I decided to try something new with my District. Instead of Demonstrating Lesson 1 as a part of Demonstrate teaching, I had two missionaries teach me lesson 1 and the rest of the district watched. I asked the District if they wanted me to show them or if they wanted to show each other and that is what they chose.Because they were acting like they knew it I gave them the option of teaching Alejandro lesson one as a district, like they would for a book of mormon read. They decided that they would prefer to watch 2 missionaries teach Alejandro and then have us stop and evaluate. Sister merryman helped with the stopping and evaluation. Elder Tracy and Elder Albee (the two most intelligent missionaries in the district) volunteered and teamed up. Elder Tracy has served for 3 months on a mini mission and knows his stuff and Elder Albee has a Semi-Photographic memory.
They started teaching a straight lesson and I didn't say anything for about 5 mins. After a pause and observation they realized the error and then slowly started to correct it as the lesson progressed. THE MAIN PART OF THIS IS THAT they relied mostly on their historical fact knowledge of the reformation and renaissance and other trivia facts and tried to incorporate that into the lesson and it wasn't very effective or powerful, EVEN THOUGH their historical facts were accurate. At the end of the class I had them read the 10-15 minn summary of lesson one. We read it as a district and we read it once sentence at a time. I asked them why those short choppy sentences were so powerful. I helped them to realize that even though the sentences were not eloquent and the paragraph was choppy that they were still powerful because they were backed up by TRUE DOCTRINE that the spirit could then testify of. I helped them see that even though their knowledge of the renaissance was true, that it was NOT Doctrine. If it is not in PMG we shouldn't really talk about it because its not OUR PURPOSE to give a history lesson. Then I asked what the role of the Spirit was and helped them to see that the Spirit testifies of Doctrine and Testimony. So, when we are tempted to dive in deep to a principle or something like that, we should resist this urge and stay on the surface, teach true doctrine, and let the spirit fill their mind and heart about the "deep stuff." They loved it and i could tell that the Spirit was speaking through me because I have never had to explain this difference before, and it was really really powerful. It also comforted the rest of the district that they don't have to know as much as these two elders and that all they have to know is what is in PMG and the Doctrine that is contained there.
