What we LOVED about our Sacrament Meeting Program

We did our Sacrament Meeting Program Yesterday! It was wonderful, they always are. The kids sang their hearts out and we all felt the Spirit. I asked the Senior Primary what they liked about the Program, here are some of their answers mixed with mine.

1. We started with "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ" and then one of our 11 year old girls introduced them by saying, "We are Primary Children from the Pheasant Pointe 1st Ward and WE BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS." (No presidency member spoke during our program.)
2. She, the 11 year old girl, also explained that they have not only been practicing their parts and their songs, but they have been praying that those who came to see them would feel the spirit. (Our Primary President did a Sharing time last month about why we do a Sacrament Meeting Program and invited everyone to pray that people would feel the spirit.)
3. The Senior Boys formed a Boys Choir and sang "Called to Serve." Loved it! My husband leaned over and said "That was cool." Only comment he made the whole time.
4. The Sunbeams sang "Kindness Begins with Me" all by themselves! 
5. No One Threw Up. Whew! Last year that wasn't the case.
6. Choose the Right! Everyone loved that song. We sang the first verse, then I turned around and lead the congregation on the 2nd and 3rd verses. I LOVED hearing those primary kids behind me join in on the chorus. 
7. The waves to family from little kids with huge smiles.
8. I LOVED what we did for "I Feel My Savior's Love." We all sang the first verse, then while the piano continued to play softly, six children gave their spoken parts. Then two girls sang the 2nd verse with all of the children joining in on the chorus. Repeat for verses 3 and 4. The timing was a little tricky, the pianist had the hardest part, but the effect was beautiful. 
9. Nephi's Courage. They blew me away, it sounded like there were 500 kids singing!
10. Feeling the Love Heavenly Father has for each of those kids. They sure love Him, too.

Singing Time After the Program. . .

Junior: I let them choose favorite songs and we played "Little Lost Lamb" where someone hides the lamb and then we sing louder as the person gets closer to finding the lamb.
Senior: We talked about our favorite parts of the program (see above list) They wrote down 1) their favorite Primary Song/Hymn and 2)a Primary Song or Hymn they would like to learn. We had Hymn Books and Primary Song books floating around so they could look through them. I gave them a time limit of two minutes and then I randomly chose from their papers for their favorite songs to sing.

Gethsemane was easily voted the favorite song. Again. They all want it to be in next year's Primary Program. We sang it in the last two programs so we didn't put it in this year's. I'm excited to teach them some of the songs they want to learn like I Stand all Amazed and Count Your Many Blessings. But we'll start that after Teacher Appreciation Week (next Sunday) and Thanksgiving and Christmas.