The Primary Program

Our ward Primary Program is DONE! It was today.Whew! Whew. I wrote it back at the end of July and then edited it and printed it off in August. We practiced for the last 2 hours of church 3 weeks ago, then had stake conference, and then practiced two more hours during church last Sunday. It’s been nonstop, drawn out by the stake conference between practices. Those practices are the worst Sundays of the year. Sorry, but it’s true. We were ALL so tired of it ALL that I was wondering how on earth I’d be able to stand hearing those songs and parts one more time during the actual program.

Well. The kids completely blew me away during the real deal today. They all sang the songs loud enough and stayed together and spoke fearlessly in the microphone. An impressive number of kids memorized their parts, too. There were at least 200 people (plenty of visitors) in church today. It was packed! I was all wobbly during pretty much every song, blinking back tears. The Spirit was so strong. I sat down on the front row and every time I looked up at the long line of happy kids singing those beautifully simple songs about the gospel, I could hardly breathe—it was like they were blasting the congregation with joy and faith and light (of course it helped that I did not have a toddler or baby squirming all over my lap—Jeff wrestled with Rose a few rows back).

We had the 3 and 4 year old classes sitting on the front row of pews facing the podium (there aren’t enough seats for them on the stand), so I got to sit next to Jay’s class. For every song, the 3 and 4 year olds stood up on low benches on the floor below the podium. When Jay came down after singing “One in a Million,” he said “that song tired my voice out!” And after singing “Families Can Be Together Forever,” he said “we sang my favorite song!”

Jay was so excited to say his part into the microphone during church. He’s been saying it over and over for 2 weeks now, and he was ready. The crazy thing is he pretty much memorized his part all by himself. We only went over it two or 3 times one week, and a few days later I asked him what his part was and he repeated the whole thing back to me. The boy has a memory. I love it.  He didn’t need any help at all during the program. He stepped up onto the stool and said his part clearly and perfectly, like it was no big deal that the room was bursting with people. Nailed it! The congregation did a collective chuckle after Jay said his part.

All of the Primary leaders felt so relieved when the program was over today. I started to remember why I like being in Primary so much again. 11 months out of the year, it’s the best calling ever!

I guess we can take this off of the fridge now.