From as early as I can remember, our family went to church together, had family prayer every night, and we children were taught at home to love the Savior. Mother loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and she was our main teacher and role model. I know that my Dad had a strong testimony, too, having served a mission in Holland. But as is the case in homes today it was Mother who spent the most time with us. It seems that she always had a scripture on the tip of her tongue to fit any occasion that would arise. Some of the time we hated that because how could you argue with the words of the Lord. You could disagree with parents, but how could you claim to know better than God? One of scriptures she often quoted to us that has been embedded in my mind all my life was. "I, the Lord am bound when you do what I say; but if ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10). "Have you prayed about it?" and "You and the Lord can do anything", were other of her favorite words of counsel to us (not scripture, but good counsel). Prayer has remained a very important part of life. Mother loved the scriptures and had a lot of time to read and study. She also read us stories from the Bible and the Book of Mormon when we were small. One of the books I remember her reading was "Voice From The Dust". We as a family didn't read the actual scriptures together as we are encouraged to do today. (Children are much smarter and more spiritually mature today than we were. You are raising the "Saturday's Warriors" and it is very evident.)
We always attended church, Sunday School, Primary, and Young Women Mutual Improvement Association(YWMIA) as it was called. The schedule for these meetings was much different when I was young. Priesthood meeting was held early Sunday morning followed an hour later by Sunday School. This allowed fathers to get home and pick up their families. Sunday School was for everyone, including the children. I 'll never forget one of my Sunday School teachers, Sister Mae B. Glazier. I was probably about eight years old when I was in her class. She kept a scrapbook for each of her students with summaries of every lesson, pictures to go with the lessons, an attendance chart for the year and a personal message for each individual student. All this was hand written and presented to each of us at the end of the year. She must have spent hours and hours on those books. Sacrament meeting was held in the late afternoon or early evening on Sunday, so we would come home from Sunday School, have dinner, rest a while, and then go back to church. Primary, Relief Society, and YWMIA were held during the week. We would walk directly from school to the church on Primary day, a distance of a little over a mile, and then walk home afterward, another mile. The whole primary program was quite different when I attended. The classes each had a name like they do today including Moonbeams, Sunbeams, Stars, and I can't remember the rest of the younger ones. The nine, ten, and eleven-year olds were called Homemakers with the individual classes named Larks, Bluebirds and Seagulls. During these last three years we had felt bandlos on which were placed felt awards that were earned by meeting certain requirements. The were in the shape of circles, triangles, and diamonds with "links" in between each. These were in the shape of a link on a chain. I still have my bandlo, although it has a few holes in it courtesy of some hungry moths.
All classes met for opening exercises before going to class. We learned songs (some of the same ones children sing today...do you still sing "Little Purple Pansies?) and listened to short stories. But the best part was marching around the chapel to deposit our pennies for the Primary Children's Hospital in the chimney of a small wood replica of the hospital. As we marched, we sang this song:
"Five pennies make a nickel. Two nickels make a dime.
Ten dimes will make a dollar, And we'll make it shine.
It's for the crippled children, who cannot walk or run,
Who have to lie in bed all day, and cannot join our fun.
So let us be unselfish and bring our pennies here
To help the crippled children to become stronger year by year."
I still remember the words and music to this song. We would bring our pennies to school on Primary day and try not to lose them before we got to the Church. Primary would sometimes put on special programs for the family...not for Sacrament Meeting as they do today...but small musical productions. They would even rent costumes for everyone. I never got a main part (I envied those who did because they got the prettiest costumes). Primary was a very important part of early Christian upbringing.
Young Men and Young Women programs were also very different. I'll write about that at a later time. I just want all my posterity to know how important Christ and His restored church has been in my life. It has given me strength, hope, peace, comfort, guidance, and an eternal perspective to, all the challenges of this life. It has given me knowledge as to who I am, why I am here on earth, and what lies ahead. I am especially grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ, making it possible for me to return to my Heavenly home to be with Him and my Father. I am grateful to my parents and teachers who taught me the gospel and to my progenitors who first joined the church in Europe and sacrificed much for what they believed. I feel blessed to have such a great heritage.
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