Easter Lesson

This last week I read a talk by Elder Bruce R. McConkie entitle, The Purifying Power of Gethsemane. As I read it I had an Easter lesson idea for Young Womens since Easter is also General Conference so we won't be at church.
Towards the end of his talk, Elder McConkie talked about three gardens, the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the Empty Tomb. He said a little something about each garden and it hit me that talking about those three gardens could be a really cool way to learn about all of the events of the Atonement and relate to Easter as well. I still wasn't totally convinced to go this direction until I was in the car listening to a John Bytheway talk and he said something along the lines of, "the most important events in the world have happened in gardens." After hearing that I decided for sure to have that be my topic.

I had to come up with a way to present the lesson so it would be similar to the Come Follow Me curriculum where the girls could have a meaningful discussion and learn from each other as well as the scriptures. I ended up making a simple handout- not as "pretty" as I intended but that doesn't matter.

Here is a download-able PDF version of the handout if you're interested. I plan on using this to kick-start my personal study on these events and maybe someone else is interested too?

Three Gardens Easter Handout

These pictures are from the lds.org media resources

I printed them out double-sided on card stock, folded them in half then cut on the dotted lines halfway across the page so it was like a little "flip book" of sorts. Probably not necessary but I like to complicate things :)

We had some reallllly good discussions. I broke the girls up into three groups and gave each group one of the gardens to learn about. They read the scriptures listed on the handout and the quotes in their groups. Then they all talked about what they learned from their study and why it's important to them personally. The girls had wonderful insights and I love when they share why different gospel aspects matter to them personally. I had some Easter videos to watch "just in case" but they all got really into studying about their garden and all shared really great insights which is so much more spiritual than showing them videos they can watch whenever (the videos are GREAT and they really do bring the spirit as well but I'm not about to interrupt teenage girls relating these gospel experiences to their real lives!) 

Anyways it was just really good and I'm really glad that I randomly came across that talk and totally randomly heard that John Bytheway comment. 

I hope you all (whoever you are!) have a wonderful Easter week.