PC 102 Professional Skills

Gathering Agenda for Week 07

Gathering Purpose
 To help students better understand unity and strengthen key relationships
Preparation
Read “Our Hearts Knit as One” by President Henry B. Eyring
Prepare the room for groups:
o For face-to-face Gatherings, arrive early to setup the room, prepare any visual aids, and greet
students as they arrive.
o For virtual Gatherings, start the meeting early, share your screen with a message welcoming
them to the gathering and letting them know you’ll start soon.
 When the Gathering Agenda asks that students meet in small groups, use Breakout
Rooms.
 When the Gathering Agenda asks you to display things on “the board,” you use the
whiteboard.
Min. Activities Teaching Tips
Welcome and Devotional
5 Welcome Welcome, announcements, and housekeeping.
Devotional Please sing one or two verses of a hymn. If you meet with a
virtual gathering, the lead student or another student should
be invited to share a brief spiritual thought. A volunteer will
then give an opening prayer.
Math Activity
10 Math Practice the following two questions that are similar to your
Practice team project in small groups or with the entire class.

1. If you buy 8 pounds of sugar and your recipe calls for

2 tsp of sugar per cup, how many individual cups of Answer:
lemonade can you make? 108.87 tsp = 1 pound 8*108.87/2=435.48
2. If the price for 8 pounds is now 5.25, how much will
sugar cost per cup? Round to the nearest Answer:
thousandths place. 5.25/435.48=0.012
Unity Introduction
10 Attention Pick one of the following attention getters or chose one of Encourage discussion and
Getter your own that illustrates the importance of unity. interaction to help
3. Video: We Don’t Need to Be the Same to Be One student orient
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-01- themselves to the lesson.
003-we-dont-need-to-be-the-same-to-be-
one?category=topics/unity&lang=eng
4. Story: The story is told of a young boy who visited
his uncle, a lumberjack. At the lumber camp, the boy
saw a massive tree standing alone on the top of a
hill. He enthusiastically pointed the tree out to his
uncle, saying, “Look at that big tree! It will make a
lot of good lumber, won’t it?”

His uncle looked down at the boy and shook his

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 head. “No, son, that tree will not make a lot of good
lumber. It might make a lot of lumber
but not a lot of good lumber. When a tree grows off
by itself, too many branches grow on it. Those
branches produce knots when the tree is cut into
lumber. The best lumber comes from trees that
grow together in groves. The trees also grow taller
and straighter when they grow together.”

Drawing a lesson from this story, Elder Henry D.

Taylor (1903–87) of the Seventy said, “It is so with
people. We become better individuals, more useful
timber when we grow together rather than alone.”
5. Analogy: Using Chopsticks or Toothpicks break one
of them to show that by ourselves we are weak.
Then put many of them together and show that
when they’re bundled together they are harder to
break.

Insight Sharing
15 Small Group Break up the class into small groups. Have each group
Activity discuss one of the three topics below. Invite group members
to share their, thoughts, personal experiences, or scriptures
about the topic.

Topic One: Unity with God

Why does Christ pray that we might be one with Him
and the Father? In what ways are you living or not
living in harmony with God?

Topic Two: Unity in Our Families

Why does Christ warn us about contention? How has
contention affected your family relationships? What
can you do to have more unity with your family?

Topic Three: Unity in the Church

Why did Christ organize the Church? Why is unity an
important part of being a disciple of Christ? How
should being a member of His Church feel?

Personal Experience & Testimony

Have the group come back together and invite students to
share with the entire class insights they’ve gained.
Encourage students to share personal experience and testify
of doctrine of unity.
15 Class Invite someone from each group to share what they
discussion discussed in their small groups. As they share their ideas try
to make connections with your team project by making
comparisons. Here is some question you might ask:

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  How could the team project be stressful or cause
contention?
 Why having a clear vision of what you need to
accomplish be important to increase unity?
 How could you strengthen your relationship with
team members?
5 Testimony Bear a 30-90 second testimony and end with a prayer by
and Prayer invitation.