Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual

Contents
Title Page
Introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual
Doctrine and Covenants Lessons
- The Restoration Proclamation
- Doctrine and Covenants 1
- Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26
- Doctrine and Covenants 2; Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65
- Doctrine and Covenants 3–5
- Doctrine and Covenants 6–9
- Doctrine and Covenants 10–11
- Doctrine and Covenants 12–17; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75
- Doctrine and Covenants 18
- Doctrine and Covenants 19
- Doctrine and Covenants 20–22
- Doctrine and Covenants 23–26
- Doctrine and Covenants 27–28
- Doctrine and Covenants 29
- Doctrine and Covenants 30–36
- Doctrine and Covenants 37–40
- Doctrine and Covenants 41–44
- Doctrine and Covenants 45
- Doctrine and Covenants 46–48
- Doctrine and Covenants 49–50
- Doctrine and Covenants 51–57
- Doctrine and Covenants 58–59
- Doctrine and Covenants 60–63
- Doctrine and Covenants 64–66
- Doctrine and Covenants 67–70
- Doctrine and Covenants 71–75
- Doctrine and Covenants 76
- Doctrine and Covenants 77–80
- Doctrine and Covenants 81–83
- Doctrine and Covenants 84
- Doctrine and Covenants 85–87
- Doctrine and Covenants 88
- Doctrine and Covenants 89–92
- Doctrine and Covenants 93
- Doctrine and Covenants 94–97
- Doctrine and Covenants 98–101
- Doctrine and Covenants 102–105
- Doctrine and Covenants 106–108
- Doctrine and Covenants 109–110
- Doctrine and Covenants 111–114
- Doctrine and Covenants 115–120
- Doctrine and Covenants 121–123
- Doctrine and Covenants 124
- Doctrine and Covenants 125–128
- Doctrine and Covenants 129–132
- Doctrine and Covenants 133–134
- Doctrine and Covenants 135–136
- Doctrine and Covenants 137–138
- The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2
- The Family: A Proclamation to the World
- The Living Christ
Life Preparation Lessons
- Doctrinal Mastery: Finding Answers to My Questions
- Scripture Study Skills
- For the Strength of Youth: Making Choices
- Building Self-Reliance
- Physical and Emotional Health
- Preparing for Future Education and Employment
- Succeeding in School
- Missionary Preparation
- Temple Preparation
- Teachings of Church Leaders
Appendix

Lesson 51—Doctrine and Covenants 37; 38:1–9, 28–33: Gather “to the Ohio”

“Lesson 51—Doctrine and Covenants 37; 38:1–9, 28–33: Gather ‘to the Ohio,’” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual, (2025)

“Doctrine and Covenants 37; 38:1–9, 28–33,” Doctrine and Covenants Seminary Teacher Manual

Lesson 51: Doctrine and Covenants 37–40

Doctrine and Covenants 37; 38:1–9, 28–33

Gather “to the Ohio”

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gather together in many ways. The first instance for Church members to gather in one body came when the Lord commanded His people to gather “to the Ohio” (Doctrine and Covenants 37:1). Church members in New York and other areas made great sacrifices to gather in Ohio. This lesson can help students understand why the Savior commands His people to gather.

Possible Learning Activities

“Go to the Ohio”

To introduce the power of gathering, consider the following activity. Give a student a single small stick and invite him or her to break it. Next, give the student a bundle of small sticks and invite him or her to break the bundle. This task should be difficult but possible to accomplish. Finally, give the student a similar bundle of small sticks, but add one large stick. Invite the student to break this bundle. This bundle should not be breakable. Invite students to imagine who the small sticks might represent (individuals) and who the large stick might represent (Jesus Christ). Consider questions like the following to help students discover the power of gathering to the Savior.

What can this teach us about the power of gathering? About the power of gathering to the Savior?

The following self-assessment can help students think about their personal circumstances during the lesson. Invite them to think about how they would respond to each question. Discuss the final question as a class, and write students’ answers on the board for reference.
Why do you think the Savior commands His people to gather together?
What blessings do you need in your life that might come from gathering with other Church members?
What are some places we gather today to feel the Savior’s power?

Many people in Ohio responded to the message of the Restoration and joined the Savior’s Church. Among them was a minister named Sidney Rigdon. Sidney and his wife, Phebe, understood that if they accepted the Book of Mormon and joined the Church, they would lose their home and livelihood. They prayerfully considered the matter and were baptized. Many members of Rigdon’s congregation also joined the Church.

In New York, many Church members were facing severe persecution. In some cases, their enemies were threatening the lives of Church leaders and meeting in secret to plot their destruction (see Doctrine and Covenants 38:13, 28–29). When Sidney Rigdon came to New York to meet Joseph Smith, he brought word of how the Savior’s gospel was being accepted in Ohio. Joseph Smith received a revelation with instructions that could help the New York Saints in the difficulties they faced.

Read Doctrine and Covenants 37:1–4, looking for what the Lord commanded members of His Church to do.

The following map can help students see the distance some would need to travel to gather in Ohio.

How might Church members have reacted to this commandment? Why?
What do you know about the Savior that can help you act in faith when His commandments seem difficult to obey?

Shortly after receiving the command to go to Ohio, Church leaders gathered for a conference and discussed the move. Obeying the command meant leaving behind property and, for some Saints, family. Joseph Smith received Doctrine and Covenants 38 at this conference. (See Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, vol. 1, The Standard of Truth, 1815–1846 [2018], 109–11.)

Read Doctrine and Covenants 38:1–7, looking for what the Savior taught about Himself.

How might understanding these things about the Savior have helped the Saints make the required sacrifices to gather?

The Lord blesses His Saints when they gather to Him

Students could practice the scripture-study skill of making lists by marking the blessings of gathering in the following passage.

Read Doctrine and Covenants 38:28–33, looking for ways the Saints would be blessed by following the Savior’s command to gather in Ohio.

How would the Savior bless Church members for gathering in Ohio?
What are some reasons the Savior commands His people to gather?

Students may identify a truth similar to this: The Lord gathers His people to protect them and to strengthen them spiritually.
What are some ways the Savior protects us and strengthens us spiritually when we obey His command to gather?

Consider inviting two students to read the following accounts to the class, or dividing the class into pairs and inviting them to read the accounts to one another. These accounts can help students see how the Lord fulfilled His promises to be among the Saints and to lead them in 1831 (see Doctrine and Covenants 38:7, 33). You may want to mention that these accounts can give us confidence that the Lord will bless us as we obey His command to gather in our day.

The Fayette Branch

Lucy Mack Smith led the Fayette Branch. They traveled by boat along the Erie Canal and across Lake Erie. When they arrived at the lake, thick ice in the harbor prevented their progress. The discouraged Saints were cold and hungry, and they began to argue. Lucy cried out to them:

“Where is your faith? Where is your confidence in God? If you will all of you raise your desires to heaven, that the ice may be broken up and we be set at liberty, as sure as the Lord lives, it will be done.”

Immediately Lucy heard a thunderous noise. The ice in the harbor was broken up enough to enable their boat to pass through. The grateful Saints came together in prayer. They traveled safely to Kirtland, Ohio (See Saints, 1:121–23).

The Colesville Branch

Newel Knight led the Colesville Branch. While Newel was away, his aunt Electa Peck fell and broke her shoulder. A surgeon tried to relieve her pain and said it would be a miracle if she could travel within a few weeks. Electa dreamed that Newel returned and laid his hands on her and that she was made whole. When Newel returned, he heard what had happened to his aunt and went to see her. She requested that he bless her. Newel approached the bed, rebuked the pain in the name of Jesus Christ, and commanded Electa to be made whole. The next morning Electa arose, got dressed, and continued the journey. (See Newel Knight, The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The Journals and Histories of Newel Knight, ed. Michael Hubbard MacKay and William G. Hartley [2019], 32–33.)

Consider inviting students to gather in groups to discuss the following questions. For variety, they could gather based on a trait such as their height or the time of year when they were born. Remind students to refer to the list of gathering places on the board.

What do these accounts teach you about how the Savior can protect us and strengthen us spiritually as we gather to Him?
How have you personally been blessed by accepting the Savior’s invitation to be gathered to Him?

Our own gathering

Invite students to answer the following questions in their study journal. Willing students could be invited to share their answers with the class. Consider sharing how you have been blessed by being gathered with the Saints as the Savior commanded.

How do you think the Savior is inviting you to be gathered to Him?
The Saints sacrificed their farms to obey the Lord’s command to gather (see Doctrine and Covenants 38:37). What sacrifices does the Lord require of us to receive the blessings of gathering?
What have you learned about the Savior that would help you accept His invitation to be gathered to Him?

Additional Resources

What did the Saints sacrifice to gather to Ohio?

Newel Knight recorded:

In obedience to the commandment which had been given, I, together with the Colesville Branch, began to make preparations to go to Ohio. …

As might be expected, we were obliged to make great sacrifices of our property. …

Having made the best arrangements we could for the journey, we bade adieu to all we had held dear on this earth … [and] we started [in April 1831] for Ohio. (Newel Knight autobiography and journal, circa 1846–1847, 28–29, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; spelling, capitalization, and punctuation modernized)

Why does the Lord command His people to gather?

President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency taught:

We know from experience that joy comes when we are blessed with unity. … [Our Heavenly Father’s] desire is to grant us that sacred wish for unity out of His love for us.

He cannot grant it to us as individuals. The joy of unity He wants so much to give us is not solitary. We must seek it and qualify for it with others. It is not surprising then that God urges us to gather so that He can bless us. He wants us to gather into families. He has established classes, wards, and branches and commanded us to meet together often. In those gatherings, which God has designed for us, lies our great opportunity. We can pray and work for the unity that will bring us joy and multiply our power to serve. (Henry B. Eyring, “Our Hearts Knit as One,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2008, 69)

Sister Reyna I. Aburto, former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, said:

From the beginning, God has sought to gather and organize His children “to bring to pass [our] immortality and eternal life” [Moses 1:39]. With that purpose in mind, He has instructed us to build places of worship where we receive knowledge and the ordinances of salvation and exaltation; make and keep covenants that bind us to Jesus Christ; are endowed with “the power of godliness” [Doctrine and Covenants 84:20]; and gather together often to remember Jesus and strengthen each other in Him. The Church organization and its buildings exist for our spiritual benefit. “The Church … is the scaffolding with which we build eternal families” [L. Tom Perry, “The Tradition of Light and Testimony,” Ensign, Dec. 2012, 30]. (Reyna I. Aburto, “We Are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Liahona, May 2022, 11)

Doctrine and Covenants 38:32. When did the Lord give the Saints His law and endow them with power from on high?

Shortly after the Prophet Joseph Smith arrived in Ohio, the Lord revealed His law now recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 42. Later, in 1836, the Lord endowed His Saints with power from on high in the Kirtland Temple (see Doctrine and Covenants 95:8; 110:9).

Supplemental Learning Activities

Videos about gathering in our day

Consider using one or more of the following videos, available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org, to help students understand the blessings of gathering in our day. They may be helpful when students discuss their own gathering.

To see an example of youth inviting others to gather with them, consider watching “You Can Do This as a Quorum or Class” (4:04; watch from time code 0:10 to 2:14).

4:4

To see an example of how a young woman was blessed by being gathered at Young Women camp, watch “Why Am I Here?” (4:10).

4:10

To help students who may wonder why they should gather at Church activities when they don’t feel they get much out of them, watch “The Needs before Us” (11:57; watch from time code 5:59 to 8:25).

12:6

Doctrine and Covenants 38:8–12. Those who will abide the Savior’s Second Coming

To help students discuss some of the Savior’s teachings about His return, you could show an image of the Savior’s Second Coming. Invite students to search Doctrine and Covenants 38:8–12, looking for who will “abide the day” (verse 8) of the Second Coming (remain on the earth with the Savior). Ask students to share what they found, and discuss how being clean and purified will allow us to abide the day of the Savior’s Second Coming.

You could also study the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24–30 (see also Doctrine and Covenants 86:1–7).

Doctrine and Covenants 38:30. “If ye are prepared ye shall not fear”

To help students feel the importance of being prepared, you could discuss times you have felt prepared or unprepared and invite students to share their own such experiences. Talk about what we need to be prepared for.

You could also read this statement by President Russell M. Nelson and discuss the questions that follow:

“I urge you to take steps to be temporally prepared. But I am even more concerned about your spiritual and emotional preparation” (Russell M. Nelson, “Embrace the Future with Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 74).

How can we prepare temporally, emotionally, and spiritually?
How can we involve the Savior in our preparations?
How do you think being prepared in these ways can help us not fear?

Come, Follow Me: Voices of the Restoration

Consider inviting students to read and discuss the account of Phebe Carter’s move to Ohio. See the “Voices of the Restoration” section for Doctrine and Covenants 37–40 in Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church. Students could discuss the sacrifices she made to be gathered with the Saints in Ohio and what they learn about following the Savior from her example.

A play about gathering to Ohio

Instead of reading the account of Lucy Mack Smith leading a group of Saints to Ohio, you could invite students to act it out. You could use the script found in the article “Lucy Leads the Way” in the Friend, May 2018, 12–13.