Sharing Time:

I Belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

By Laurel Rohlfing

For thus shall my church be called in the last days, even The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (D&C 115:4).

Over 1.3 million children around the world belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They speak different languages, wear different styles of clothes, and live in different kinds of houses. They live on every continent—in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia—and on the isles of the sea. Can you find Bangalore, India, and Surabaya, Indonesia, on a map? That’s where some children who belong to the Church live.

Many children who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints go to church in large brick, wood, or stone meetinghouses that have many rooms. Children in Nairobi, Kenya, often hold their meetings under large banyan trees. Children in Bangalore, India, hold Primary on the flat rooftops of houses. In the Philippines, some children go to Primary in nipa huts that stand on bamboo stilts and have woven bamboo walls. Many children in Guatemala have church in cabañas (homes made with mud walls and thatched roofs). And in the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama, children often attend Primary in buildings made of corn husks.

When we belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it doesn’t matter where we live, what language we speak, or what kind of building we meet in, because we all believe the same important principles. Some of the more important ones are—

1. Jesus Christ is at the head of the Church.

2. There is a prophet to guide us.

3. The correct teachings of Jesus are in the scriptures.

4. We have the blessings of the priesthood—the power and authority to act in God’s name.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased” (D&C 1:30).

Instructions

To help you remember the principles on which The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built, cut out the labeled blocks and glue them where they fit on the dotted outline of the meetinghouse.

Priesthood: the power and authority to act in God’s name

Jesus Christ: the head of the Church

A Prophet: to guide us

Scriptures: the correct teachings of Jesus

Illustrated by Julie Young