Challenge accepted

The activity day girls in our ward (Michaela is one of them) are working on memorizing the Articles of Faith so they can have a Sundae party in July. They decided to challenge the cub scouts and allow them to join in on the fun as well. For each Article of Faith memorized the boys and girls earn ice cream scoops and toppings for their ice cream sundaes.

Anthony came home from Cub scouts excited about the ice cream sundae party and was already selecting which Articles of Faith he wasn't going to bother learning because he didn't like the topping that went with them. Ah, if only it were that simple!

You should have seen the look on his face when I told him he needed to learn them all. I think I said something like, "You have to learn all of them to get your Faith in God award so you might as well learn them now and get it done."

Anthony started whining about how hard it was and how he wouldn't be able to learn them all by July. I told him there was no reason why he couldn't have them all learned by July and that I wanted him to have them learned and passed off by his birthday. Then the whining really started!

Once I explained how easy it would be he calmed down and realized that he already knew one, two, three, four, and eight. That day he started working on number five and decided he would work on a new one each week. Anthony came home from school with number five memorized and couldn't wait for Jeremiah to get home so he could get it passed off. (Jeremiah is the Cub master and had the check off list for the boys)

Once Anthony started there was no stopping him. He would come home from school, get his homework and piano done and start working on the Articles of Faith. He listed to them on his ipod over and over again, said them over and over again, and read them over and over again. In less than two weeks Anthony was done and had passed off all thirteen Articles of Faith. He was very excited and I was very proud of him.

He got even more excited when a few Sunday's ago in primary the primary president announced that she would reward the children who memorized all the Articles of Faith with a treat of their choice. Anthony looked over at me with a huge smile on his face and gave me a big thumbs up.

Today in primary Anthony had the chance to pass the Articles of Faith off to the primary president. He not only did them for the primary president but said all thirteen from start to finish in front of the entire primary. He is now officially AoF certified and his a certificate signed by the Bishop and the Primary president to prove it!

Way to go Anthony! Isn't it amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it?