Bonus Round

So, here's five more, and a response to a request from Amberly:

1. Running with K this afternoon. K is trying out for the wrestling team in a couple of weeks. The tryout is simply running five miles, and he (and we) weren't sure if he could do it. So R and I decided to help him out and run with him. We went out to Mission Trails Park, and K ran 4.5 miles and I ran 4. We'll keep at it, but I'm sure that he'll do just fine. His jiujitsu experience is going to help him pick up wrestling.
2. My awesome hairstylist, Morgan. She wasn't upset at all that I was 20 minutes late, and my hair is cute again. She also cracked me up reciting lines from Zoolander, since we were talking about Malaysia.
3. My sweet husband who was forgiving of me being upset with him for a communication error.
4. A great presidency meeting. I think that we got a lot done.
5. Everyone else's "Daily Five". It seems to be spreading!

So, what wisdom do I have to impart on teaching the Articles of Faith? Hmmm...I always feel like I am about ten steps behind everyone else, so this will probably be obvious to everyone else, but here goes:

For one thing, I love songs to help me remember things--names of the latter-day prophets, the preamble to the constitution, the books of the bible, etc. That didn't work with K, since he really isn't into music, but it does work for some.

But, just memorizing the words doesn't add to really understanding the principles taught in the Articles of Faith. Our bishop uses the third Sunday of every month to teach the Primary kids what the articles really mean. If they're too young to have it memorized, or just have a hard time reciting from memory, he tries to get the kids to at least understand the concepts presented.

Everything kind of flows in a logical pattern. The most important things first: "we believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

Okay, now let's go to the beginning of things: "We believe that man will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's trangression."

So, if we're going to be punished for our own sins, how can we ever be saved? "We believe that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel."

Now what do we need to know? Well, "we believe that the first principles and ordinances of the gospel are: first, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost." If you didn't have faith in Christ, would you repent? Once you have repented, you need to be baptized (of course, repentance is an ongoing process). And when you have been baptized with water, you need baptism by fire, or the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Who performs those ordinances? "We believe that a man must be called of God by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer the ordinances thereof."

And so on. Get the pattern? Being able to rattle off the words is fine, but there needs to be understanding of the concepts in order to be an effective missionary and to strengthen our own testimony of the gospel.