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Jill Johnson was born and raised in Cache Valley, Utah. She graduated with a dual major in Elementary Education and Special Education from Utah State University and taught both high school resource classes and fourth grade before beginning a career as full-time mom. She is a self-taught graphic designer and designs for several companies including Snapfish and Swivelhead. Jill served in the Venezuela Valencia Mission and has had a variety of ward and stake callings, including Gospel Doctrine teacher, ward Relief Society president, ward Young Women president, stake Young Women president, and stake Primary secretary. Her favorite calling of all time is stake Young Women camp leader. Jill currently serves as the Primary president for her stake. She lives in South Jordan, Utah with her husband, three children and a puppy named Ginny.
Highlights
04:20 Jill’s background and her experience at the Leading Saints women’s retreat. 07:50 The story behind Jill getting called to be the stake Primary president. 08:30 Stepping into her role as stake Primary president. The difficulty of starting. 12:00 Elevate Primary and elevate yourself. 15:30 #1 Elevate Jesus in Primary. Four ways to invite Jesus into Primary.
- Begin with Jesus – more pictures of Jesus up front
- Center on Jesus – saying His name more often. Focus teaching on Him.
- Focus on the children
- End with Jesus – always ending Primary with a testimony of Jesus
20:40 #2 Elevate leadership of Primary
- Model a clear vision
- Model clear communication
28:30 #3 Elevate Stake Primary calling
- What does the stake Primary even do?
- How would Jesus serve if He was in your calling?
- Be more present in the wards so that people actually know you
- The stake is the guardian over the structure. Making sure the organization is running according to the handbook.
34:00 Issues that seem to come up in Primary over and over again. Jill shares ways to help with these conflicts and issues.
- Teachers feeling lonely and forgotten
- Issue of conflict between Bishoprics & Primary presidents
40:00 In the Church we used to lose our youth at 14 or 15 years old but now we are losing them at 10 or 11. There is a need to elevate Primary and really focus on the children at a young age. 43:40 Jill shares her testimony on leadership and how it has changed her.
Links
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Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Reyna and Elena Aburto, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, Lynn G. Robbins, J. Devn Cornish, Bonnie Oscarson, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, Ganel-Lyn Condie, Michael Goodman, Richard Ostler, and many more in over 600 episodes.
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I really loved this podcast. I appreciated everything that she taught. Living in a stake that is spread out 3 hours from one side to the other did create some challenges when I served in stake primary presidency. So many “traditions” in each area was a challenge, limited communication and not knowing the presidencies was hard for me. Training when new presidencies very rarely happened due to traveling so much.
It was probably one of the hardest callings I had. We attended ward conferences and that was about it.
I know you asked for those comments or questions for a remote stake issues. This was before the pandemic, but perhaps now knowing how well zoom works we could have used that as a resource for trainings and communication.
I am now a primary president and I love the things I learned and actually we have been doing some if these and other things we could do better!
Great podcast. Relatable and inspired me!