Come Follow Me 2015: How do I receive the gift of the Holy Ghost?

It has been a while since I have shared a lesson from Come Follow Me. I was in charge of the lesson this week, and as always, I gained more by teaching the lesson then those that were listening to the lesson. 

Based on the suggestion of the manual, I started class of by singing "Let the Holy Spirit Guide".  I felt the song was a great intro to the lesson and has such a powerful message.

Let the Holy Spirit guide;

Let him teach us what is true.

He will testify of Christ,

Light our minds with heaven's view.

Once we had opened class, I wrote a variety of words on the board: sanctification, comfort, joy, love, long suffering, testimony, sacrament, purity.  I asked the girls what gift those words described.  The girls quickly answered "The Holy Ghost".

I then shared the excerpt from the lesson.

After we are baptized, we receive the ordinance of confirmation. As part of this ordinance, we are told to “receive the Holy Ghost.” This means the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion if we desire and invite His presence in our lives and faithfully keep the commandments.

The quote led to a quick story that I heard from a recently baptized child.  She thought that the baptism part was a little cold {she went last} but she liked when she was confirmed because it felt like they put a big warm blanket around her shoulders.

We then read D&C 33:15 and Articles of Faith 1:4 and I asked the girls why the verses were similar.  They both mentioned that the gift of the Holy Ghost is given by the laying on of hands. I made sure to highlight the importance of the priesthood action of laying on of hands.

After reading the scriptures, I read an excerpt from David A Bednar's talk "Receive the Holy Ghost".  I loved this entire talk, but I read the last 3 paragraphs of the section titled The Gift of the Holy Ghost. Once I completed reading the section, I highlighted the important items that were mentioned:

• The simplicity of this ordinance may cause us to overlook its significance. 
• These four words—“Receive the Holy Ghost”—are not a passive pronouncement; rather, they constitute a priesthood injunction—an authoritative admonition to act and not simply to be acted upon.
• We need to (1) sincerely desire to receive the Holy Ghost, (2) appropriately invite the Holy Ghost into our lives, and (3) faithfully obey God’s commandments.

I then asked for thoughts, our sweet leaders each shared a valuable lesson. Katie mentioned that she liked the section about acting and reminded us that it is important to take sacred time to pray, listen and read our scriptures. Holly mentioned that we need to shut out the world and focus on the Holy Ghost's promptings.

We ended class with a group activity.  Half of the class read 1 Nephi 16:14–29, and the other half read 1 Nephi 18:8–22.  Once they completed reading, they discussed what Nephi did to receive the Holy Ghost and what Laman and Lemuel did to push away the spirit.  The entire class then spoke about the importance of acting like Nephi and praying to have the spirit to be with us.

I closed the lesson by asking the young women to invite the companionship of the Holy Ghost each day in their personal prayers and testified to them the importance of the Holy Ghost in my life and their own.

I shared another teachers version of this lesson here.