New Come Follow Me YW Handouts

The Lord has given you a sacred trust: He has called you to serve in an Aaronic Priesthood quorum presidency or Young Women class presidency. Part of your responsibility is to lead and conduct your quorum or class meetings on Sunday. To do this, it helps to understand why we have these meetings.

Aaronic Priesthood quorum and Young Women class meetings are different from Church classes like Sunday School or seminary. In quorum or class meetings, we do more than study a gospel topic. We learn about the work God has given us, and we organize the members of our quorum or class to do that work in our homes, in the Church, and in our community. We plan, for example, how we will fulfill our roles as part of the Lord’s youth battalion to help gather Israel. In these meetings, we don’t just talk about the work—we make plans to do it.

But this emphasis on the work doesn’t mean that we leave doctrinal discussions only for Sunday School. In fact, learning doctrine in quorum and Young Women meetings is essential—it helps us understand the reasons we do the work. As we study the gospel together, the truths we learn can change our hearts. We can receive promptings about ways to increase “in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). As we become more converted to Jesus Christ and His gospel, we will feel desires to help others along the covenant path, including our families, our friends, and our fellow quorum and class members.

God has called you as quorum and class presidencies and given you authority to lead. That is why each meeting of your quorum or class should be conducted by a member of your quorum or class presidency. Adult leaders should offer guidance and support, but they should not take over for you. See the section titled “Counsel Together” at the beginning of each outline in this resource for ideas to help you know how to lead a meeting and accomplish its true purposes. Use presidency meetings to plan how you will conduct these Sunday meetings.

Adult leaders, a member of the quorum or class presidency, or any other member of the quorum or class can teach the lessons. As the quorum or class presidency, consult with your adult leaders about who should be assigned to teach the lessons. Remember that your adult leaders have much to offer. Seek to learn from their experience and testimonies. There are also advantages to asking youth to teach—teaching can help deepen their conversion and build stronger relationships with other quorum or class members. So give them appropriate opportunities to teach all or part of a lesson, but keep in mind the needs and abilities of the people in your quorum or class. For example, adult leaders may teach more often in quorums or classes with younger youth or with youth who have less experience in teaching the gospel. When youth are invited to teach, a parent or an adult adviser should help them prepare as needed.

Those assigned to teach can use the section titled “Teach the Doctrine” in each outline in this resource to help them prepare. This section contains suggestions for teaching and discussing the doctrine for that week, but teachers should not feel limited to these suggestions alone. As the Spirit directs, teachers can adapt these ideas or use their own to teach in a way that will best meet the needs of quorum or class members and help them understand the doctrine.

The topic of each week’s outline is a doctrinal principle that has been selected to align with the Book of Mormon reading recommended for that week, found in Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families. In this way, doctrinal discussions in quorum and class meetings will support what youth are learning at home.

Even though outlines are to be taught on specific Sundays, you still have the option to discuss other doctrinal topics based on the needs of your quorum or class.

This resource includes outlines for every week when Aaronic Priesthood quorum meetings and Young Women classes are held. On occasion, you may need to skip a lesson because of stake conferences or other reasons.

Your adult leaders play an important role in Aaronic Priesthood quorums and Young Women classes. They will guide and advise you in your leadership callings. They will support and encourage you as you do the work of your quorum or class. They will teach you doctrine, and they will bless you through their example, experience, and testimony.