It's a Sunday School Week. It's Ether 12-15. It's the First Day of Advent. So yeah, my lesson went pretty well today
I'm began with an Overview of the Book of Ether. Not only is it helpful to help make sure they get the main themes of the Book & are caught up on the Lore, it'll also give me a chance to cover some stuff we missed (stop dancing to get people killed guys...)
After that, I'm going to discuss the Book of Ether as a Historical Epic. Epics were an Oral Tradition, which used specific conventions to tell stories, Historical or Mythical. The point of this is to get them to look deeper at the connections with other stories in the scriptures
Then, we dove into the story in these chapters. The story here is the Reign of Coriantumr, which was so disastrous the Jaredites didn't exist after it (which is saying something, as cultures are usually resilient). We discussed how Ether's Message was a message that would've saved the Jaredites if they'd listened
Then, we're discussing the Doctrines preached. Ether teaches about the New Jerusalem (which I believe is discussing a Zion Society we have an obligation to help build up, that is being coloured through Nephite/American Lenses, given the fact the Jaredites didn't even know about Old Jerusalem). And finally, Moroni's Commentaries on Faith & Hope in the darkest period of the Jaredite Story tie directly into Advent. The First Two weeks are Faith & Hope, and while Christ wasn't born in Winter, he is the Light of the World, and represents the Growing of Light. We are asked to let our lights shine forth, so while Sunday School doesn't usually have homework, I'm going to print out the "Light the World" checklist, and have them report when we meet again
So yeah, when I have time to plan, I can actually come up with a Decent Lesson. Ironically, it's been doing Education Homework that has hindered me...