ON AARONIC PRIESTHOOD LEADERSHIP

A Lesson Given to

AARONIC PRIESTHOOD HOLDERS AND
YOUNG MEN LEADERS IN THE
STERLING PARK WARD
WARRENTON, VA STAKE

I. AGENDA

7:00 - Bishopric arrives

• set up rooms 9, 10, 11 for breakfast
• set up RS Room for training,
• warm up breakfast

7:30 - AP members and Advisors arrive

• prayer
• eat breakfast
• clean up

8:15 - Quiet activity to get in the mood

• in RS Room
• "Scriptural Relationships"

8:30 - Training begins

• "Iron Sharpens Iron"

9:30 - Training ends

• closing prayer
• award prizes to best scores on "Scriptural Relationships" exercise
• pass out completion certificates
• clean-up room

9:45 - Optional activities

• basketball
• puzzles
• board games

11:00 - Go home

II. "IRON SHARPENS IRON"

Proverbs 27:17 -- Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

T-15mins - Pass out "scriptural relationships" exercise as people arrive
T-03mins - Collect "scriptural relationships" exercise
T+00mins - Prayer
T+01mins - Pass out "YM Relationships" puzzle - work in teams of two
T+06mins - From the puzzle's solution, identify which relationships should be most important:

1. Family
2. Priesthood Quorum

T+10mins - Collect puzzles
T+11mins - Pass out folders
T+12mins - Begin sharpening a big kitchen knife with a kitchen knife steel.

• Ask everyone to turn to Proverbs 27:17 and read
• Discuss meaning: just as iron in one form (the knife) needs iron in another form (the steel) to fulfill its purpose (being sharp to cut), so too, do the quorum members need each other's help in fulfilling the measure of their creation (exaltation)

T+15mins - Set the knife and the steel down side by side. Ask, "Does the knife get sharp by just sitting next to the steel?" (No.) The two irons must interact. There must be action with skill. to day we will talk about the interactions and skills quorum members need to help each other improve. After we leave to day, you and your quorum advisors must create the interactions and apply the skills to have an 'exalting' effect on the quorum members.
T+19mins - Three things that Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Presidencies must do to be effective in their callings (put up posters) are:

• Quorum Presidency Meetings
• Quorum Activities
• Quorum Relationships

T+20mins - Before we talk about quorum presidency meetings let's read two scriptures:

• DC 107:86 - Duties of Teachers President
• Matt 20:26-27 - The leader is a servant

T+23mins - Ask, "How can one be a leader and a servant at the same time?"

1. Be and example of righteousness
2. Know the people in your quorum
3. Plan activities that include everyone
4. Be responsible for making sure things happen
5. Teach others their duties
6. Let people do their duties without interference

T+25mins - Show example of presidency meeting from the video, Vitalizing the Aaronic Priesthood, (item #53011). Ask the students to take notes about what goes on in the presidency meeting
T+30mins - Ask them to list the characteristics/subject matter of a good presidency meeting

• Focus first on needs of quorum members
• Share information
• Discuss solutions to problems
• Make assignments

T+35mins - Begin discussion of quorum activities by having them complete the 'decoding messages' exercise.
T+40mins - Quorum Activities provide quorum members with opportunities for:

• Service
• Leadership
• Speaking
• Fellowshipping
• Young Women

T+41mins - Let's talk about what we mean by these.
T+45mins - Begin discussion about quorum relationships by telling a story about the computer game, "The Sims." Three stages of friendships in the game are:

• 0 to 40 - acquaintance (talk, joke, entertain, ask to leave)
• 41 to 70 - friend (compliment, cheer up, join, give back rub, dance, hug, tickle)
• 71 to 100 - best friends (give gift, move in, flirt, kiss, propose)

T+55mins - List the things that a quorum presidency must do in order to have good relationships with the members of the quorum? (Hint, it is many of the same things you do to have a good relationship with your non-member friends.)

• do fun stuff to gether
• Help each other (study to gether for exams)
• Forgiving and Forgetting
• Being kind, cheerful, not mean, not make fun

T+55mins - Summarize and bear testimony. All of you either are now or will soon serve in an Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Presidency. As a member of the presidency it is your responsibility to help the members of your quorum be better people. to do this requires you to be a friend to the members of your quorum. Being a friend means you have to do stuff with them. Doing stuff is what we call activities. As a member of the presidency, you are responsible for organizing activities that will help you become the friend of all the members of your quorum. You do this organizing in the quorum presidency meeting. You also keep track of the members of your quorum in the presidency meetings. This is the Lord's plan for the young men. It will make a difference in the lives of the people you serve and in your own life. It will help you become more Christlike. Iron sharpens iron. to this I bear my witness. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
T+59mins - Closing prayer
T+60mins - Lesson ends.

[Return to Agenda]

III. SCRIPTURAL RELATIONSHIPS

Set 1: Choose a husband from the left side list and write his name in the space next to his wife in the right side list.

	Abraham	Elisabeth	______________
	Adam	Sarah	______________
	Ahab	Ruth	______________
	Boaz	Jezebel	______________
	Isaac	Rebekah	______________
	Jacob	Sariah	______________
	Lehi	Eve	______________
	Zacharias	Rachel	______________

Set 2: Choose a brother from the left side list and write his name in the space next to his brother in the right side list.

	Aaron	Ham	______________
	Abel	Laman	______________
	Andrew	Ephriam	______________
	Esau	Joseph	______________
	James	Moses	______________
	Benjamin	Jacob	______________
	Manasseh	Peter	______________
	Nephi	Cain	______________
	Shem	John	______________
	Solomon	Absalom	______________

Set 3: Choose a father from the left side list and write his name in the space next to his son in the right side list.

	Abraham	David	______________
	David	Moroni	______________
	Isaac	John	______________
	Jesse	Sam	______________
	Mormon	Solomon	______________
	Lehi	Isaac	______________
	Lehi	Isaac	______________

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IV. YM RELATIONSHIPS

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V. DECODING MESSAGES

At the bottom of the page there are five terms in code (encrypted). Your task is to decode (decrypt) them. To decode them you need an algorithm and a key. The algorithm is like the lock. The key unlocks the coded message. The algorithm is the process we use to encode the message. To decode the message, we pass it back through the algorithm. Here is an algorithm we call the "alphabet left shift" algorithm.

Pick a letter of the alphabet, like the letter 'n.' 'N' is our key. We will then shift the alphabet over to the left so that the letter 'n' is in the first position as follows.

     Original: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
     Shifted:  n o p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d e f g h i j k l m

To encode a word like 'snodgrass,' we convert the original letters to the letters in the shifted alphabet. This process yields 'fabqtenff.' To decode, we just follow the algorithm in reverse.

This algorithm can use any of the 26 letters of the alphabet as a key except the letter 'a.' Therefore, the "alphabet left shift" algorithm has 25 possible keys.

Please decode the following 5 terms using the alphabet left shift algorithm. The key is found in DC 84:18. Because I will turn 48 this year, go to the 4th letter in the 8th word of the verse. This letter is the key. Begin decoding now.

	Freivpr	______________
	Yrnqrefuvc	______________
	Fcrnxvat	______________
	Sryybjfuvccvat	______________
	Lbhat Jbzra	______________

These are the five reasons why young men have activities.

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