Us with Them and Them with Us, by Caitlin Connolly

November 1–7

Doctrine and Covenants 125–128

“A Voice of Gladness for the Living and the Dead”

Ponder these words by Elder Ulisses Soares: “The best teacher is a good role model. Teaching something that we truly live can make a difference in the hearts of those we teach” (“How Can I Understand?” Ensign or Liahona, May 2019, 7).

Record Your Impressions

Invite Sharing

Class members could write on the board phrases from Doctrine and Covenants 125–28 that impress them. Let them share their thoughts about those phrases. How did studying these truths influence their actions this week?

Teach the Doctrine

Doctrine and Covenants 126

“Take especial care of your family.”

• The calls Brigham Young received to serve in the Church required him and his family to make great sacrifices; the Lord’s words to Brigham in section 126 could inspire a class discussion about why the Lord sometimes requires sacrifice in our service. How has the Lord helped us fulfill our responsibilities at home, in Church callings, and in other aspects of life?

Doctrine and Covenants 127:2–4

We can rely on the Lord during difficult times.

• How might Doctrine and Covenants 127:2–4 help class members who feel that, like Joseph Smith, they are swimming in “deep water”? You could invite class members to read these verses and share how they would summarize Joseph’s attitude toward his challenges. What phrases from these verses would help someone who is struggling? How did Joseph rely on the Lord during his trials? How can we follow his example?

Doctrine and Covenants 128

The salvation of our ancestors is essential to our salvation.

• Consider how you might inspire class members to participate in temple and family history work. Doctrine and Covenants 128:15–18 could help them feel the urgency of this work; you might invite them to search these verses for something that increases their desire to do baptisms for their deceased ancestors. Questions like these might help them ponder these verses: Why can’t “we without our dead be made perfect”? (verse 15). Why does Joseph Smith call baptism for the dead the “most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel”? (verse 17; see also the quotation in “Additional Resources”). In what sense might the earth be cursed if there is no “welding link … between the fathers and the children”? (verse 18). If class members need help getting started with family history work, you could invite the ward temple and family history leader to introduce them to FamilySearch.org.

  You could also inspire them with verses that express the joy of temple and family history work, such as Doctrine and Covenants 128:19–23. Class members could read these verses and find phrases that show how Joseph Smith felt about the salvation of the dead. Then you could ask them to share experiences when they had similar feelings about this work. Showing one of the videos in “Additional Resources” could also give them encouragement.

• Because the salvation of the dead is unique to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we might have opportunities to explain this doctrine to people who have never heard of it before. Class members could search Doctrine and Covenants 128 for something they could share in a conversation with someone who asks about baptism for the dead. What does this doctrine teach us about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ? Let class members practice what they would say.

  

  Doing temple service for our ancestors binds our hearts to them.

Additional Resources

Videos about family history work (ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

• “I Couldn’t Explain the Feeling”

• “If We Put God First”

• “Redeeming the Dead Redeemed Me”

• “A Visit from Father”

• “Connected to Eternal Families”

• “Gatherers in the Kingdom”

• “Including Me”

• “Is Anything Too Hard for the Lord?”

“A Glorious and Wonderful Provision.”

President Gordon B. Hinckley said:

“Jesus’s Atonement in behalf of all represents a great vicarious sacrifice. He set the pattern under which He became a proxy for all mankind. This pattern under which one man can act in behalf of another is carried forward in the ordinances of the house of the Lord. Here we serve in behalf of those who have died without a knowledge of the gospel. Theirs is the option to accept or reject the ordinance which is performed. They are placed on an equal footing with those who walk the earth. The dead are given the same opportunity as the living. Again, what a glorious and wonderful provision the Almighty has made through His revelation to His Prophet” (“The Great Things Which God Has Revealed,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2005, 82–83).

Improving Our Teaching

Pray for your class members. Pray by name for those you teach, and seek to understand their specific needs. As you do so, Heavenly Father can help you know what to teach in order to help meet those needs. (See Teaching in the Savior’s Way, 6.)