Okay, we've covered the insights and the questions.

Now it's time to move into the creative side of week 16.

So just like every other week, I've got three simple object lessons to help

you connect what you're learning in these verses to what your kids might be

experiencing in their everyday lives.

I just try and do it in three minutes.

surprising creative ways so that your kids are always on their toes and they're

eager to come learn at scripture study.

So I'm going to walk you through the three basic ideas first and give you an idea

of the supplies you might need and then we'll go through each one individually so

that you can break down how these might work for your family at home or maybe

the kids that you teach in your class.

I promise they can be adapted in a whole bunch of different ways.

Okay, let's start with object lesson one.

This one, I am focusing in on Enos's wrestle.

I love that Enos teaches us that questions are good, especially

if you go to the right sources.

And I think that's really important for our kids to understand.

So I'm going to teach you how you can.

Help your kids understand how to wrestle, how they can sort out and

seek out good information, especially using the gospel library tools.

But I'm also going to give you a fun game that you can play to help

them be interested in the process.

And for that, you're going to use the printable.

So this week we are doing a luchador style thumb wrestling tournament so

that you can teach your kids how to find answers to gospel questions.

So in the printable, you're going to find this awesome wrestling mat that

your kids will put their fingers through, and then they will wrestle each other.

But since you want it to be.

pretty epic on its own.

You also need these awesome luchador rings.

So there's a whole bunch to choose from.

The idea is that your kids will choose a luchador and they will wrestle

each other and they'll learn how to spiritually wrestle in the process.

I'll take you through all the steps in just a minute.

Okay, second one.

This one, you really don't need any specific supplies.

You just need something that has a common thread.

This is an analogy that helps you understand covenants.

One of the most common messages we heard at conference was this

invitation to get to the temple and an invitation to understand and deepen our

covenant connection with our Savior.

So I feel, I feel like if we can reinforce that with object lessons and tie it to

the words we studied, especially from Enos and from Jerom and others, then I

think you make a pretty cool connection.

So so much for tuning in.

This one, you don't need any specific supplies.

I would just find something that your kids are interested in that has a

buckle, a latch, or, you know, something that's an adjustable sizing tool on it.

So for example, I grabbed snowshoes.

This is something I love.

It's something my kids have seen me strap on my feet and

it's got these cool adjustable.

Buckles on it.

If your kids are into skiing, you could grab a ski with a binding on it.

If they love horses, you could grab a saddle, anything that has an adjustable

latch, even something like a Velcro attachment that you can adjust like

a baseball glove would work great.

So figure out what the kids in your classes are into or the kids in your

family love, and then find a tool that has a buckle, a latch, or an

attachment of some kind, and I'll teach you how to tie them together.

Okay, third one.

Let me put down my snowshoe.

Okay, the third one is focused on reinforcing the words that

we just heard in conference.

I think one of the coolest messages you see in this week's study is this

constant imitation to rely on the word.

In fact, you hear in every book that you study this week an understanding

of The prophets speaking the words of Christ and the ramifications of those

who listen and those who don't listen.

So I think we want to point that out and then direct our kids to the words

of the prophets that we just heard.

And I have a special tool to do that.

So if you were with us six months ago, I created this little tiny conference book.

So if you remember this, it's this really small fits in your hand.

conference book that has QR codes that connect to each of the messages of

the special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

So this is not a comprehensive, all the sessions conference book.

This is just focused in on the first presidency and the 12.

It also has some tools inside to help you.

Sort through those talks and figure out which ones would help you in

lessons or in scripture study And I'll walk you through how to create it in

just a second for this one You don't really need any special supplies.

You just need cardstock and a little bit of glue and you'll be good to go

this week I really loved seeing the connections between Enos's wrestle and the

wrestle we know of from Joseph Smith They both go into kind of a woodsy wilderness

setting, and they come out with a better understanding of how God feels about them.

What I think is powerful is the difference between those two stories.

With Joseph Smith, there is a bit of a wrestle, and then

there's this pillar of light.

And with Enos, there are many, many hours of little rays that come that

eventually give him a certainty.

When he hears his sins forgiven, he feels closest with God in his life.

belief begins to be unshaken.

But he had to wrestle for a while first.

And I love that concept of wrestling.

I read a talk years ago from Sherry Du that I still listen to today.

It still helps me sort through these problems.

It's called Engage in the Wrestle and it inspired this object lesson.

So basically, I thought it would be fun to create a thumb wrestling tournament

so that your kids can learn practice these skills of wrestling with questions.

One of the most common things I hear from my YSAs or from other people

that I love who talk to me about their questions is they believe

they have doubts about the church.

And I really think fundamentally, most of them just have questions and

questions have answers, especially if you go to the right sources.

And so I wanted to help my kids.

Walk through that process.

So in the process of thumb wrestling, you're going to give them, you'll cut

out all these little luchador rings.

I've made them so that they can size to almost any size thumb, whether

it be an adult or a five year old.

So you're just going to want to cut them out and then size

them to your family members.

Um, and then tape them in place and they're going to use that as their

lucid or if they want you to give it a name and write that on the, and

then they're going to battle it out.

You'll create this simple little wrestling mat.

I just mounted mine on a piece of cardboard from an Amazon box, so it has a

little bit of firmness and they'll wrestle it out and you can have a tournament.

You can set up a bracket.

If you're in a big seminary class, you can make it entertaining.

If your kids win the wrestling match, then you use this second piece,

which is this championship chip.

belt buckle that they can then put on top of their thumb ring luge, um, and they

can have bragging rights until somebody defeats them and takes the title away.

But my hope is that you don't just have the game of thumb

wrestling, but you actually teach them how to spiritually wrestle.

So that's where the other pieces of the principle come into play.

There is this really great part of the church website.

I think it's called answering gospel questions.

If I remember it, there's, it's linked in the creative notes.

It's also linked on the printable.

So if you look on this printable on the base and also on the wrestling mat,

you're going to see these little QR codes.

When you scan those, they actually take you to this site.

That's designed to help you sort through gospel questions.

In fact, not just your gospel questions, but it also helps you know how to

help others with their questions.

And I really loved the like fundamental principles that they taught.

That's what you're going to find on.

Round one and round two.

So the blue side, round one, walks you through their guiding principles

for how to find answers for yourself.

For example, things like centering your life on Jesus Christ will

help you find answers, especially answers that come over time as you

gradually learn the doctrine better.

Things like being patient with yourself and with others or Recognizing

that revelation is a process or consulting with reliable sources.

Each of these guiding principles, when you click it on the website, it will

actually take you to videos and little text snippets that you can study together.

The reason I think that's important is my hope is that as you thumb wrestle, you can

talk to your kids about what's going on.

their questions that they might have today.

Like, what are their struggles that they're wrestling with right now?

What answers to prayers are they hoping for?

What doctrinal questions do they have right now?

And then go through the process that's on the website and walk

through how they could seek answers.

They're probably not going to come away from this object lesson with

answers to their questions, but they'll have the tools where they

can go home and Do it on their own.

And that's my goal.

On the second round, on the red side, you're going to see guidance for how

to help those that you love, who have questions, because a lot of us have

people close to us who are deciding what they believe and the guidelines

that they have on that site help you walk through that process as well.

I thought the videos here were really beautiful.

Lots of different struggles, lots of different questions and little

videos to show you how those people worked through those questions.

So that's the idea behind this card.

That you could kind of go through that spiritual wrestling process,

talk it through, use the notes and the creative, use the creative notes to

help guide you, guide the conversation.

But I think it will help your kids feel more settled, that they know

they have tools at their disposal.

The same way I think, you know, Enos knew he had tools.

Somehow he learned, probably from his parents, maybe from his uncle Nephi,

that if he needed answers to questions, he could go to the Lord in prayer.

Because he stayed, right?

What's remarkable about Enos is that he stayed until he had an answer.

He knew those tools were real and that they could work.

And my hope is that as we help our kids walk through these same kinds

of tools, they can know today, one day, And five years from now, and

10 years from now, if they have questions about the gospel, where

they can turn for good, solid answers.

Hopefully this ridiculous wrestling match will help you pull that off.

In addition to all these printables, I also just added these luchador masks

so that if you're teaching a primary class or maybe even a teenager class,

that they could print these out.

There's a color version and a black and white version so that they

could create these and look at them.

Go out of class with luchador face masks and be able to teach their

families about engaging in the wrestle.

You can find all of that on the printables.

One of my favorite phrases from conference was this idea of covenant confidence.

I think it was Elder Suarez that said it, but you heard that message

repeated over and over again.

I especially love the visual that Elder Ben Nar gave about building on the rock.

Remember, he talked about building our foundation and having those bars

that go into the bedrock and how we can do that through covenants.

I just think we want to reinforce that message as much as we can, that as we

make covenants and keep them, as we renew them by partaking of the sacrament or.

attending the temple.

These are ways that we deepen those spiritual roots and there's a really

simple way that you can talk about this with whatever your kids are interested in.

So like I mentioned, you're going to want to grab something that has a buckle or a

latch, even like a tie down that you would use on a truck to like steady a motorcycle

from tipping around, anything like that, a bike rack, all those things could work.

Find what your kids are interested in and find something that has a latch

and a buckle and then talk about why.

So basically, for example, if you look at this snowshoe, when I think about

putting my foot in this for the first time, I remember the freedom it gave me.

Like being buckled into this snowshoe gave me the ability to

go so much farther on my hikes.

I could go to places that I had never.

been in the winter before because I had all this cool power that was within

control and directly attached to my foot.

That's kind of the idea of the analogy that you're going to talk

to your kids about how covenants are designed to give us joy.

They're designed to give us access to power that we wouldn't have

otherwise, but they come with some, restrictions on purpose.

So for example, and I walked through all these in the creative notes if you want

to see them, but I think you want to talk about how before you can use a tool like

this, even something like a baseball glove or a saddle for a horse, you have to take

some time to learn how to use it properly.

If I had just jumped into these snowshoes, but I didn't put those

buckles on just snugly to my foot, then it wouldn't have provided

the access to the places I wanted.

In fact, it would have made me prone to injury.

I think the same thing can happen with our covenants.

There's a reason that before we make covenants with the Lord, we prepare.

You take a temple prep class, you prepare with your family to be ready for baptism.

All those things are important so that we can use the tool as it's

intended to be used with the proper authority and in the proper place.

All of that can be illustrated with your latch, whatever it is you're holding up.

The next big thing is, I really love that all of these adjustments are

designed to give us a very snug fit.

I think our temple covenants are designed to be individual on purpose.

We don't do them in a giant group.

We make baptismal covenants one at a time.

The covenants we make in the temple happen one at a time.

They're individual to us.

And our job is to like get a nice snug fit.

They're designed to help us have the power of God close to us so

that we can use it in his way.

So I think you want to talk about that adjustment period where

you're figuring out exactly how to get it to fit just on you.

The other thing I would talk about is that it's It's designed to

be used in a very specific way.

So even though I have it attached firmly onto my foot, this snowshoe

has to be used in a certain way.

I can't jump on it like I would if I didn't have anything on my feet.

There's certain specifics that have to be followed once I get

that strapped onto my foot.

And the same thing happens with covenants.

Once we make those promises to God, we have to keep them.

That's where you can pull in the scriptures from this week's study and

show how when the Nephites kept their promises, kept their covenants, they were

given the protection that they were from the Lamanites and from other, you know,

forces that were working against them or from their own temptations and weaknesses,

they were given some protection if they followed those boundaries.

And then the last thing I would talk about, and there's probably many more,

is this snowshoe, if I wear it for a couple hours, if I'm out and about.

Every now and then I have to look down and I have to check to make

sure I still have a snug fit.

Sometimes that buckle can kind of come undone or something slips out and it can

impact me if I don't keep an eye on it.

So our job is to maintain those buckles.

If I have a ski binding, my job is to tighten it here and there and make sure

everything is just as it should be.

Same thing applies with our covenants.

I think this is why we're invited to renew those covenants, both with partaking

sacrament, going back to the temple.

It's a chance for us to check, to make sure everything is just as it

should be, and make steps forward.

So whatever your kids are into, find a way to connect that connection.

Joy that they find in that thing and the buckle that firmly allows them

to attach to that joy and connect it back to covenants and how they give

us access to joy that God gives us in this life and in the life to come.

Because Heavenly Father loves His children, He repeatedly sends them

prophets to teach them His word.

Because it's his word that will give them access to happiness

and peace and protection.

And so you see that throughout this week's study.

In fact, I pulled out, if you look in the creative notes, you can see in

Enos, Jerem, Omni, and the words of Mormon, different verses that reference

prophets coming and teaching the word and how the word impacts them when

they choose to listen to the prophet's words and apply them in their life.

They receive protection, they receive safety, they

receive peace, they have rest.

And when they turn against those words, they struggle.

And I think that's what conference is all about.

It's this invitation from the Lord to get our hearts moving.

pricked.

I think it's the prophet, the apostles, the other leaders

trying to help us reinvigorate our discipleship and do a little bit

better in the coming six months.

So I wanted some way to help my kids do that.

And one of my favorite ways to do this is to use these little mini conference books.

So you haven't seen these before.

The first time I made them was from last fall's conference.

Basically I designed them to be this little cheat sheet of sorts, but it

doesn't have The full conference sessions in it, it simply has QR codes to the

special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

So I'm hoping this gives you a chance to testify about a special

witness and what it is they do.

If you go on the creative notes, you can find some links to this interview with

Elder Bednar where he kind of walks you through this, or you can just find some

more on the links to the church website.

But I hope we can pay special attention to these special witnesses.

They have a very particular job.

They are missionaries who are out and about in the world to teach

and testify of Jesus Christ.

And I loved as I was searching their talks, because if you'll notice

on the inside, There's a QR code, there's a picture, the title of the

talk, and then I've added these tags.

The official tags aren't on the church website yet, so I had to kind of

create my own, but I actually like that better this year because I could add

more than what was on there before.

But basically I went through each talk and I tried to pull out the main themes

to add in here, and the idea behind that is if your kids are in charge of

a lesson, let's say they're teaching their teacher's quorum next week,

and The lesson is all about temples.

They could easily flip through this little book and find the

talks that reference temples.

If they need to talk about the plan of salvation, or they need to talk

about covenants, you can find lots of different talks that reference that.

Then they can scan the QR code and they can go to that talk.

and study it.

So it's just kind of a good tool to have on hand during scripture study, during

your seminary classes, all those things.

The other thing I added to this one is I put a little checklist at the bottom.

And the idea here is that as they go through each talk, they have a chance

to check the check boxes at the bottom.

Once they've watched it, they can check it.

If they've listened to it again, they can check it.

And if they've taken a time to study it, or maybe you studied

as a class or as a family.

then you all check that box so that you know you've done your

best to feast on those words.

The order of this book is important since this is just the 15 special

witnesses of Jesus Christ, the first presidency, and the quorum of the 12.

Rather than putting them in session order, I decided to put them

in the order that they appear.

Like if you look at the chart of the quorum of the 12 and the first presidency.

This is the order that they sit in because this is the order of their seniority.

So obviously we have the president of the church, president Nelson first.

I also have a quote of his that I just loved about getting to

the temple and how nothing else compares to it on the front cover.

And then as you flip through the book, you'll see that you

get next the first presidency, president Oaks, president Eyring.

Then you flip and you get.

President Holland, and then the Quorum of the Twelve.

The last page, of course, is Elder Kieran.

So if you haven't assembled this, it actually prints on

just two pieces of paper.

The assembly process is really easy.

It's just kind of a cool fold up technique that your kids could do as they listen to

one of the conference talks or maybe as you testify about the power of profits.

But I hope you'll just take a chance to Tie these together.

Show your kids, in writing, on the Book of Mormon, how listening to

the Prophet helps, heals, gives people access to the tools of

salvation that Christ has created.

And then use that to encourage our kids to get into these words.

Not just this week, and the week after, but all the time.

All throughout these six months, as we have a chance to study them and deepen

our understanding, our testimonies of profits will increase, and by default, our

testimony of the Savior increases as well.

Since this one is a different kind of printable, I would love this one to go as

far and wide and be as useful as possible.

So this one, rather than being an Etsy shop, it will just be a free download.

on my website.

So if you go to gather.

macmom.

com, you might have to sign in to be a free member to download it.

But once you do, you should be able to access it and use it in your classes or

in your families whenever you need it.

Week 16 is a wrap.

We've covered insights, questions, creative.

Hopefully now you have lots of tools at your disposal to dive into these verses.

If you need extra help, there's one more tool available to you.

And that's if you join us on the live Monday morning, 10 a.

m.

Mountain Time, you'll need to go to the site gather.

macmom.

com.

That's where.

The course is housed.

You don't need to subscribe.

You can just be a free member, but then you can RSVP for the live that's

coming up on Monday and join in.

It's a good time.

If you want to study these chapters, chapter by chapter, rather than

in this spark and question format, then come join us on the live.

If you can't be there as it's recording, then you can always find it afterwards.

It's free.

posted on the site and you can see it anytime you see on the site a quick

links that's you can see the lessons there and you can also watch the

live if you're interested in that but otherwise hopefully you have lots of

tools to help you dive into these last verses of the small plates of Nephi.

The Doctrine and Covenants teaches us that these throw great wisdom and understanding

you of the doctrine from these plates.

So I think they deserve as much attention as we can possibly fit in

this week and hopefully you can find it.

Remember, if you're hoping for a deeper dive, you're going

to want to open the notes.

So the notes and the printables are only accessible to those who are subscribers to

the course, but you can always find those.

It's linked underneath the videos on my site.

So if you're a subscriber, just click that link, open it up.

Especially this week, I tried to pull as many conference talks from

our last conference as possible.

So you'll see a lot of links to go read a lot of goodness and refresh

yourself on what our leaders are doing.

just taught us.

So hope you enjoy it.

Just remember if you aren't interested in subscribing, you

are totally welcome to find the printables on my Etsy shop as well.

So things like the little luchador printable, the thumb wrestling,

that'll be in the Etsy shop.

Just remember that this one is free, so you won't find it on Etsy,

but you'll find it over at gather.

macmom.

com.

Just search for a mini conference book and you'll be able to download it.

All right, you guys enjoy this week of study, and I'll see you next week as we

head into the words of King Benjamin.