October 2017 LDS Primary Sharing Time Ideas and Helps

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Monthly Theme: Blessings of the priesthood are available to all.
Monthly Scripture: “And also all they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord” D&C 84:35

Week 1 Worthy young men receive the priesthood when they are 12 years old.

* "To be worthy does not mean to be perfect. Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness invites us to be humbly at peace on our life’s journey to someday become perfected in Christ, not constantly worried, frustrated, or unhappy in our imperfections today. Remember, He knows all the things we don’t want anyone else to know about us—and loves us still." Elder Gerrit Wong Always Remember Him April 2016 Conference

     Have 9 envelopes with one word on each envelope- to be worthy does not mean to be perfect. Have 9 scriptures about the priesthood and a couple questions regarding the scripture in each envelope. Pass out the envelopes to 9 different groups and have them look up the scripture and answer the questions. Invite each group to share and place their word envelope up front to make the sentence from Elder Wong.
     Do you ever feel like you are not good enough? You are!! Remember, to be worthy does NOT MEAN TO BE PERFECT!!! We don't have to put ourselves down, we just have to try our best and keep going!! The priesthood is such a blessing and we are so grateful for it and the 12 year old boys who live the best they can!!

* HERE is an AWESOME!! story about a 12 year old who received the priesthood. Briefly tell the primary children the story and show them the pictures. Really stress the quote, "Robert's eyes widened. It was hard to find a word special enough to say how he felt. "That's so... awesome."
     Have a bouquet of 10-12 AWESOME BLOSSOMS (fake flowers from the $1 store) up front on a table. Invite a reverent primary friend to come up front and choose an awesome blossom about the priesthood. Have questions, scriptures or songs having to do with the priesthood attached to them for them to answer or the primary to sing.
   The priesthood is awesome because Heavenly Father is awesome!!

* I'm publishing this before the Oct. 2017 women's broadcast is in text form. So it's not exact, but from Sister Joy Jones, " Worth and worthiness are not the same. God's love is infinite and will endure forever. Worthiness is based on obedience. Sin makes us less worthy, but NEVER WORTHLESS. Strive to be like Jesus with our worth intact. We always have worth in the eyes of Heavenly Father."
      What is special about you? What do you do to be worthy? D&C 18:10, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God."
       Worthy young men are obedient young men. Have 2 bowls with labels. WORTH and WORTHY. Have children write down (or teachers can help too) something they'd like to share that is of great worth to them and something they can to do be worthy or obedient on 2 small seperate pieces of paper. Have them put each paper in the respective bowl. Prepare some questions about the priesthood. Invite a reverent primary child up front to answer the question and then pick a piece of paper out of each bowl to share with the primary. Can they guess who wrote it??
     Wasn't Women's Conference amazing?? I watched it at home and every single talk spoke to my soul. So needed.

Week 2 We receive the ordinances of salvation through the priesthood.

* What are the ordinances of salvation?? Bring in some paper and crayons. Invite the beautiful primary children to draw a picture to represent an ordinance they are excited about- baptism, confirmation, ordination to Melchizedek priesthood, temple endowment, and temple marriage sealing. (You can write/list the ordinances on the chalk board) Could we draw our pictures without crayons or pencils today?? No. And it's the same with the ordinances of salvation. We couldn't receive them without the priesthood!! Make sure to draw a background and fill up your entire paper!!!

* HERE is an excellent matching activity and story from The Friend. Some of the matches aren't "saving" ordinances, but ordinances that give us peace and happiness. I also like the idea on the side of bringing in a string and tying knots in it each time you can tell when the priesthood has blessed your life.

* HERE is a lesson from the Primary 3 Manual. Such a great visual idea with the pinwheel!!! An excellent material to help you prepare for this week's theme.

Week 3 I can receive strengthening power through priesthood blessings.

* HERE !!! This is where it's at for preparation this week. Looks like the church updated it's topics pages and it's phenomenal.

* Priesthood Puppet Pals. Invite the children to create some paper bag puppets of men they know that hold the priesthood. Invite anyone who would like to share their puppet and a time they were blessed by the priesthood. Did they feel happy? Did they feel the spirit? We are very blessed by the priesthood and those who are worthy and hold it.

* Bring in the following and set down on a small table up front: small baby doll, white towel, box of matches, piece of bread torn into small pieces, small oil vial, cardboard cutout of a tombstone, school backpack, bag of top ramen. (Things that represent the different priesthood blessings- baby name blessing, baptism, confirmation, sacrament, consecrated oil, dedicating graves of deceased loved ones, school blessings, blessings when we are sick). Bring in a large blanket to cover everything.
     We're going to play a game today as we learn about the priesthood. We receive strengthening power through priesthood blessings! Everyone look very carefully at the table. No invite a primary friend who has a very lovely smile up front to come choose an object, but they have to do it secretly while you hold the blanket up. They will put it behind their back. When you put the blanket down, have members of the primary raise their hand to guess what is missing!!!
      When the item is guessed, have a couple questions or a scripture that has to do with that type of priesthood blessing. For example, how do you feel when you see a baby blessed in church? Why do you think names are important? Why do babies get blessings if they aren't going to remember the words? Don't shy away from hard questions, children are smart!!

Week 4 I can go to the temple to receive ordinances for my ancestors when I am older.

* Temple match!!! Start off by singing, I love to see the temple. HERE is a temple match game with stained glass windows from The Friend, or you could just use the following. All images are found off lds.org. When a match is made, have a question pertaining to temple work that the children can answer.

* Have pictures of different temples and tape them to the back of children as they walk in. For other children, hand them the names of the temples that will match up with the pictures. For 3 minutes, have the children walk around the room and try to match up the name with the picture they think.
     Invite the pairs of children up, 1 pair at a time, and go over what temple that is. After 3 pairs, go over a few questions about temple work or sing a song about temples. Continue on with 3 more pairs. Read a couple scriptures about temple work.
    Everyone did a wonderful job!! Thank you for your help!! Bear testimony that temples are a sacred place where we can be blessed and where our ancestors can be blessed!!

* Invite the ward family historian in to tell a fun family history story (5 minutes max!) and bear their testimony of the importance of temple work.