| Return to The Primary Corner home |  |
Every BODY A Missionary
Purpose of the Activity: To help children learn how to be better missionaries
Preparation
Materials Needed
Outline
Children Can Share the Gospel ideas
Gospel in Action Challenge
Ammon Was a Good Missionary
Testimony Game
The Handout for Every BODY A Missionary--uses the shape of a
Gingerbread Man cookie in the center with eyes, ears, and heart drawn on and has each part
labeled as explained in the Recap
Publicity--make a poster for the foyer, remind children in closing or opening exercises, have announcements in the ward bulletin and announced at the pulpit, make phone calls if you don't feel the turn out will be good enough.
Make missionary name tags for each child. We made ours from black construction paper and wrote on them using a white gel pen. We hole-punched two holes at the top and tied white yarn through them to make a necklace. We put the name on the first line and wrote "Member Missionary" on the second line.
Make refreshments--we hoped to have Gingerbread Men, but ended up with gingerbread hearts and sugar cookie hearts.
Make sure you have napkins, cups, ice (if desired) for the beverages.
Make sure you have helpers--teachers should be there. Parents, youth, and new converts could also be good helpers. You need a pianist!
Make copies of handouts.
Make sure that you have supplies of Gospel in Action cards, an example of the awards
Name tags
Chalk and eraser
Pictures for each song in Testimony Game
Cards
Card decorating supplies (Markers, crayons, construction paper, glue, scissors)
Ammon costume
Video--"How Rare a Possession" at the Ammon part
Copies of handouts--including Gospel in Action cards
Refreshments
(Greeter to greet each child and help with name tags)
10 am— Get name tags on each child (assign a helper to give name tags to new arrivals throughout activity. While waiting, teach children children the opening song at the piano--sing other favorites)
10:05 am—Welcome Children
Song: "I Want to Be a Missionary Now" (CS 168)
Prayer:
Introduce activity:
President Spencer W. Kimball added his witness to another prophet when he said, "Every member a missionary." He wanted everyone to know that they can be missionaries, even if they aren’t serving full-time missions like the elders in our ward are. Even children can be missionaries. But we changed what President Kimball said a little bit because we wanted you to learn how your body can help you be a good missionary. And we’re sending you on a mission today to find out how your head, eyes, ears, mouths, arms, hands, legs, feet, hearts, and even tummies can help you be a good missionary.
As we do various activities, we’ll give you clues about how your body can help you become a better missionary. At the end, we’ll ask you what you learned and give you something to help you remember what you learned.
10:15 am—Testimony Basics (Need a Game Show host and helper, pianist, someone to announce and do commercials, chalk, eraser, pictures for each song)
Announcer: Now it's for for Name that Tune!
Host: If you want to tell people about the Gospel, you need to know what we believe (point to head). You know many of our beliefs from Primary songs. When you feel good in your heart about the things we sing about these songs and believe that they are true, that is a testimony. Now we’re going to play a game called, "Name That Testimony Tune" and we’ll see just how many songs YOU know that tell us important things about the gospel.
(Game mechanics—Pick a child. The child decides how many notes he needs to guess the song, between 3 and 6. If the child doesn’t know, they decide if they would like to hear more notes or ask the group for help. After they name the song, write down the testimony it bears or hang up a picture and share how the picture relates to the message of the song.
If time allows, let the children sing their favorite testimony tunes. See Testimony Game spreadsheet for page numbers, song titles, and testimonies.
Break into the game for 3 ads.
Ad #1--Did you know that if you read 6 pages a day, you can read the entire Book of Mormon in 3 months? Get the blessings--learning more about Jesus, stronger testimony, peace, spiritual strength, happiness, and the blessings from following the prophet. --At this point we handed out our ward mission leader's handout for reading the Book of Mormon in 3 months with a space each day to write what was learned about Jesus Christ
Ad #2--Age 8? Don't have this card? [Hold up Gospel in Action card] Raise your hand. Now, everyone 8 and older, stand up. We now issue you this Gospel in Action Challenge. You can earn this award. Memorize the 13 Articles of Faith and work on one goal in each of the four other areas and you've earned the award. We know you can do it! [Hand out the challenge]
Ad #3--person a: Hey, aren't you a Latter-day Saint?
person b: Yes, I am.
a: Do you believe in God?
b: Yes. [sing First Article of Faith CS p. 122]
a: What was that?
b: The First Article of Faith. The Articles of Faith help us explain what we
believe.
a: Well, I guess you guys do believe in God.
b: [to children] Articles of Faith. Memorize them.)
Once you have a testimony, the next thing to do is share it. Now you’re going to learn how easy it can be.
Announcer: This show was brought to you by the Book of Mormon, Gospel in Action, the Articles of Faith, and Father Abraham. All he does is go like this. (Sing Father Abraham with all the actions under Camp Songs)
10:40 am—Sing "Oh, Come With Me To Primary" (CS 255) as children exit room from back door and enter middle door. Before entering, they must practice saying one thing they could tell someone to introduce the gospel to them. They practice on one of the prompters at the door. Other teachers will supervise children exiting and entering, and help children think of things to say. It is faster if the children don't knock on the door, but just say their idea one right after another. (See Children Can Share the Gospel paper)
10:45 am--Be a Good Friend (Use Cards and Card decorating supplies)
Welcome. We’re going to learn how we can be a better friend. There are lots of things that we can do. When we see someone new, we can say hi and introduce ourselves. When we see people all alone, we can invite them to join us. We can listen to what people have to say and be interested in them. We can love and serve people around us. We can smile, wave, and invite people to do things with us.
You know, there are a lot of kids that belong to our Primary that we don’t normally see. We would like them to know that we want to be their friends and we want them to come to Primary with us. So we’re going to make cards for people in our classes that don’t normally come. We’ll also make a card for children who would like to come to Primary but can’t right now. Get together with your class and pick someone to make a card for. Then when everyone in your class has written a message, signed their names, or drawn a picture for them, we’ll switch cards with the other classes. That way our missing Primary children will know that lots of people want to get to know them and be their friend. Then maybe they will want to come back to church.
(Teachers help select a class member or other Primary child to make a card for and supervise coloring, writing, etc. Soft music in the background—Including "Love One Another" CS 136)
11:10 am-- Sing "Oh, Come With Me To Primary" (CS 255) as children exit room from middle door and enter front door. Before entering, they must say one thing they could say to someone to introduce the gospel to them. Teachers will supervise children exiting and entering, and help children think of things to say. (See Children Can Share the Gospel paper. Skip if running late or too chaotic the first time.)
11:15 am—Be a Good Example (need Ammon costume, video, VCR/TV, 5 leaders to help with each group during the skits)
Pick an older child to dress up like Ammon and read his story. Show the video clip as directed from "How Rare A Possession" (see Ammon Was a Good Example)
11:20-ish—Now we will get into groups and act out being a good example in different situations. (Divide into groups—mixed ages) After you decide what to do to act it out, we’ll act out our skits for the rest of the groups.
(situations to act out in groups—2 minutes to prepare, then everyone acts out skits)
Sing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" (CS 275) [Need crayons]
Hand out Every BODY A Missionary papers. Have children color them to look like themselves (as much as possible). Color the parts as we discuss them. Ask the children how each part could make them a better missionary before saying the ideas on the paper.
Head: Think of someone that you could tell more about the church, Learn the Gospel, Fill your mind with good things
Eyes: Look for ways to share the Gospel, Remember others are watching you, Read scriptures
Ears: Listen to your friends, Listen to the Holy Ghost (Spiritual ears)
Mouth: Smile, pray, Use kind words, Bear your testimony, answer questions about the church
Heart: Love, be a good friend, feel the Spirit, Know that the Church is true
Arms and Hands: Serve, wave, Be a good example
Stomach: Invite people over for dinner, Fast for missionary experiences
Legs and Feet: Follow Jesus’ example, Invite your friends to go to church and activities with you
Closing Prayer:
Refreshments in Gym