There is Safety in Following the Prophet

I believe it is important to stay as close to the Sharing Time outline as possible.  That said, I also understand that every primary is different, and sometimes the st outline doesn't have enough info, or it needs a few tweaks for the children in individual wards to best learn. Which is why I am so grateful for the spirit of revelation and the ability to be guided in preparing a lesson that will best teach the children.

I love that the Senior Primary gets the meat and potatoes of the lesson. They are older and can better understand the lesson. At the same time, I love the challenge of simplifying the doctrine so that even the sunbeams can understand it.

"It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it." ~ President John Taylor (Preach My Gospel)

Senior Primary:
I want to begin by talking about an experience I had this week. I had read a blurb where someone had read an Ensign article, seemingly with the intent to find fault with it. And then the discussion in the comments saddened me. Many of the people who commented were obviously atheist, and had a bone to pick with people who believe in religion. It hurt to read all of the anger, hate, or discernible pity for those who took comfort in religion. It was interesting to read, but made me very sad. I took some time to digest and ponder the words I had read, and took note of how I felt. Unsettled, upset, and just yucky in general. So I went to my knees in prayer. I thanked Heavenly Father for the blessing of prayer, and the Spirit, and for the ability to receive answers. I told Him how I was feeling. I told Him of my confusion and sadness.  I was confused for those many people, not me. Confused that the more knowledge people reported to have gained caused such a trial of faith in them. I asked for peace, understanding, and direction. And then I began to focus on my primary lesson. While preparing, I came across a video about Moses which Elder Holland narrates. I watched it, and had a wonderful thought.

If there is a God, as many people claimed there isn't, how would He get the word out? How would He help us to know of Him?

Immediately I had an answer: He would talk to a man, or men, and give them the charge to go and declare to the people the things they had seen and heard. He would ask those men to testify of Him.

He would call a prophet.

A long time ago, God's people were captives. They were slaves to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and God told Moses to get the people out of Egypt and to safety. (Usually I like to read directly out of the scriptures and translate the words they don't know, but Exodus 14 has some very tricky language, so I think this time I will just tell the story, and have them read a verse or two is all) I am going to print off the verse portion from Hatch Patch to let the kids see the words, and then we will act them out because any physical activity is welcome, and they will love it.

I will then close by asking them how our Prophet has kept us safe?

Last General Conference he said "As we strive to place Christ at the center of our lives by learning His words, by following His teachings, and by walking in His path, He has promised to share with us the eternal life that He died to gain. There is no higher end than this, that we should choose to accept His discipline and become His disciples and do His work throughout our lives. Nothing else, no other choice we make, can make of us what He can." ~President Thomas S. Monson

I will close by bearing my testimony.

Junior Primary
Have any of you gone for a long drive, or on a trip where you had to drive to get there? Have you noticed the signs on the roads? Why do we have road signs? To warn us of danger, that is right! What do you think would happen if there were no road signs? Utter chaos and bedlam. People would get hurt! The road signs help us know what is ahead in the road, and what we should do to keep safe. Right now, all of us here on earth are on a little trip, and we need to get back to our Heavenly Parents. To help us, Heavenly Father has given us some things to guide us safely back home. One of the things he has given us, is a prophet! He tells the Prophet what we need to do, and then the Prophet tells us what we need to do, and then we do it!

One prophet that Heavenly Father called was Moses...

And I will do the actions to act out the story with the children here, complete with the same word signs used for the Senior Primary.

If there is time after that, I will pass around a blank sheet of paper for them to draw a picture of how they can follow the Prophet.

I will close by sharing my testimony.

Experience or The Evidence I Found When I Went Asking.

I just stumbled upon an article that really got me thinking. The author had read an Ensign article, seemingly with the intent to bash the church, and all the good that lies therein. Reading the discussion in the comments feed surprised me and got me thinking a lot about things and religion, and the choices we make in general. After pondering on this topic for a while, surprised and a little hurt by the many angry voices combined against my core beliefs, I knelt in prayer, asking for guidance and clarification. I then decided to work on my Sharing Time lesson for Sunday, which is There is Safety in Following The Prophet. To prepare for this topic, I went to the Resources for Teaching Children section on LDS.org, looking for anything to help me with my lesson. While there, since the focus of this week's lesson is Moses, I looked for something about Moses.  I found this video:

While watching, a thought, reminiscent of my past ponderings, came into my head. Many people claimed atheism in the discussion. I thought, "If there is a God, how would he be able to get his word out to the people of the earth. How would he be able to convince people of his existence?" and then my thought was immediately answered.

"He would speak to prophets and then send them out to declare his word. They would have the duty to go out and share with all the people the glorious news that there is indeed a God, and that he loves us!"

I am so thankful that this is my topic that I get to teach this week.  I am so grateful that there is a living prophet on the earth today. I am so grateful that I am aware of this fact, and that I have the unique privilege of being able to follow him. And I am so grateful for this experience which taught me about the necessity and importance of prophets.  Their job, as we learned last week in primary, is to testify of him!

There is indeed safety in following the prophets!

Missionary Moment and Mingle

Yesterday was our program. It was beautiful, and everyone worked so hard on it, including the kids.

Saturday we had a pizza party/practice where we bribed the kids to memorize their parts for pizza.  I would say more than half of them had their parts memorized, so that is a definite win!

My friend helped me make some fliers to pass around to remind the kids about the program practice Saturday morning as the week before had been Stake Conference and I knew they had forgotten. When I dropped the fliers off, many parents confirmed that fear.

Here is the cool thing, though. While I was out delivering fliers, I came to a house on my map (I still don't know where everyone lives as we have been in the ward less than a year). The house was labeled with the same name as one of my counselors. Confused by this as I thought they lived in another part of the neighborhood, I knocked on the door. A man came to the door who I did not recognize and who I knew was in no way related to my counselor. I told him I was looking for the [Smith] family, and he confirmed that [Smith] was indeed his last name. We got to talking, and it turns out he has a kid in the primary. I asked him why they haven't been to church in so long, and he said there was no reason, they just hadn't. They were lazy, he guessed. His parents are currently serving a mission, so he and his wife both came from good strong in the Church households, they just sort of fell out for no reason at all. As I talked with him, I was impressed that me finding him was no accident. I know his parents have been praying for him, and I feel I was led to knock on his door. It was really a very neat experience for me, and I am excited to be able to be in touch with him.

I invited him to come to the program on Sunday, and for his son to come to the program practice and at least get some pizza, but they weren't there. Here is the thing, though. It doesn't matter that he wasn't there. I found another child in our ward who is not on our records who had fallen through the cracks. I can absolutely feel the Lord's hand in directing me and helping me to find those who aren't on our records and who aren't attending. The ball is in my court now, to help the teachers get out to visit the people that I am finding. What a beautiful and amazing experience it is to know I am being used as an instrument in the Lord's hands to find his children and help them to feel of his love.

The primary program is such an amazing missionary tool. The primary is like a little gospel sharing army who doesn't have the same fears and reservations that we as adults have built up over the ages. Taking this into account, my presidency and I made invitations for our program and gave them to the children with the instructions for them to invite their neighbors, teachers, bus drivers, coaches, and anyone they wanted to come to the program and learn more about what we believe. After the program we would have an open house with treats and the missionaries would have a little something prepared to share with everyone who came. Then it would just be a mingle where the missionaries could do some contacting, and members could do some greeting and maybe even fellowship.  It is a win/win ward mission experience. We passed out invitations to the Relief Society, the Priesthood, and the Young Women on top of giving invitations to our primary kids. We were very optimistic that we would have a good turn out.

Unfortunately, it was a bust. Leading up to it, I was very excited and worried about the Missionary Mingle, more so than I was about the program. It was the first year of doing it, after all. Sadly, not one person showed up. Not even the missionaries. Some of the primary kids did stop by for cookies, and seeing their smiles certainly was wonderful. Hopefully next year we will have a lot more success. Also, I am hoping to ask some of the other auxiliaries to help us plan and execute it next year. Perhaps with more help there will be a better turn out. This is, after all, possibly one of the best ways that we, as a ward, can have an incredible missionary experience.

Christ's Enabling Power

** This was originally posted on my personal blog Involuntary Smiles, but it is completely relevant for this blog as well.

Woman Praying Vincent Van Gough 1883

It started out simply lovely, Sunday morning.  There was a gorgeous drizzle but the house was warm, and the kids were all happy.  I sat with Faye, playing with her hair while she and Beth ate monster cereal out of the box, scattering it all over my floor and then walking on it.  But I didn't care about that.  Quite frankly, it made me laugh.

And then my phone rang.  

And chaos ensued.  

One of my primary teachers was sick and was letting me know that she wasn't able to get a sub.  She could barely talk, and my throat ached for hers as I listened to the scratchiness on the other end.  I assured her we would find someone to take her class and thanked her for calling and letting me know, rather than just not showing up as some teachers do.

Thinking there would be no problem, I called the helper for that class.  She had had a baby about 2 months prior and had not yet been to church, but had assured me she would be there that week.  I called her to see if she would be there and if she could possibly throw a lesson together last minute. She didn't answer, so I left her a message and set about looking for someone else as we are supposed to have two teachers for each class.

As I was busily calling around to find a sub, I got a text from a sub for one of the other classes who told me that she had a very sore throat and had been up all night and so couldn't make it either.  And yet another teacher let me know that she wasn't going to be there either (she had a 2 week old baby so was excused).  My first counselor, I knew wouldn't be there either as she also had a newborn.  My second counselor texted me to tell me she had a migraine and wouldn't be able to make it either.  That left my third counselor, my secretary and me to pull things off, but I wasn't too worried because the missionaries were going to teach sharing time, so I could help out with whatever.

I called like crazy and eventually, after no one answered their phones, or told me they couldn't sub, it was decided my secretary and her husband would teach one class.  I was still crossing my fingers for the teacher helper to be able to show up and help us out there.

She called me around 10 (church starts at 11, keep that in mind) to let me know that she wouldn't be coming to church, her baby was just diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and so doctor's orders were that the baby stay home for a year so as not to die.  Scary stuff!  I talked with her about possibly releasing her if that would help her, and she said she would think about it and get back with me.  My heart just breaks for her!

By this time, I was a little panicky, but knew we could figure something out.  I decided to start getting myself ready for church.

At 10:30 I got a text from the missionaries saying they were both sick and wouldn't be able to come teach sharing time.

I fell onto my bed laughing to the point of tears streaming from my eyes.  I am not sure if I was actually laughing or if it was a covert way to cry.  Wow.  What a morning!  I frantically threw some things together to prepare a sharing time about the ripples we create in our lives, and through our actions we can fill up those empty chairs that are drowning out our primary (60% inactivity, people). I texted the Elders to ask if there was anything they needed as I remember how lousy it is to be sick on your mission.  They requested soup.  I told them I would make some and get it to them after church.

Half way through primary one of my best teachers told me she had just spoken with the bishopric about being released.  And then I remembered my visiting teachers were coming over right after church.

So, with nearly all of my inner strength tested, we took the kids to sacrament (my ward has that last), and then rushed home to clean.  Because I had to clean up the mess I had made that morning by neglecting my kid in an effort to find subs, and let me tell you, they took advantage of my absence! The house got cleaned, my visiting teachers helped me make the soup, we visited, and then I delivered the soup.

It was a very hard day, but not a bad day.  Just hard.

I look back at that day and really just have to smile.  I wonder if sometimes things like that happen for us to be able to look back on with amusement and just laugh.  I mean, really, could anything else have gone wrong?  Probably.  I am so grateful it didn't though, and I am so relieved to see the very obvious hand of the Lord in that day, supporting me, helping me to not choke and run away to hide. In General Conference this weekend there was a talk given by Cheryl A. Esplin which really hit me. In essence she talked about Christ's enabling power, how part of the atonement is looking and seeing how the Savior carried you. Last Sunday was absolutely one of those times I was helped to serve beyond my capacity!  I honestly couldn't have done it without His help, because seriously, everything seemed to fall apart all at the same time.  What a blessing it is to have an understanding albeit small, of the atonement of Jesus Christ!  What a blessing it is to be able to see it at work in my life! To have been carried through that whole day, I truly couldn't have done it all without help, and how grateful I am for all the help I received, and do receive daily.

For a morning that began so calmly, it sure morphed into the Hulk quickly!

I look forward to the day when my Sundays can be a day of rest again. But I wouldn't trade the things I learned for anything!

Through the Cracks

Google image

I have been thinking a lot about the sweet family I met yesterday.

While talking to the mother, she mentioned that she has lived her for three years.

I asked the bishopric counselor over primary if he could tell me anything about the family, and he didn't even know they existed!  I mean, he knew that someone lived in that house, but he didn't know they were members.

Which got me thinking.

They have been here for 3 years, and they were lost as to the records of the Church.  A few neighbors knew about them, but not many.

When I was a child, I knew everyone in my neighborhood.  Quite literally.  I was a papergirl and so I even knew the families without children in the home.  I knew everyone.  It saddens me so much that my children are growing up in a time where no one knows their neighbors.  People don't go outside anymore.  There is so much less human interaction.

I think if there had been more human interaction, this family would not have fallen through the cracks.  Which leads me to wonder about other families.  How many other families are in our ward that we simply don't know about?  How many other people are feeling lost or alone because we as a society are to scared to talk to others?

And the most important question of all.  What can I do about it?!

No Empty Chairs

Photo Courtesy of In Focus Daily

As a presidency we have been planning a teacher training for a few months now.

Today was the day we finally did it, and I am happy that most of the teachers showed up!

Our theme was Behold Your Little Ones.  We had decided to each take a topic within that theme and to expound upon it.  I was to talk about loving each other as we would a family, and noticing when someone is not there, and doing something about it.  Kati (my 1st counselor) was to talk on loving the children the way the Savior does, and not labeling them, and Natalie (my Secretary) was to talk about different ways we can show them we love them.

I had such a busy week, this past week, that I really hadn't had a lot of time to prepare anything.  Our meeting was to be at 6, and at 5:15 I left my house, walked over to the church, and began praying for the Spirit, and preparing what I was going to talk about.  

I want to share my portion here, as it was very poignant to me and honestly left rather an impact on me.

I pulled out of our cupboard the name sticks we have for the primary.  We have the less active kids and the active kids separate for the mere fact we don't want to have to pull out the ones who don't come every week.  We just keep our regulars in the jar, and if someone who hasn't come for a while shows up, we simply add their name to the regulars.

I am just going to put this down here, as if you, dear reader, were there listening to me.  

I am so grateful for the blessing I have been given to work here in the primary with you.  You are all so wonderful, and I can see the love you have for the children, and I am so happy that the kids are so well loved that they are excited to come on Sundays.  When the Bishop called me to be the President, he told me that there was less than 20% activity in the primary.  I felt completely overwhelmed and inadequate.  And slightly excited for all the missionary work I would be able to do.  Slowly, we as a presidency have been making changes.  We have split the classes so that each age group has their own teacher.  We split the Junior and Senior primaries, believing that doing so would show the Lord the faith we have that the kids will begin to come.  Sort of an "if you build it, they will come," sort of thing.  We have had to convince the bishopric to let us make some of the changes we have been making, but everything we have done has been in preparation for a surge of activity.  

Look at these jars.  The sticks in these jars look nearly even, don't they?  I am so happy to announce that the bishop was sorely mistaken.  We do not have less than 20% activity in the primary.  We have about 40% activity!  Which is so much better than what I was told.  The children in our ward are so special, and I know that each and every one of them have something they can contribute to our primary.  We need to find them and invite them and love them.  We need to help them to have the desire to come to Primary each week.  We need to help make sure they are receiving their saving ordinances so they will be able to return and live with Heavenly Father.  We must prepare each and every one of them for baptism, and once they are baptized, help them keep the covenants they made on their baptism day.

President Hinkley had a family motto.  No empty chairs.  That means that when he is in Heaven with his family, he doesn't want to look around and see a single empty chair.  He doesn't want to see a spot where someone didn't make it.

We should have the same attitude with our primary children.  Each class should have a no empty chair policy.  I know that it may seem overwhelming, because some classes have an intimidating amount of less actives.  We are aware of this.  We have been praying for you, and trying to find ways to help you with the large lists.  It isn't realistic to expect you to be contacting each child every week if you have 20 kids who aren't coming.  We understand that.  For that exact reason, we asked the bishop if we could have Diana work with us.  She was called as a third counselor, but her reason for being called is to help you.  She is in charge of working with you teachers to help your classes have no empty chairs.  Talk with her.  Let her help you with ideas, finding ways to reach out to those children.  She has a very unique perspective and will be able to help you.  We don't want any of you to feel overwhelmed or like you can't do it because there is simply too much.  We as a presidency are here to serve you.  To help you help those seats fill up.

While reading and preparing for this meeting, I read a talk that suggested primary teachers contact the parents.  It mentioned the strength teachers can give to not only the children, but the parents as well.  The parents will see that you genuinely love their children, and that could help them.  Find ways to interact with the parents.  Work together.  Share insights or concerns you may have about their children.  Share with them what their children are learning in Primary.  I think with the unique situation our Utah ward has with less active children, this may be a tool that can help us so much.  If we reach out to the parents, chances are they will begin coming to church as well.  And if not, at least they will be comfortable with letting their kids come to church, because they will know who is teaching their children.  Build that trust with the parents.  Love the children.  Pray for them.  Let us have a face for each and every name.  I don't want to separate the calling on names anymore.  I don't want to have a pile of less actives and a pile of active children.  I want to have one primary.  One jar of names, because the kids who come have reached out to the ones who haven't come and told them that they are missed.  The ones who currently aren't coming will be here every week because they know they are loved and missed when they are not here.  We are brothers and sisters, literally.  We have Heavenly Parents who are so pleased with all of the hard work you do as teachers.  You do so much already, and we are so thankful for that.  But we need to do a little more.  Ask for our help.  Ask for Diana to help you.  Ask the kids in your class to help you!  Let's get them coming to church where they can feel the Spirit and your love.  

I know that if we put forth an effort, the seats will be filled.  I know it will be hard, and daunting, but I know that we can get these seats occupied with children.  And if we can get the children to come, eventually the parents will come.  Strengthening the primary means strengthening the ward.  We will be able to see miracles happening before our very eyes, I promise you.  We have already seen miracles.  Today we had 3 less actives come to church, 2 of whom we didn't even know about.  No one even knew they were in our ward.  If we have faith and work hard, these chairs will not be empty, and we will witness miracles!

As I was walking home from the church after our meeting, I saw my friends as they were leaving their house.  We visited briefly because the wife is my visiting teaching companion.  In the course of our visit, they told me about a family who lives across the street from them.  A mother and father who are members, but whose records are not in our ward.  The children want to come to primary, but the mother works on Sundays, so can't take them.  The mother wants them to go to church, but the whole work thing makes it rather hard.

I was so excited to learn about them!  I walked over to their house, introduced myself, and talked with the mother for a while.  We talked about her kids, what we could do to help them get to church, and who she knew in the area that she could maybe trust to take her kids if she couldn't go.  Understandably, she didn't take me up on my offer to stop by and give them a ride as she had just met me.  But she did say she would love to have their teachers come by to visit them during the week, so she could meet the teachers and get to know the people who would have her children in their care. It was so wonderful to be able to find another family that we could work with.

I know that learning about that family was the beginning of a miracle.  Or more of the No Empty Chairs miracle that we are already witnessing.  I feel so blessed to be trusted with such a sacred calling, and to be able to be a part of this holy work.

Unexpected Callings

As previously stated, when I was called as primary president, I was told that the primary has less than 20% activity.

I am happy to say that this statement is wrong.  We actually have about 40% activity and 60% less actives.  Which is still a lot, but it is a lot less daunting than what I had originally thought.

Since May, I have requested that the bishop call about 6 new teachers in addition to the ones we already had, as we split all the classes.  We will be requesting that 4 more are called at the beginning of the year as we feel it would be best to split the Valiant boys and the Valiant girls.  We feel this way will be better for re-activation efforts.  That isn't even mentioning the nursery or cub scouts!

On Sunday, our CTR 4 teacher requested that we get another helper in her class as the kids are wild and crazy and honestly hard for 2 teachers to handle, especially during Sharing Time.  Funnily (or sadly), the two worst kids in that class are my daughter and my first counselor's daughter.  Go figure. They are just a couple of Chatty Cathy's who are incredibly enthusiastic about everything.  Not necessarily bad, but very distracting for all the other kids in the class.  If all goes well, we will be getting a third teacher for that class.

For the past few weeks, it has been me, my very pregnant first counselor, and my secretary.  My second counselor was released a few weeks ago.  She has a lot of health problems and many other things on her plate right now, the calling was a bit too much on top of everything else.  We have been ridiculously overwhelmed of late without her, and today I was informed that we now have a second counselor!  On top of that, we submitted a name for a third counselor.  We had originally asked for a less active specialist, but because that is a calling I made up, we changed the name to third counselor (because we knew we would be working closely with her) and submitted that.  Tonight I was notified that the name we submitted for that suggested calling has been accepted, she has been called and she accepted!  We are so excited to have help again!

When we did have a full presidency, we were still not able to visit any of the classes, but now, with our third counselor, it will be possible.  I cannot express my joy to be working with these two special women who have accepted the call to help us in the primary.  I am overjoyed!

I know that miracles are happening, and it is such a privilege to be able to witness firsthand the Lord's hand in this work.  We have great plans to help the children make it to church and to help their testimonies grow.  What a blessing it is to be a part of such a great work.