Living the gospel helps me to be a missionary now. This is one of my very favorite ways to be a missionary because it is the one that we all do everyday. Without trying.
That's not to say that living the gospel doesn't take effort, because we all know that's not true. It's more that we get two for one. We are trying to live the gospel so we can grow closer to and more like our Savior AND at the very same time, we get to show how wonderful that life is to everyone around us.
I like the story in the Sharing Time Outline about the woman who ends up taking the missionary discussions because of the good example of some neighbor children. You could either start with that story, or one like it if you have had (or know of) a similar personal experience. I believe that the more personal a story, the more impact it has had on us, the greater the impact on those we teach. If you don't have one, just retell the story in your own words.
Then, ask the kids what that story teaches them about missionary work. Make sure to stop and wait. I really struggle here, I have a hard time with silence, so if an answer doesn't come pretty darn fast, I restate the question in a new way or even answer it myself. My husband, on the other hand, is really good at waiting, letting them think and giving someone a chance to gather the courage to raise their hand. One of my goals is to brave the silence. Let the kids answer.
I also really like the next idea in the outline, which uses the My Gospel Standards cards. You could either sing while passing the cards around, ask your pianist to play the music (without singing) randomly stopping, or choose children to come up and draw one card out of a bag or basket.
I was going to make some cards to share with you, but then I found these ADORABLE cards on My Heart and Home. She also has a poster that has the same cute pictures on them which I'm going to print out for my kids at home (the cards were actually made to be a memory game, which you could do and then talk about each standard as its match is found).
Read each standard and talk about it. I think it's important to know how you can truly live each standard. Even with the seemingly simple ones like, "I can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere," ask for a specific example of where and when they can pray. Then ask them how praying can help them become a better missionary (remember to brave the silence if you need to).
As you finish, hand out these cute slips of paper, ask each child to write down a standard they want to work on and a specific check-off-able goal they can do related to it. For example, if the prayer standard was the one they want to work on, do they want to pray every day? Every morning and night? Help their family to say their prayers together?
I made two versions (both in the same download), one is quarter page size and the other is half page size.
Don't forget to end with your testimony of our amazing gospel and the blessings (including missionary work) it brings into our lives. No matter where we are in life, or what we are going through, the gospel brings peace and assurance that Heavenly Father loves us and will make us strong enough to make our way through anything. What a gift.
Have a wonderful week!
Leah
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