I taught in Church today

[Rocker Ute]

My wife and I have been assigned to talk on Easter Sunday, with a topic of "Easter". I'm putting together a lot of thoughts for both of us to use, and I think it will be fairly easy and fun.

I was fiddling with the concept of embedding some "easter eggs" in my talk. Things that I can say that would be inside jokes that few if any would get, that I can smile at internally while saying them. As a poor example, when I was speaking before leaving for my mission (many, many years ago), a friend challenged me to incorporate lyrics from a Beatles song. I wasn't very clever about it, I just said after one point "Obladi, Oblada, life goes on".

Any thoughts or challenges of things to say? I'm not looking to be a total goof off. The talk will be centered on Christ and will have serious parts as well. But the talks I enjoy most usually have some lightheartedness to them. I'm trying to think of pop culture references, lines from a movie, unusually words or phrases, etc. that you normally wouldn't expect to hear in a talk.

I'll give you my latest joke when I last spoke. I said, "Sitting up on the stand and looking out at so many people I know well, it reminds me that in my Patriarchal blessing it mentions that I had a part in planning my life on earth, particularly the people with whom I would associate. I have to say of all the parts of my blessing, that part has always been a particularly discouraging revelation."

Half will laugh and the other half will be offended.

[DrumNFeather]

In two weeks I'll be teaching my monthly EQ lesson and the talk that is up is President Eyring's talk: To My Grandchildren. All things considered, I'm pretty excited about getting to teach on this talk because it is about Happiness...and that is exactly what I'm going to focus on...what is it that makes people happy (or unhappy).

My plan for right now is to bring in a number of things that make me happy, and then ask others in the room what things make them happy. Included in this discussion will be what makes for a happy marriage, but moreover, a happy existence, given all the troubles and pressures that we are surrounded by daily. I'm going to find a bunch of quotes from outside sources on the subject of happiness, and finally, I'm going to make copies of Pharell's song "Happy" and hand them out to everyone in EQ.

What other ideas do you guys have?

I'm a big tent guy, and I take a very practical approach to how I practice my religion...and most importantly, I want to keep things light and stress free in my class so everyone feels comfortable to comment and participate...and mostly feel like I'm not wasting their collective time.

[Sullyute]

In two weeks I'll be teaching my monthly EQ lesson and the talk that is up is President Eyring's talk: To My Grandchildren.

I haven't heard the talk but I like what you have presented so far. It sounds like it would be a great lesson with lots of participation. Let us know how it goes. Also there is a documentary on Netflix called "Happy" about what makes people happy around the world. You could show a clip in class or watch it for yourself for some additional material.

[DrumNFeather]

I'm up to bat again in two weeks. The stake made an error and has posted the same talk has this month's lesson, so the EQP told me I can choose whatever talk I want. Given the state of so many people that I interact with both on these sites and in my ward, the natural choice for me is President Utchdorf's "Come Join with Us" talk from last October. I am really working hard with some of my friends who are struggling to help them know that there is room for them within the walls of the church so long as I am teaching.

Any other talk suggestions I should look at?

[NorthwestUteFan]

Any other talk suggestions I should look at?

The original version of Ronald Poelman's talk at Conference in the Oct 1984 is perhaps the single finest talk ever given by an LDS General Authority. In the talk he discussed the difference between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church ("ofJesusChrist....ofLatter-daySaints").

The talk was so good at pointing out the stark distinctions between Gospel and Church that other, higher-ranking GAs forced him to re-record the talk and they published only the revised text in the Ensign.

A good breakdown of the changes is found here:

http://lds-mormon.com/poelman.shtml

The revised version conflates the "distinctions between" the two, into a "relationship between" and pushes the idea that we always need the Church and cannot grow beyond it, as implied in the original talk.

[Sullyute]

Elder Faust's talk on forgiveness is fantastic. He gave it a year or so before he died.