What are those spots?
by Janelle Heath / ga04262007
 

Scripture:  D&C 59:9 - “And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shat go to the house of prayer and offer up they sacraments upon my holy day.”

In primary, I had to try to teach the kids this scripture and the meaning of it during sharing time.  Here’s how I did it and yes, it was a HUGE success in both Junior and Senior sharing time.  First at home, I cut out about 30 circles good sized but not too big. (maybe 4 x size of quarter)  Then I wrote things on them that would be considered a “spot” or a “sin” as the scripture refers to.   Some of them included: stole money from mom’s purse, told a lie to my teacher, cheated on a test at school, hit my brother, etc.  Next, that Sunday morning before church I put on a long skirt and top.  I then proceeded to pin each of these circles to my skirt, shirt (careful where you choose), hair, shoes etc.  For the ones in my hair I had pulled my hair into a ponytail and wedged one or two in my hair.  Then I went to church with all these spots on me.  Make sure that the blank side is what everyone sees, not the written side)  I got quite a few looks from others as I walked around but pretended to not see. This of course piqued all of the kid’s curiosity all through sacrament.  If any of them asked what the circles were, I pretended not to see them and told them they were crazy!  This of course would get giggles.  By the time sharing time came around I read the scripture to them and we discussed what the scripture means when it talks about “spots”  and how they are really talking about our sins.  Then the kids started to raise their hands and say that I had spots all over me and since “I couldn’t see them” I had them point one out and suddenly I could see that one (but only that one).  So I removed the pin and read silently what it said.  Acted surprised and horrified and said…lets move on. The kids would never let me move on because they would HAVE TO KNOW what was on the other side of that “spot” and so after some reluctance I would read it out loud.  All the kids were shocked that I had lied to my parents or stole money from my mom’s purse etc.  Then someone else would point out another spot and another spot until slowly we read them all.  Then we finished by discussing the scripture one more time and talking about repentance and how we can be forgiven of our sins and our spots can be removed if we repent.  It was a BIG HIT.  Then between the sharing times I would re pin all of them back to me to do it again with the next group.  The funny part was that some of the little kids didn’t understand that these sins were “pretend” and went and told their parents what sins Sister Heath had “done.”   It was a memorable activity that really drove the message home!