Unleash the Power of Storytelling Within You!

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1 POWER OF STORY Stories saved Shaharazad s life, and they can save your life, too Unleash the Power of Storytelling Within You! Do you want to incorporate the scriptures more into your life? Do you want to have children connect to you more? Do you want your children to understand sacrifice, hardships and the lessons from your ancestor s lives? Do you want to make those ancestors come alive? Stories captivate, they teach, they entertain and they connect us. There is great power in stories that can be a part of all of our lives. A good tale can be full of truth but truth that has been wrapped in a beautiful package. Stories give clues to help us understand ourselves. Stories are magical and take us to another time, another place of wonder and can happen only yesterday. Inspire those you love with a story! Everything worthwhile takes some work but as we work at bringing stories into our lives we are creating new moments, creating new bonds with each other and creating a story to be remembered. The Lord wants us to create. President Uchtdorf expressed it so well in the General Relief Society meeting of The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Everyone can create. You don t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty and I am not talking about the process of cleaning the rooms of your teenage children. You might say, I m not the creative type. When I sing, I m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop. 1

2 If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination. But to what end were we created? We were created with the express purpose and potential of experiencing a fullness of joy. Our birthright and the purpose of our great voyage on this earth is to seek and experience eternal happiness. One of the ways we find this is by creating things. The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, 2008 General Conference Take time to create a story! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do you want to incorporate the scriptures more into your life? Jesus Christ is our ultimate example in all things, including storytelling. He taught through parables or stories. As sisters in Zion we can teach those we love through stories. Teaching at home or at church always becomes more effective with a story. As you listen to General Conference, often the talks we remember are the ones with a story. How incredible it would have been to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear Him tell the parables. We can, however, feel of our Savior s love as we read His parables and think of Him teaching us. We can look for the application of Christ s parables in our lives. How then can you find more understanding in the scriptures? 2

3 Read the scriptures with intent to find the stories that will help you and those you love. Pray before you begin reading to look for the stories that have a purpose for your life. Perhaps there is a child in your life that is having difficulty with the importance of keeping their word. Go to Alma 53 and read about the People of Ammon who made a covenant with the Lord to never take up weapons again. They were willing to die rather than go against their word. They were a righteous, courageous people who had faith in the Lord and knew the importance of standing true. They wanted to help the Nephites in battle yet they would never again take up a weapon against anyone. The People of Ammon had many sons, two thousand that is, who had not entered into this covenant. These sons were willing to fight to protect the Nephites. The covenant made by the People of Ammon stood strong, just as their people did. You are strong. You have given your word and standing by your word helps you stand tall and strong. The Lord blessed The People of Ammon and He will bless you. As prayers are sent to heaven to ask for guidance and understanding of the scriptures, the stories in the scriptures will come to life. The Lord has given us these sacred works to learn from, to glean from, to feast on, to connect to and to take the teachings and stories and make them a part of our lives today. As we desire to learn the Lord will teach us. With our new understanding we can teach others. Often our beloved leaders will share a personal story to teach or emphasize a principle. We can do the same. Every great teacher through the ages has used stories as a teaching tool. Frank Smith, who has done research and has written extensively on the subject of literacy, notes that: the human brain is essentially a narrative device. It runs on stories. The knowledge that we store in the brain, in our theory of the world, is largely in the form of stories. Stories are far more easily remembered and recalled than sequences of unrelated facts. The most trivial small episodes and vignettes are intrinsically more interesting than data ---(Smith, 1988, p.178 Children Tell Stories) 3

4 Do you want to have children connect to you more? Do you want to stop the fighting and unplug and connect together? Storytelling will do this. Storytelling can make road trips fun and memorable. Yes, it is possible. Here are some ideas that can be used during Family Home Evening, at Reunions, on car rides, during hikes or any place that you can talk one on one or with a group. Create a New Story Together This is great for the car, at FHE, around a campfire. A leader starts the story with something like, One day I went hiking up in the mountains when all of a sudden The next person gets to carry it on. It is so fun to see how a story evolves and the laughs that can come. No one s contribution should be put down so it will be a safe place for all to add their creative ideas. Expand a Story Start with a simple sentence and ask others questions to add to it and keep re-telling it with the answers given. For example, There was once an animal who went for a walk, got into trouble and came home and had some lunch. Ask: What kind of an animal? Answer: A zebra! There was once a zebra who went for a walk, got into trouble and came home and had some lunch. Ask: Where did he/she walk? What was the zebra s name? There was once a zebra named Sally Stripenshine who went for a long walk across the savannah, got into trouble and came home and had some lunch. Keep asking questions, What kind of trouble? Who helped her out of her trouble? How did she/he get out of the trouble? How did she get home? What did he have for lunch? Remember to repeat what ever has been added. If you leave something out your story creators will be there to keep you on track. This can be a fun game to see how the story evolves. Charades Playing a game of charades by acting out a story is another story game. Give categories such as Scripture Stories, Fairytales or any story your group is familiar with. 4

5 Ancestor Act Out This is a great game at family reunions. Find three to five stories of different ancestors, not the whole history of an ancestor but one story from an ancestor s life. Pass a story to three to five groups. Give each group ten to fifteen minutes to plan their skit. Bring some simple props if desired. Then get ready for some fun when each group makes their ancestor come to life. This is a fun activity mixing children and adults letting each group come to know an ancestor in a whole new way. The Autobiography of Anything Everything has a story! Collect an assortment of "things:" Piece of Paper Shoe Sneaker Match Rubber Band Paper Clip Socks Imagine the life story of each of those "things." Describe their history backwards through the personal use, purchase, manufacture, to original state. Personify the thing and tell its story like an autobiography. Example: 1. Tell the tale of a piece of newspaper back to the tree in the forest. 2. Tell the tale of a plastic toy's life, tracing its history back to the oil that became plastic and then back to the prehistoric plants that created the oil (This game came from Heather Forest who has many other great ideas of story games on her website ABC Long Trip This well known game gets our memories kicked into gear. Begin by using a sentence such as I m going on a lo-o-o-o-o-g trip to (choose a destination) and I have packed my suitcase. In my suitcase I have a (the first person puts something that begins with A. The next person repeats the sentence listing the A item and then adding a B item. Keep going around the group using all the letters of the alphabet. Albert Einstein once said that imagination is more important that knowledge. 5

6 Tell Me a Story When you are with a group it can be fun to hear a short story from their life. Here are some story prompt ideas: Tell me about a time when you ended up with a scar Tell me about a time when you were really scared Tell me about a favorite place you liked to go to as a child. Tell me about a time when you got in trouble at school Tell me about something we probably don t know about you Bedtime Stories Tell bedtime stories to children. Tell the fairy tales, Aesop s Fables, make up stories, and tell stories of growing up. Let a child s imagination paint the colors of your story as the words spill forth. It doesn t have to be fantastic it just has to be from the heart. Children will often welcome bedtime when there is a story and a song together. Young children love to hear the same story many times. Create a story for a child in your life. We are here to create. As stories are told together a bond is formed, laughter is found and an activity has transpired without any electronic devices. Gently encourage reluctant ones to participate. Remember to thank everyone when an activity is over. When a story is told the listeners have joined with the teller on a journey never to be repeated in the same way again. Stories can bring just a bit of magic to a day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Do you want your children to understand sacrifice, hardships and the lessons from your ancestor s lives? Do you want to make those ancestors come alive? Gather family history stories and know where they are. Make copies of them that you can read and re-read. Put some copies on the back of the toilet to read when you don t think you have time to read. Get to know your ancestors and how they are connected to you. If you don t have any stories that have been passed down ask for stories from older relatives. As you get to know these ancestors parts of their lives will stick out and will come to mind. Here s an example of finding a story to tell from an ancestor: 6

7 In the history it tells of Elijah Alder who was born in His family was taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. As a nine year old, he came from England with his family to join the saints. The family came up the Mississippi River to Nauvoo, Illinois on the same day the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed. After several years of living in St. Louis, Elijah and his traveled to Utah where, all too often their family knew hunger. They lived in very poor circumstances their first years in Utah. They had sacrificed to come to Utah to join with the other saints. One cold, winter day, the history then states that Elijah made a covenant with the Lord that he would never complain no matter how hard things were if he at least had a crust of bread to eat. He had many hardships throughout his life, as he married, helped settle a new area, lived in a dugout with his wife and new baby, became a mason on the Salt Lake Temple, and lost children facing one challenge after another. These are the facts of his life. It is also known that Elijah made his covenant as an older teen while living with his brother. The story could be something like this: Elijah stood in the corner of the small cabin as the snow piled up outside. Frost and ice covered the little window he looked out of. His stomach growled in protest to the little food it had received. He was eighteen years old and wanted desperately to be able go out on his own, have a family and be able to keep himself fed. Too many nights, he had lain upon a straw mattress with hunger pains to lull him to sleep. As Elijah stood by the window he closed his eyes and silently said a prayer to his Heavenly Father; a prayer that would stay with him for the rest of his life. He thanked His father for the opportunity he had to live in Utah, to be with his brother s family. He then made a covenant with the Lord that he would never complain if the Lord would provide even a crust of bread for him that he wouldn t go hungry. When Elijah and his wife lost their first baby, he didn t complain. When Elijah was asked to leave his home to help settle Manti, he didn t complain. When Elijah as asked to join other brethren to defend themselves against Johnson s Army and he didn t have shoes, only burlap bags for his feet, he didn t complain. (Each of these area could be expanded.) Elijah didn t complain and the Lord blessed him all his days. He built a sturdy, snug brick home in Midway and had many friends and family who loved to be with him. In his early days of manhood, food was sometimes sparse but there was always something. Elijah was a man loved by many and he never complained. 7

8 Take time to create. Read your family histories, listen to the stories of family members and find the messages that are meant to be passed down. Ask, What can be learned from this story? You may find themes of faith, endurance, passion, responsibility, integrity, honesty, compassion, or perhaps learning that we all make mistakes. Spread the Joy of stories as you add value to someone else s life. Stories are powerful. They are a journey and a joining. In a tale we meet new places, new people, new ideas. And they become our places, our people, our ideas. Jane Yolen By Janine E. Nishiguchi and Suzanne Hudson,