Sunday, October 13, 2013

October Sharing Time - Week 3

Last week we got to teach about how we share the gospel every single day by living it.  This is the way we can affect the most people because we ARE ALWAYS DOING IT!

But, this week, after doing a quick review of last weeks topic, I think it's important to ask why.  Why do we share the gospel?  Why is it important?  Really make them think and see what answers they come up with.

In the beginning of the month, I wrote about how this month is PERFECT for a guest speaker or two and the Sharing Time Outline agrees with me.  :)  If you feel so inspired, take advantage of your local missionaries (the kids always LOVE them) or your ward missionaries.

If you don't feel like that's the right fit for your primary, or if you're doing it a different week, I've got a great idea for this week!

At the beginning of the month, I was looking around trying to find some good information about missionary work and I discovered the Missionary Work page on Sugardoodle (that website has something on just about every gospel topic...it's kind of amazing).  If you scroll down, there's a Sharing Time section with so many fun ideas.

I especially like the one using the Articles of Faith.  We spend so much time talking about, singing and memorizing these in primary, I love the idea of teaching the kids how to use them to be better missionaries.

As a member of the church, as we are living the gospel (and teaching through our example), we will sometimes get questions.  Sometimes the questions are simple, but sometimes, they aren't so simple and we're not always sure where to turn for answers (even as adults).

This role playing game will help the kids to learn how the Articles of Faith they've been working on, memorizing, and living, can give them a hand.

I found some adorable missionary badges that are a little different than any I've seen before.  They say, "Sharing is Caring" big at the top and then it has a quote from President John Taylor, "Our duty is to preach the GOSPEL to all men...this is what God expects of us."  They fit pretty darn perfect with this weeks (and months) theme.

Because this week we're focusing on sharing the gospel with our family and friends, I thought you might need a few more badges, so I made these simple badges to go with the missionary ones.
Have a few children come up, one or two to be the missionaries (talk about how we are ALL missionaries every day) and one or two to be the family and/or friends.  Have the "family or friend" choose one of the questions to ask their missionary.  There are 13 different questions, each corresponding to a different Article of Faith.

I typed up the questions (just to make it a little easier on you) and uploaded them to Google Docs.  Click on over to download them (and the friend/family badges), and then just print and cut.

After reading the strip, the "missionaries" will decide which Article of Faith answers the question (have them tell you how).  Last year I found some adorable Article of Faith cards on Simply Fresh Designs (I love that you can download them in a variety of different sizes, they're what we use at my house as we're working on memorization).  You could use these OR use cards from your library.  If you aren't going to use them in your home after, or somehow use them in your primary, I would go with the library (even though the printables are adorable) simply for the sake of simplicity.

Once you decide on the Article of Faith, you can either move on to the next question (which would work best if you want to get through the most possible, 15 minutes goes FAST) or take another minute to sing the primary song that goes with it.

As your time is winding down, you might want to take a minute to talk about how Heavenly Father has given us the job of sharing the gospel, but not the job of making others accept it.  One of the greatest gifts He has given us is agency or the opportunity to make our own choices.  We offer the gospel, and those we love get to choose what they do.  No matter what choice they make, Heavenly Father still asks that we love them.  Share and love, that's it. 

Don't forget to bare your testimony of the great gift our gospel is and how sharing it not only blesses the lives of those around us, but ours also.

Have a wonderful week!
Leah

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