Teach A Friend Activity & Learning Report

I taught my mom this week's lesson while we were doing laundry at the laundromat, as it provides time for us to be together without distractions around us. I began with a scripture concerning intelligence, Doctrine and Covenants 130:18 and talked about how God gives us different degrees of intelligence, which are different levels of knowledge. He does this when we make ourselves open and take enough courage into ourselves to act in faith, thereby letting ourselves be ready for new experiences that come as a result of applying knowledge to agency.

I then went on to explain that lifelong learning is not limited to this life, but we need to practice our knowledge of the next life that we get now through temple ordinances and through other experiences so that we can be prepared to enter the next life when it comes our time to leave mortality. I went on to say that if we believe we can learn, we will want to and that if we put effort into learning, we will find things that interest us and interest in a particular facet of knowledge can serve as motivation for us to keep learning.

From there, I went on to explain that there are two reasons a person does something; desire to do it or the demand from someone else that it be done. We may not like heeding another person's request that something be done, such as learning, but if we accept the responsibility that comes with acquiescing to the demand, we will most likely learn much depending on the attitude we take into it and we could end up desiring to learn even more hereafter.

We then went on to discuss digital media and after reading a quote from the Strength of Youth booklet about how we live in a day of technology that can be both a help and a harm to us depending on how and how much they are used, I explained that in terms of digital media, time involved in it should be allocated wisely. I said that people often become absorbed by what appears appealing and is not really there instead of focusing on the things that are going on around them. Because of their misguided focus on technological fascinations, I explained, people can often miss out on opportunities to interact with others, learning opportunities, and opportunities to do good things with and for others around them.

When Mom and I were discussing lifelong learning, she said that she is surprised about how much she has learned through her life, but she also wishes that she had known in her 20's what she knows now, as the knowledge would have helped her to avoid making so many mistakes.

We then went on to the topic of being willing to not only learn, but practice what we learn so that we can be ready for eternity when it is our time to leave mortality and that got me thinking about the struggle my father had when he was dying. He had not made the best choices during his time in mortality, so he fought very hard to keep from dying because he was not ready to die and he knew it so much that he tried to stop it.

Because of seeing what limited learning and a barrage of poor choices did to my father, who was a very brilliant, yet misunderstood man, I have made the effort to be very selective in my learning and in my associations as I have continued to grow over the years. Not long before he was diagnosed with cancer through the very unfortunate incident of weed-whipping his leg and finding that it would not heal, my dad was set to go to a job interview that would most likely result in a return to work after an accident and a short time time in a rehabilitation facility for his alcoholism. However, he ended up in the hospital for his leg and circumstances ended up being such that he could not go to the interview and although it was hard for him, I sensed that God was effectively stopping him from returning to trucking. If Dad were to return to trucking, I felt that God knew that he would return to being a drinker and the abusive personality that came with it would also return. Instead, God gave us tender mercies through my dad's illness that allowed us all to connect in ways that had never been possible before.

Hence, because of that negative example, I am very selective in not only my learning, but who I associate with. I feel strongly that the type of people you associate yourself with is the type of people you eventually emulate and the type of spirit you will come to adapt. Mom said that she feels like associating with the right people might become more difficult after she is finished school, as she wants to work in an office job that surrounds her with predominantly LDS people, but that it may or may not happen.

We concluded our discussion by discussing that by being absorbed in media and forgetting the world around you can, as it said in the lesson material, cause a person to miss out on academic opportunities, vocational opportunities, and cherished human relationships. My brother currently teaches Accounting courses at a local vocational school and after work, he goes home and becomes absorbed in different technologies, forgetting to socialize like a young man of his age should. My mother and I are both concerned about this, but all we can do is spend time with him, love him, and trust that he will come out of his shell when he feels ready to.

 Ever since I started Pathway, I find myself enjoying learning different things about how I can be and how much better I am becoming because I don't look at myself so critically, as the Savior would not want me to do that. I used to be so critical of myself and therefore, it was really easy for me to just let others be critical of me even though I knew deep down I was a child of God, but I didn't have the courage to stand up for myself.

Through this course, I am learning that I am very loved by Christ and that the Atonement is there to help me not only stand up for what I believe in, but to also assert myself as a child of God to both myself and those who try to say I am not. I may have a disability, but Christ looks beyond those and sees that my heart is full of love for others and that I am capable of sharing that with others. I am but a weak and simple minded person, but I can become strong and steady with the help of my Savior.