So what we have here are bookmarks that say what lesson you’re on each week, 3-up and made painstakingly in Microsoft Word so you can adjust them to your ward’s schedule and print enough out for everybody. They will thank you for them, and you can get more next year. There are 53 Sundays this year, and 48 lessons–so 53 minus two Stake Conferences minus two General Conferences still leaves one Gospel Doctrine week with no lesson. Priesthood and Relief Society have more lessons than weeks, so you’re okay there. But someone will have to make the call in your ward as to what to do with what is listed in the bookmark as December 30th. But no matter what, you’ll have to make some adjustments since you’ll have different ward conference and stake conference dates than I.

- 2012_Lesson_Schedule.PDF
LDS Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (PDF format)
(right-click link to save file)

- 2012_Lesson_Schedule.DOC
LDS Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (editable DOC format)
(right click link to save file)

And here are links to previous years’ bookmarks: 2011 New Testament, 2010 Old Testament, 2008 Book of Mormon.

Please comment below–it motivates me if nothing else… Of course holler if you need any help.

Last night we had a stake Relief Society meeting that combined a service project, dinner, and watching the broadcast of the General Relief Society meeting.  Three of my favorite things in one evening!  Thanks to all the people who helped make it happen.

Our service project was very simple, but (as one of the ladies pointed out) something we could do to actually touch peoples’ lives.  We made hygiene kits that “provide disaster victims with basic items necessary for health and cleanliness.”  We loaded our gallon ziplocks with the items assembly-line style, rotating through the line more than once.  I’ve done this several times before, and from experience I now know that toothpaste is the item that invariably runs out first, as it did last night.  And my mother-in-law says that the best place to buy a gross of unbreakable combs for these projects is Overstock.com.  For future reference, I think it would have been best to have several “loading stations” or assembly lines for the kits, rather than one assembly table where the sisters rotated through.  But it all went fast enough and I think everyone enjoyed visiting together while we waited in line as it was.

Then we had a delicious meal of taco salad with bowls made of tortillas fried by our amazing Spanish Branch sisters.  Yum!  And we had a layered jello salad dessert that got somewhat mixed reactions, from “oh, we are so Mormon eating Jello” to “wow, doesn’t this look beautiful?!”

Then we moved to the chapel for the broadcast, where the General RS Presidency and President Monson spoke to us.  Sister Beck spoke about understanding who we are and our roles and how to set priorities from our past, saying that next year we’ll be studying the history of Relief Society.  I’m really looking forward to seeing the curriculum materials for that.  Sister Allred spoke touchingly about the atonement and our roles as women.  Sister Thompson spoke about loving each other and loving Visiting Teaching.  And our prophet moved me with his words about not judging or criticizing each other and having charity.   I loved his very visual story about the woman who moved into a home and noticed her neighbor across the street hanging out her laundry and complaining to her husband every day that her neighbor didn’t know how to get her clothes clean.  One day she looked out the window and excitedly showed her husband that her neighbor had finally gotten her wash clean and wondered aloud how she’d done it.  Her husband said that he’d gotten up early that morning and washed the windows.  It was a modernized and pointedly applicable version of the Savior’s “mote in your brother’s eye” story.  And President Monson delivered his message with compassion and humor and the Spirit so that it touched deeply without offending.

This broadcast always makes the preparation for General Conference smoother for me the next week.  The interesting thing about these General RS broadcasts is that I almost invariably have an unusually challenging day the day of that makes it really easy to make an excuse not to go.  I never want to go when I get in the car to go to these meetings, but I want to want to go so I do it.  Is that mixed up enough?  Surprisingly, or not, in retrospect I’m always more than glad I went.  I’m almost always happy I came as soon as I arrive.  It’s just getting there that’s hard.  Note to self: it’s worth overcoming my “I don’t want to leave the house” attitude to go to Relief Society.

This is Colin.  I’ve created the 2010 version of my Old Testament Sunday School bookmarks.,

That means little bookmarks that say what lesson you’re on each week, 3-up and made painstakingly in Microsoft Word so you can adjust them to your schedule and print enough out for everybody.  They will thank you for them, and you can get more next year.

- LDS Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (PDF format)
- LDS Old Testament Gospel Doctrine Lesson Schedule (editable DOC format)
- and an Old Testament reading schedule–929 chapters divided by 365 days (actually starts January 10th per schedule)

Holler with comments or questions.

Yesterday was C R A Z Y. I’d been playing with my sister since Friday, so my rhythm and schedule was off and laundry running out and…yeah.  But it was a good day.

At church, Colin gave a 25-minute talk in Sacrament Meeting on temples, springboarded from this talk by Elder Richard G. Scott.  Much of Colin’s talk was spent reminding us that we have to really decide to go, and on a schedule, or so many unanticipated obstacles will spontaneously appear that we’ll never get around to it.  And don’t wear a watch when you go.  I was blessed to have a sister, a friend, a sister-in-law, and Colin’s parents there to help compensate for my lack of husband who normally keeps our little crew under control.  Degen hurt his leg on Saturday, and asked to sit in a stroller all during church.  Then, it turns out that Colin had agreed to substitute teach Degen’s Sunbeams class at the same time as I taught my CTR 7 class.  Ruthie and Hillary signed up to join him in teaching about Being Kind to Animals, and Sonja agreed to watch little Heidi. Sonja has been willing to babysit a lot this week–thank you!!! Colin had an EQ Presidency meeting after church, so the kids and I listened to music in the car for a while before heading home for lunch.  I’m grateful to have a husband who serves others so willingly.

Sonja served us a yummy lunch and we all got to visit for a while before it was time to load up the cars and head to the airport by way of the beach.  Ruthie and Hillary both wanted to see the beach, and I’m so glad they did!  Kim recommended we go to Crissy Field since it was on the way to the airport.  Neither Colin nor I had ever been there before, but it was a pleasure to go.  I can’t believe how close it is, and with grass and beach and grills and free parking, I’m putting it on the list of places to go on a date.

We put our toes in the water, Degen carefully staying at the water’s edge and Maggie venturing in farther and farther despite my warnings and getting pulled under by a wave.  Colin and I both jumped in and saved her, all three of us getting soaked. Lucky, my Mommy brain had thought to bring an extra change of clothes for the kids though I’d had no intention of any of us getting wet.

Colin stitched together this neat 360 degree panorama  of where we were.  We mostly enjoyed the scenery and took pictures and let our toes enjoy the sand.  There was a little boy who’d wandered away from his family who adopted us for a little while, playing enthusiastically with Maggie and Degen.  It took us a while to find his family who were picnicking nearby with a large group and hadn’t noticed yet that he was gone (boy, do I sympathize with that!), but we enjoyed having a little friend to play with.

After a little while at the beach, it was time to take Ruthie and Hillary to the airport.  I had such a fun time during their visit!  Aside from the joy having my sister around, it’s just fun to have visitors to motivate me to enjoy the beautiful place where we live.  I hope they both had as much fun as I did.

I’m so lucky to have seen two sisters in one month!  I enjoyed visiting with and getting to spend time with both Liza and Ruthie.  They are both great young ladies and I can’t wait to see them at Thanksgiving.

Last night Colin and I got to go to the Oakland Temple and work for a couple of hours.  Kim willingly watched all three kids for us with very little notice.  Yay Kim!  Of course, the kids LOVE having their aunt babysit, and we’re always grateful for her generosity.  It’s a strangely big deal for us to go anywhere more than a couple minutes away without the kids.  When we went to the opera last week we had to hire a babysitter for eight hours in order to go to a location that’s about 40 minutes away.  When we went to the temple yesterday, I left the house around 5:30 and we didn’t get home until 11:30.  Six hours for a two-hour event that’s only 40 minutes away.  It was a huge realization for me after I had Degen that everything takes longer with kids, and it takes even longer with three kids (but not three times longer, thank goodness!). 

Anyway, it ended up that the temple session we attended was in Spanish with subtitles and it was so good for my brain type and learning curve to have those subtitles!  And it’s always fun to listen to a foreign language.  I’m thinking I want to go to foreign language sessions from now on.  The temple is a comforting, peaceful place and it did my heart good to go to my first full session in eight months. 

Yesterday I also tried my hand at indexing for FamilySearch for the first time.  FamilySearchIndexing.org has a program where they’ve scanned millions of microfilms of census and other records and regular people like you and I volunteer to transcribe them from home, then they make the searchable images available for free online.  It’s really fun to think of being part of a huge collaborative effort like that.  And I was surprised at how easy it is.  You go to the web site and register, download a little program, and then pull down a “batch” to transcribe on- or offline at your leisure into a form they’ve prepared with detailed instructions, then click a button to send your transcription back.  They have it all triple-checked for accuracy, then they publish it to share with the world!  This is something even I, with three little kids and sharing a car, can do as a meaningful service to others.  Simple, easy, and doable in small time segments.  I totally recommend it to anyone who wants to get outside themselves for a few minutes a day.

1. Playtime, then clean up

2. Opening (prayer, catch up on kids’ news, quick review of previous lesson, intro to today’s lesson)

3. Walk (outside or in building)

4. Lesson

5. Singing Time

6. Snack

7. Activity

8. Playtime

9. Cleanup, closing prayer, bubbles until parents arrive

So, my job was to be in charge of steps 2, 3, 4, and 7. Here’s how I did it.

2. For the Opening, we had a child say the opening prayer, then reviewed last week’s lesson about ears by asking them where their ears are and what things they heard during Sacrament Meeting that morning.  Then I told them we’d be talking about how we’re thankful for our eyes today.  I asked them where their eyes were, and had them look at each others’ eyes.  Then we made glasses with our hands to sing “Popcorn” and I asked them if we went outside if they thought we’d see popcorn.  I told them we were going for a walk and we’d look around and see what our eyes can do.

3. We have a rope in our Nursery that the kids hold on to when we go for a walk to keep them all together.  We went outside and sat on a bench, had them use their hands as “glasses” like in the Popcorn song, and I asked them what they could see.  I asked them if they could see anything green, then blue, then gray, etc.  Then I asked if they could see things of different shapes.  Then we went for a little run in circles to let them see what’s on the ground and to get some energy out.  Then we walked back inside, holding on to the rope.

4. We sat down in the Nursery room, I asked them what they could remember seeing outside with their wonderful eyes, and we sang “Two Little Eyes That See.”  I told the children that some people can’t see very well and have to wear glasses or contacts to help them see better.  I showed them which of the Nursery workers wore glasses, then asked them to raise their hands if their moms or dads wear glasses or contacts.  Then I told them some people can’t see at all with their eyes and got a volunteer to let me blindfold him and I pretended to be a guide dog and lead him around the room.

(At this point our Primary Chorister came in and we did Singing Time, then returned to the lesson)

I let a couple more kids be “blind” or the “guide dog.”  We talked about how hard it is to do things without our eyes, and how our eyes are a blessing.

Then I pulled out the Jesus Healing the Blind Man picture and told the story very simply.  I told them that Jesus spat on the dirt and made mud.  We talked about who likes mud and who doesn’t like mud (that conversation was a hit).  Then Jesus put the mud on the blind man’s eyes (I showed them the picture up close then, and asked if they could see Jesus putting mud on his eyes).  Then Jesus told him to go wash his eyes off.  The blind man was obedient and did what Jesus said, and then he could see again!  I asked the kids if they think Jesus showed he loved the blind man because he made his eyes work again.  Then I told them that Jesus loves them too, and their eyes are one way they can tell that Jesus and Heavenly Father love them.  I bore my testimony of how the Lord loves us, and how I’m thankful for my eyes.

7. For our activity, I prepared paper bag puppets with open and closing eyes for the kids to color as illustrated at the end of the lesson.  On the back of the bag I wrote “I am thankful for my EYES” and then as the kids colored we wrote their names on the bags.  The older kids especially liked opening the eyes and closing them again with the puppets.

This rendition of the lesson worked quite well.  I think it helped a LOT that we had a predictable schedule that we’d been using for a few weeks and the kids were used to it.  They were attentive and interested almost the whole time.  They were pretty afraid of the blindfold during the guide dog activity, so I think that one might have been too much for the little ones.  They were very interested in the part of the lesson that talked about Jesus.  They liked opening and closing their eyes and showing me their eyes.  I had prepared another “just in case” activity that we didn’t use–the one in the manual where you “hide” a small object and have them look around for it.  I brought a little rainbow colored stuffed animal to use for that.

My first assignment, besides showing up and helping out on Sundays, is to teach a lesson in two weeks on being thankful for our eyes.  I just read through the lesson and it’s going to be totally fun to adapt it to the younger kids and come up with Eye-related actvities.

Sorry to those of you who relied on my Sharing Time lessons, but anyone who is a Nursery worker, stay tuned for my wild Nursery lessons and activities.

This month’s theme from the Outline is:

The temple is a blessing for me and my family. “And verily I say unto you, let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people” (D&C 124:40).

This week’s lesson plan from the Outline says:

I will live now to be worthy to go to the temple and do my part to have an eternal family (D&C 97:15–17; “Temples,” TTF, 170–72; Primary 3, lesson 35). Invite the children to express their feelings about the temple. Sing “I Love to See the Temple” (CS, 95). Draw on the chalkboard a road map leading to a picture of a temple and a family. Draw other roads on the map that lead to “nowhere.” Write on paper strips actions that will lead to the temple (reading scriptures, showing love, etc.) and actions that will lead to nowhere (forgetting to pray, not sharing, etc.). Place the strips in a bag. Invite the children to pick a strip from the bag, decide which destination the action would lead to, and post the action on the corresponding road. Every time someone chooses an action that leads to the temple, sing the first two lines of “I Love to See the Temple.” At the end of the game, sing the entire song. Help the children memorize Alma 37:35. (See “Memorization,” TNGC, 171–72.)

That seems like a pretty good plan to me.  I might add pictures to the word strips for the Junior Primary kids so that they can easily identify what’s going on by themselves.  If the kids don’t know the song well yet, instead of singing only the first two lines of I Love to See the Temple, I might have them sing two lines each time, but sing the next two lines of the song each time so they sing all of the lines sometime. For the list of things that will lead to the temple, I think it would be easiest to use the My Gospel Standards list from the Faith in God program.  For older kids, because I like to have them open and read the actual scriptures as much as possible, I might make the word strips scripture references that they have to figure out, depending on how much time we have.  The “going nowhere” list will be easy to make, but I’ll be sure to make them things that the smallest kids might actually consider doing, not crazy grievous sins.  For the pictures for the end of the road to the temple, GAK 606 and GAK 609 would work well in combination.

I think this should be pretty easy to do, but if you’re looking for something else for your Primary, I found some good resources on preparing to go to the temple on the Family Home Evening resource page on the Church web page.  They’re mostly talks from the Ensign geared toward adults, but the one from Elder Nelson would probably be easily adapted for a Sharing Time lesson.  He talks about preparing physically, spiritually, and intellectually for the temple and it could be fun to break it down into those categories for the kids.

The June 2008 Friend isn’t out yet, but the February 2002 Friend has a great lesson with visual aids.  Oooohh…and I really like the January 2002 Friend ideas.  Check those out.  There’s a handout that the kids can fill out that’s neat.  Also ideas for teaching the song “I Love to See the Temple” there.  Primary Manual 3 also has some good ideas for a Temple lesson, including an idea for showing how we link families together in the temple.

Heavenly Father planned for me to come to a family. I can strengthen my family now. “The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children” (“Proclamation,” paragraph 1).

…and I’m in charge of Sharing Time next week.  Next week’s lesson in the Outline goes like this:

1. Families in the scriptures teach me how I can strengthen my family (1 Nephi 8; 16; Mosiah 27; Primary 3,lesson 39).

Divide the children into three groups and give each group a picture, a Primary song, and scripture references.

• a. GAK 102; “Follow the Prophet,” third verse (CS, 110–11); Moses 8:18–20; Genesis 6:9–14, 22; 8:20.
• b. GAK 301; “Nephi’s Courage,” third verse (CS, 120–21); 1 Nephi 3:1–7.
• c. Picture 1-69 or 4-53; “Dare to Do Right” (CS, 158); Ether 1:38–43; 6:2–12.

Write the basic events of each story on the board as each group displays the picture, sings the song, and tells the story. (For example: surrounded by wickedness, gathered together, followed God’s plan, showed gratitude to the Lord.) Ask, “What did these families do to strengthen each other?” Ask the children to write or draw three ways they can strengthen their families.

The Friend for May hasn’t come out yet, but it will eventually be here.

We’re starting on a Jr/Sr Primary schedule next month, so I can do a lesson for little ones and another for older kids.

Junior Primary Sharing Time:

My three-year-old son loves to do treasure hunts, so I’m guessing that the kids in my Jr. Primary will enjoy one too.  I’d like to use pictures from different scripture stories as clues, then have a box with stickers in it for everyone at the end.

Tell the kids that we’re going to do a treasure hunt, and that we’re going to get clues about how to find the treasure from families in the scriptures.  I’ll have one class start with a clue (picture) that has a clue about where in the room the next clue is on a post-it on the back–I’ll find a way to relate the clue to the story somehow when I write it.  They can either tell the story on the picture or have their teacher tell the story while one of the kids in the class holds up the picture for everyone to see.  We’ll decide as a group how the families in the pictures show us how to strengthen our families.  Then they can read the clue to the group and go try to find the next one.  When they find it, they hand it to the next class and the system repeats until the treasure is found.  In order to retrieve their sticker, each child (some with the help of their teacher) says something they can do to strengthen their family, then we can sing “We are a happy family” (CS 198).

Senior Primary Sharing Time:

We’ll do what the Outline suggests, above.

The meeting started off in the chapel with three talks from women who spend five minutes speaking on the topic “How I feel the love of the Lord in my life.”  Then we split into mini-classes.  We could choose two of six classes: Women’s Health, Building Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Strengthening Marriage, Kitchen Tips, Personal Revelation, and a service project making turbans for those fighting cancer.  I chose to go to the Women’s Health and Faith classes–all of them looked interesting, so I decided by picking the two taught by women who serve in Primary with me.  Both classes were informative and faith-promoting.  The health class was taught by an RN and we discussed everything from the Word of Wisdom to osteoporosis to menopause to how much sleep we should get.  She was going to talk about “serving in callings with chronic health problems,” but I guess we didn’t have enough time.  In the Faith class we talked a lot about prayer and Elder Bednar’s recent General Conference talk on faith.

After the mini-classes, we met up in the chapel again to hear talks from two sisters (wives of the stake presidency) on Sustaining the Priesthood.  Then we got to go into the cultural hall for a very yummy lunch prepared by a man in our stake who is a professional chef.  He and some other men in the stake served us chicken (caesar?) wraps, potato salad, and fruit salad (actually mostly marshmallows).  Women in the stake had brought desserts to share and we had a HUGE spread of a variety of desserts.  I skipped the fruit salad so I would have enough in my carb budget for a bit or two of cheesecake and brownie.  It was heavenly after nearly a month of very limited sweets to have good bite of dense chocolate and another of cheesecake….mmmm…graham cracker crust…