Ideas for Aaronic Priesthood Activities
When the Duty to God program was introduced, an original list of six purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood was expanded and clarified to the current list of eight purposes.
The purposes of the Aaronic Priesthood are to help each person who is ordained to
- Become converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and live its teachings.
- Serve faithfully in priesthood callings and fulfill the responsibilities of priesthood offices.
- Give meaningful service.
- Prepare and live worthily to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and temple ordinances.
- Prepare to serve an honorable full-time mission.
- Obtain as much education as possible.
- Prepare to become a worthy husband and father.
- Give proper respect to women, girls, and children.
I've attempted to use some of the ideas of how the Activity Book is
organized. That book has some very useful alternate indexes of activities that
are based on different potential objectivees. Unfortunately, the purposes for
young men activities are based on phrases used in the handbooks back in the
70s or 80s. My descriptions remain fairly brief, however, and some activities will probably
need a lot more preparation than I might indicate. Remember that one
of the important things we are trying to teach the youth
is for them to do the work. That means they should be given every possible
assignment possible. Unless you're the only one who can do a task, see
if someone else (ie a youth) will carry it out.
My activity ideas are
sorted by:
If you have ideas to add, feedback to give, requests for ideas, or questions,
feel free to contact me at [email protected]
.
Service Projects
Personal Life History Interviews
The idea of this activity is to go visit either members of the ward or
other individuals and record some part of their personal life history,
on either audio or video tape, and then later go back and transcribe the
story. The finished product is then presented to the individuals.
Purposes:
-
Give service
-
Prepare for a mission (by learning to communicate and build relationships
of trust)
-
and Strengthen testimony (by including gospel-oriented questions in the
interview)
Preparation:
-
Create a list of possible interview topics
-
Practice asking open-ended questions and leaving silence
-
Arrange to do the interviews
Results: I've done the preparatory part, but we haven't had any
takers for us to try this out. I'd be curious about any other attempts.
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Service Scavenger Hunt
The idea of this activity is to create a list of service tasks (brief)
that each team needs to accomplish in a given time frame.
Purposes:
-
Give service
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by creating fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare for Melchizedek Priesthood (by learning to work together with others
in service)
Preparation:
-
Create a list of possible tasks
-
Arrange for rides
Results: This is pretty fun, and works well with a few variants--require
a video recording of the service being done, or learn three things about
each person who was served, or create a list of people who need the service
and make it a race back.
Concerns: When done as a race, I fear that the focus on service
might be lost in the pursuit of getting done fast. Also, when doing video,
it's hard to see at night without some type of lighting.
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Holiday Meals/Food Boxes
The idea of this activity is to distribute food to families who need the
help (as directed by the Bishop), usually near holidays like Thanksgiving
and Christmas. There could be multiple components, such as: creating, decorating,
and advertising a collections box; sorting the food and delivering it.
Purposes:
-
Give service
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by taking care of the poor)
Preparation:
-
Boxes for food, materials for decoration
-
List of foods needed
-
Purchase of food not collected (such as through Bishop's storehouse)
-
List of people for deliver
-
Arrange for rides
Results: At Christmas time, this also works well with delivering
some gifts and singing carols. Having all of the food on tables, and having
the youth do the sorting and boxing helps them feel more involved than
just delivering pre-prepared food boxes.
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Yardwork then Swim Party
Have everyone help completely take care of someone's yard that needs the
help, such as lawn, weeding, windows, painting, trimming, etc., and then
go out afterwards to swim.
Purposes:
-
Give service
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by taking care of the poor and sick, and
by developing fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare for Melchizedek Priesthood (by learning to work in groups)
Preparation:
-
Identify where to work
-
Gain access to all needed tools
-
Arrange for a pool to swim
Results: This is one that I've only done as a youth, some 14-16
years ago. It must have been good if I remember it. I think this is a good
way to get that party that the youth want to do, but to attach with it
a more meaningful event. Of course, any other type of party might work
just as well. (I've seen this on a grander scale for a stake youth conference,
where there was a big service project to help clean up a Catholic Novitiate,
followed by food and games--this was successful.)
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Quilting Bee
Arrange with the Relief Society to have some quilts that need to be tied
or quilted. Have the youth learn the techniques and then do the tying/quilting.
Deliver them to a relief agency or needy family.
Purposes:
-
Give service
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by taking care of the poor and sick, and
by developing fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare to be a worthy husband and father (by developing talents)
Preparation:
-
Find enough quilts and quilting experts to help instruct and supervise
-
Set up the quilts
Results: So when this was announced in our ward council, I got a
number of good stares (this was the combined YM/YW activity, proposed by
the priests upon my suggestion of the idea). But the young men did wonderfully,
and received the praise of the supervisors for doing a good job (14+ managed
better, while the deacons got distracted more easily). We actually combined
the activity with making Christmas decorations to deliver with food boxes,
in order to spread the people out a little more.
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Cultural Arts Activities
Scripture Skits
Have multiple groups, and assign each group to present a story from the
scriptures (either by their choice or else with prepared stories) using
some type of acting format.
Purposes:
-
Strengthen testimony (by reading and learning about the scriptures)
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by developing fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare for a mission (by developing communication skills)
Preparation:
-
Select the scripture stories in advance (if desired)
-
Gather props
-
Arrange for a camcorder
Results: I've seen this twice. It's fun, especially when the youth
are given a little leeway with how to present the story (ie not necessarily
exactly by the book). It works well when the groups must first read through
the story to make sure they get all of the elements. (This takes a bit
of extra preparation if the story is not all together.) I think the presentations
have worked better when there was a narrator, who reads directly from the
applicable verses, as opposed to the entire story being told by the actors--it
can get to be too much action. It's a lot of fun.
Variations:
-
Must use every prop. Provide a bag of random props and expect all to be
used.
-
Pantomime. No props, but must pretend to have props.
-
Charades. The audience must guess what story.
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Christmas Carols
This is what you'd expect. Although, this often can be combined with the
food boxes, or at least goodie bags.
Purposes:
-
Strengthen testimony (by singing about and celebrating the birth of Jesus
Christ, essentially bearing testimony to those who hear)
-
Fulfill duties of priesthood (by developing fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare for mission (by visiting various homes unannounced)
Preparation:
-
Don't forget the words to the songs--either take hymnals or type up the
words.
-
List of destinations
-
Arrange for rides
Results: Having the words is very important, otherwise too many
don't know more than half a verse of the religious Christmas songs. This
could also be adapted to be a Christmas presentation to a rest home, or
to a children's ward of a hospital, etc. It's an effective, seasonal activity.
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Make a Movie
Create a plot. Decide on characters. Build the set. Act it out. Watch the
film. This will take a lot of activities, but might create an effective
focus to center several activities around it.
Purposes:
-
Live by the gospel (by choosing a theme for the story based on a gospel
principle)
-
Magnify priesthood callings (by assigning job positions to the youth, for
which they become responsible)
-
Prepare for mission (by developing communication skills)
-
Prepare to be a worthy husband and father (by learning to work together,
developing talents)
Preparation:
-
This depends on how much the youth will be involved in the process. Some
can be done away from the youth, or they can be done as a separate activity
-
Create the script
-
Assign production assignments
-
Design props and costumes (if desired)
-
Rehearse
-
Film
Results: We only made it through the first part of this. We got
stuck when trying to develop the actual script, as this was attempted in
a committee setting. The script either needs to be provided, or else tasked
out to individuals, not groups. We'll probably try again, once we figure
out who to have write the script.
Concerns: Personally, I think that it is important to use this
opportunity to think about how gospel principles affect our daily lives,
and center the movie around a particular principle. Also, it became clear
that you shouldn't try to over extend your aspirations.
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Advertisement Design (Mormonads/Home Front)
Create an advertising strategy for a gospel principle. Decide how it could
be marketed, and create the appropriate materials to do so, such as a poster
Purposes:
-
Live by the gospel (by focusing on a particular gospel principle, and identifying
its benefits)
-
Magnify priesthood callings (by assigning different aspects of the project
to different quorum members)
-
Prepare for a temple (by learning about standards for temple recommends,
or advertising a temple principle)
-
Prepare for mission (by developing communication skills, and by identifying
how to explain gospel principles)
-
Prepare to become a worthy husband and father (by choosing a family-oriented
principle, and by learning to work together, such as with YW classes)
Preparation:
-
Marketing principles--perhaps invite an expert
-
Materials
-
Place to present the completed product
Results: I haven't seen this tried this yet.
Adaptation: Design and shoot a 30 second television commercial,
like the Home Front campaign.
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Mormonisms
Design your own, or create new captions to the New Era Mormonisms comics.
Purposes:
-
Fulfill priesthood duties (by building fellowship and brotherhood)
-
Prepare to become a worthy husband and father (by learning to express and
enjoy appropriate humor)
Preparation:
-
Collect old Mormonisms from past New Era magazines.
-
Make copies without the captions
-
Have artistic materials for original artwork
Results: This was pretty fun, but we learned that it was very important
to delete the captions in advance. We tried to trace the originals, but
that was much too slow. White-out was also not effective. I suggest making
a copy, and just cutting out the words with scissors, or covering with
other paper scraps. We had some pretty funny adaptations, including some
fun inside jokes.
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Mission Preparation
Mission Spotlight
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Cultural Guest
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Cultural Dinner
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Missionary Week
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Skills Relay
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Make a Resource File
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Write Letters to Missionaries
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Missionary Splits
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Presentation of Discussions
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Physical Activities
Gospel Games