As a Primary class in Salt Lake City learned how to plan, invite and serve, they learned more about their capacity to share Jesus Christ’s love through service.
The Valiant-age class counseled with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife, Sister Susan Bednar, before and after their service activity.
“The whole point of service is to help us bless other people, because that is what Jesus did,” Elder Bednar told the children. “And if we are His disciples, we should be looking for opportunities to serve and bless other people.”
Their experience was featured in the Friend to Friend broadcast Saturday, Feb. 15, which included the Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and two young hosts, who used songs, pictures, puppets and a craft to teach children about service.
Welcome and invitation from the Primary general presidency
The episode began with the Primary general presidency — President Susan H. Porter; Sister Amy A. Wright, first counselor; and Sister Tracy Y. Browning, second counselor — welcoming children and friends from around the world.
“We love you,” said President Porter, explaining that those watching would learn about “the blessings that can come as we share the love of Jesus through service.”
Said Sister Wright: “We are so happy you are joining today. It is wonderful to be here with you as we explore how we can share the love of Jesus Christ through service.”
Sister Browning spoke about how beginning this year, every Primary in the Church is invited to plan a service activity. “You may be invited to help plan it,” she said. “You can invite your friends and neighbors. As you watch, think about what needs you see in your neighborhood that can bless the lives of children just like you.”
Throughout the episode, bird puppets named Louie and Gilbert — returning from previous Friend to Friend events — interacted with child hosts Millie Ferreira and Victor Batista as they also learned how to plan, invite and serve.
Counseling together and making a plan
The first time the Valiant class met with Elder Bednar and Sister Bednar, they spoke about service and what they have done for others. The children talked about helping others at school with their homework, helping their parents clean the house and teaching other children how to play soccer.
“What do you like about serving?” Elder Bednar asked.
Thiago Reza responded: “I like helping people understand and know that we care — that I care about them.”
Others in the class talked about how they feel happy when they serve other people and see their smiles because they like serving the Lord and being helpful.
Batgerel “Batuka” Bat-Orkhon said, “I like serving because I feel good inside that I helped someone and I feel proud that I made them happy.”
To that, Sister Bednar responded, “It is a good thing to feel, isn’t it?”
Elder Bednar asked the class to identify a group service project that they could then plan and organize together. He invited them to work with their Primary teacher to identify the right people they could try to help.
“It is wonderful to serve individuals,” he said. “It is also incredible to organize and work together to serve other people.”
Sister Bednar told them how much she loved the simple examples they gave of how they liked to serve others. “I hope that you will always pray for the gift of the Holy Ghost to help you see the needs of other people.”
Inviting and serving
A video montage showed the Primary class making invitations for their service activity and handing them to the young men and young women in their ward as well as friends, family and neighbors. The children’s planned service included cleaning a local park and collecting school supplies for their elementary school.
On the day of the service activity, everyone gathered with rakes and garbage bags at a park to get to work. The children worked alongside youth and adults, and Louie and Gilbert were there as well.
Haolin Yang from the Primary class said, “When all these people showed up, it made me feel good that everyone will be joining to help clean up the park that helps the community.”
Batuka said, “It felt good because a lot of people cared about the park and they liked serving.”
The children then were shown inside their meetinghouse drawing pictures and cards and putting school supplies into bags. Then they loaded vehicles with the supplies.
Service as disciples of Jesus Christ
When the children met again with Elder Bednar and Sister Bednar, they talked about how they planned together. The children each gave ideas and discussed what the community’s needs were and what tools they had available to them.
When Elder Bednar asked them about what they learned, Lucy Howcroft said service “could be something simple and still be fun.”
The children mentioned how they learned things from the others who showed up to help and how they felt good about what they were doing. They also joked about how having donuts and hot chocolate was a fun part of the activity.
Thiago said, “I know that God thanks us because we did something good to help His children.”
To which Elder Bednar replied: “When you are serving other people, you are serving God (see Mosiah 2:17). Sometimes the best reward of serving someone else is that they do not know who did it. You are not serving so that people will tell you that you are wonderful. You serve because that is what Jesus would do.”
While they may not have received any praise or applause for their service, Batuka said that they were actually getting credit because other people could enjoy the cleaner park.
Sister Bednar bore her testimony to the children at the end of their conversation. “I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and I know that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, that Jesus truly is our Savior and our Redeemer, and He served just like you do.”
Elder Bednar closed with his witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
“I know He is our Savior and our Redeemer. I witness that He lives, He is resurrected. And I witness that He and His Father appeared to Joseph Smith, and that was the beginning of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Church to the earth again. And the purpose of that Restoration is so that we can learn from and follow Jesus and become more like Him.”
He told the children that he loved them, and he thanked them for what they helped everyone learn through their service project.
A music video and paper craft
A music video in the Friend to Friend episode featured children singing “Holding Hands Around the World” in several languages.
The singing began with images of one or two children at a time, then it grew to include several. In the end, the video merged with the children’s choir singing that song during the October 2024 general conference.
Then, Millie and Victor taught the Primary general presidency how to make a paper craft, as they talked about what they learned from Elder and Sister Bednar’s testimonies and the children’s experiences with the service activity.
Sister Wright said that the wonderful thing about service is that it goes both ways as far as the blessings are concerned. “We bless the lives of others that we serve, and then our lives are blessed in return.”
Added Sister Browning, “I think our Savior is always happy and pleased with us when we choose to serve others.”
When they were done folding, tracing and cutting the paper, they held them up to show the shape of a chain of people holding hands.
President Porter said it was just like the song they had sung about children holding hands all around the world.
“I love knowing that we are all children of God and He loves each one of us and He wants us to help one another,” she said. “I know that when we invite friends to gather to serve others, we will feel the Spirit because we know that we are doing Heavenly Father’s work. We are following Jesus' example of bringing His love and His joy to others.”
How to use the February 2025 Friend to Friend
The episode is available to watch on ChurchofJesusChrist.org or on the three Gospel for Kids YouTube channels:
- Gospel for Kids YouTube (English)
- El Evangelio para niños YouTube (Spanish)
- Evangelho para Crianças YouTube (Portuguese)
This episode will be available in Gospel Library in Albanian, American Sign Language, Cantonese, Cebuano, Chinese, Czech, English, Danish, Dutch, European Portuguese, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Samoan, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tongan and Ukrainian.
The full episode or portions can be used at home or in Primary to help teach children about their capacity to share the love of Jesus with others.
Previous Friend to Friend episodes
Previous episodes have taught about the temple, the covenant path, baptism, the Holy Ghost, the sacrament and what it means to be a child of God. They are also available on YouTube and in the Gospel Library.
- Children learn how to share Jesus’ love during September 2024 Friend to Friend with President Holland, Primary general presidency
- Children learn how to follow Jesus Christ during March 2024 Friend to Friend with President Oaks, Primary general presidency
- September 2023 Friend to Friend teaches about the blessings that come from making and keeping covenants
- March 2023 Friend to Friend teaches ‘We Are God’s Children’
- ‘Share the happiness that is found on the covenant path,’ Primary leaders tell children during November 2022 Friend to Friend
- ‘Jesus always leads us to the temple’: July 2022 Friend to Friend teaches children about preparing to enter the house of the Lord
- February 2022 Friend to Friend for children teaches about baptism, the Holy Ghost and the sacrament by ‘exploring’ the covenant path
- What a story from Elder Soares’ youth taught Primary children during the February 2021 Friend to Friend
