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I’ll launch right in. I am the primary music director of our Spanish branch and my family usually arrives 30min late or more to sacrament so I have been able to avoid many of the uncomfortable things that would keep me from church. However, this coming week is branch conference and our primary president told us that the primary leaders want us to prepare a testimony on the BOM and how sharing it affected us. I have been struggling with stuff much deeper than that book lately and feel no connection to it. If it was my primary leader asking I would say just skip me. But I dont want to become the next project nor do I know who will be directing the meeting to request to be left out of the activity. Should I just recite a story from my past when I was a “good Mormon” or any other ideas from anyone on how to avoid this without it being obvious? Thanks and thanks for all of the other messages and comments I have followed over the years to keep me sane-ish 
Welcome and thanks for posting. I wish more lurkers would as I think it helps them and also everyone on this site. I would just give a testimony on what you can – even totally non church stuff – and have it come from the heart. What makes you feel God? Tell of when you felt loved or when you were able to help someone. Just ignore the BOM part. If some SOB calls you out on that, just say that you followed the spirit and forgot about that part.
If the question is how sharing the BoM affected you, if you have shared it you could talk about how you felt then if you feel comfortable with that. Otherwise I might just go with a succinct “The Book of Mormon is a great book that testifies of Christ and can bring people closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ….” You don’t have to say things you don’t believe. The assignment was to share a testimony about how sharing the BoM has affected you but I bet no one would notice if you went off script and gave a testimony on a subject of your choosing. Like sacrament meeting talks. There’s an assigned subject but I’ve never heard of anyone getting called out for not sticking to the subject and 95% of the people listening wouldn’t even know you’ve gone off subject. I’ve found that you can find goodness and truth, even from sources you disagree with. Rather than focusing on how sharing the Book of Mormon has affected you, maybe you can focus on how sharing a lesson from the Book of Mormon affected you. There are plenty of good messages, even if you disagree on the finer points.
Yes, I like to fall back on how the book of mormon testifies of Christ throughout. I do not need to believe in the historicity of the book to point out that it talks of Jesus on almost every page.
Thanks!! I can share a testimony of the written words from heavenly father and listening to the spirit to guide you to the things you need. Hopefully no one will call me out (haha) but falling back on the spirit direction is great! :thumbup: harmon-y, You got great advice here already. I just want to say thank you for being the primary music director in spite of your situation. There is a place at the table for you and me in the Church. I admire your willingness to take on the responsibility of working in primary each Sunday and wish you well.
LookingHard wrote:
I would just give a testimony on what you can – even totally non church stuff – and have it come from the heart. What makes you feel God?
I would agree with LH, keep it simple and heartfelt.
A while ago I gave a story time (?) reenactment with another guy on a BOM story. He was clearly uncomfortable with retelling the story, and I realized afterwards why. He didn’t believe it, so he felt disingenuous portraying it. I was kind of in the same situation at the time, but told myself that regardless of whether the story is historically real or not, it is still a good story with moral values, not unlike any other story we tell for the inherent message they contain.
Let us know how it goes!
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