Sabbath Day – Worshiping at Church, Primary Lesson Helps, Primary 3 CTR-B, Lesson 40

Tell the children about a boy who had a problem that almost made him stop coming to church. His name was Vaughn Featherstone, and he later became a General Authority. Introduce the story by explaining that when Vaughn Featherstone was young, his family was quite poor and couldn’t afford much clothing.

NOTE: Show children these nurse shoes to illustrate the story in this lesson about Vaughn J Featherstone story found in the lesson where he had to wear nurses shoes to church. 

STORY IS BELOW* (found in the Church manual) ⇓

“I had a pair of shoes that I’d wear to Church. They weren’t the best shoes. They had holes in the bottom sole, so I’d cut out pieces of cardboard [from a cereal box] and slide them in as an insole. When I went to church I would sit with both feet flat on the floor; I didn’t want to raise one leg and have someone see [the printing on the cardboard from a cereal box] across the bottom of my shoe. I’d go off to Church that way, and everything was fine until those shoes wore out. Then I didn’t know what I would do. I remember it was Saturday, and I thought, ‘I’ve got to go to church. Over at Church, I am somebody. They really care about me.’ I remember thinking that through, and I went to a little box of shoes some neighbors had given us. I went through them, but I could find only one pair of shoes that would fit me. … They were a pair of women’s nurses’ shoes. I thought, ‘How can I wear those? They’ll laugh me to scorn over at Church.’ And so I decided I wouldn’t wear them, and I wouldn’t go to church.”

• How would you feel if you had been in Brother Featherstone’s place?

• What would you have done?

Let several children respond; then continue with the story:

“I went through that night and the next morning … I knew I had to go! … I decided what to do. I would run over there very early and sit down close to the front before anybody got there. I thought, ‘I’ll put my feet back under the pew [bench] so no one can see them, and then I’ll wait till everyone leaves. After they’re gone I’ll come running home half an hour later or something.’ That was my plan. I dashed over to church half an hour early, and it worked. Nobody was there. I put my feet back under the bench. Pretty soon everyone came in, and then all of a sudden someone announced: ‘We will now be separated for classes.’ I had forgotten you had to go to class. … I was terrified. The ushers started coming down the aisle, they got to our row, and everybody got up and left. But I just sat there. I couldn’t move. I knew I couldn’t for fear that someone would see my shoes. But the social pressure was intense. That whole meeting just seemed to stop and wait until I moved, so I had to move. I got up and just followed the class downstairs.

“I think I learned the greatest lesson I have ever learned in my life that day. I went downstairs, and the teacher had us sit in a big half-circle. Each of my shoes felt two feet in diameter. I can’t tell you how embarrassed I was. I watched, but, do you know, not one of those eight- and nine-year-old children in that class laughed at me. Not one of them looked at me. No one pointed at my shoes. My teacher didn’t look. I was looking all the time. I was watching everybody to see if anyone was looking at me. … Of course, they saw those nurses’ shoes that I had to wear to church. But they had the fine instinct not to laugh” (Vaughn J. Featherstone, “Acres of Diamonds,” in Speeches of the Year, 1974 [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1975], pp. 351–52).

• Why was Brother Featherstone willing to wear the nurses’ shoes to church when he was a boy? (Because he wanted so much to go to church.)

Explain that young Vaughn Featherstone knew it was important to attend church. He was happy to go to church every week, even though his family could not afford good shoes for him. He decided going to church was more important, even if he didn’t have nice shoes.