Christ is the Reason

Teaching Skills

1. Prepare for the Lesson Before Hand Make Sure the Spirit Can Be Present
1. The morning study before the lesson, make sure you and your companion review what you plan on teaching (though it could be subject to change according to the spirit.) Go over principles you will teach, cues to help you transition better, and critique each others teaching method in order to perfect your skills. It is the spirit that converts, but it can sometimes be difficult for the spirit to bear testimony that isn’t taught correctly. Do not be unprepared to teach the assigned lesson plan.
2. Make sure you bring the materials you may need for the lesson; scripture, videos, and other helpful teaching aides. This should be taken care of before the investigator arrives.
3. Call the member(s) that will be assisting you in teaching at least the night before (the sooner the better: members are busy too!). Assign them a principle(s) to teach or bear testimony about. More often then not you will have plenty of members at your disposal that would absolutely love to help you teach but are just waiting for you to ask. When praying about each specific investigator, listen for the promptings concerning who would be a good member to help you teach. Do not be afraid to consider less active members as well. Having them teach with you can be a very effective way of reactivating them.

2. Make Sure the Spirit Can Be Present
1. Spend a few moments talking with the investigator about non-religious things. Example, “How was your day, etc.” This is a good opportunity to get to know them and to show that you genuinely care.
2. Make sure the television, and other distracting items are turned off.
3. Invite all in the house to hear the discussion.
4. You can ask a question(s) to segue into the discussion: If you gave them a Book of Mormon or pamphlet, ask them if they read it and how did they feel about it. If you were unable to give them any literature, ask them general questions:

- “What role has religion played in your life?” (Preach My Gospel pg 176)

- (Here is one I enjoyed asking) “Why did you decide to meet with us?”

If this is not the first discussion, review past commitments if you did not do it already. It may be a good idea to have a follow-up visit in between lessons, either by visiting them yourself, having a member visit, or calling them on the phone. By doing this, the lesson can begin quickly and end more quickly. Remember the ideal time frame for a lesson should be about 45 minutes and certainly no more than an hour. Like your members, investigators are busy too. Granted, learning the gospel is the most important thing they’ll ever do in their lives, but in general, they are spiritual novices, and aren’t used to these types of discussions. I remember when I was a little kid and our home teachers staid over a half hour I was bouncing off the walls. Be simple and quick: you cannot possibly teach everything you know in one discussion. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

3. Practical Principles to Remember During the Lesson

1. Watch your body language. Because of the new program in Preach My Gospel, you will not read from lesson plans during your discussions. This is fantastic because this gives you an opportunity to express gospel principles from your heart, using your own words. While you are doing this, make sure that you give your investigator plenty of eye contact. Make sure your sitting at attention, which may include sitting straight in your chair. On my mission, when appropriate, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat as I taught gospel principles. Later, some investigators told me they were impressed by that because it showed how excited I was to teach them. What you shouldn’t do is slouch or act as if you are not comfortable.
2. Pay attention. As you and your companions switch off teaching principles, this is a wonderful opportunity to make a good impression with your investigators. I had a companion who once started juggling pieces of fruit under the table while I taught my principle! The investigator was not impressed. Alternate looking at your companion and observing your investigator. Smile, nod, and do everything else you can in order to show how important the information your companion is teaching is to you.
3. Make smooth transitions. This will require practice whenever you get a new companion. Some effective transitions include both verbal and physical cues. For example:

Elder Jones: “…and that is essentially what the role of a prophet is. I’m grateful for Heavenly Father that he loves us enough to continue teaching us and revealing his words to us as in days of old.”

Elder Smith: “I am grateful for prophets as well and I know that they walk the earth today. I’d like to tell you about one such prophet named Joseph Smith…”

Review: First Elder:

i. Teaches principle

ii. Bears Testimony

iii. Looks at Companion

Second Elder:

i. Listens until the first Elder is done

ii. Confirms testimony with his own.

iii. Smoothly transitions from the first Elder’s principle into his own.

Lesson Content

1. As mentioned before, you should prayerfully choose the principles you should teach in the context of mission rules and guide lines. Prepare to teach those principles well before the actual lesson. Each lesson should be taught with the needs of the specific investigator in mind. You are encouraged to do this in Preach My Gospel (see pg 177). Listen to and follow the spirit: don’t be afraid to think out of the box.
2. When is it okay to deviate from the planned lesson? When the Spirit tells you to! I felt a certain tension as a missionary between meeting my (and the mission) discussion goals and meeting the needs of the missionary. What do I mean by that? Lets look at an example from a lesson I was involved with a few weeks ago:

The missionaries and I were teaching a young investigator the third discussion. The lesson was going fairly well when the investigator said that he wasn’t sure what the missionaries were teaching were true. This wasn’t necessarily a negative comment, but revelatory to the investigator’s progress. I asked the investigator, “How is your Book of Mormon reading going?” He indicated that he really wasn’t reading at all.

This type of situation will happen to you at some point in your mission and you have at least three options in this situation.

- You can gloss over what the investigator said and finish the discussion

- You can try to quickly resolve the concern and than finish the discussion.

- Or you can stop teaching principles from the lesson and take time to re-teach the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it.

As a missionary you need to ask “What is best for this investigator?” This may include the first two options. However, I would argue that it is okay not to finish a discussion if you feel you need to teach something else. In fact I would argue you have a responsibility to stop the discussion if the spirit is telling you to. Teaching the principle of the word of wisdom may be in vain if your investigator is not developing a testimony of the Prophet from whence that principle came. Or it could be exactly what your investigator needs to hear. The point is: keep your options open and follow the spirit.

End of the Lesson

1. You want to leave more time for the end of the lesson than in the beginning.
2. Perhaps the most important part of the lesson is the commitments that your investigators have made during the discussion.
3. Review the principles you just covered and go over their commitments.

1^st Discussion Commitments

- Read and pray about the Book of Mormon

- Pray about the First Vision and the Restoration of the Gospel

- Come to church next Sunday

- Set appointment for following discussion(s)

- Commandments from Lesson 4 that you choose to include

2^nd Discussion Commitments

- Continue 1^st Discussion Commitments

- Repent of Sins

- Be baptized

3^rd Discussion Commitments

- Continue Other Commitments

- Make commitments included in the first two discussions that you have not made yet.

4^th Discussion Commitments

- Prayer

- Sabbath Day

- Baptism

- Follow Church Leaders

- Ten Commandments

- Law of Chastity

- Word of Wisdom

- Tithing

- Fasting

4. Make sure they understand what their commitments entail, and follow up with them later through stopping by, calling, or having a member do it.
5. Close Discussion with Prayer. Have the investigator pray at least once during the discussion. It is good practice for them, and you can also observe how comfortable your investigators are in prayer