Called to Serve

Our Primary Mission activity was a great success!  Hooray!  I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout or a better experience for the kids.  It was a little crazy to start with trying to get pictures of each of the kids with the map as they all came in at close to the same time.  When everyone had got a picture, I neglected to start with an opening prayer and just plowed right in to things.  I finally tied everything together and had a prayer.  We sang Called to Serve (or the adults in the room did) and then we split into the four stations we had set up.  There was Language Training, Missionaries in Action, Life Skills and the Daily Life of a Missionary. 

In Language Training, we had four RMs from our ward put on a small presentation about their respective missions.  We had Taiwan, Mexico, Italy and England.  The kids got to learn a bit about the culture, the food, what it was like to be a missionary there and how to say ‘I am a child of God’ in their language.

Missionaries in Action was a lot of fun as we’d set up a course in the gym for them to ride bikes, contact ‘investigators’, knock on doors (of cardboard houses), etc.  As the kids talked to people (our Ward Mission Leader, Bishopric Member, Stake Primary Presidency, Members, etc), they got a sticker to put on the back of their name tags.  The kids thought it was great and really went out of their way to talk to people (which was the point!).

Life Skills was a station where they got to learn how to sew on a button, tie a tie, pack a suitcase and iron a shirt.  It was the busiest station by far to get all the kids through everything, but I think they learned a lot too.

Then, for the Daily Life of a Missionary, we had the full-time missionaries talk to the kids.  They even had them doing push ups and sit ups!  It was great fun.

We finished off the day with a ‘Mission Conference’ where our Ward Mission Leader (Brother Barnes) talked about his calling in the ward and then Brother Holland in our Bishopric talked a bit.  The kids were really wiggly and loud by then, so it was a little tricky to get them to sit and listen, but it was okay.  After a closing prayer we headed in to the gym for a treat of ice cream bars.

It was so nice to hear all the positive feedback from kids and parents.  It makes the effort all worth it when you can see the kids enjoying themselves and learning more about missionary work.