July Sharing Time - The Church of Jesus Christ Has Been Restored

Okay, first I have a confession.

I'm not exactly following the Sharing Time Outline. 

I read through it a while ago, read through some General Conference talks and got really inspired.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

Then I read through the outline again and realized I'd remembered it wrong.  My idea covered a lot of the same information, but in a different way. 

After thinking about it, I decided that my original inspiration is what my primary needs this week.  As it does cover the same information, just formatted a little differently, I'm sharing it with you, too.


I'm going to open with a quote from Elder Tad R. Callister, of the Seventy:

"A few decades after Christ's Resurrection, His Apostles were killed, His teachings were corrupted, and the priesthood was taken from the earth.  But Paul, seeing our day, prophesied "that in the dispensation of the fulness of times [God would] gather together in one all things in Christ."  He would restore Christ's true Church to the earth once more."

We'll talk about what exactly that quote means by discussing things like:  How was the priesthood taken from the earth?  How were His teachings corrupted?  What does it mean to restore? 

After that, I'll read another quote from Elder Callister's talk to introduce our activity (with all quotes, whether I read them verbatim or summarize depends on how I feel the kids are doing and which they'd listen to/hear better).

"In many ways the gospel of Jesus Christ is like a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  When Joseph Smith came on the scene, perhaps 100 pieces were in place.  Then Joseph Smith came along and put many of the other 900 pieces in place...  As for Joseph Smith's role in the Restoration, the Lord defined it clearly: "This generation shall have my word through you" (D&C 5:10)."

I really like that quote for a couple of reasons.  Probably the biggest is that it brings home the FACT that we are not the only church to have truth.  There were already pieces here.  There are still pieces of truth in places outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  BUT (and it's a big but), we are the only church to contain every truth that has been revealed so far. 

With only one piece of a puzzle, it's hard to tell what picture it will make, what the end product will be, but once we put them all together, we then can see.  Line upon line, truth upon truth.  God did not just pour all knowledge into Joseph, he spent years training him (the four years before he was allowed/prepared to receive the golden plates) and then God let Joseph learn, ponder and ask before providing him with more truth.

To help us learn (or remind) of some of the truths Joseph learned and restored for all of us, we're going to put together our own puzzle.

The front is a picture of the First Vision where Joseph learned several of the truths we'll be talking about.

The other side shows some of the truths brought back to us through the Restoration.  All of these I got from two great talks, Elder Callister's (which I've been quoting from) and Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge's from our most recent General Conference.  Most are direct quotes and the few that aren't, I summarized. 

I thought about restating all the truths in a language more easily understandable by all the primary children, but I decided not to.  I want to stop after each piece and talk about what it means, both dictionary definition wise and for our lives today.  I'm hoping we can have some really great discussions.

I'm going to print out each, laminate or glue them together (or both), cut them out and hide them around the primary room.  If you don't want to hide them, you could stick them in a basket or all over a chalkboard mixed up.

I'm going to close with another quote.  My favorite of the day, from a talk by Elder Robert D. Hales, he said:

"I exhort you, I pray for you - if you do not know these things for yourself, follow the example of Joseph Smith and the pattern of the Restoration.  Turn to the scriptures.  Kneel in prayer.  Ask in faith.  Listen to the Holy Ghost.  Learn that your name and needs are known by our Heavenly Father, just as Joseph's were.  Live the gospel with patience and persistence.  And in the name of Jesus Christ, I promise, "If ye will ... ask [Heavenly Father] in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping [the Lord's] commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

If you want to download the puzzle I made, you can get it from Google Docs (JPG: First Vision, Truths; PDF: both together).

Leah