Sunday Bliss

This is really just to record what a beautiful day it was yesterday.... how for the first time as a Sunday School teacher over the 14-15 year olds I felt like I got thru.  It is an amazing feeling to feel when you make progress on something you have strived to figure out and worked so hard on.


I wrote how I was worried about one of my youth... and we came up with the Sunday Challenge.  We started last week with the challenge that this week if they all bore their testimonies I would bring them something special.  I wasn't sure they would do it. I haven't seen the youth in our ward bare their testimonies in a long time. I came up with a gift that you stuff a rubber glove with various candies.  It was my HIGH FIVE GIFT :) The kids loved it and thought it was super creative :) Which made me feel really good. I put 20 of them together.

Yesterday at church I got up first to bare my testimony. Trying to set the example and trying to let them know we are all in this together.  Then I waited.... I then looked at my own kids and said, " SET THE EXAMPLE FOR ME PLZ" First went Taylor then Cally and then my son in law Ryan. He likes to come to my class. He is a lot of fun and a great help.

Then I waited some more and finally more kids came up. One by one... everyone in my class did it except for twin brothers who are investigators and a young man who has been inactive for a long time. So when we got in class I gave them the opportunity to bare their testimony or say why they like church incase they still did not know what a testimony was.

I saw the twin boys squirming in their seats during sacrament and right after sacrament the Bishop's wife came over and thanked me. She shared with me that her son told her he was super excited to go to church that day. That she saw a change in him and she thought it was me. She also asked me to explain to the investigator twins what the Holy Ghost feels like in class.  

I was touched. I didn't think this challenge thing had really affected the kids this much. One of my students got up and told us that he went home last week and told his family he would be baring his testimony on fast sunday.

So I get to my class room and the three boys who didn't say theirs were there alone, which is odd, usually everyone is there right away so I took that opportunity to explain to them what the holy ghost feels like and they all got so excited and said they felt it :) it was a neat moment to share with them.

Then our class was on Unity.  We did B.A.R.F. bags, * be a real friend*  I took 3 kids and we all learned something about them and everyone wrote something nice without signing it and put it in their bag.  They loved that. We will be doing 3 each week till they are all done.

Then we did a great and cool object lesson. I took a picture of Justin Bieber and put over Jesus, which they had no clue about... put that on a Dart board and they were all ready to say something about him and to throw a dart... once we were done I took the picture off and showed the holes in Jesus and shared the scripture with them.... Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.   THE GASP when I revealed Jesus was awesome. We then talked about how we need to find one good thing in every person and try to not talk bad or about other people because they are children of God too. I think that really sinked in their head :)

As I was packing up class, the Bishops son asked, What is our next challenge :) with others eagerly ready to hear and do. It made my heart sore. I told them next week I will give out a new one. We are working as a class to have a party or get together at my house or the dollar theater.  They are all super excited. I love these kids so much

I felt so good all day yesterday. HAPPY! Like I did it... I accomplished reaching them in a way they wanted to do great things :)  I know the Lord guided me all the way and I can't take any credit really for it, but what a great experience it was for me. One I never  want to forget