The Organization of the Primary

Many years ago, Aurelia Spencer Rogers, a mother of 12 children, was worried about the neighborhood boys. They played and ran through town day and night. She thought they needed more strict discipline. Sister Rogers decided to speak with Sister Eliza R. Snow, the Relief Society general president. Together, Sister Rogers and Sister Snow decided to create an organization called Primary. President John Taylor suggested that boys and girls attend.

The first day of Primary was held on Sunday, August 25, 1878, in the Farmington Rock Chapel in Utah. There were 215 children there. Today, 131 years later, more than one million children from all over the world belong to Primary.

The main purpose of Primary is to teach children the gospel of Jesus Christ. Children who attend Primary learn to live the gospel. Girls prepare to be righteous young women, and boys prepare to be worthy to receive the priesthood.

1. What do you like about Primary?

2. What do you think it would have been like to be in the first Primary?

3. Choose someone in the picture. What do you think he or she was thinking?

The First Meeting of the Primary Association by Lynn Fausett and Gordon Cope © IRI

I think the girl in the yellow dress wants to sing a song. I’d choose “Come with Me to Primary.”