The Power of Deliverance

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

The Power of Deliverance, by L. Tom Perry
Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles



My wife and I are at the end of a glorious year serving together, side-by-side, teaching a class of children at church. It's been wonderful to be together, plan together, and teach together. Alas, I've been asked to help in another area and leave my wife teaching our class with someone else. (I'm going to be the Primary Singing Time Leader.)

Yesterday was our last lesson together. Perhaps one reason I'm so sad for this time together to end is because our lesson was near-perfect! We taught about the personal visit of Christ to the Nephites after great destruction, given as a sign of his crucifixion. The children were engaged, they paid attention, and they asked questions.

After a dramatic reenactment of various storms I've been in (I'm fairly ridiculous in front of a crowd), we talked about how the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, just as it says on the cover of the book. Using a globe, we discussed how the Bible is a testament of Jesus Christ and contains the writings of prophets and other stories, the majority of which took place in an area about the size of a quarter (on the globe, of course).

Spinning the globe, we showed the general area from which the Book of Mormon originates. We discussed how the stories of prophets in the Book of Mormon serve as another witness of Jesus Christ. The fun came when we talked about how the prophecies of the prophets were fulfilled when Christ appeared in glory, showing himself to the people one-by-one, so that they, too, might be considered additional testaments of Jesus Christ.

At the end of our lesson we showed a short film summarizing the Savior's visit to the Nephites. We prefaced this by encouraging them to imagine that they were there seeing what others saw, feeling what others felt. The children were asked to pay attention to how they felt and to know that the warm, happy feelings that come when we learn of Christ are from the Holy Ghost.

I'm happy to report that it looked like the children did what we asked them to do, and felt what we promised they would feel. While I won't be their teacher any more, I hope they remember the things we discussed together. They may remember how I would jump around the room acting things out, but what I really want them to remember is that they felt and recognized the Holy Ghost in our time together.

I was reminded about all of this today as I reviewed Elder Perry's talk where he testified of how our lives are blessed by turning to the scriptures:

What a blessing it is to have the account of the mission of our Lord and Savior declared in the Book of Mormon to add a second witness to the doctrine declared in the Bible.