Sunday School Supplements

Jesus’s visit to the Americas is a life’s ministry condensed into just a few brief but powerful encounters. The parallels between Christ’s actions and teachings in the Old and New World are significant: he healed the sick, preached a new gospel that replaced the Law of Moses, instituted the sacrament, ordained a priesthood, and prayed with and for the people. In 3 Nephi 22 – 26, as his visit neared its close, Christ taught from written text, or holy scripture.

In 3 Nephi 27, the disciples ask Jesus what they should call the church. Jesus instructs them they should call it in his name because it is his gospel. As members of this church, we believe this is Christ’s church. We strive to live the teachings of his gospel. We perform ordinances in his name. We take his name upon us when we are baptized and we renew this covenant every week when we take the sacrament. We even conclude our prayers in his name.

I remember in high school in Provo, Utah, one girl in my class was not Mormon. I recall feeling true sorrow for her position, sorrow at the fact that her parents drank wine and she wore sleeveless dresses to the dances. I was not the only one to feel sorry for her as she was so clearly part of the “world.” It didn’t take me long past my high school years to question my own righteous concern for this girl and her family, who I’d never met in person, and not long after that to

In true prophetic style, Moroni takes us to task (literally us, in this modern era). He accuses thus: “Ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted” (Mormon 8:37). (Notice his emphasis here is on what/whom we love. I can imagine that sometimes we help the poor and the needy out of duty rather than love.)

Recently in an interview, I was asked what I considered most important as I learned to deal with inequities in the church and in life, and what I thought was most important as I taught students to deal with those inequities themselves. I believe and I want to teach my students that the Spirit is the most important thing.

One day a celebrity actress boarded my subway car as I was commuting from Brooklyn into Manhattan. She was in sunglasses and sandals, alone with her little daughter strapped on in a baby carrier. She sat down across from me, and the woman next to her immediately complimented her baby without showing any awareness that she was talking to a famous person.

Moroni. He stands atop most of our temples in gold blowing a trumpet proclaiming the restoration to all. He mentored the young Joseph Smith through visitations – directed him and refined his character. He witnessed the genocide of the Nephites, protected the golden plates and spent his last days in hiding writing the things of most import for the benefit of the Lamanites.

The binary of good and evil seems easy to grasp, easy to follow, and in theory, it is easy to spot much of the good in the world, and much of the evil. I find, however, that this pairing of words, which in the pairing leaves little space in between, and little space to work introspectively, is most difficult to grapple with when we are asked to delineate within ourselves the “good and the evil.”

To begin our Sunday School supplement for Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, I want to address two central difficulties I see with focusing on women and the gospel specifically in our study material for this year. Firstly, it is the Doctrine and Covenants itself. In comparison with the biblical text and the Book of Mormon text, even a smaller percentage of the new revelations recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants directly involve women.

These early lessons in this year’s Church History (D&C) curriculum are organized thematically, rather than chronologically or by section, so this week’s lesson attempts to explore the character of Jesus Christ as represented in the Doctrine and Covenants. As we jump around the book to the various scriptures referenced in the lesson, we encounter many first person statements by the Lord Himself (D&C 19 for example) and we also encounter sections which refer to the Lord in thir

Lucy Mack Smith sought a pure inner Christianity, to the extent that she had difficulty joining any particular Christian sect. Two years before she gave birth to Joseph, Lucy became very ill with a fever and feared the thought of death. She wrote, “I did not consider myself ready for such an awful event, inasmuch as I knew not the ways of Christ; besides, there appeared to be a dark and lonesome chasm, between myself and the Saviour, which I dared not attempt to pass.”

The other day my daughter was watching cartoons based on the Old Testament. After watching one of these she turned to me and said “Mommy, did we have any kings in our family…good kings?” I thought for a second and then said “Yes! “You’re related to the people in the Book of Mormon. King Benjamin and King Mosiah were both very good kings”.

Relief Society General President Julie B. Beck said, “The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life.”1 Yet, the process of understanding how we can receive revelation—how God speaks to us—is a lifelong pursuit. One does not gain this skill in the abstract, we have to learn it through our own experience.

The Doctrine & Covenants is often described as a manual for the establishment of the modern church and its priesthood authority, but we can’t forget that many of its texts are fundamentally personal rather than institutional, given to individuals with particular questions for the Lord. This week’s texts are directed toward Oliver Cowdery and Hyrum Smith, two of Joseph Smith’s closest and staunchest friends. These words help define the process of personal revelation.

Lesson #7 focuses on the first ordinances and principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism and confirmation of the Holy Ghost. To start, let’s look at what some of our women leaders have said about these ordinances and principles. In last April’s General Conference, President Oscarson said, “True conversion is a process that takes place over a period of time and involves a willingness to exercise faith.”

A couple of years ago, I was at a meeting where we were discussing some ward and stake events. When we got to the topic of an upcoming father-son event to commemorate the restoration of the Priesthood, one of the women leaders raised her hand and said, “Why should only men and boys commemorate the restoration of the Priesthood?

We live in times of extreme contention and confusion. We seem to be flooded with information of all sorts, with many versions of the “truth” being fed to us by world leaders, news agencies, and other people around us. But is it any more difficult to seek out and find the truth in this day and age than any other? (See Isaiah 29:14.)

When I was roughly 15, I said to my Mother in reference to Emma Smith, “Yeah, Emma was pretty cool except for that whole leaving the Church thing and starting her own.” Now, my Mother took the permissive approach to parenting. Up until that moment the only thing I was forbidden to do was watch The Exorcist.

Gospel Doctrine Lesson 11 The texts in this week’s lesson have a common subject: mission calls directed to dozens of people, some with familiar names like Hyrum Smith and some who subsequently fade from church history. There are no women mentioned in our reading. In those first decades of the church, women were not formally called to be travelling preachers or proselytizers, but women and missionary work do have a long and influential history within the church, one that is t

Whenever I think about the Gathering of Israel I think about the Allegory of the Olive Tree from the Book of Mormon which so beautifully illustrates the scattering of the tribes of Israel and the eventual gathering and grafting in of the gentiles.