Training the Children of the Church

SISTER MAY ANDERSON ¶

President of the Primary Association ¶

It is with great humility and yet with great pride that I stand before you today to represent the great army of the future, the children of the Latter-day Saints, and to say to President Grant, as his representative, that I appreciate this honor beyond all words in my power to express. ¶

The future lies before the great army of boys and girls of the Primary Association, numbering as President Grant has said, more than one hundred thousand. ¶

I was tremendously interested in the remarks of Brother Lyman, and as he talked I wondered if Dr. Carver comprehended the beauty of the work that is being done through the auxiliary organizations of the Church. I wondered if he knew of the thousands of women of the type such as he describes us to be who stand back of the General Authorities of the Church as helpers and aids in promoting in the world the establishment of the Gospel of Christ. ¶

The General Board of the Primary Association feels it is bound in honor to provide for the boys and girls of the Church the highest possible type of religious and moral education. We are the Religion Class of the Church, the class that is striving to put into the hearts of the boys and girls a feeling of love, a feeling of joy, a knowledge and understanding of their opportunities, that they in this organization may have every possible opportunity to begin in their early years to learn the grace and virtue of service. It is the hope of the General Board ¶

that the programs of the Primary Association will give every boy and girl an opportunity and a real chance to grow in service to the Church. We are trying to help them by producing such plans as will make the opportunity a real one, and as a General Board we are pledged to the Church in every possible way to provide a program which will promote a magnificent future for the Church of Jesus Christ. I pray that God will bless us in this effort and give us wisdom and understanding, that we may go forward to make the future as glorious as this conference has told us of the past. ¶

I must bear my testimony in concluding and say to you that I know the Gospel is true. My testimony is my greatest treasure, and that every boy and girl may have the same blessing I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶