October 2026 General Conference › Lessons › Elder James G. O. Fantone › Children
When I Help Others, I Serve Jesus
From “Take Upon Us His Name,” by Elder James G. O. Fantone · Sunday morning session, October 2026 General Conference
The big idea
When I help others, I serve Jesus.
Objective
Children will be able to say that helping others is a way to serve Jesus Christ and will choose one way to help someone this week.
Before you teach
- Read the part of Elder Fantone’s talk about his parents sharing their home.
- Bring a soft ball, paper, and crayons.
- Bring building blocks, or three sheets of paper to lay on the floor as rooms.
- Write on the board: When I help others, I serve Jesus.
Lesson plan
Thirty minutes in 7 parts. Times are a guide; let the Spirit and the learners set the pace.
Roll the ball, say your name
- Sit in a circle. After a prayer, roll the ball to a child. That child says his or her name and rolls the ball to someone else, until everyone has had a turn.
- Tell the children that every name is special, and that today they will learn about the most special name of all, the name of Jesus Christ.
- Say that they will learn how to show that they love Jesus and want to follow Him.
A house with room to share
- Build a little house with three rooms from blocks, or lay three papers on the floor. Explain that Elder Fantone, a leader in the Church, grew up in a small house with three bedrooms: one for the boys, one for the girls, and one for the parents.
- Tell the story simply. A young man needed a place to stay so he could go to school. The parents let him use the boys’ room. Another time some children needed a safe place to stay. The parents let them use the girls’ room.
- Let children take turns standing in a room and then moving over to make room while everyone says: Come in, there is room.
- Tell them Elder Fantone believes his parents would gladly have given up their own room if Mary and Joseph had knocked on their door.
- How do you think the people felt when the family made room for them?
- Who were the parents really helping?
Say it and move
- Open the scriptures to Mosiah 2:17. Explain that a good king named Benjamin taught that when we help other people, we are helping God.
- Teach the truth on the board with actions: When I help others (reach both hands out), I serve Jesus (place hands over heart).
- Repeat it several ways: whispering, standing tall, crouching low, marching in place.
- Tell them what Elder Fantone taught: Jesus invites us to love and help the people around us.
Helping charades
- Whisper a way to help to one child, who acts it out without words while the others guess. Ideas: picking up toys, sharing crayons, carrying something for someone, sitting by someone who is alone, opening a door, comforting someone who is sad.
- After each guess, everyone says the truth with its actions: When I help others, I serve Jesus.
- Give every child who wants one a turn.
- How do you feel inside when you help someone?
My helping hand
- Give each child paper and crayons. Help them trace one hand.
- Inside the hand, each child draws one way to help someone this week, at home, at church, or with a friend.
- Help them write, or write for them, at the top: I can serve Jesus.
- Invite a few children to show their drawing and tell about it.
Sing
- Sing I’m Trying to Be like Jesus or Jesus Said Love Everyone together. Add simple actions if the children enjoy them.
- Ask the question below after singing.
- What does this song say we can do to be like Jesus?
I will help
- Ask each child to finish this sentence aloud: This week I will help...
- Say the truth together one last time with the actions.
- Share your testimony that Jesus Christ lives and that we feel close to Him when we help others.
- Tell the children that next week you will ask them to tell how they helped. Send the drawings home.
Key passages from the talk
“Taking upon us His name requires a lifelong determination to serve Him.”
“His invitation is for us to take upon us His name by covenant and to serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength—by lifting, loving, and serving our fellow men.”
Scriptures
- Mosiah 2:17 Show the verse and explain it in simple words; older children read it aloud. Use it to teach that helping others is helping God.
- Moroni 6:3 For older children: read aloud and find what people promised to do when they were baptized.
Other voices that agree
“Let us put compassion into action and minister to the person in front of us.”
Three things to remember
- I show that I love Jesus by helping others.
- When I help others, I serve Jesus Christ.
- I can make room for others and be kind.
Ways to act this week
- Do the helping idea you drew inside your hand.
- Make room for someone: share a seat, a toy, or a turn.
- Tell your family at dinner or bedtime how you helped, and say together: When I help others, I serve Jesus.
Suggestions written for this lesson, not the speaker’s words.
Music
- I'm Trying to Be like Jesus
- Jesus Said Love Everyone
Adapting the lesson
- Ages 3–7. Keep the story to a few sentences and let the children move between the rooms. Use only easy charades, and act them out together with a helper. Repeat the one truth with actions many times. An adult can write on each drawing.
- Ages 8–11. Have a child read Mosiah 2:17 and another read Moroni 6:3 aloud. Ask how serving others helps us keep the promise we make at baptism to take the name of Jesus Christ upon us. Let an older child lead the charades.
This lesson is an independent study aid written for this site. It is not an official lesson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Quotations are word for word from the official talk; paragraph numbers count the paragraphs of the talk as published at churchofjesuschrist.org, not counting headings or picture captions. The activities, questions and ideas for acting are suggestions; follow the Spirit and adapt them to those you teach.