Memory Lane - Sunday journal entries

I had to give a talk in church on Sunday and it was about Sabbath day activities.

Thought I'd go through a few journals to see what I did in the past. Here are some of the entries I found. These are from my first journal and so they are fairly fun.

Fun little trek down memory lane...


February 5, 1980 - At primary I learned about a prophet named Wilford Woodruff. It was fun. All the prophets are good ones.

April 13, 1980 - Today I went to church. We learned about Heber J. Grant in my Targeter 8 class. I am Vice-President in my primary class.

July 20, 1980 - Today is Sunday. We went to church. My church teacher's name is Sister Shepherd. The primary president is Sister Pulsipher. She's a nice lady. We have big meals on Sunday. We can't play outside on Sundays because we have to keep it holy. Today in Sunday School we talked about testimonies. I had fun. We have a new church program not to go to primary on Tuesday. We have primary on Sunday now.

January 25, 1981 - I got a new paper route this week. I deliver 37 houses. I like my route. We have a new rule at home. We have to say our prayers at night AND MORNING. And we are all going to read some books for a contest we're having at home. I like reading.

April 5, 1981 - Today is Sunday. Our family just got back from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada on Saturday. We had to do genealogy. We went back seven generations. I enjoyed it. Today was general conference. We watched it on TV at the church. I think that the President of the church is getting pretty old.

August 7, 1981 - Today was fast Sunday. We were eating breakfast as a family. When all of a sudden my mom said, "Oh, no it's fast Sunday" when my dad was on his 6 or 7th helping of cereal. We have to fast next Sunday instead. Good-bye. Later - today is still Sunday and I had to talk in Sunday School on the Godhead. It wasn't very good.

February 2, 1982 - The church reading the scripture assignment is still on. I'm done with the Book of Mormon and I have read 66 chapters in the Bible. I want to be done with the bible this September 1982. I want to be done with all the books by March 1983.

March 14, 1982 - I am in Leviticus in the Bible. It's not interesting at all.

April 4, 1982 - Today was world wide conference. We watched it at the church for two hours. Then our Dad said when we got home "Decide whether you will go to the next session our not. I'm not going because it's too long.

September 26, 1982 - Today is Sunday. It is 65 degrees. That's pretty warm. At church we are going to have a sacrament meeting presentation. My part is: .....Tonight at 6:30 p.m. the new missionaries are coming. They are as nice as Elder Shirtlift and Elder Brady. And I hope they bring a film for us to watch.

October 3, 1982 - Today was world wide conference. the speakers were: 1st Marion G. Romney, 2nd Boyd K. Packer, 3rd Derek A. Cuthbert, 4th Howard W. Hunter. They gave very good talks.

April 23, 1983 - L. Tom Perry came to speak today and he gave me his signature on this little piece of paper.

The Secret Happenings of Ward Primary Programs

Our church has a "primary program" every year around this time. We had it when I was young and it will most likely continue if it is as spiritual AND entertaining as it has always been.

The children (between 4-11 years old) sit up in front of the congregation and sing all the songs they've learned throughout the year interspersed with little memorized parts that the children created as a response to questions they were asked earlier in the year.

I was one of the adults sitting in the back row of the choir seats - in other words...a prime location to survey the antics. I teach the 10 year olds and so these antics are primarily from them.

• A boy in my class, that doesn't attend church very often, rolled up a piece of little paper and started to pretend he was smoking. Um, we are Mormon. Um, we are sitting in front of 300 people.
• The boy next to the boy "smoking," tried to hold down the hand of the boy so the audience couldn't see it. He tried to give a mini lecture friend to friend. It didn't work until I leaned down, grabbed the fake cigarette and told him how disappointed I was in him. Of course, I was not moving my lips and so I'm sure the audience just saw a ventriloquist mouth.
• Another boy wanted candy from my purse and leaned down, underneath the choir seats, and was loudly saying he deserved the candy right then.
• The little girl next to me (a very proper little girl) had a cold. Apparently, her nose was numb because she wasn't aware of various colors dripping down to her lip. I about gagged, but didn't have any tissue. She even went up and sang with a small group, got some tissue and didn't use it.I finally had to lean over and say - "Um, there is some stuff on your face below your nose."
• Another girl started a small issue because the fake plants behind us kept touching her hair. She got three people in the back row involved until a song finally started and they could stand up and avoid the fake plant.
• Different kids kept thumping their feet on the floor which surprisingly caused the floor to shake a bit. If little bodies could have the effect on our movement, surely I couldn't move a muscle. And, I tried not to.
• The "smoking" boy asked for candy loudly during a baby's blessing.

There was a lot of great singing (yelling from the four year olds) and some cute little moments when kids sang completely wrong words to songs, changed their lines, shared their lines with great feeling or ...just plain refused to say anything.

All in all it was a fun experience - adults smiled and cried and sometimes laughed. The closing song included the entire audience and I haven't felt that strong of a spiritual feeling in a while.

Good stuff and I'm looking forward to the one next year even if I don't get the same prime seating.

Manassas Battlefield Walks

 


We've started taking Sunday walks at Manassas Battlefield out in Manassas, Virginia.

Nice way to relax and be in the wide open spaces (ok, there is a little hill with no trees on it and that counts in Virginia) and feel like you are back in time. Of course, this feeling is usually interrupted every two minutes (probably even shorter) with massive airplanes flying overhead toward the Dulles airport. But, it's still better than being in the midst of all the traffic on 66 and the beltway.

Fall Walk - more pictures

 


My neighborhood is beautiful in the fall - even after it rained all weekend there were still a few trees with some color.