Magnifying our callings

When we first moved into our ward it took Ben and I forever to get callings.  After 5 months of just kind of hanging out in the ward not doing much more than going to church on Sunday and doing our home and visiting teaching (it took several months to get those assignments, too), We were finally asked to come and meet with a member of the bishopric.  We talked about what  the callings would be, if we'd be doing the same thing (like co-teachers in primary), and were pretty excited to finally have callings.  They called Ben to be the secretary in the young men's presidency.  We were excited for his calling but, sad that I still had no calling. 

Eventually, (about a month later) I was called in to meet with a member of the bishopric and was called to be a primary teacher.  I was excited.  I had substituted in primary a couple weeks and would also be co-teaching with another teacher.  When the year changed so did our class. We would be teaching the 6 and 7 year olds.

There are 6 kinds who come on a regular basis and all are from very active families.  It has been fun teaching them because half of them are going to turn 8 and be baptized this year.  I had some lofty ideas about how our class would be: reverent, spiritual, lots of willing cooperation, a pretty decent understanding of the gospel basics.  Boy, was I mistaken.  Don't get me wrong.  Most of the kids in the class are great.  They listen once they've had time to share something from their week.  They answer questions.  They read scriptures (if they have them).  And I do realize that they are only 6 and 7 so it isn't going to be spiritual or reverent all the time.

But, there have been some Sundays where my patience has been pushed too far.  One boy in particular has decided he doesn't like me because I won't let him get away with goofing off or distracting the other kids.  I asked him to be reverent, listen, sit still, etc and then had to tell him if he wasn't going to behave I'd have to get his parents all in one 35 minute class. Slowly my co-teacher and I have been able to make it possible to get through an entire lesson each Sunday and still manage to have a class of happy kids.

Even though we have made significant progress in the past 3 months, I still have felt like I could do more to help the kids understand what we are teaching and make it stick with them.  I haven't felt like I have been making a very big impact on the kids.  However, today I got some encouragement.  The first child in our class is getting baptized in a couple of weeks, and she wants me to speak at her baptism! I was so happy when I got the email from her mom asking if I could do it!  It makes me feel like I really am helping them develop their testimonies of Jesus Christ.