LDS Kuala Lumpur District Primary Activity Day ~ Faith in God 20 May 2017

Ever since Sister YoungHee Yang was called as our Kuala Lumpur District Primary President, together with her, are her counsellors Sister Claire and Sister Cek Yin. Our District Primary Presidency really do a great job and organise great activities for the Primary children of the Church, and assist us the Primary workers in the District.

It is because I am currently serving as the Second Counsellor of Puchong Branch Primary, thus I have the opportunities to involve and get to know the District level of Primary activities and concern matters.

The District Primary Presidency focus this year would be encourage and ensure that boys and girls ages 8 through 11 live gospel principles, develop testimonies, and prepare to be righteous Aaronic Priesthood holders and righteous young women through The Faith in God program.

Thus the District Primary Activity Day was based around the Faith in God Program.

Our family woke up early and completed our household chores, and we remembered to bring along the kids’ props for the Talent Show for their individual performance and exhibition.

The event was organised at PJ Chapel Primary Room, from 10.00am to 1.00pm. We reached there earlier around 9.20am, we had our breakfast at the nearest coffee shop.

It's KL District Primary Activity Day!

Brandon from Subang Jaya branch!

Issac and Annabelle from Puchong branch!

Colin and Andie from KL branch, Schumacher from Cheras branch!

Sister Cek Yin ready at the Piano!

Introduction session by Sister Yang!

Sister YoungHee Yang introduced all the attendees, the children were excited and guessing all the guests.

Opening Song: Nephi's Courage

I will go; I will do the thing the Lord commands.
I know the Lord provides a way; he wants me to obey.

The opening song is Nephi’s Courage, and the opening prayer was offered by Annabelle.

Faith in God Motto – I am a Child of God.

I know Heavenly Father loves me, and I love Him.
I can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere.
I am trying to remember and follow Jesus Christ.

Follow by the reciting of the Faith in God Motto by all the children and parents.

Briefing Session.

There were 3 Stations for all the boys and girls to go, each with their own theme and activity. Each activity lasted for 30 minutes. All the boys and girls were split into 2 groups, so that they can exchange after each activity.

Let's split for our activities class.

Station 1 conducted by Sister Claire Lim.

'Learning and Living the Gospel' by Sister Claire Lim.

Let's pose!

Activity No. 1 : Learning and Living the Gospel #6 – Tell a story form the Book of Mormon that teaches about faith in Jesus Christ. Share your testimony of the Saviour.

At this activity, the children were able to learn about all the Prophets and Heroes stories in the Book of Mormon. They learn how they would be brave like the Prophets to share their testimonies about Jesus Christ.

Who are those on the wall? Look familiar to you? It's the Prophets and Heroes from the Book of Mormon!

Activity No. 2 : My Gospel Standards.

The kids learned about the Gospel Standards which was in a paper craft, and Sister Claire taught them to make it in a small handy booklet which can keep in the wallet or pocket.

It's Learning and Living the Gospel activity!

Who is this person?

That is interesting!

Station 2 conducted by Sister Cek Yin.

'Serving Others' by Sister Chek Yin.

Activity No. 3 : Serving Others #1 – Read and discuss the parables of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:30-37). Plan and complete a service project that helps a family member or neighbour. After completing the project, discuss how it helped your faith grow stronger.

What are the service projects we can do?

Think...Think...Think...

The parable of the good Samaritan

At this activity, Sister Cek Yin guide the children on how and what they able to help a family member, and write it down how to do it. All the kids were given colour papers and jot their ideas down.

Time's up and change class!

Changing activity - Serving Others!

Let's put on our thinking hats!

Let's peep on how the children are doing ^^

At the end of the 2 stations, everyone met up again in the Primary Room.

Let's get back the Primary room!

Let's start our 3rd activity - Talent Show presented by the children ^^

The final activity which is from the Faith in God : Developing Talents – Talent Show. Sister YoungHee Yang conducted the Talent Show. There were quite a few children participate, and their performance were great!

A couple of the children were showing their paintings and art pieces, this including Issac as well. Annabelle was playing the violin. There was one girl was reciting a poem she’d written. There was one boy was playing the piano and it sounds really great and talented boy! And, there is another boy playing the trombone!

Colin Hawkes with his Trombone performance!

Suria Ganesa with his Animation Characters Drawings

Andie Boyd with her very own Poem Reciting

Brandon with his 'Jungle Book' song

Schemacher with his Drawings and Song.

Annabelle with her Violin performance.

Issac with his Paintings.

Addy Hill with her Drawing and Paintings.

Danic Lim with his Piano performance.

Zerline Chua with her Painting.

Chen Yu with her song 'How Far I'll Go'

Sister Yang assigned Daddy to take the photographs of the children and the whole activities. Daddy did a great job! He managed to shoot video during all the children were performing!

The Talent Show was a real success as all the children were excited with each other talents and all of us really enjoyed ourselves watching the performance. It was around 12.00 noon that the Show came to an end.

Closing remark by Pres. Tai

President Royce Tai was given a closing remarks. He expressed his appreciation for the great job which the District Primary Presidency had done for the children of the district.

He too, was so amazed with the talents that all the children have and encouraged them to pursue their passions and interests so that in the near future they would able to serve others with their talents.

All the attended KL District Primary Children with Sister Yang.

We were singing ‘I’m Trying to Be like Jesus’ as our closing song of the activity, and closing prayer was offered by Brandon.

A Group Photo

Sister YoungHee Yang prepared some gifts for all the boys and girls whom attended the Primary Activity Day. A neck tie or bow tie for boy, and a hair band for girl. It was so thoughtful of her as the boys and girls can wear that to attend the Church.

Pizza party time! Thank you Sister Boyd!

After which we were having a Pizza Party, the kids really enjoyed themselves. The event ended around 1.00pm. All of us bid farewell to each other.

It was indeed a spiritual event for the children!

The files of video clips of the performance of Issac and Annabelle were too huge to upload, too bad. Anyhow, our family had a great day in the Church ^^

Agency & Choose the Right

Learning & Living the Gospel #9 ~ Learn to sing “Choose the Right” (Hymns, no. 239). Explain what agency is and what it means to be responsible for your choices. Discuss how making good choices has helped you develop greater faith.

I felt kind of lucky and blessed as Issac and Annabelle were learning every topics related to Choose the Right during Sharing Time for the past months.

End of last year, as I came to know about all these activities, I was a bit nervous as I wouldn’t sure that I can handle it and teach both of them.

But when you come to know about the gospel principles and doctrines more, you wouldn’t believe how much I have learn just only through preparing all these lessons!

And, how great is the efforts that our Church have put into to the Primary and prepare the children spiritually from as young as 18 months.

Teach the children “That they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)

This year the theme for Primary Sharing Time is Choose the Right. One of the song that the children during the Sharing Time is “Choose the Right” from Hymns Book.

Issac and Annabelle were learning the song during February. And, both of them learned more about Agency during January.

We started our activity by singing the Hymns “Choose the Right”. Then, with the help from the FRIEND Magazine, there is a little quiz which I given to both Issac and Annabelle, which are related to the song that they sang just now. The answers of the quiz can be found in the lyrics of the song itself.

Then we came to 2nd part of the activity. I got this lesson ideas from www.theredheadedhostess.com on what is A.G.E.N.C.Y. about. It is an interesting and easy to remember and what it means to be responsible for our own choices.

A – Ability to Choose

• Agency is our ability to make choices. Everyday we have choices to make. Some choices are small, and some are big.

G – Gift from Heavenly Father

• Agency is a precious gift given to us from our Heavenly Father, and was part of Heavenly Father’s plan for us from the beginning. He knew it was important for us to make our own choices, so that we could learn, grow, and become more like Him.

E – Example

• Choosing the right is not always the easiest thing to do, it take great courage to be an example and make good choices.

N – Never Alone

• We are never alone in this journey. Ask we make choices each day, we can ask help from our parents, church leaders and Heavenly Father.

C – Consequences

• Each of our choices have consequences. Some consequences come quickly after we make choice, and sometimes we might not recognize a consequence until long after. But there is always a consequence. The choices we make now will affect who and what we are in the future.

Y – Heavenly Father wants You to be Happy

• Heavenly Father loves us dearly and He wants us to succeed and to feel happiness. Choosing to keep the commandments can make us feel good inside. Heavenly Father has promised us “happy consequences” if we obey.

After which we came to the 3rd session of the activity: How Making Good Choices Help Develop Greater Faith ?

I have included some points from the President Henry B. Erying talk at General Conference April 2012 “Mountains to Climb”.

“In a similar way, the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity.

Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed before us creates the solid ground under our faith. It can begin in childhood since every soul is born with the free gift of the Spirit of Christ. With that Spirit we can know when we have done what is right before God and when we have done wrong in His sight.

Those choices, hundreds in most days, prepare the solid ground on which our edifice of faith is built. The metal framework around which the substance of our faith is poured is the gospel of Jesus Christ, with all its covenants, ordinances, and principles.”

We ended our activity with a little discussion on what we can do better in making good choices.

Joseph Smith’s First Vision

Learning and Living the Gospel #2 ~ Give a family home evening lesson on Joseph Smith’s First Vision (see Joseph Smith – History 1:1-20). Discuss how Heavenly Father answer our sincere prayers.

Due to this year is the Faith in God year for me and my children, especially Issac whom are going to turn 12 coming November.

I was very anxious about all the activities which needed to be fulfilled, and I was doing a lot of online research on the specific topics early of the year.

It was quite difficult for me to teach and let the kids understand the event of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

Last March, I was thinking a lot about Joseph Smith’s First Vision, as I first watched the video in the Primary Sharing time. And I was inspired to prepare the lesson for the Faith In God Program for both Issac and Annabelle.

Personally I love this video clip very much. It tells about Joseph Smith’s search for truth led to the First Vision and the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The scripts or the chosen words in the video is actually taken from the Joseph Smith History 1: 1 – 20, and almost the exact scripture.

We can really feel the truthfulness and Joseph Smith’s pure heart in doing the Lord’s work in this last dispensation.

After watching the video clip, Issac and Annabelle try the Joseph Smith First Vision Quiz, there are total about 20 questions in it. Both of them answered most of the questions correctly.

At the same time, we were preparing coloured cut out pictures of the First Vision which we found in the Church Friend Magazine website to use in their upcoming Family Home Evening lesson:

• Joseph Talking to Preacher

In the town where Joseph lived, there was a great deal of excitement about religion. There were many preachers from many different churches.

Each said that he had the truth and tried to convince people to join his church. Joseph wondered which of the churches he should join.

He asked himself, “What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?” (Joseph Smith –History 1:10)

• Joseph Reading the Bible

One day Joseph read in the Bible, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

Joseph decided to do what the scripture said.

He decided to ask Heavenly Father which church was right so that he would know which one he should join.

• The Grove

Joseph had never prayed out loud before. He decided to go to a grove of trees near his home to ask Heavenly Father his questions.

On a beautiful spring morning, he walked into the grove, looked around to be sure that he was alone, and knelt down in prayer.

• Joseph Kneeling and Praying

As he began his prayer, a terrible feeling of darkness surrounded him. It was so strong that he thought it was going to destroy him!

Joseph prayed with all his heart to Heavenly Father for help, to be saved from this evil power.

• Joseph Looking Up to the Sky

Joseph later said, “Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me…

I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling by name and said, pointing to the other – This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith – History 1:16-17)

• Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

The two Heavenly Beings were Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Savior told Joseph that he should not join any of the churches because they were all wrong.

When the pillar of light and the Heavenly Being left, Joseph was lying on his back. Joseph returned home with peace and joy.

Later he received visits from other heavenly messengers, translated Book of Mormon, helped to restore the gospel on earth, organized the Church and built the first temple.

• Joseph Smith’s Testimony

When Joseph told others about his vision, they made fun of him. Ministers of other religions persecuted him, even though he was only a boy. “There are no such things as visions anymore! You’re either lying or you’ve been deceived by the devil.”

Joseph never denied his testimony. He said, “Though I was hated and persecuted for saying that I had seen a vision, yet it was true;... For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it.”

We actually split this lesson to two different days. The children taking their tune in practising their Family Home Evening lesson by retelling the event of the First Vision. Then we came into second part of the lesson.

The second part of the lesson is discussion of How Heavenly Father answer our sincere prayer?

I shared with both children that, we too, can go to Heavenly Father in prayer and receive answers to important questions in our lives.

Just like Joseph Smith’s prayer, our prayers will be heard and answered when we sincerely speak to Heavenly Father.

Sometimes the answer may be No, because what we have asked for would not be best for us.

Sometimes the answer is Yes, and we have a comfort, warm feeling about what we should do.

Sometimes the answer is “Wait for Awhile.” Our prayers are always answered at a time and in a way that the Lord knows will help us the most.

Individuals may be inspired to perform acts that will answer our prayers. Sometimes the Lord answers our prayers through other people - a good friend, a husband or wife, a parent or other family member, a church leader, a missionary — any of these individuals may be inspired to perform acts that will answer our prayers.

Often God gives us the power to help answer our own prayers. As we pray for help, we should do all we can to bring about the things we desire.

And, it concluded our lesson on Joseph Smith’s First Vision. Hope this lesson will strengthen Issac and Annabelle’s understanding and most importantly is their own testimony of this event.

As President Joseph F. Smith said: “The greatest event that has ever occurred in the world, since the resurrection of the Son of God from the tomb and his ascension on high, was the coming of the Father and of the Son to that boy Joseph Smith. … Having accepted this truth, I find it easy to accept of every other truth that [Joseph Smith] … declared” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed. pp. 495–96).