I Hope They Call Me On A Mission!

Our local church congregation did a "Mini-Missionary Training Center" (MTC) for the Primary aged children (ages 3-11). It was well planned and completed. I am always inspired by the work and sacrifice leaders do to make sure that the children have a wholesome experience.

They had four couples from the congregation represent missions. We had Philippines, New Zealand, Mexico and Turkey. Lady Hiva and I represented the Turkey Mission! We were so excited about that assignment.

The Primary Presidency and the Bishop made mission "assignments" for each of the children. They were "called" to one of the four missions. Each child received their call and I had SO much fun watching their excitement as they opened their calls with their families. For a few days we watched the videos as families posted them. Koala Bear and Lucky Dragon especially enjoyed watching them. Lucky Dragon was really excited to open his own call. He was stoked to see that he was called to the Turkey mission! At one point, Koala Bear picked up the mission call and she read it out loud to us too. Apparently she wanted to be like all the other kids too. She said, "Church of Jesus. I a mission. Child of God. YAY!!" and then started to jump up and down in excitement.

Lucky Dragon opening his mission call--going to Turkey!

All week Lady Hiva and I planned on what we wanted to do and how we wanted to help the kids. We had so many ideas.

When the children arrived at the "MTC," they were given name badges to wear during the activity. We ate together and watched the old "Called to Service" video.

Then parents said goodbye to their kids and they went to their "missions." The group we had was amazing. It was so much fun to be with them. We had stations to work through, the first was girls braiding hair and boys tying ties. The second was learning to sing the hymn "Called to Serve", the last was to write to missionaries that were out on missions from our stake (a group of congregations).

Our amazing Primary Presidency!

Then we went to our rooms and talked about the countries they are serving in.

Mexico

Philippines

New Zealand

Lady Hiva and I discussed some works to say in Turkish. We talked about the culture, including a discussion on how to tell someone "no thank you" when they offer tea or coffee. We played a call to prayer for them to hear as we discussed Islam and the importance of the mosques.

 They then tasted some lokum (Turkish Delight) and some baklava. I am not sure that it was their favorite thing in the world. But at least they tried it.

We practiced with them how to introduce themselves and their purpose as missionaries. It was great to see the way they were nervous but excited to do it. Then they went out in pairs or "companionships" to knock on door as missionaries. The youth (12-18 year olds) in the ward were in the rooms and pretended it was their homes. It was so cute to watch these young children knock and introduce themselves then ask if they could share a message about Jesus!

What a great activity! I am so glad that we were able to be involved!

Practicing being missionaries