Teaching April's Song: My Redeemer Lives, Hymn 135

Song about Jesus: Hymn 135, My Redeemer Lives, by Gordon B. Hinckley

• Introduction- It’s fast Sunday.

What does that mean?

What is special about Fast Sunday?

--Testimonies

• What is a Testimony?

What do we bare testimony of?

What is the purpose of prophets?

--one purpose is to bare testimony of Jesus Christ

Show picture of Joseph Smith

Read D&C 76:22-24

This is Joseph Smith’s testimony of Jesus Christ.

Show picture of Gordon B. Hinckley

Read Hymn 135

This is Pres Hinckley’s testimony of Jesus Christ.

• By singing his testimony we make it our own testimony.

1^st verse

• I know that my Redeemer Lives

Gospel Art Picture-“Mary and the Resurrected Lord” 62186

• Triumphant Savior, Son of God

Gospel Art Picture- “the Nativity” 62495

Or any picture of Baby Jesus or the Nativity

• Victorious Over Pain and Death

Gospel Art Picture- “The Crucifixion” 62505, “Gethsemane” 62175

Or any picture of the crucifixion

• My King, My leader, and My Lord.

Gospel Art Picture- "The Second Coming", "The Resurrected Jesus Christ"

2^nd verse

• He Lives, my one sure rock of faith

Gospel Art Picture- “Stilling the Storm” 62139

• The one bright hope of Men on Earth

Gospel Art Picture- “Jesus Appears to the Nephites”, “Isaiah Writes of Christ’s Birth”, “The World”

Or any picture of the Earth or a really bright light

• The beacon to a better way

Gospel Art Picture- “Baptism”, “The Baptism of Jesus” 62133, “Boy Being Baptized” 62018

Or any picture of baptism or a temple

• The light beyond the veil of death

Gospel Art Picture- “Jesus Blessing Jairus’s Daugter”

3^rd verse

• Oh, give me thy sweet Spirit still

Gospel Art Picture- “The Gift of the Holy Ghost”

• The peace that comes alone from thee

Gospel Art Picture- “Search the Scriptures”, “Enos Praying”

Or any picture of prayer

• The faith to walk the lonely road

Gospel Art Picture- “Moroni Hides the Plates”, “the Prodigal Son”

Or a picture of a path or road

• That leads to thine eternity.

Gospel Art Picture- “Young couple going to the Temple”, “Jesus the Christ” 62572

Or any picture of the temple or Chirst
The numbers are references from a really old book so I don't know how good they are. The links are all to the Church website, all pictures are printable there or check them out from your building's library. Most (if not all) are in your gospel art kits.

We Have Signed Papers

On Saturday we went up to Tucson and met with the Escrow officer. We signed a ton of papers, I can't believe it took so long. But we have now done everything that we need to do. On Tues Escrow should close, the refund of what is left of our earnest money will arrive by FedEx on Wen. And somewhere in there we should receive the keys to OUR NEW HOME. Finally I can unpack and do EVERYTHING as I want. And I can try to set up a nursery.
We are holding our breath, and waiting for Tues.

4th Sunday Activity: Game for Song Review

For the Free week I created a game for just the three songs that we have already learned. Since the youngest children are still having struggling with the first two songs we've learned. I wanted to find a way to focus on just the songs we've learned so far. Keep the songs fresh in their mind.

Preparation:

1. Make a sign for each song: 'I Lived in Heaven', 'How Firm a Foundation', and 'My Eternal Family'
2. Print out random the lines from the 3 songs, I did about 7 from each song and focused mostly on non 1st verses
3. paste lines onto construction paper

How to play the game:

1. Place the songs up on the board (up high), and the lines somewhere visible but not right under the the song titles.
2. Sing through all three sings, all verses.
   
3. Have a child come up and pick a line.
   
4. Then have the children decide what song does that line belong to.
   
5. If its not apparent for the children, have the piano play the line, and then all sing with the piano.
6. Once the line has been identified, then sing the verse that the line belongs to. (Depending on the time you have)

Update: Tested Game

• In Primary today we did this game. I had no idea how well it would go but I figured that JR primary would have a hard time with the concept but still have fun playing and that SR primary would thing it was all way too easy and go through them super fast.
• JR-- They did really well. Most of the time they had to think about it, and I had the pianist play the line. They'd figure it out. We numbered the songs on the board. I found this helped because the really little children wouldn't say the name of the song out loud for me, but they would say a number or raise their fingers, and that was with very little coaching. I think they enjoyed the game a lot. In fact more so than the SR. We were able to complete about half of the lines I had prepared.
• SR-- We ended up with extra time, so not only did we go through them faster than with JR primary, the extra time aloud us to complete all the lines prepared. But it was just about perfect. There were even some of the lines the threw them a little.
• What was different than planned?? -- Well instead of singing the whole verse we just sang the line on the paper plus the next line. I think that worked out well. Overall I think it helped the children recognize which song was which much more. They did great.
  

House Update

We were suppose to close last week, but the appraiser did not complete the appraisal on time so we were not able to close. I'm frustrated that we aren't closing this week either, and that it is entirely out of my control. So now it looks like our new closing date will be March 24th. I just hope and pray that we can close by our new date. We have already postponed painting, and our original moving date. Most of the rental house is packed, I just don't know what else to pack because we still have to live in this house. GRRRRRRRRrrrr. We did meet some of our soon to be new neighbors yesterday and they seem like super nice people and will make good neighbors. I hope they thought the same of us.

Focused Activity: My Eternal Family

How it went:
So it went much better than I thought it would. The children, especially the younger children really enjoyed drawing the pictures- they were extremely proud of their artwork and wanted to show it. They got much more into this activity than the older children.
In the end this is what I did:
JR--- we only drew pictures for the first verse. I gave all the children in the same class the same line to draw. Since we have more than 4 classes some classes had the same picture. I tried to give the same to two smaller classes. Then we had one child from each line come forward and hold their pictures up. Everyone else would stand in their own spot while their line was being sung and hold their picture up. Then we switched out the children in the front for other children who drew for that line and sang it again. Since there were no pictures drawn for the chorus-everyone stood, sang and held up their picture. We were able to sing through the song 4 times before singing time was over. The first time through the concept of standing at their seat was lost, however the more times we sang it they understood and had fun, everyone was standing.
SR--- we did both verses. Each child got two pages, one from each verse. I mixed the lines up around the room as much as possible. Although they handled the two pictures well enough, I think I was a little confusing doing both verses at the same time. Having a child come to the front to hold their picture was the most confusing of all- it made for a little disorder. Other than that I was extremely happy with how well it went and how much the children enjoyed it.

• The Idea: To have the children draw their own pictures for each line.
• Preparation: Have each line of the song written/printed on separate pieces of paper. Have enough copies for each child to have one line.
• The Plan: Review the song with the teaching visuals. Then pass out the pages for the children to draw their own pictures. If you feel you have time, talk about what each line means.
• For JR: Each class will have the same line. This way the teachers will not have to explain each different line they have, only help all their children know what the line is.
• For SR: Mix up all the lines.

Give then children about 5 minutes to draw their pictures. While they are coloring have the pianist play “My Eternal Family” over and over.

Don’t waste too much time having the children draw pictures.

Here are some ideas on what to do for the next part

• Have the children stay in their seat and raise their pictures when you get to that line in the song.
• Have one child from each line come to the front and hold their pictures up. Sing it over and over and have different children come up each time to hold their pictures (use each time as an opportunity to have the children put the lines in order).
• Put the pictures, clumped by line (use this as an opportunity to have the children put the lines in order) on the front board/wall. Then sing the song pointing to the set of pictures. If you want to get more children individually involved you could have a child come up to point to the pictures.

The idea of a focused activity is to help cement the song in their memories. It is to give them a second way to associate with the song besides the way you taught the song originally. During this time you want to sing it as many songs as possible.

CHOCOLÁTE

This weekend my friends (and former co-workers) Becky and Raianne came to visit Cory and I. We’ve been trying to find a good weekend for a while and it finally worked out. I was so happy to have them visit. I love see my friends and since moving down here I never have the time to see anyone. They drove down from Phoenix and arrived Friday late afternoon. Whenever friends or family make the trip down here to see us, there is the feeling that we should show them the area. I guess it is that way just about anywhere you live. When you have visitors is the only time you do the touristy thing. My brother, who was on a mission, had asked if driving up the canyon was the only thing to do down here; since every time we talked about having visitors we talked about driving up the canyon. It’s not that it’s the only thing to do, but that we love showing off how diverse and beautiful the area is. There are lots of things to do in Cochise County. We have a military post, the mountains, there is a mall in Sierra Vista, Tombstone, Bisbee, the Mexico border… and that isn’t even counting sheep or cows. Friday night was spent having dinner and talking. Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at a cute restaurant called the ‘Country House’, we showed them the house we’re buying (side note our closing date has been pushed back due to an appraiser who is claiming that he never received the order). That afternoon we drove to Bisbee. I drive to Bisbee twice a month to collect DNA samples for court ordered paternity testing, but I have never stopped in ‘Old Bisbee’ and walked around. We walked up and down the historic district and enjoyed looking at all the art stores. But the best store of all was at the end of the historic area in a little shop called CHOCOLÁTE. It’s this little shop owned by a husband and wife. He is a retired Navy man and decided that after retiring he wanted to live off his retirement and become a chocolatier- opening a little shop in Bisbee Arizona. They only make dark chocolate, starting from the coco beans themselves. When you enter their shop you can smell the most wonderful aroma of chocolate. He will teach you about the different types of beans and how they differ and gives out small samples of the types of finished products from what he is currently using.

• West African beans- make what we’d recognize as normal everyday chocolate
• Madagascar beans- make chocolate with citrus like bite
• Venezuela beans- product is bitter and has a heavier after taste.

In general these chocolate are not processed anywhere near the level of store bought chocolate and also being dark are not as sweet. For Valentines’ day my husband got me a box of these homemade chocolates. At the shop on Saturday I had the most wonderful cup of Hot Chocolate I have EVER had in my entire life (and I drink hot chocolate like other people drink coffee- at lot and many different types, brands, and places). It was so amazing I wanted my cup never to end. Hot Chocolate will never be the same. They make it fresh there in the store from shredded unsweetened chocolate. I even asked if they sell it with instructions to make at home- alas they do not. Someday I will return to the little chocolate shop and enjoy another cup of the most amazing hot chocolate ever, but till then farewell little chocolate.
http://spiritedchocolate.com/

My Eternal Family- Tested

This last Sunday I taught ‘My Eternal Family’. I will be honest, this is not my favorite song. However I feel, the children really got into it- especially the little children. I used Matilda’s idea of teaching the chorus first. That had not occurred to me but it worked really well.

I started by relating ‘How Firm a Foundation’ and telling them that we were going to build a house. We learned the chorus and then put the roof off to the side. Then we talked about the foundation, followed by building our house (learning the chorus). With SR primary I got through both verses. That isn’t that surprising, they normally learn more. I was able to do the whole first verse and the chorus with the JR primary. They were picking it up really well and all the children were singing- even my new little sunbeams who haven’t even tried to sing one word yet. It was good to have them singing, it makes me feel like I am making progress.

I got feedback from two of the JR primary teachers that their children were singing the song and humming it during their classes. When I first heard this song I didn’t want to teach it, I talked to my mom and she said that although it is not her type of song either- it’s the type of song children will take to and love it. I think my mom is going to be right. They are taking to it already.

Baby Update

So originally the doctor told us he thought we were having a girl. Since he wasn’t 100% sure he suggested doing one of those 3D ultrasounds. My in-laws decided they wanted the ultrasound done and they paid for it. While in Phoenix to see my brother come from his mission, I went and did the ultrasound. The advantage I found of doing it over just having your doctor look is- in the doctor’s office they only have 5 minutes to look before they are backing up the waiting room. In contrast, at one of these private ultrasound places, they have a full 20 minutes to look. This made a big difference for us. It was very obvious in just a few minutes that we had a boy- not a girl. I had more disappointment this time learning it was a boy. I truly did not have a preference which I have. I had felt a little disappointment when the doctor said it was a girl. But this time I felt a lot finding it wasn’t a girl. I think the difference was I had started to become very comfortable with the idea that we were going to have a girl. I had started calling it ‘she’ and seriously considering the name Dorothy for her. I had also started planning the nursery, it was going to be Strawberry Shortcake. So I think the disappointment came from the mindset I was in. I am so grateful not to have found out the error on delivery day. So it’s a boy, and we are thinking we’re going to name him Alistair Wayne. He looks beautiful and normal. He already has a full head of hair. Now I’m thinking we are going to do the nursery in sea turtles and seersucker material. I have two months left and I hope they go really quickly.