Monday, March 9, 2009

Sammy gives a talk...

Saturday afternoon the Primary secretary called and said, "I just wanted to double-check with you about Sammy's talk tomorrow..." And I said, "Sammy's supposed to give a talk tomorrow?!" Apparently his teacher was supposed to bring over the little assignment slip -- oops. But no worries, Sammy was totally excited for it. The topic he was given was "Mothers nurture the family," so he got a pen and paper and started brainstorming. We looked up the meaning of "nurture" (to take care of and to teach), and then he made a list of how his mom does those things:



I have to admit, the ones about being like Jesus and reading the Book of Mormon required a little coaching from Dad. It would have been extremely gratifying had he said, "My mom teaches me to believe in Heavenly Father and to have faith and love others and..." (insert all the other things I really am trying to teach him), but I guess not picking your nose is important, too. I just keep telling myself that he is learning all those things, even if he can't quite put his finger on it. Of course, I had to wonder when I asked, "What about the plan of salvation?" And he replied, "Never heard of it." Sigh.

But I digress. Sammy did an amazing job with his talk. I took the ideas from his brainstorm and put it into talk form, mostly because we ran out of time for him to finish it up himself. He was so excited to sit in the "TALK" chair at the front of the Primary room, and jumped right up to the mike when it was his turn. We had him give his talk for the family at Sunday dinner so I could record it for the benefit of all y'all. This is pretty much exactly how he delivered his talk in Primary, to the great amusement of the teachers, especially.



Here's the text of the talk, just in case there are any parts that are hard to understand:

Heavenly Father gave mothers a special job. That job is to nurture the family. To nurture means to take care of and to teach. My mom takes care of us by feeding us and making us take a nap after lunch. She teaches us important things, too, like how to eat, how to draw, to share, and to not pick our noses. She also teaches us about Heavenly Father, and to try to be like Jesus, and to say our prayers.

In the Book of Mormon there is a great story about how mothers nurture the family. The Lamanites were attacking the Nephites, and 2,000 young men from the people of Ammon made an army to protect their families. The prophet Helaman was their leader. Their mother’s had taught them that if they trusted in the Lord, he would protect them. After the battle, none of them had been killed. It was a miracle! The young warriors had been very brave, and they said it was because they believed the words of their mothers.

It is important for us to believe the words of our mothers, too. They teach us important things that help us be happy and healthy and stay close to Heavenly Father.

(Bear your testimony)

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That's great! He's definitely going to be a public speaker with his sense of timing. He even knew when to pause for people to laugh.

RAL said...

Seriously that was so so cute! You are going to have an actor on your hands I think. When he was talking I could just picture it! Gosh we miss you guys!

carrieap said...

He is an amazing little boy if I do say so myself! I can't believe he can read like that. He will be teaching his kindergarten class next year.