One week we talked about the new temple being built in Manhattan, as the open house and dedications were nearing. Afterward I gave the children crayons and paper to draw their own pictures of the temple. One child drew a beautiful rendidition of a temple, with several wheels on the bottom of it.

“It’s the temple coming to New York!” he said.

This is the same child of a certain blogger who reportedly wanted to plant popcorn seeds in order to grow an apricot tree. Gotta love the way kids think.

Around the Fourth of July, our Primary presidency decided to have a flag ceremony, complete with some of the Primary Cub Scouts presenting the colors. I got picked.

So I wore my Cub Scout uniform to church and was given the task of carrying the American flag.

I stood in the back of the Primary room and looked up at my flag and noted that the tip had a sort of decorative spearhead on it. Seized by sudden inspiration, I lowered the flag point toward the podium, yelled “CHARGE” at the top of my lungs and ran down the center aisle.

It seemed like less of a good idea that afternoon when my parents made me write “I will not goof off in Primary” 100 times.

…he has sent me here,

has given me an earthquake home…

i wondered if it was a by-product of living in ca.

One little boy was extremely smart and very energetic. He always, always, always wanted to be picked and/or answer the question. He was only a Sunbeam, so it took a while to teach him how to be more reverent, but I told his parents to be grateful for a child already “anxiously engaged”.

There was a boy that just blew my mind. His parents were into memorization, and he could memorize anything! He would get up, at age 3 (and 4 and 5 and 6) and have his entire talks memorized (even the one about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). I had him be our narrator for the Primary Program, and the 10 year old girl didn’t memorize anything –this kid had the whole program memorized! And he was smart, kind, reverent…basically we’re expecting to see him be the next Prophet someday… :)

I used to be that kid. I can remember going to Primary and thinking “I’m going to be good. I’ll keep myself quiet today in class. I’ll sit on my hands and I’ll be still.” But I was incapable of doing that.

I couldn’t help but feel that getting that calling had something to do with God’s sense of humor.

For the most part, as a kid, I loved Primary. I think the last six months or maybe year, I was ready to “graduate” and was tired of the Primary routine. But in general, Primary was a delightful experience.

My wife is a convert and she never went to Primary as a child. She had the calling as Primary pianist for just enough time to become acquainted with all the Primary songs. I thought that was great.

Another friend was substituting for her daughter’s Sunbeam class. She said, “We’re going to learn about Jesus today.”

One sunbeam said, “Jesus is cool!”
Another said, “Jesus rocks!”
Her daughter said, “Who’s Jesus?”