Sunday, August 9, 2009

Primary at Tembisa

Another day of doing primary solo. I don’t think I will ever understand how the presidency can just not come to primary and not tell anyone they won't be there. Oh well.

Elder Wells and I spoke in Sacrament meeting and because I was working on that, I didn’t spend the necessary time preparing anything new for primary than I had done last week (which I did solo, also). I just decided I would hope for some member of the presidency to show up and if not I would wing it with sharing time and keep working on the songs for the program.

For some reason, today there were more children attending than we have had for many weeks. Well, with a room full of children and no one else prepared I tried my best. We had a sharing time and sang some, but they were just restless, so about ½ hour into it I pulled out the crayons and paper and set them to work on drawing. Anything that had to do with the temple or their families would be great, I told them. They had a good time and I have some nice art to prove it (they gave them all to me to keep.)

I decided to take pictures of them while they were busy and as soon as they saw the camera they were jumping in front of the lens or calling out, “Ma’am, ma’am,” and smiling at me. By 11:25 I sent them all out for a toilet break (customary here) and moved the chairs into a circle. Elder Wells came by and I invited him in for the last half hour. When they came back they sang a few songs for him (they sang so well!) and then we told them some pioneer stories.

We all had a good time, but it was a little unusual. The sister in the picture with me is the counselor who is so faithful in attending – she never misses – but her responsibility as she understands it is really just to take the nursery children out and tend them half way through primary.

Anyway here are some pictures of these super little primary children. It is sweet to see what good care they take of their younger siblings. Not all of these children have families that come to church with them. Some come on their own or come with another child as a friend.

And here are their names as they wrote them on their pictures: (The e on the end sounds almost like a long A. Th says T, ph says P)
Katleho, Mpho, Nyiko, Siphiwe, Thapelo, Sanele Ngcobo, Thuli Mauimbelo, Letho, Bennert, Mosipho Ndonewe, Sabelo, Sibusiso, Tato, and Buhle.












4 comments:

Mike & Jenny Thornton said...

I was so happy to see this today. I love the sharing of experiences with the members and their testimonies and background. You give much better detail than young Elder Thornton

jayne wells said...

Amazing! You've got quite a job. I love the pictures, so fun to visualize the primary room you're talking about and the children. They are beautiful, as are you!

J Wells said...

that's a lucky bunch of kids.

Anonymous said...

Kids are the same everywhere! They love to have their pictures taken!! What a joy to see them growing up with the Gospel in their lives. Keep up the good work!