We went to church today at the Abomosu ward. It’s only a 15-20 minute walk from where we
live. One little girl, named Evo, sat on
my lap during sacrament. She was the
cutest, little six-year-old girl with the biggest black eyes and curliest
eyelashes I have ever seen. She sat
there and played with my hands all throughout fast and testimony meeting. She is such a sweet, loving girl. Later, I saw her in primary and when I smiled
and waved at her, she got this super bashful smile on her face…haha it was so
cute. Her twin sister, Ata, was one of
the little girls who held my hand for almost 2 hours the other day as I roamed
through the market. They are both
absolutely adorable, and don’t tell anyone, but they are secretly my favorite.
Primary! Wow!
That was an interesting experience. Emily, Whitney, and I decided it might be fun
to attend the primary here in this ward since they have so many little
children. Well, we walked into the
Junior Primary room and were about to take our seats with some children in the
back, when... SURPRISE! The Primary president asked us to teach the lesson and
sharing time because the teacher wasn’t there! We, of course, without a moment
of hesitation, jumped right to it! She
quickly gave us a lesson manual, said a prayer with us and the children, and
was out the door, leaving us with twenty little black kids just staring at us
like we were ghosts.
There we were, not knowing any of the kids, or what to teach
them, or how to communicate with them. We finally figured out, through a couple
of English words and many, many hand gestures, that they knew how to sing “I am
a Child of God.” So we sang that. And
then we sang it five more times. But
what to do next? We still had an hour
and a half left. We struggled through a
couple of other simple songs and tried to get them to say what they were
grateful for. Finally, the Primary
President came back in and we were able to use her as a translator! Thank
heavens! I was getting a little worried… There’s only so much you can do when
they have no idea what you are saying.
I was very impressed how well behaved all of the African
children were. As I watched them both in
sacrament meeting and primary, I noticed how quietly they sat in the seats and
how well they listened to their parents and teachers. They are much more disciplined than kids in
the states. But why? Is it because of
the way kids are raised in the African culture.
I’m not saying one way of bringing up your children is better than the other. I just couldn’t help but notice how obedient
they are to their elders.
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