Kelsey's First Talk

     It's the end of Kelsey's first year in primary and she finally was asked to give a talk!  The topic was, "I Can Be a Missionary Now."  To prepare for her talk, I decided to ask her what she knew about missionaries.

Me: Do you know what missionaries do?
Kelsey: It's when you be very, very quiet at church?
Me: Well, that's being reverent.  Do you know who the missionaries are?  Sometimes we have them over for dinner.
Kelsey: (nods head)
Me: And do you know what the missionaries do?
Kelsey: They eat.
Me: Yes, and do you know what they do when they aren't eating dinner at our house?
Kelsey: No.

     So we talked about how missionaries teach people about Jesus and the gospel.  Kelsey informed me that she doesn't know a lot about Jesus yet but I explained to her that she has a mom and dad and primary teachers who are already teaching her.  The missionaries teach grown-ups and their families who don't know about coming to church.  I asked her what she could do to be a missionary.  She really had no idea and I can't blame her.  All of her friends are LDS.  Since she doesn't go to school yet she doesn't have much interaction with kids outside of church and park day and her preschool class, all kids from church.  So that was about as far as our conversation went.
     I wrote a short talk for her (she's only 4 so I feel no guilt for that!) and read it through with her a few times.  She told me she was scared to give a talk.  I told her that it wasn't in front of everyone, just in primary.  She informed me that there are still a lot of people in primary.  But I promised I would be there to help and that seemed to make her feel better.
     Grandma Moffitt and Grandma Poetschlag came over after Sacrament Meeting to hear Kelsey speak.  When it was finally time for her talk, she got me really worried.  I must have said the first sentence 5 times before she finally repeated it.  But once she got the courage and started speaking, she was able to finish.  She did get a little quiet sometimes and I had to remind her to speak louder so everyone could hear her.  But she did great!  I'm sure she won't remember the things she said, but I know that getting past her fears and getting up in front of the primary kids to give a talk made her feel really good about herself.  Way to go Kelsey!

Waiting to give her talk.

This was the talk she gave:

     When my dad was 19 years old, he was a missionary in Taiwan.  When my mom was 21 years old, she was a missionary in Argentina.
     Missionaries teach people about Jesus and the gospel.  They teach people how to be with their families forever.
     We don't have to wait until we are big to be a missionary.  We can be a missionary now.  We can tell our friends about Jesus and the gospel.  We can invite our friends to come to church with us.  Heavenly Father promised that if we help someone come back to Him, we will be very happy.
     When my grandpa was a little boy, his family did not go to church.  Then one day his friend invited him to go to primary.  He started to go to primary with his friend all the time.  Then his family started to go to church too.  Then my grandpa's family got sealed in the temple.
     I am glad my grandpa's friend was a good missionary when he was in primary.  We can be missionaries now too.