Sunday Thoughts

Just in case you were wondering, I LOVE primary.

I conducted today (which I don't usually do because I'm the secretary, but the Primary President was out of town so I filled in for her) and it didn't take long for me to be in tears. In Junior primary (ages 3-7) I became a weepy mess in just minutes as a 4 year old stood with his mouth against the microphone and gave a talk as his dad whispered words of truth into his ear. It was painfully cute, but what did me in was the presence of the Spirit as he spoke. I think the kids all felt it too because the room was remarkably peaceful for our large junior primary. It was also cool to watch the boy's mom stand in the back watching her husband and son together like that, I know she felt great too.

Then in Senior Primary (ages 8-12) I lost it again after an 11 year old boy gave his last talk in primary since he will be turning 12 and moving on to Young Men soon. I have seen him grow up and I remember his older brother (who is now 17) whispering in his ear years ago to help him give a talk. Now the older brother is getting ready to go on a mission and this boy is now a confident 11 year old who did a fantastic job by himself and closed with his testimony. I had to pull myself together after the combination of this memory and his talk.

The gospel is remarkable, and primary is the place where the kids learn it in its purest form. I love the lessons we learn as we sing and I often look around the room and see the adults actively engaged and learning right along with the kids...we're never too old to be in primary!

Sunday Thoughts

I got a call yesterday from the Primary President asking me to go to Ward Council for her today since she's currently in great pain with a kidney stone (ouch!). Upon showing up at the meeting this morning, I was given 5 minutes' notice to give a 5 minute presentation on how we run our primary. That was no problem at all...I can talk about primary for hours, so it was just a matter of jotting down a few notes to help keep me on track.


Another interesting thing about today was that it was our Youth Leadership day, which means we had a youth Bishopric (who had been called by our real Bishopric), who had called all the other youth to positions (i.e., a Relief Society Presidency, Primary Presidency, primary teachers, Elder's Quorum Presidency, High Priest Group Leader and so on). Our ward has done this several times before, but this was the first time I was behind the scenes at Ward Council and at the follow-up meeting after church.


I was so impressed with the Youth Primary Presidency. They conducted the meeting, gave a great, well-prepared sharing time, and tried to maintain reverence (not easy to do with so many kids). We also had a youth pianist and 2 choristers who led the kids in various songs. It was seriously impressive.


Landon was called to be a primary teacher and ended up teaching the 6 year olds. He was totally prepared with visual aids, activities, and the lesson materials of course.

The best part of the day was the follow-up meeting we with the leaders of all the auxiliaries after church. We went around giving feedback on how the youth did with their various callings (they had also taught Relief Society, Elder's Quorum and High Priest Group too). Then they had the youth (just the leaders of each auxiliary) give examples of things they learned through this experience. All of them came away with a greater appreciation for the preparation involved in teaching lessons, and how difficult it is to actually fill the allotted time.


The most powerful part of the meeting (which had already been rather touching) was at the end when the youth Bishop (who is 17) stood up to share his feelings. He said, "I have two words for you...Choice Opportunity." He then went on to explain how amazing the experience of praying to know who to call as his counselors was, and then how touching the 3 weeks he spent praying for the youth were. He then bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. I was a wreck, absolutely a snotty, tear-streaming mess. It was amazing! I was so impressed with all of the youth, and know I wasn't as mature, prepared and spiritual as they are.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: This day has felt longer than usual, I am ready to completely sack out.

Sunday Thoughts

I know I wrote about how much I'm loving that we're memorizing scriptures as part of our primary this year, but I have more to say.


This is the scripture we are memorizing this month. It is long, it is complicated, and the wording is rather tricky. But I printed cards out for our family to help us memorize (because just having it hanging on the fridge wasn't enough) it, and last Saturday as I sat at the computer loading many photos from our Cushy Camping trip onto my blog I quizzed myself over and over and memorized this verse section by section.

Within 20 minutes I had it memorized and felt empowered and full of the Spirit from doing so. The truthfulness of this verse really hit me and made me so thankful that I have built my foundation on the gospel of Jesus Christ.


It was my turn to conduct primary the next day, and part of that process is reviewing the scripture mastery verse of the month (hence the need for me to have it memorized already). As I talked to the primary kids about what it means to build our foundation on Christ so that the devil will have no power over us, I felt the Spirit testify of its truthfulness. It was a powerful moment for me, because that is not something that usually happens. I have memorized and talked about all the other scripture mastery verses we've learned so far this year, and though they are all wonderful, this one has impacted me more than any of the other ones.

Perhaps it's because of how specific the verse is about the storms the devil shall (not if) send forth onto each of us. How fabulous is it to know that he will have no power over us because of our sure foundation? It makes me feel brave and strong and like I want to teach my children as much as I possibly can so that they are prepared and built on that foundation as well.

I'm telling you, there is something super powerful about memorizing scriptures. It makes me wish we'd been doing it as part of our Family Home Evenings long before now.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: Another bonus to memorizing these scriptures is that it makes me wonder what other things I can do. This has turned out to be so much easier than I thought it would be, what if there are lots of other things like that too?!

Sunday Thoughts

Last Sunday, Landon gave his final talk in primary (cue tear). He wrote it all by himself and wouldn't even let me check it before hand because he wanted me to be surprised. He did a great job and proved he is ready to move out of primary and into the Young Men's Program in about 6 weeks. I can't believe he's almost 12 and have no idea where the time went.





I was nowhere near having this kind of testimony when I was his age!

**Thoughts??**

Comments Window Tidbit: I think I'm on the mend, but am still congested and weak. I went to Sacrament Meeting then came home so that I wouldn't contaminate the kids in primary (it's a hands-on job) and so I could rest some more.

Sunday Thoughts

Today during Sacrament Meeting one of our speakers was a missionary who just returned on Thursday from serving two years in Germany (We have 5 missionaries from our ward in Germany right now, crazy eh?). I felt the Spirit so strongly as he spoke because he couldn't help but bear testimony of everything he talked about. I have never heard a newly returned missionary speak with such power and faith.

He didn't tell a single story from his mission. Instead he talked about how before his mission he was reading in the Book of Mormon and received a confirmation that it was true. Then he spoke about how we all need to have our own conversions and that these are a process, not necessarily a one time experience. (I love this thought and totally agree, though I'd never thought of it that way before!)


He challenged everyone to find out for ourselves that Jesus is the Christ. (I'm so glad I know this!)

He said, "The Lord never left my side during my whole mission."

More of his thoughts...
--We should have patience, persist and lead by example.
--We have a choice to let the truth in our hearts or not, that it's a process, and that it's so sad to see people refuse to let that truth in.
--Testimony comes from God through the Holy Ghost.
--We need to nourish our testimonies.
--Having faith in Jesus Christ is the key.

I really loved it when he said, "I don't know what I'd have been without my mission...it is vital." He was so incredibly sincere when he said this, it wasn't just something to say. He also said that anyone thinking about going on a mission should go, that they would never regret it.

I was so struck as he spoke, because he is influencing so many people. He is one of the older brothers in a family of 10 kids, so his righteous example and influence is directly impacting his siblings on a daily basis. His next younger brother is leaving in July for a mission in London, and then they will have endless missionaries for the next 10 years if everyone stays strong. It's an inspiring thing to witness, and could easily have gone the other way if he hadn't chosen to go.

He closed his talk by bearing his testimony in German, and again was so powerful that I truly felt the Spirit. This doesn't usually happen to me when I hear a testimony in another language, and I'm always disappointed by that, but he was powerful. After church Landon even said, "His testimony in German, it got me."

I will definitely be writing him a note this week.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I love feeling so spiritually uplifted like I do today!

Sunday Thoughts

Last week as part of our Senior primary's (ages 7-11) Sharing Time, the primary president had the kids write their testimonies on a post-it note then stick it on the chalkboard surrounded by pictures of various prophets.


I was sitting in-between 2 rambunctious boys (they're twins) who are new to our primary. (They're foster kids who are staying with a family in our ward.) One of them said to me, "What's a testimony?" and I said, "It's what you believe." Then he wrote this...cue tears.


I was so touched by this Sharing Time and by all the testimonies the kids wrote down.


I think many of them didn't even realize what they believed until they were given this chance to write it down.

I loved seeing how happy it made them!

What a great opportunity for these kids, and what a sweet way to feel the Spirit and think about what I believe. One of our teachers is a huge, deep-voiced man, and he was in tears as the primary president wrapped things up and shared her own testimony. He continued to weep as we had singing time, it's was rather tender.

I'm so glad our whole family was in the room for this great experience, and that Landon and Whitney both added their testimonies to the board.

**Have you ever written your testimony?
Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I was in charge of Sharing Time today and it went great. It always feels like a dressy workout to me, but I love doing it!

Sunday Thoughts

Yesterday's Stake Activity Day activity (that sounds redundant) ended up being so fantastic, it was totally worth the trauma of having to get up early and dressed in Sunday clothes on a rainy Saturday morning.


I felt the Spirit as soon as I walked into the chapel and saw over 150 young girls sitting there. We had a really good turn out from our ward (about 20 girls) and as we sat down together I immediately found myself choking back tears.

We sang "I Am A Child of God" for the opening song, and of course I couldn't get through it. Then they had one of the girls share her testimony, then to finish me off completely they had a very poised 11 year old girl sing "Daughter of a King" (click the link to hear it).

Daughter of a king
the Father's royalty
heir to His divinity
He's calling your name
to come and take your place
before His thrown
He has always known
what He created you to be
Daughter of a King

It's a good thing I always carry tissues in my church bag or I would have been a snotty mess. (I was passing tissues down the row to the other leader who was crying even more than I was; she's a real softy yet is never prepared with tissues.)


We attended 5 sessions (rotations)--Leading Like A Princess (learning to lead music), Daughter of a King (story, plus journal writing), Princess Diaries (decorating the journals they were given), Princess Preparation (a class about modesty and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy), and Minding Your Princess Manners (a class about how to treat others).


This is a photo of the girls swarming to choose the papers and jewels for their Princess Diaries; this was serious business!


All the classes were fun and informative, and they gave the girls candy and a souvenir-type thing from each class. They were so excited about their little journals and their "Daughter of a King" pencils (I would have been too). I loved seeing some of them choose to write "Daughter of a King" on their journals.


When all the sessions were over we gathered together to eat cake, check out each ward's table displays and to watch a slide show with photos of the girls at Activity Day gatherings.

The whole event was so well organized, spiritually uplifting and a real eye-opener for me. Being in the chapel with so many young girls (ages 8-12) was powerful. I felt the buzzing of potential in that room. These girls are still so innocent, hopeful and have their pure, white futures ahead of them, so the message that they are literally daughters of a king is crucial for them to learn. (Why is it that we can only really understand this when we're older? Oh cruel fate.) I'm so glad I know this.

**Do you know that song?
Have you ever gotten choked
up upon walking in a room?
What do you wish you would have known at that age?**

Comment Window Tidbit:

I wore a short-sleeved shirt (much to my chagrin) to church today and didn't overheat or get a headache...I'm finally figuring out what works.

Sunday Thoughts

“The Lord knows who we really are, what we really think,
what we really do, and who we really are becoming.”

--David A. Bednar (from this talk)

Another thing I'm taking away from my trip to Paris is that God knows each one of us personally. I knew this before going, but was struck by this thought over and over again during my trip as I was surrounded by so many people.


I don't usually feel like I'm only ONE of such a large crowd in my normal life, but crowding onto the Metro and seeing hordes of people at the Louvre and around town had me feeling overwhelmed by the thought of how many people there are in the world.


I would stand on the Metro looking at the variety of people and then think about how they all have their own families and friends, and how those people have their own families and friends and so on and so on so that my mind could hardly comprehend how many lives full of hopes, fears and struggles that means there are...and this was just in Paris! What about an ever bigger city?! I don't even want to think about India or Japan or some place.


One day in particular as we were riding the Metro, there was a young man (early 20s) who appeared to be going home from work. He was clearly upset and seemed to be stressed and going over an incident. My heart hurt for him and I said a little prayer on his behalf. I then thought, that if I felt love and concern for this stranger, how much more must the Lord feel for Him since He knows him by name, and knows his past, present, future and potential? It was a soul-opening moment for me for sure.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: I love Sundays!

Sunday Thoughts

Kristi's great post about advice to give the Young Women in her ward (you really must check it out and add your insights to the 51 comments she's already got) has got me thinking. This was my comment to her post:


I would advise them to focus on having balance in all areas of their life and to stop obsessing about their physical appearance. Gaining a testimony and being secure in their knowledge that they are a child of God will give them the confidence and beauty they need to carry them through the rest of their lives. Understanding this as a teenager would be an unbelievable asset!

Michelle and I talked about this last week during our lunch at the Musée d'Orsay cafe. We were talking about how painful it is to see teenagers feel so awkward and uncomfortable with themselves and what could be done to remedy that. My answer was pretty much the same as my comment from Kristi's post and the more I think about it the better I feel about the answer.

That just leaves the question of how to instill that spiritual knowledge and confidence into our children so they don't spend their lives looking for validation in all the wrong arenas? We go to church, we serve others, we pray together morning and night, we read scriptures together, we have Family Home Evening weekly, but there's no guarantee is there?

**Thoughts??**

Sunday Thoughts--I'm Back

It feels like I haven't blogged in ages, but it has only been 3 days. I guess that's what happens when a habit has finally taken root and then can't be done for a bit...interesting (at least to me).

{I took this picture this morning.}

Michelle, Kristi and I had a great couple of days at Women's Conference (which will be blogged about later) and all came away feeling recommitted to being the best we can be. I need to review my notes, but the overall message I came away with was that I need to live and parent with intention (more on this later).

One of the testimonies shared at church today goes along with my feelings from Women's Conference. Here is the gist of what was said, It's one thing to say the words, but it's quite another thing to live your life in harmony with the beliefs behind those words.


I try to live my life according to my beliefs, so that I'm not saying one thing and doing another, but there are many areas of my life that need improvement. I would like there to be no question in my character about what I believe and what my values are. I am feeling an increased responsibility to be a better mother; to teach my children well and help them (and me) be the people the Lord knows we can be. Where to start...

**Thoughts??**

Sunday Thoughts

Today has been a great Sunday thus far and I'm feeling so grateful. Each week I pray to feel the Spirit and to hear what I need to hear, and I always come away being glad I went to church and grateful for the things I've learned. But today was one of those days where I felt like I was positively beaming with the Spirit.


I shared my testimony in Sacrament Meeting, which I haven't done in over a year. I talked about my testimony of obedience and that by doing the things we've been asked to do we find true happiness. I truly believe this and have felt such an increase in faith and spiritual strength over these past 2 years of daily scripture reading with the family and by myself, and through our consistency with family prayers morning and night and weekly Family Home Evenings.


I have learned that these things are NOT hard to do once we commit to doing them. I don't know why I thought they were hard for so long. I guess I didn't really want to do them and wasn't committed to doing what was asked of us. But now that we have, I KNOW we are blessed daily.


Like everything in life, it is our personal experience with things that teaches us. We can be inspired by the things other people do, but ultimately we have to do them ourselves if we want to test God's promises and know without a doubt that things are true.


Sometimes it feels like there is just too much to do, too many obligations, too many "shoulds" in life, but I think this is one of Satan's ways of running interference and keeping us from doing the things that will bring true peace and happiness. We filter out the nonsense and focus on the things we know will have the most impact and take us where we want to go.

We can choose to have hope, choose to have faith, choose to be obedient, and put those things into practice then see what will happen. The Lord keeps ALL of His promises, we're the ones who complicate things.

**Thoughts??**

Sunday Thoughts

Whitney was assigned to give a talk in primary today about prayer. I talked to her about this several times during the week, but she seemed to have her own ideas about what she wanted to say so I didn't push the issue. Yesterday she drew pictures for the story she was going to tell. It was about a boy who played with his friend all day and was so tired afterward he wanted to go straight to bed, but his then his mother reminded him that needed to say a prayer before going to bed, after he did so he felt happy inside.



I thought this was a good story and I was happy that she drew several picture to go along with it (that's what makes it real for her), but I told her she should share a personal example of a time her prayers were answered. I typed up the story I thought she should share, but she was super hesitant to share it for some reason.

We went rounds over this as we got ready for church this morning. She cried, tried to say she doesn't like giving talks (that's too bad), and also said that she doesn't like telling stories about herself. Hmm.


I ended up explaining to her that everyone in our church has to give a talk at some point and that when we share our personal experiences our testimonies grow and we benefit those who listen as well. (This was definitely one of those teaching moments that really hit home with me.) She finally agreed to share an experience, but not the one I wanted her to share.


When the time came for her to give her talk I had no idea what she was going to end up saying. She read one tiny paragraph I'd written about prayer then told her story and showed her pictures and then closed her talk! I looked over at Landon just as he was saying to his friend, "She left out half a page of her talk!" I think she froze once she was up there because we hadn't typed up the story she had chosen to tell (that's because she chose it as we were walking out the door for church). I was a little disappointed because she had several really good, personal experiences with prayer that she could have shared but ended up keeping them to herself because she was afraid.


Anyone see any connections with Whitney's experience today? I'm actually really glad it happened this way because it gave us a chance to talk about the importance of recognizing when our prayers are answered, how we gain a testimony through these personal experiences, and the importance of sharing them with others. I don't know how much she understood, but our conversations this morning helped me to see things more clearly and will help me be a better mother and primary leader.

P.S. I'll have to share the story I wanted her to tell another day. Also, can I just tell you how giddy I am about being able to take pictures during primary?!

**What do you think??**

Sunday Thoughts

Today was such a fantastic day at church, I am so thankful that I was there! Our testimony meeting was a 10-tissue affair for me as so many wonderful things were said. One of the speakers mentioned how it used to bother him as a kid when adults would bear their testimony and say how much they loved everyone. He didn't understand how this was possible since they didn't know him personally. I totally understand that feeling of love and have it for my ward and especially for the primary kids.

All the Young Men (ages 12-18) were gone on a Scout 50 mile hike this past week. So many of the leaders got up in testimony meeting to share their experiences and testimony of the gospel. It was tremendous. A couple of the boys talked about how unified they became and how they served each other. Particularly on the last morning when one of the boys became very ill. All the other boys distributed things from his pack so that he wouldn't have to carry anything. The 13 year old boy who related this story sincerely said, "I got to carry some of his things." Their packs already weighed over 30 pounds each, so this could have been a burden for them, but instead was an opportunity to serve.

Another boy said "All of our prayers were answered this week." (How wonderful is it that this 12 year old boy gained such a testimony of prayer this past week?)

One mother I talked to after church said, "We prayed them through this week." She had her husband and 3 of her sons on that hike and felt a tremendous responsibility and concern for all the boys who went. It takes faith to send your kids out on something like that, but it sounds like there were absolutely no regrets. Multiple leaders said, "They came back different, they're more like men now." Another leader said, "If you think this was about a hike, you're wrong."

**What do you think?
Do you have a testimony of prayer?
Have you ever prayed yourself
through a rough week?**

Sunday Thoughts

Since today was the 5th Sunday of the month that meant our music leader got to do Sharing Time and we got to sing for 40 minutes. Our leader does such a great job, and I love the music so much, I wish we could do this every month. (I'd gladly give her my week of doing Sharing Time each month.)


I knew what she had planned for today so I brought my camera with me. I don't ever take photos during church (probably because it would be distracting), but today was a special exception and I'm so delighted to have these pictures.


The music leader (the one seated in front) had a Twister spinner and had assigned different ways to sing the songs to the different places the spinner could land. The choices included, singing fast, singing staccato, loud and soft, stop and start, dividing the room, hiding a ball then singing loud or soft depending on how close one of the kids was to finding it and so on.


It was highly effective and a great way for the kids to review all the songs they've been learning for the primary program. (In this picture she had one of the presidency members tell a pioneer story about how singing calmed their fears and helped them through a hard time.)


She surprised all the kids by having them quietly line up and walk outside so they could sing "I Love to See the Temple" while actually looking at the temple.


Our church building is just down the street from the temple, so it's pretty neat that we can walk outside and see this gorgeous, Holy building. I don't think they'll forget this experience any time soon.


I am so grateful my kids get to go to Primary every Sunday to learn from great teachers who share the gospel. It's such a blessing for them to be able to sing their testimonies and to feel the Spirit as they sing the words to these beautiful songs. I love, love, love primary and feel so happy and blessed to be a part of it.


The presidency member's baby (she has 5 kids) slept right through primary today. It's so sweet that he was lulled to sleep by the primary kids' singing. How many babies all over the world enjoy this blessing? Lots I'm sure.

Psalms 105:2
Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.

Happy Birthday Rebecca S.!!!

**How does singing at church make you feel?
Do your kids learn from singing at church?
Any memorable experiences like this to share?**