Get an unsweetened bar of baking chocolate and cover label with a piece of paper and label it "SINS".
Then get a bar of milk chocolate and label it "FORGIVENESS" OR "REPENTANCE".
Have a good-natured girl volunteer. Then have her take a bite of the "SIN" bar. (Have a garbage can ready for her). Ask her how it tasted. Her response should be quite negative. "Gross, sick, bitter!"
Then have her take a bite of the "REPENTANCE" bar. Ask her how it tasted. Her response should be "smooth, sweet, good".
Tell the girls that the chocolate is like sin and repentance. No one can really tell by looking at the outside what the chocolate is going to taste like. But experience shows how sin is bitter, not something you want. You want to spit it out, like the unsweetened chocolate. The milk chocolate bar is sweet and good. Just like how you will feel after going through the repentance process. You want to savor the milk chocolate, just like being free from sin.
Pick As many volunteers as you have outfits
Have Volunteers come up.
Have them put on the variety of Outfits.
Examples are
Ask the question after the children are dressed Which one of these people can speak to our Heavenly Father? Everyone!
Let's Look up in The Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 26:33 : "For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them ball to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.
Say "We learn here from the scriptures that all of us can come unto God and speak with Him"
Have some very nice packages and some very unattractive packages but the contents of each are the same. In side each package have some "Special" dark chocolate and the Scripture from 1 Samuel 16:7 "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart"
Display the packages and let the girls choose one by one a package. Then ask each girl why she chose the package she chose-
Then have the girls open the packages read the scripture and how this relates to their lives.
I collect rocks! Whenever we go someplace unusual (like Ireland, Cancun, or Zions National Park) I always bring home a tiny rock that reminds me of that place and its particular beauty. Now some people just kick rocks out of thier way or some throw rocks to see how stong they are and some curse rocks because they might have stubbed thier toe on them. Some people even ignore rocks. In actuality, there are such unique rocks with such unique sources or origin. (I happen to love geology!) Some resulted from an explosive force, some from years of tumbling along the bottom of a riverbed. Some were formed by millions of years of being smashed under the weight of other rocks. Each rock is totally unique!
(Then I passed around a bowl of candy rocks) This bowl contains some unusual rocks, pretty rocks. Suppose I told you to take one and bite it? Who would dare?
(then discuss the sweet surprise that they discover INSIDE that rock!?!)
Each of YOU are beautiful in a different way from different reasons and EACH has something wonderful inside that when discovered makes the world a little sweeter! Like the rocks, each is made by a loving Heavenly Father who loves us no matter what formed us or shaped us . He can always taste the 'sweet' inside! How do we treat the 'rocks' around us? Can you 'taste' the sweet inside of the girl (rock) sitting next to you?
Handout: A small bag of candy rocks and a tag that reads, "YOU Rock!"
Hold up the candy and say " I need a volunteer, and maybe this will encourage you,"
Give the volunteer the opened candy bar and say this is your task "eat chocolate, but you cannot bend your arms or waist or legs. Imagine that you don't have joints."
Have her struggle for a bit and then hold up another chocolate bar and say "Can I have another volunteer?" Follow the same procedure.
Then say "how can these girls both enjoy the chocolate?" -"they can feed each other!" Then compare the chocolate to exaltation. One girl was the dead one and one was here on earth. The spirit girl needed the one on earth because she didn't have a body and the one on earth needed the spirit because if we don't do the work for the dead "the earth will be utterly wasted at his coming" We need each other, to be linked together. Have a class discussion, have people compare this to temple work: "Did you see how excited the girl was to volunteer when she saw the chocolate? She really wanted this work to be done for her!"
Give a few volunteers a toothbrush and towel.
Ask people in the class to say things that help them live the gospel or keep the sabbath day holy.
For each thing said, spread some toothpaste on the brushes till its overflowing and then have the people brush with it. Their mouths will be overflowing with paste!
Then say "well, they have brushed with enough paste to last all week, they won't have to brush the rest of the week right?" and then have people compare it with the gospel they need to live the gospel everyday. They cannot save it up just for Sunday.
Take the pieces of a flashlight apart.
Give one piece each to a class member.
Have him or her stand at the front of the class holding their piece, have one extra class member stand up there with nothing.
Ask each person with a part of the flashlight what they have and if they can turn the light on. They each say "nope".
Have the class member that didn't have a part of the flashlight say "I can help" and have her put all the pieces of the flashlight together and turn on the light.
Ask the class: "how can this relate to the restoration?" and people can say -the light of the gospel was restored, and different churches had part of the truth but not all of it. The restored gospel has all of the truth.
Start with a jar or vase filled with clear water. I labeled the vase, "US".
Next, take the food colorings, which I labeled, "SINS" and talk to the youth, etc about what are some sins we commit? With each sin stated, add a drop of food coloring to the clear water. After quite a few sins have been added, the water will look dirty ( like we do to our lives when we sin ).
Then talk about the atonement and repentance and then pour the bleach, labeled, "ATONEMENT" into the vase of dirty water. You probably will have to stir the water, but it will clear up and be "clean" like before.
This activity explains different ways teachers present the gospel.
1) you can simply share the cake with your hand, and without care give it to your brother; or
2)you can prepare this peace of cake carefully, put on a plate and give it.
You can compare this experience with the way you teach the gospel in your class. Are you carefully preparing your lessons, or are you just haphazardly passing out gospel truths.
Have the individuals pair up and instruct them that they have one minute to arm wrestle as many times as they can. Whoever wins the arm wrestling match gets a piece of candy for every time they win.
So they arm wrestle and get their candy (instruct them not to eat it yet).
If they are willing to work together and just let each other win -- taking turns so each gets an equal amount of candy -- they also get A LOT of candy.
This shows how if we work together instead of against each other we can all have the reward and it is much greater!
