To celebrate the 135th anniversary of Primary, the church’s Twitter asked followers to share a favorite memory of Primary. I just now realized that when you toss in years at a time done served (mostly I jest!) spent in Activity Days and Scouting (twice), two stints in nursery, substitute teaching, and a host of other callings, I’ve spent most of my adult life serving in Primary (clearly I’m not grownup enough for Relief Society). I LOVE Primary. It amuses me, yes. But more importantly, the concepts taught in Primary are both simple true; the kids’ spirits are both sweet and strong. Yet I don’t think my favorite memories of Primary are exactly what the church’s official Twitter account is looking for. So I will share them with you. Here’s my top 5.

5. That time we talked about showing respect for God and making our way back to live with Him again by keeping a certain commandment and one of my favorite kids (they’re all my favorite) raised his hand in grave concern because, as he explained to the entire Primary, his mom breaks that commandment ALL the time. (I know and love his mom and am certain she is a good God-loving woman and I will see her in the Celestial Kingdom if by some miracle I make it there myself.)

4. Today when I had visitors share stories about answers to prayers. One story involved a sheepherder praying for help to find a rich man’s most expensive sheep and receiving his answer in an unusual way. In answer to his prayer, the sheepherder found he was physically blocked every time he tried to go the wrong direction (which was also the clearest path) and practically pushed up the hill when he finally decided to try another, more difficult, path. One of the kids raised his hand and asked why God needed to use a force field to answer that prayer.

3. Speaking of lost sheep: That one time I was nearly ready to call the police looking for a lost Primary child (the bishop’s daughter, of course). I’d seen her come in to Primary, but she was nowhere to be found. I had already alarmed alerted her mother and I was nearing full-on panic attack. Then we realized the girl was asleep across a chair and her teacher’s lap, obscured from our view by a row of chairs.

2. Tie between a. fielding questions about dinosaurs and the creation and b. playing Angry Birds during music time.

1. Two words: Zombie Apocalypse. It wasn’t much of a stretch, so I worked the words into the script for the Primary program, assigning a talk that mentioned that phrase to one of our brightest and most clever (read: smarter than me) outgoing Primary children. (Candy bars may have been exchanged in return.) The best part was when the bishop repeated the words in a relevant way during his concluding remarks and all were amused and edified. (In retrospect, I really should have held out on that for my final Primary program, because I can’t top that.) It’s a good thing Primary kids are naturally cute and precocious because no matter. The Primary program continues to be (for everyone who still has a little kid left in him or her) one of the highlights of the year.

Simple and true doctrine. Sweet and strong spirits. It can be a lot of work, but what’s not to love about serving in the Primary?

What are some of your favorite memories of Primary? GO!