Help! I've been called to the Primary Presidency!

[MormonMama]

I've been called as the Second Counselor in the Primary Presidency! I'm scared to death! I've always been a teacher (usually of Sunbeams), never a member of any presidency and I have NO IDEA what to do. I know the Primary President is going to go over some stuff with me tomorrow night, but starting next week I have to give Sharing Time lessons for the whole month of September and I have no idea what to do! How do I hold the kids' interests for 15 minutes?! I can barely keep it for 5 in class!

Also, I thought they said I would be in charge of Activity Days. That is going to be VERY hard since I don't get home from work until almost 6pm every night and there will be many days when I work later. DH has the car for work on Saturdays, so that won't work either.

And on top of all that, I've already warned them that I'm pregnant and I have had pre-term labor with all of my previous pregnancies and will probably be on bed rest in another couple of months. They didn't seem to think that would be a problem with my calling!

I'm scared to death and wondering if I can really handle this calling!

[Guest]

I've had this calling before. It's an easy calling!

Sharing Time is easy for me. The lessons and ideas to teach it is already in the Outline for Sharing Time for the entire year. So, I would prepare all my lessons for the month in one day. Now, I have a secret... I prepared all my lessons using sugardoodle.net! I went with the lessons heavy on visual aids. It takes a little bit more time to prepare but kids tend to pay attention this way.

Here, I got you the first 2 weeks of September already:

1st week of September - its actually from February last year but it works for next week. I love this bowling idea! The kids would love this too I'm sure.

Pergler's Primary Place: Ten Commandments Sharing Time

Here's for the 2nd week.

Pergler's Primary Place: I Should Respect and Worship God Sharing time

As far as activity days, we called somebody to do Activity Days. I just had to manage it and make sure everything is going well there. I also managed cub scouts. We had good scout leaders so I didn't have to do much except make sure they have money to buy belt loops and such. The secretary did all the record keeping. And then I just needed to attend meetings which was no biggie.

Hope this helps.

[MormonMama]

Thanks! I just hope I only have to manage Activity Days and not actually run them. I get home late in the evenings, so that wouldn't work, and on Saturdays I have no transportation but we also can't do it at my house (for various reasons), so that's no good either. I'm going to talk to the Primary President tonight and discuss these things with her and see EXACTLY what is expected of me.

[Connie]

Being in a primary presidency is loads easier than being a primary teacher, at least it was in my experience.

[MormonMama]

Thanks Connie! I hope it's the same for me. I'm more worried about the time constraints than anything. Because of my job, I'm away from home for almost 12 hours a day.

The Primary President ended up being sick this weekend so I won't get a chance to talk to her about it until later this week. I'm supposed to teach Sharing Time all next month, so I'm a bit stressed about it!

[Connie]

For me it really didn't take up much more time than being a primary teacher did. If you have time to come up with a 40-minute class time for Sunbeams, then a 15-minute sharing time is a piece of cake. It is a bigger group of kids to but a much shorter amount of time. Plus you hopefully have really great primary teachers who are there helping the kids be reverent. In our ward, we didn't do the one person does sharing time for a whole month, but the people i've talked to who did it that way really liked it because then they got two months off. I'm sure if you have to miss a week, the president or other counselor would be able to take over.

As far as managing Activity Days, you are basically a middle man (woman in this case) between the leader of Activity Days and the primary president. You basically report any support needs, concerns, etc., that the leader may have to the primary president and then help the primary president in whatever you decide as a presidency needs to be done with those needs, concerns, etc. In our ward, the 2nd counselor was over cub scouts and the 1st counselor was over activity days. So whichever one you wind up being "over," it's the same. I was the 1st counselor and it was only very rarely that i even had to attend one of the activity day meetings.

The only other thing i had to do that took up time was presidency meetings and meetings with the member of the bishopric over primary. Your president will most certainly work with you and your schedule to determine when those are so that you can attend. We would meet with the bishopric member usually just one Sunday a month at a specified time. Presidency meetings for us were, again, just once a month. How often you have them will be determined by your president.

Hope that helps. Try not to stress! I know that's like saying try not to breathe, but really i'm sure it will be great and you will be able to make it work out as a presidency. Just remember you are there to support the president, the teachers, the leaders and the children of the primary. But they are also there to support you! I think it will be a really great experience for you. I know it was for me.

p.s. sent you a PM with some other thoughts as well.

Edited August 26, 2012 by Connie

[MormonMama]

Thanks again Connie, it does help!

I also had a chance to talk to the Primary President today and got some reassurance there. They only do one or two activities a year and by the time we have another one I will probably be on bed rest or maternity leave so she said it would be no problem for her to just handle it if that's the case. And like you said, I would pretty much just be a middle man anyway. I feel so much better!

After talking to her and reading your posts, I feel EXCITED to teach next week! The PP offered to let me skip the month of September and trade with someone else, but I was afraid that if I did that then I wouldn't be physically able to do it later due to my pregnancy, so I figured it was best to get it done now. Plus, September's lessons are on the Ten Commandments, which seem pretty easy to me, lol!

Thanks again for all your advice and support! It has really helped me feel better and excited about my calling!