Kevin's First Primary Talk

In our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (otherwise known as the Mormon church), they have what is called Primary. Primary is where the kids go during two of the three hours of church.

My calling (the job I was asked to do) in the church is to be a primary chorister. I teach the children songs about the Savior and the gospel. I really enjoy my calling. The primary is separated into three groups, nursery, junior, and senior. The nursery has children from 18 months to 2 years. Junior primary has children from 3-7, and senior primary has children from 8-11.

Junior primary meets together first during the first hour (which is when the primary presidency teaches them lessons for half the time and I teach them music for half the time), and then they go to individual age classes for the second hour. During the first hour, the senior primary meets in their individual classes, and then they come into one group for the second hour.

Every week at the beginning of primary, three kids sit up at the front. As the meeting starts, one kid gives the opening prayer, one child reads a scripture, and one child gives a prepared talk.

This week it was the sunbeams (the three-year-olds) turn to do the opening exercises. We received a call thirty minutes before church started asking us if Kevin could give the talk. We immediately accepted and I was pretty excited about it. It would be his first time giving the talk.

He and I sat down at the computer and we wrote and typed up his talk together. Here is the typed talk. We took turns typing.

Kevin’s talk

Jesus is my Savior and Redeemer.

One time, I lost my play-dough lid. I prayed to Heavenly Father, and I found it! I know that Jesus found my play-dough lid.

My favorite stories about Jesus, are when Jesus walked on water and calmed the storm. Jesus said, “Peace, be still.”  jgmfkfk

Kfkfkvkvkgkgkgkffkffffffffffffkfkkfkkfkfkfkfkkkkjfkdfkf

I know that Jesus died and came back to life. I know that Jesus loves me. 

Vmnhjgnb

;h’

Jesus saved the world.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Kevin can now write his name on the computer all by himself. He's a pretty smart kid, and so he wrote his name at the top.

When we got to primary, his daddy helped him read the talk. He did such a good job! At first, when he started repeated what his dad whispered to him, the kids were kind of chatty, but as Kevin continued a quietness fell over the room and everyone started listening to him. It was really nice. I was so proud, I nearly cried. He spoke clearly and loudly, and did his very best.

I love my son.

I am so grateful for our church and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the peace it brings into our lives. I love being able to serve in the primary. The children's simple testimonies are some of the strongest that I have ever heard, and I feel privileged to be able to teach them and share my testimony with them.

Mormon Monday: What is General Conference?

This last weekend was General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When I was a kid, I loved conference weekend, perhaps not for the right reasons. During conference weekend, we would sculpt clay, draw, and paint while we listened to the prophet. Even if my listening wasn't the best sometimes, it still set a precedent of sitting still and listening to the prophet and the twelve apostles.

As I got older, I grew to really love conference. It was a time of spiritual illumination and peace. Now it seems far to short, and I wish it could go on all week.

For those of you who might be wondering what General Conference is, it is basically a large meeting with our entire church across the world where we listen to our leaders tell us what the Lord would have us know.

One talk in particular I wanted to share. Elder Bednar addressed his talk to those who are not members of our church. I wanted to post that online for anyone who is interested. He answers a lot of great questions and explains why members of our church are always so eager (or at least try to be eager) to share what we believe with others.

Here is the talk:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3822608486001&cid=10


You'll have to follow it to the LDS site, or you can watch all of conference on youtube.



In the old days, after Christ was crucified, the apostles had to be constantly moving. When there wasn't an ordained leader of the church in an area, it seemed that often false doctrine would creep into the church. We often see Paul in his epistles trying to correct the misconceptions that Satan would orchestrate.

In our day and age, we are so blessed to have modern technology that makes it easy for us to hear the voices of the apostles and prophets. If the original Christian church had the same technology, it might not have become so corrupted. We believe that as the apostles were killed, many of Christ's teachings remained, but they became mixed with the philosophies of man.

This is why things like the Nicene Creed were created. Different leaders of different congregations no longer had a prophet on the earth, and so they began to argue and vote on which doctrine was God's doctrine. In our church, we believe that if it doesn't come directly by revelation from God, that it is man's doctrine.

We believe that during this time, after the apostles were killed, there was an apostasy, or a time where Christ's church was lost from the earth due to wickedness and corruption. This was followed by the dark ages.

When the dark ages concluded, the Lord opened the way for his church to be restored upon the earth again today.

We don't believe that our church is the only church with truth. Many truths survied and are perpetuated amongst the different religions. Buddhism, Islam, and other religions also have a lot of truth mixed into their teachings. There is good in all religions. However, we do believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church with ALL the truth, because we believe, and I know, that it is Christ's church restored in its original form to the earth. Christ is the head of our church, and he communicates to us through his prophets and apostles and he did previously.

God never changes, so why would he cease to communicate using prophets and apostles? He wouldn't, and he hasn't. If you haven't listened to General Conference, here is an opportunity to listen to the servants of the Lord. If you don't believe, but want to know if what I'm saying is true: listen and pray.

I can promise that the Lord does communicate to us in this day and age. He will answer your prayer, especially if you are willing to do what He asks when He answers. God will not just give you the truth and allow you to go on with your life. If this is truly His church, He wants you to be a part of it, so you can be a tool in His hands to bless those around you.

I know that this church is God's church. I have received a confirmation from the Spirit that this is true, and I know you can receive that confirmation as well.

The Lord wants us to be happy and at peace. However, the only way to peace is to follow the path that the Lord sets for us.  Each day, I am trying to find out what that is for me, and when I'm in the right place, I feel whole.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

The True Use of Pillow Cases

Saturday night, Grig was in a deep sleep.  He had a dream, most of which he doesn't remember.  However, he does remember that for some odd reason, he was banned from using tissues, paper towels, toilet paper, or anything to blow his nose.  And so, as an act of defiance in his dream, he ripped the pillow case off his pillow, blew his nose furiously in the pillow, and threw it in the dirty clothes hamper.  A truly epic tale.

Great dream right?  Except Sunday morning, my pillow case had been pulled off my pillow, thrown on the floor, and covered with Grig's mucus.   Grig's pillow was fine.  When he explained what happened we spent the next ten minutes laughing.  It was really funny. 

The second great thing that happened the weekend (besides church) occurred Saturday.  Grig and I were on the way to the LDS temple.  We were taking Kevin to the babysitter and as we were leaving our apartment, we ran into two ladies and a two-year-old boy.  Kevin got really excited and wanted me to put him down.  I set him on the ground and he stayed standing as he and the other boy examined each others faces with their fingers.  Eventually, the two-year-old got bored, and turned to look at Grig.

That's when Kevin spotted the two ladies who were watching and laughing.  He looked at them, and then he took off RUNNING toward them.  Arms waving, little feet toddling, he was running as fast as he could toward the complete strangers.  He'd never done that before.  We were in shock, and he made it 4-5 feet before he face-planted in the dirt.

He immediately began to cry.  One of the other ladies reached him first, and when I took him back, he had a mouth full of dirt.  We were really impressed!  In the last couple of days, Kevin has really mastered walking!

So, that was our weekend.  We're so strange.

Also, if you haven't seen our new video, check it out.  It's great!