Primary a Path to Conversion, Leaders Teach in Auxiliary Training Meetings
Contributed By By Marianne Holman, Church News staff writer, and Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News assistant editor
Primary general presidency: Jean A. Stevens first counselor; Rosemary M. Wixom, president; and Cheryl A. Esplin, second counselor.
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The purpose of Primary is to help children along the path to conversion, said Rosemary M. Wixom during auxiliary training for Primary leaders.
Watch the Primary training session online in English or Spanish.
Speaking in the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Sister Wixom, Primary general president, asked those in attendance to focus on the “why” of Primary.
“We want [Primary children] to feel, to love, to act,” she said. “We want them to have a testimony. … Testimony means declaration. We want to go one step further. Conversion means to act. We want these children to have and feel the seeds of conversion in their lives.”
Sister Wixom and her counselors, Jean A. Stevens and Cheryl A. Esplin, told ward and stake Primary leaders that they can assist parents in planting those seeds of conversion. Sister Wixom said the process of conversion begins at a very young age. “It ideally begins in the home, where the parents love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, and all their might. And then they teach their children.”
She said children will understand what it means to be converted “only if we take the time to teach them.” And, she added, if parents and Primary leaders don’t teach them, “the world will.”
“What we do and how we teach makes such a difference,” said Sister Stevens.
Sister Esplin reminded the leaders, “We are not teaching lessons, we are teaching children.”
Members of the Primary general board also gave presentations on using music to teach gospel principles and on the resources for Primary leaders found on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
