Teaching Primary.

Okay, I've realized that once I get some followers, this is probably going to be read by a mixture of Mormons and non-mormons alike. That being said I understand that most non-mormons will have difficulty understand many of the terms or words that I use, but I don't want to constantly be explaining things in my entries. So, I've decided to put definitions of church lingo at the bottom of each post. As far as I'm concerned this is an awesome idea, but if you have suggestions go ahead and tell me.

I don't remember exactly why, but all the Relief Society members had to abandon their callings today for church. I think they were having a special meeting or something that everybody had to go to. This meant that the Young Women had to teach all the Primary lessons. We've done this before, but last time we were each paired up with a Young Man. Our Young Women's president kept on saying it was a good thing we didn't have to babysit the Young Men this time. Whenever she said this we all laughed politely, but once she was gone we confessed that we would've liked it better if we'd had a partner like last time.
Of course none of the Young Men actually helped at all, from what I heard. I was lucky, I got the only one that actually did anything. I did all of the preparing but he did a good share of the teaching. He's way better with kids than I am. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, I actually admire them for their innocence and the fact that they're not ashamed of showing emotion. However, I find them kind of intimidating in large numbers since I'm really awkward and out-of-place in a situation where logic is practically useless.
Last time I suggested to my partner that we just play hangman the entire time, but he thought I was kidding and didn't consider it. With him out of the picture this time I really was severely tempted to just bring in a board game or something. I could've told anybody who asked that I'd modified it to be spiritual, but I ended up thinking I may as well just teach the lesson.
The lesson was on Joseph Smith's first vision, and it surprised me how little the kids knew. I don't remember being that ignorant when I was seven, but oh well. I finished the planned stuff early. I think I was about half an hour too fast, so I had to improvise. I looked through my scripture case and realized with great relief that I had enough paper for all the kids and the penicl crayons I use for marking scriptures.
I distributed these out and despite complaints that "trees aren't supposed to be purple!" (I couldn't give them all the green one) they each drew their idea of what the Sacred grove looks like.
After they had finished their drawings they got a little out of control, but I guess it could have gone worse.
My favourite part was when the only girl in the class of seven randomly decided it would be a good time to tell me who she was "in love" with in the middle of me explaining to them what it meant to "lack wisdom". This was even more humourous once I realized the boy she loved was sitting right next to her. He seemed to take it pretty well though, and I suppose there were worse things he could have said than "I heard that!".
So yeah, not that that whole thing wasn't enjoyable, but I've decided I REALLY hope I don't get called as a primary teacher. I don't think I could take it. I need intellectual socializing otherwise I tend to start calling everybody idiots and saying more sarcastic remarks than what's necissary. Kind of like that dim-wad from 'Get Smart'.
On a simular note, I decided a while ago that unlike all the other Young Women (who want to work witht he nursery, Young Womens or pirmary) that I hope I get called to teach Sunday school for the Young men and Women. I think I'd also enjoy teaching seminary.

We just switched times, so now we have church at 9 in the morning instead of noon. It's a huge change and quite frankly I hate it, but church seems to go by three times as fast. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Since it doesn't feel as boring or long I pay better attention, but I also don't get that I-just-went-to-church kind of satisfaction when it's over in what seems like an hour and a half.

So here are my first sent of explanations, I hope I've made this a little less confusing...

Relief Society - It's what the adult women go to instead of Preisthood (which is for men), Young Womans (girls 12-17) or Primary (kids 4-11)

Callings - These are different positions that are given to people in the church, like teacher, pianist or Relief Society president which has certain responsibilities that person is responsible to take care of. These are reserved for adults who are capable of baring them, but there are also callings inside of Young Womens and Young Mens like secretary.

Joseph Smith - The 'Founder' of the LDS church. He's the one who restored the gospel (our church's beliefs) through the direction of God and translated the Book of Mormon.

The First Vision - This is how we referre to when Joseph Smith was fourteen and he went into a forest near his house to pray about which church he should join. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ both appeared to him and told him that the true church of God was no longer on the Earth. This was the beginning of the restoration of the Gospel, although Joseph Smith didn't actually start reforming the church until a much later time when he was ready.

The Sacred Grove - this is the name we've given the place where Joseph Smith has the First Vision.

When I said that I was explaining what it meant to "lack wisdom" I was referring to the scripture (James 1:5 'If any of ye lack wisdom, let him ask of God...') which encouraged Joseph Smith to ask God what church to join.

Seminary - This is a sort of class that Mormons go to, usually in the morning before school. There are "release time" classes we can take in our spares, but most of us choose to go to the early morning ones. We study the scriptures (both of LDS origin and the Bible) and it really is in a class format. There are desks and lessons, you take notes and you CAN fail (although you really just need decent attendance for that). The classes are about the same size as your regular school class and we're with people who are in the same grade as us. The only exceptions are usually if you're in a small or rural community that doens't have enough Mormons to have a proper set-up.