Stoning the Prophet

Hermana Curtis and I were settling down to listen to the District Relief Society Presidency teach the lesson in Relief Society in Riobamba. Suddenly the branch president rushed in, looked at both of us and said, "Ayudame con la primaria!" (Help me with the Primary!) We followed his lead, only to discover that we were the only adults in the Primary. Fortunately, there were only four children there, the President's children.

All right. We took stock of our supplies. We had a CD player and the Primary CDs, but no manuals. Hermana Curtis had a copy of the new art book. So we opened the book and I started teaching about Samuel the Lamanite Prophet. I told the story in Spanish about how the Lord told him to stand up on the wall and preach to the Nephites that Christ would be born in five years. The story is incomplete without the wicked Nephites trying to stone and kill the prophet. He escaped unharmed.




I'm not sure what possessed us--perhaps it was desperation--because there were now 8 children and still no materials. Hermana Curtis reached into her Mary Poppins bag and pulled out some Kleenexes and toothpicks. She wadded up the Kleenexes and gave them to 5 children. Two others got the toothpicks. We now had rocks and arrows. We stood the remaining child up on the table to represent Samuel on the wall and the other children threw the rocks and arrows at the prophet. (For those of you who are utterly shocked, may I remind you that President Eyring told about how his family role-plays Samuel the Lamanite in their annual family Christmas pageant. Okay, so much for the self-justification.) Fortunately, nobody lost an eye.

We learned the first few verses of "Follow the Prophet," in Spanish, with no songbooks, but a couple of smart kids who knew the words.

We figured it was time for art class. Hermana Sloan took all of her pens and pencils out of her Mary Poppins bag and I emptied my scripture case of highlighters, marking pencils and pens. I had my ever-handy mission notebook with me that I use to record all of the "Sister Griesemer, would you. . ." requests from President Sloan. I tore out pages and handed them to the now 12 children in the little tiny room.

Hermana Curtis went looking for more materials as one hour stretched into two. She found a box that had some colored pencils in it. We asked the kids to draw a picture of a prophet--like Noah or Samuel, or whoever they wanted. Turns out they love to draw and that occupied a good half hour. Then we went outside and took a picture of everyone and the picture they had drawn. The branch president had to come get us because we were late getting the kids back to Sacrament Meeting!



The moral of the story? Don't put two otherwise sane and competent women in charge of a Primary who don't have command of the language, without manuals and a plan. I can't imagine what the parents thought when they asked their children, "So what did you do in Primary today?"