Matt 10-12; Mark 2; Luke 7 & 11 (March 11-17)

These 12 Jesus Sent Forth

The object of this lesson is to review the similarities between the way the Savior ran the church and how we run it today. We learn about the apostles then and now as well as keeping the Sabbath Day holy. 

Invite Sharing:

Ask the children to share something they learned about this week during their family lessons.

Teach the Doctrine:

Brian and I are at an advantage this year that we are teaching children 7-8 year olds which means that we can really pick and choose activities from both the "younger children" and the "older children" sections.

Beforehand, gather together:

 1. Download the "Price is Right" theme song.
2. Before the children arrive, draw a layout of how all the original 12 apostles are connected or a fun fact about them. (More info in activity 1).
3. Cut out pictures of the current 12 apostles and the current presidency (this can be found in the latest conference issue of the Ensign). Print out fun facts.
4. Make a tray of cookies with construction paper and write down an appropriate Sunday activity on the back of each cookie.

Some Activities We Plan to Do:

1. The Apostles then...
On the board, before the children arrived, I wrote how all the apostles were connected or a little fact about each one.
1. Simon = Peter who is brothers with 2. Andrew
3. James and his brother 4. John
5. Philip        6. Bartholomew   7. Thomas      8. Matthew the Publican (tax collector, civil engineer)
9. James the 'beloved'   10. Simon the Canaanite  11. Judas (betrayed Jesus)   12. Thaddeus

We taught how Christ needed 12 apostles to help him spread the word and teach the people about the new laws and to perform miracles. So he set them apart with the power of God and they left their lives, put their jobs on hold to travel with Jesus and teach with him. We still have a prophet who has 12 apostles today and in order to be a prophet one day, you must first serve as an apostle. You become a prophet by being the apostle who has served the longest.

2. The Apostle is Right!
Before hand, cut out pictures of the apostles- this can be found in the latest conference edition of the Ensign. Paste on the board or around the room. Then print out the fun facts and have the children one by one take a fact and try to match it to the apostle or member of the presidency. At the end, show them which ones they got right. Our kids found some of them to be hilarious!

This person performed the first ever open-heart surgery in Utah.

Russel M. Nelson

This person began working at the age of 11 at a radio repair shop, which lead to a career when he was much older as a radio personality and engineer.  

Dallin H. Oaks

When this person (known to most as Hal) was called to be an apostle, he told the prophet, President Hinckley that he must have the wrong number.  

Henry B. Eyring

 This apostle is directly related to Joseph Smith. 

M. Russell Ballard

This apostle said Goodbye to his parents when he left for his England mission and then said Goodbye to them again when he left England, as they were called to serve in his exact same mission!

Jeffrey R. Holland

This apostle has mentioned planes in every talk he has ever given.

Dieter Uchtdorf

This apostle was a surprise baby for his parents. There are 15 years between him and his brother. 

David A. Bednar

This apostle was missionary companions with Jeffrey R. Holland. 

Quentin L. Cook

This apostle met his wife at a BYU Game but forgot her name. He waited until the yearbook came out, found her picture and called her to ask her on a date. 

D. Todd Christofferson

This apostle grew up on a dairy farm in Pocatello, Idaho.

Neal L. Andersen

This apostle served as mission president in the NYC, NY Mission and finally got permission to have missionaries teach on Ellis Island (where the Statue of Liberty is).

Ronald A. Rasband

As a child, this apostle joined his Dad every Sunday afternoon visiting 30 widows. He said this taught him Christlike love.

Gary E. Stevenson

This apostle is the 100^th apostle to be called into the church.

Dale G. Renlund

 This apostle’s parents got married 3 times… to each other!

Garrit D. Gong

This apostle served on a mission with his wife twice. Once when he was 19 (that’s how they met) and once when they were much older as a couple.

Ulisses Soares

3. What can we do on a Sunday?

I made a little cookie sheet out of construction paper and also 12 cookies with examples of Sunday appropriate activities on the back of them. The kids would come up, pick a cookie and tell the others. At the end, we gave everyone their own cookies to write other ideas. 

Some ideas we all came up with were:

Reading a book, learning about a new topic, playing a board game, looking through old family photo albums and asking your parents questions, visiting a grandparent or writing a letter, getting your siblings together to create a mini movie- after you're done practicing have your parents tape it and watch it together and laugh.

5. Treat.
You could give some cookies- However, today was St. Patrick's day, also Brian's birthday is on Tuesday, so we had mini St. Patty's Day cupcakes.

Encourage them to share one of the fun facts they learned about one of the apostles, and to do one of the activities they suggested during our cookie game.

I hope this has been helpful to you. See you next week!