Suggested Lesson Development

Attention Activity

As appropriate, use the following activity or one of your own to begin the lesson.

Tell the following story:

While living with the Heywood family in Salt Lake City during the late 1800s, John Morgan dreamed one night that he was traveling down a road in Georgia. He recognized the road because he had used it often as a soldier in the United States Civil War. He came to a fork in the road and saw Brigham Young standing there. Although the right fork led to the next town, President Young told him to take the left fork.

Mr. Morgan, who was not a member of the Church at the time, told Sister Heywood about his dream and asked what she thought of it. She told him she believed he would join the Church and serve a mission in the southern states, and that one day he would find himself on the road he had seen in his dream. When that happened, he should remember Brigham Young’s counsel and take the left fork.

Many years later, after John Morgan had been baptized and called as a missionary to the southern states, he came to the fork in the road that he had seen in his dream. He remembered the counsel to take the left fork, so he did. An hour later, he found himself at the edge of Heywood Valley—a beautiful place with the same name as the family with whom he had been staying when he had the dream years earlier.

As he traveled throughout the valley preaching, he found that the people were well prepared to hear the gospel. After hearing him teach, several families mentioned that a stranger had come through the valley ten days before, asking permission to mark their Bibles. The stranger had told them that another messenger would come and explain the marked passages to them. John Morgan had explained these marked passages as he taught the gospel. During the following weeks, Elder Morgan taught and baptized all but three of the twenty-three families in the valley. (Bryant S. Hinckley, The Faith of Our Pioneer Fathers [1956], 242–44.)

Explain that this lesson is about the Apostle Paul, who, like John Morgan, listened to the Spirit and was a successful missionary. On his second missionary journey, Paul suffered many persecutions but also found many people who were prepared to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Discussion and Application

As you teach about Paul’s second missionary journey, discuss what we can learn from Paul about teaching the gospel, preparing ourselves to learn the gospel, and strengthening our testimonies.

1. Paul, Silas, and Timothy preach throughout Macedonia and Greece.

Discuss Acts 15:36–41; 16; 17:1–15; 18:1–22. Invite class members to read selected verses. You may want to remind class members that the book of Acts was written by Luke. He apparently traveled with Paul on some of Paul’s missionary journeys, because he often uses the word we when referring to the actions of Paul and his missionary companions (Acts 16:10).

2. Paul preaches on Mars’ Hill to the Athenian philosophers.

Read and discuss selected verses from Acts 17:16–34. Explain that after Paul left Berea, he came to Athens, which was then a center of world culture. Philosophers there viewed God as an abstract being or power, rather than as the literal Father of our spirits. They worshiped God’s creations rather than God himself. They replaced revelation with reason and debate, valuing the wisdom of men more than the truths of God.

3. Paul writes letters of counsel to the Saints in Thessalonica.

Read and discuss selected verses from 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians.

If you are using the video presentation “The Second Coming,” show it now. Briefly discuss Elder Packer’s and Elder Maxwell’s counsel about preparing for the Second Coming but not worrying about when it will happen.

Conclusion

Bear testimony of the truths Paul taught about the qualities that successful missionaries and compassionate Latter-day Saints should possess. Encourage class members to seek to develop these qualities so they can help prepare themselves and others for the Lord’s Second Coming.