Give, said the little stream

Around the same time I was hired on at my new job, I also finally received a new church calling. I didn't push to get one earlier, because I figured I would start attending a singles ward as soon as I could afford car insurance and could drive myself there. But that never happened, and I'm glad I waited.

For the first time ever, I am a Primary teacher. Another Brother and I are team-teaching the 9-year-old class, and in January they are consolidating some classes (my ward is mostly old people, with a very small Primary), and we will be in charge of the 9-, 10-, and 11-year-old boys.

Teaching positions are my favorite callings to have in the Church. It gives me purpose and focus in my gospel study, as well as a performance venue of sorts. And I love kids, so teaching Primary has been a desire of mine for a long time. I taught my class for the first time two weeks ago, and I think it went pretty well. I love the official Church curriculum; there's always more than enough material to choose from (probably my least favorite thing to hear a church teacher say is "we need to keep going, there's a lot of stuff we have to get through"). This is even more true in Primary manuals: each lesson includes at least four stories and seven or eight optional activities, in addition to your own ideas (oh, and maybe teaching a principle or two). It's great.

We were called just in time to help out with this year's sacrament meeting program, which will happen later today. It should be good, but I doubt it will compare to the one I watched my nieces in back in September. It was by far the best primary program I have ever seen.

There was so much to like. The kids were all cute, and it was fun to predict what they would be like when they hit high school ("that girl will be such a flirt;" "he's definitely a future Mathlete"). Nearly every kid sang loud, and you could tell the ones who weren't singing were just shy, not unhappy or embarrassed to be there. (That means that none of them had older siblings trying to distract them, making them think they had stuff on their face--yes, I still remember that, Adam.) It seemed like they had all practiced their parts (and my nieces Abbi and Lacey did great). There was even a group of five older boys who belted out "Army of Helaman." Very impressive.

So the primary leaders in Hyrum, Utah, are clearly doing a great job of brainwashing. That word has negative connotations and might be a tad harsh, but I think it's pretty accurate. Kids are easy to influence, you might even say to manipulate--and because that's the case, it's important that they have strong, positive influences in their lives. (Which is why it doesn't surprise me that some parents thought President Obama's speech to school children would result in brainwashing; I was just stunned that so many Utahans thought his message to work hard and do your best in school would have a negative impact.) Primary is a form of "good" brainwashing. And I'm happy to finally be a part of it.

So I'm anticipating an outstanding primary program this afternoon, after which I can get to work on what could be my lasting legacy for the entire Primary: a less clunky version of "Latter-day Prophets," which became awkward when they stuffed Pres. Hunter's name into the last verse, and two additional prophets have since been crammed in. Janice Kapp Perry ain't got nothing on me.