I will prepare now to be a missionary


 

Gather all of the children around you on the floor and read them the story, "A missionary now" from the August 2007 Friend Magazine.  To make the story come alive a little more you could bring objects that are referenced in the story and hold them up when you read about them.  After the story is finished, ask the children the following questions:

Do you have to be 19 or 21 to be a missionary?
How was John a missionary?
How can we be missionaries?
 

Discuss with the children things they can do today to be missionaries and the things they can do now to prepare to serve a full-time mission. Divide them into four groups. Using stations, have the children learn a missionary skill from each adult leader.
 

Station A: Full-time missionaries memorize discussions about the gospel. Have the children memorize an article of faith and repeat it to the group. They may do this in pairs, with an older child helping a younger one. Have Gospel in Action cards available to encourage children to memorize all thirteen articles.
 

Station B: Missionaries read the Book of Mormon. Have each child choose a GAK picture representing his or her favorite story from the Book of Mormon section. Help the children locate the stories in the scriptures and retell them to the group.

Station C: Missionaries give talks. Help the children practice giving a talk by using this four-step process: 1) choose a scripture, 2) tell what the scripture means, 3) relate a personal experience or scripture story that illustrates the point, and 4) bear testimony about it. If necessary, have the leader give an example, using these steps. Have the group choose a scripture. Ask someone to tell what it means. Have a second child share a personal experience or tell a scripture story about it. Have a child or the leader bear testimony of its principle. (For example: 1 Nephi 3:7 means that whatever the Lord asks me to do, I will do because I know that He will help me do it. One time I was invited to go to a birthday party on Sunday, but because I knew that the Lord wanted me to keep the Sabbath Day holy, I didn’t go. I felt good because I knew that I was being obedient. I know that when we keep His commandments, even when they are not easy to keep, we will be blessed.) Suggest using these steps to give talks in Primary now as preparation for speaking as a missionary in the future.
 

Station D: Missionaries often lead music. Have the music leader help the children learn to lead music. See CS, p. 301 for diagrams of the beat patterns. Turn your back to the children and beat a 3/4 pattern. Have the children copy the motion. Sing “I Love to See the Temple” (p. 95), and have the children lead the song. Sing other songs that have a 3/4 pattern. Teach a 4/4 pattern in a similar manner, and have the children sing and lead “The Lord Gave Me a Temple” (p. 153) and other songs with a 4/4 pattern. Note that both of the songs mentioned begin on the upbeat (beat 3 or 4, respectively).

Object Lesson - Prepare and demonstrate “Floating Needle”.  If you try to float a needle in a bowl of water, you can’t do it without help, because the needle is too heavy and narrow. But if you lay it on a small piece of tissue and lay the tissue on the water, when the tissue sinks, the needle will continue to float!  This works because of what’s known as surface tension. The molecules at the top of the water pull on each other, making its surface act like a kind of thin, elastic skin. If you look closely, you can see a “dent” in the water where the weight of the needle is pushing down on it. Eventually the needle’s weight will break the “skin,” and the needle will sink. 

Explain that such experiments, if followed correctly, always have the same results because they obey physical laws. If you drop an item, it will always fall to the ground because of the law of gravity. Explain that spiritual laws also have predictable outcomes. When we obey the commandments and live to be worthy to go to the temple, we receive blessings when we obey laws.  By obeying Gods laws, we are strengthened and prepared to be missionaries, now and forever.

Other Ideas: I can be a missionary now

Summary: Share your testimony.