by President George Q. Cannon)
Is there one gift that you can think of right now that you would like to have? Write it down in your scripture journal and make a point to pray for it.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
BYU DEVOTIONAL: Gifts of the Spirit by Robert D. Hales
GOSPEL TOPICS: Spiritual Gifts
KEEPING A HISTORY
BACKGROUND
Be sure to begin your family scripture study by listening to church music while each person writes in his/her journal.
THREE THINGS YOU COULD WRITE ABOUT:
- Top 10 things I am grateful for.
- What happened this week that I would like my future grandchildren to know about?
- How did I see the Lord’s hand in my life this week?
*Optional- if this is something your family already does regularly, you could ask one or two people to share something from their journal. Perhaps an answer to prayer, a funny story, or things they wrote that they were grateful for. (You may ask them in advance so they are prepared.)
Through his prophets, the Lord has commanded each of us to keep a journal. Keeping a journal helps us to see more clearly the Lord’s hand in our lives.
SCRIPTURE
The Church also keeps a journal, or what is also referred to as a recorded historical account. The person to keep this recorded account is one that is called to the position of Church Historian and Recorder.
SHOW IMAGE:
*Used for educational purposes.
This is John Whitmer. He was called to serve as Church Historian and Recorder in 1831 taking the place of Oliver Cowdery.
READ: The heading/historical background at the very top of D&C 47
You’ve got to give credit to John Whitmer for being honest and admitting that he “would rather not” when he was called as Church Historian and Recorder. I think we have all felt that way at some time. When the Lord has asked us to do something but we really don’t feel like doing it. We must also keep in mind though, that although John Whitmer didn’t want to serve in that calling, once he got the confirmation through this revelation that it was the will of the Lord, he accepted the call and served.
What can we learn from that example?
READ: D&C 47: 1-4
- What role did the Holy Ghost play in John’s calling? (verse 4)
- Do you think the Holy Ghost will help you when it comes to knowing what you should write in your journal?
MINI LESSON
Journals can bless our lives. Here are two examples how.
SHARE THE FOLLOWING JOURNAL ENTRY: (You may ask a family member to read it.)
“My mother had a serious heart condition. She was told if she ever had a baby, she would probably die. But mother felt strongly she should have a baby. When I was only nine weeks old, my mother died. She loved me enough to willingly give her life for me. Those who knew mother best found it painful to talk about her, so I never learned much about her. When I was seventeen, my father gave me one of my dearest possessions. It was a journal my mother had written. She had kept it each day for one short year of her life. I had in my hands one year of my mother’s life! She had been a school teacher in Wyoming that year, and through her own words she became for me a real person at last. She cried, she struggled, she laughed, she grumbled, she learned of her heart condition, she met and fell in love with my father, and I shared it all with her! That record, that precious, loved record—it seemed to me at that time that it was all I had of her.” (See “For Your Remembrance: A Presentation on Record Keeping” [audiovisual presentation, 1975 MIA June Conference].)
VIDEO: Maybe I’m Not So Different (1:31), Click HERE
In those two examples, how did journals from family members who had passed away have an impact on their lives?
QUOTE BY SPENCER W. KIMBALL: “I promise you that if you will keep your journals and records, they will indeed be a source of great inspiration to your families, to your children, your grandchildren, and others, on through the generations. Each of us is important to those who are near and dear to us and as our posterity read of our life’s experiences, they, too, will come to know and love us. And in that glorious day when our families are together in the eternities, we will already be acquainted.”
PONDER & DISCUSS
- How can keeping a journal be a blessing to us now and in the future?
- How have you benefited from the historical accounts of the early Saints? How has learning more about them this year helped to strengthen your testimony?
Interesting Fact: The Prophet Joseph Smith began his own official history in 1838 for all inquirers after the truth that they may have possession of the facts. (The Essential Doctrine and Covenants Companion)
SHARE QUOTE BY ELDER QUENTIN L. COOK: “In the over 24 years that I have served as a General Authority, the desire of the Brethren has been to be as transparent as possible, both in terms of Church history and in doctrine. We feel that the effort to put forth new resources—particularly The Joseph Smith Papers, the Gospel Topics Essays, Church History Topics, and now the multivolume Saints—is a wonderful way of getting people to study things in context that are true and that will help them understand the gospel of Jesus Christ in a credible way.”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
NEW ERA: My life isn’t very exciting, and I’m not a very good writer. Do I still need to keep a journal?
ENSIGN: Church History: A Source of Strength and Inspiration By Elder Quentin L. Cook
ENSIGN: There Shall Be a Record Kept among You by Elder Marlin K. Jensen
To learn more about the work currently being done under the direction of the Church Historian, visit history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
REVELATION FOR THE CHURCH & YE SHALL IMPART
(Adapted from Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families)
BACKGROUND
ASK: Who can recite the 9th Article of Faith?
To make sure the person got it right, play the following song.
SONG: 9th Article of Faith, click HERE
- Why do you think it is important that we believe all that God has revealed?
- Why is it equally important to believe all that He reveals now, and all that He will yet reveal?
- Why do you think God didn’t simply reveal everything about His kingdom right in the beginning?
- What are some example of things that cannot be learned all at once? (For example: reading, musical instruments, or the times tables.)
- What would happen if a teacher presented all of the information required for a high school diploma to those in second or third grade?
SCRIPTURE
READ: The heading/historical background at the very top of D&C 48
D&C 48 is an example of how the Lord gives revelation a little at a time and not all at once.
READ: D&C 48:1-6 and look for how the Lord answered Joseph Smith’s inquiry of how to procure lands for the Saints as they came over from the eastern United States. Also look for clues that show God will yet reveal important things about His kingdom. Discuss these things after reading these verses.
LESSON
Many Saints who left New York and migrated to Ohio had sold their homes, often at a considerable loss, and arrived in Ohio with very little money and needing a place to live. In D&C 48:2, the Lord told the Saints that “inasmuch as ye have lands, ye shall impart to the eastern brethren.” Do you think that was an easy or hard thing for the Saints in Ohio to do? Is it always easy to share your things with others?
SHARE INSIGHT FROM DAVID BUTLER: (Taken from Don’t Miss This)
During a humanitarian trip to Fiji, my nephew Spencer’s shirt was torn in a rugby game with local kids. Instinctively one of the boys, Fraser, ran off the field and went all the way home to grab an extra jersey. “Put it on,” he insisted as he waved it in Spencer’s face. There was a back-and-forth before Spencer finally agreed, slipped it on, and finished the game. It wasn’t until a few days later, after seeing Fraser in the same red shirt day after day, that Spencer learned the jersey was the only other shirt the boy owned. But it was extra – and the boy knew Spencer needed a shirt.
This same spirit filled the Saints living in Ohio when they asked the Lord where and how they would find places for the New York Saints to live – the destitute New York Saints who were on their way to Ohio to obey the Lord’s command to gather…When we think of Ohio, we think of the amazing revelations and the Spirit that was poured out on that place. Perhaps it was because there was a people there prepared to receive it.
…Spencer left his whole backpack of shirts when he left Fiji – because they were extra – but he retuned home with something more: the jersey he had been given and what it means to impart to a brother.
HOW THE CHURCH CARES FOR THE POOR AND THE NEEDY
Watch one of the following videos to see how the Church cares for the poor and needy today.
VIDEO: Caring for the Poor and Needy (5:40), click HERE
OR
VIDEO: Church Humanitarian Efforts Review (2:51), click HERE
PONDER & DISCUSS
- How does it feel when you sacrifice something of yours and give it to another who is in need?
- Do you feel the Spirit stronger in your life when you give to those in need?
- Does it change you as a person? If so, how?
- What can we do now to help others in need?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
CONFERENCE TALK: The Spirit of Revelation by David A. Bednar
CONFERENCE TALK: Kindness, Charity, and Love By President Thomas S. Monson
VIDEO: The Coat (2:07)
GENERAL CONFERENCE DAY
Study a recent General Conference talk. A great way to study a conference talk is to read along and highlight the parts that stand out to you. Then after the talk, review and discuss what you have highlighted.
THIS WEEK’S TALK: Hearts Knit Together By Elder Gary E. Stevenson
CATCH UP DAYS
Do one of the days that you missed OR any of the additional resources listed.
Yours Truly,
P.S. For more Come, Follow Me resources, check out my post Your Ultimate Guide to Come, Follow Me. It lists over 100 Come, Follow Me resources that are available online starting with the church’s resources at the top. You can find it by clicking HERE.
P.P.S. Sign up here for the Teach Me FHE email group and receive FHE outlines delivered right to your inbox every Sunday morning.
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