I was a Sunday School teacher for the 12 year olds. I only had 5 boys in my class. Now that I know how callings are picked, I think I was "called" because that was the first vacancy. I was 18 at the time. I was baptized in April, but didn't get "called" until after I graduated high school in June.
My first calling -- issued to me only days after I emerged out of the water -- was to be the Blazer A and Blazer B teacher in Primary. (Our ward was small, so the two classes were combined into one).
Blazer A and Blazer B were the two classes that prepared young boys for the Aaronic Priesthood, which they will get when they turn 12.
I was a young LADY, an 18 year old college freshman, who knew only the superficial pablum that the young elders (just a year or two older than me) had taught me.
So to teach that class, I was learning just one step ahead of my ten and eleven year old charges.
I learned the 13 Articles of Faith one step ahead of the boys, and other basic stuff too.
Looking back, it was a good calling for a new convert, if your goal is to suck the new convert further into the cult.
BTW, Primary was on Thursday afternoons back in those times. Not on Sunday like it is today. The Stake President's wife, herself, would pick me up at the college and drive me to the ward meetinghouse so I could teach my class.
My first calling, right after my baptism when I was in high school, was to teach the Blazer B boys in Primary on Thursday afternoon. Just like SouthernExmo, I would have to learn the material one step ahead of teaching it to those 11 year old boys.
The one resentment I have about it now, looking back, is I was on the afterschool swim team and this calling required me to miss swim team practice every Thursday. My bishop promised me it was necessary (probably said God wanted it), but it sure ticked off the swim coach and my teammates.
I was never baptized... but my mom, seems not even a month after she was, was 'called' for primary. I had to laugh, she told me the bishop told her "you have so many kid this will be perfect for you!" Haha, all her kids were teenagers or grown, last thing she wanted to do was deal with small children! Lucky for her our branchis so small and full of old people, unless someone had their grandchildren visiting there weren't any young kids.
I believe it was to keep me in the morg and it worked for a while and even helped me decide to go on a mission. But those of us in that leadership group happen to still be extremely close friends (I'm the only one who's left) and I cherish our times together.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/2012 04:21PM by toto.
They had 12 little 4 year olds that were out of control. Nobody would teach the class. They made a big ta do out of giving me y first calling, then told me it was the 4 year olds. I told them no thanks. I felt like I needed to be with adults. They looked stunned. I got the lecture about how you should never turn down a calling. I told them that trying to guilt me into wasn't going to work.
Not me, but my mom's first calling as a young, 18 year old convert was the 10 year olds primary teacher. She was shy, had no younger siblings and never babysat so she was terrified.
Primary teacher. That was my first calling, which I did for at least two years. It was also the only time I was called to teach primary, in over 20 years as a member.