Day Fourteen

Today I'm thankful for payday! But I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about my calling at church.

For those of you who don't speak "Mormon," most (if not all) active adults have a job they do at church. This job is referred to as a "calling." You're asked by the leader of your congregation to do one job or another. It's not something they decide lightly, either. There is always prayer and pondering involved. So really, we see our callings as assignments from the Lord.

I've had many callings over the years, all of which have brought different joys and challenges. But at the moment I have one of my favorite callings of all time.

I'm the music director for the Primary. In case you don't know, the Primary is all the children from ages 3-11. And I get to teach them songs!

It can be challenging at times, trying to come up with new and fresh ways to catch and hold their attention. And I have to come up with visual aids and pantomimes and such to help them learn the words to their songs. It takes planning, which isn't my strong suit. But when the pieces come together, it's the best calling in the world.

Nothing brings the Spirit so quickly as a group of children singing about the Lord.

My first month as the primary chorister, I had to teach the kids a song called "Gethsemane." It was a doozy. It wasn't particularly difficult, but every time those children started singing the chorus: "Gethsemane! Jesus loves me! So He went willingly to Gethsemane" I would break into tears. I was literally holding my visual aid poster over my face at one point, so the kids couldn't see me bawling.

Their spirits are so sweet, so pure, so innocent! And they have this simple but profound faith. They know without a doubt that God loves them. They know He's real. And they want to be just like Him.

A few years ago, when Evie was two or three, we went to an open house at a temple in Utah. It was a brand-new temple, and hadn't been dedicated yet, so the general public was welcome to go inside and look around.

Evie was (and still is) too young to go to the temple normally, so this was an opportunity for her to see the inside of a temple for the first time. I explained to her that the temple is God's house. She got very excited.

When we went into the building, she was looking around in awe. She turned to me and, with all the innocence in the world, excitedly asked, "Do we get to meet Jesus today?"

Even from that young age, she had a personal relationship with her Savior. She wanted to meet Him. And while I told her no, we wouldn't be able to meet Him that day, I know without a doubt that if He had been there, she would have run up without hesitation and given Him a big hug and a kiss. And I know the Savior would have hugged her back, with more love than I can possibly comprehend.

Kids are closer to the Lord than adults are. They have incredible testimonies, and incredible spirits. Their love for the Lord shines through in every Primary song that they sing. And it never fails to touch my heart.

I'm so grateful for my calling. I'm grateful that I can use my talents to bless others - especially the children. They make me want to be a better person. They make me want to have the kind of relationship with the Lord that they do. They make me want to have a more perfect faith.

The kids in my primary are amazing, and I love every single one of them.