Doctrine and Covenants Lesson #15 "Seek Ye Earnestly the Best Gifts"

I don't have a new full-fledged lesson this week (I really like the one in the manual), but a couple of links and ideas.

This is my favorite lesson on spiritual gifts, including Joseph Smith's gift of translation, an excellent example for the rest of us on how to develop a spiritual gift:  New Testament Lesson 34.

When I taught this lesson years ago, I asked several class members earlier in the week to prepare to share with the class how someone else's spiritual gift had been a blessing to them.  That can end up taking the whole lesson time and being very inspirational.

I really love the talk by Marvin J. Ashton that is referenced in the lesson manual.  Believe it or not, I remember actually listening to that talk at General Conference way back in 1987; it made that great an impression on me.  Here is a link to the complete talk.  You could preface this by asking people to itemize all the spiritual gifts they can think of, and see how many they can mention that Elder Ashton does.

Also, the Church website has a new and beautiful video called about a young blind pianist in Hawaii who shares his talent:  "Extraordinary Gift"