Primary Teacher Appreciation Gift

My heart is full every time I think of all of the wonderful Primary workers in our ward! They work hard at their callings and the children love them. The Primary Presidency wanted to show our appreciation for them, by having a dinner for them.

The theme of the night was "potatoes". I know you are thinking that is an odd theme, but it all made sense by the end of the evening.

For the centerpieces, I placed red potatoes in glass vases then tied a strip of burlap and red bandanna material around the middle of the vases.

We had a baked potato bar for dinner and to tie everything together, I gave a little talk on potatoes and how we can be more like the potato, in our callings.

Below are some examples of the different things I talked about:

Don't have a "chip" on your shoulder - attitude

Curses! "Foiled" again - problem solving

Never take your "eye" off of the children - fellowship

The "spuddy" system - team teachers/delegating

Clever, huh? Okay, it was dorky. But dorky is my middle name!

We gave each teacher a bag of chips with a tag attached to it.

It was a fun evening and made me realize, even more, how lucky we are to have such a great ward, filled with the most awesome people! Big THANKS to Angela, Kari, Leslee, and to all of the teachers, pianist, chorister, cub scout leaders, and activity day leaders!

The positives out-weigh the negatives

When my Bishop first called me to be the Primary President for our ward, shock set in. I would say it was a good week, or so, until the shock began to subside. And then reality hit - "There is so much to do with this calling!" I bow down to ALL current Primary Presidents and to past Primary Presidents! I knew this calling would be challenging at times.

While the Bishop and his counselors were talking to me, I have to admit my mind began to wonder a bit. While I was experiencing my "out of body experience", I said a very, sincere, short, prayer to myself.

"Please Heavenly Father - please help Conner calm down by the time he becomes a Sunbeam and please don't let anything bad happen to any of the children."

My first request, was purely for selfish reasons. And I have to admit Heavenly Father did listen to my prayer. Homeboy seems to be improving. A little. I'll take any sort of improvement that comes my way.

The second part of my prayer was to protect my heart. If it were possible for me to take away any harm or pain that the children may endure, I would in a blink of an eye. The second I accepted this calling, my love for the children in our ward became instant. I don't know why I repeated that certain request, in my prayer. At the time, it was what I was feeling.

Over a week ago, on a Monday night, I was returning home after running some errands. I happen to look down at my phone and noticed a text. My husband texted me, asking if I knew a certain 7 year old girl in Primary. The text went on to say that life flight was requested for her. At that very moment I looked to my left and saw all of the lights in front of her home.

My heart did a "ker-plunk" and sank into my gut. Worry set in.

The following day, I learned most of the details and my friend and previous Primary President, Jennie, notified me that Lindsay returned to our Heavenly Father.

After our conversation I went to my bedroom, closed the door, dropped down to my knees, and cried. Hard.

I will miss seeing Lyndsay's sweet face in Primary. I know that whenever I look at a certain chair in Primary, I will always imagine her sitting there. But I am comforted in knowing that we will see Lyndsay again. And as one little girl said in her testimony last Sunday, "I know Lyndsay is having fun with Heavenly Father!"

There are positives and negatives with my calling. But without the negatives, the positives would not seem as sweet.

Every Sunday, as soon as the last child leaves the Primary room, I deflate like a balloon. It can be exhausting. But, later, when I examine how the day went, I always end up smiling.

Trying to fill every teaching, activity day, and cub scout position, can be challenging. I now have such admiration and love for everyone that serves in the Primary. Nursery leaders and all!

I'm thankful I'm in Primary at this time. If I had not had this calling, I would have never had the opportunity to place a "Reverence Butterfly" on Lyndsay's dress, and then seeing her face light up. Or for that matter, I would have never seen any of the other Primary children's smiles when the "Reverence Butterflies" visit them.

If I was not in this calling right now, I would not have had the opportunity to serve Lyndsay's family in the capacity that I had. I would not have felt the joy I have experienced this past week, when the Primary children and their families donated over $300 to help purchase something special for her family. The children donated over 2000 pennies!

If I was not in this calling now, my love for the children in our ward would not be nearly as deep as it is now, and will be, in the future.

Lyndsay loved butterflies. Last Sunday we had a special sharing and singing time. I told a story of a a caterpillar that turned into a beautiful monarch butterfly. The butterfly's miraculous change from a caterpillar, into a chrysalis, and finally into a butterfly, was compared to our eternal lives and returning to our Heavenly Father. I found a picture of some monarch butterflies, that immediately made me imagine Lyndsay returning to our Heavenly Father and joining her eternal family of butterflies.

So when it comes right down to it... the positives do out-weigh the negatives.

Callings

As callings in my church go, I have had quite a few. I've been a nursery leader, a primary teacher (a few times), a Sunday school teacher, and I've served in the Primary Presidency, Young Women's Presidency, and the Relief Society Presidency (twice). All of these callings had been difficult at times, but for the most part, they have blessed my life. Especially the blessings of the friendships that I have made with the most amazing women on the planet. Over the years I have had the privilege of laughing, crying, discussing, and praying with these women. And for that, I am thankful.

Today I accepted a new calling of Primary President. It all began one week ago. The Bishop called me at home, after church, and asked if my husband was home.

"Why yes he is, Bishop!"

Then he asked if the two of us could meet with him that evening.

"Sure!"

I was not worried. Besides, a new Young Men's President was called that day and I figured this little meeting had something to do with my husband's calling (Priest Advisor in YM's).

We arrived and as we sat waiting for the Bishop to arrive, one of the counselors asked if "we" were nervous.

I smirked and said, in all of my smugness, "I'm not! But he should be!", as I nudged my husband.

Small talk was then exchanged and then the Bishop said the Relief Society Presidency was going to be released. My smirk quickly turned to a panic, nervous, "fake" smile. And then he said something that I was not expecting... "We would like to call you to be the Primary President."

Es-squeeze me? Whaty, what? Are you talking to me?

Puddles of sweat formed and a rush of emotions were exploding inside of me. I also had an "out of body" experience. It was lovely.

Things have calmed down now, but I still experience episodes of hyperventilation. But the one thing that I know is that my heart is full. I know I have an awesome presidency and I'm so excited to serve with them.

I have big shoes to fill. In fact, those shoes would be a set of cute, peep toe, GILDED, heels! Those shoes are AWESOME! Our ward has been truly blessed while Jennie served as the Primary President and I can only hope to fulfill my calling as well as she did. She is amazing and I feel like just telling the Bishop that I'm just going to copy off of her paper. Seriously.

So as I begin this new journey of "Primary President", I am humbled to know that I am not alone. That my Heavenly Father loves me and I have wonderful examples to follow and learn from. Oh, and I have a feeling that I was called serve in the Primary because Conner will be a Sunbeam this January. I don't blame anyone. I understand.