"The Lord Is In Charge"; Day 4

Well, today has certainly made that statement clear.  I have been just short of paralyzed with fear about teaching people to the point that I REALLY resisted coming.  When you have been able to do something very well and then have lost the ability to do it through non-use my reaction is to avoid at all costs.  That is why I seldom sing any more, don't do it at all if your doing it badly!  So having at one time felt I had a pretty good grasp of the scriptures and having lost that over the last 44 years as my attention and time was spent else where I was determined not to be embarrassed when I couldn't remember the reference for the scripture that came into my head.  I can sound "good" in church and RS because I can always find what ever scripture comes into my head by using the TG or BD.  However, that is not possible in a teaching situation.  You have to KNOW where that scripture is, you don't have time to look it up.  Plus fear causes me to weep and so does professing things close to my heart. So I was really not wanting to do this.   This, being teach people the Gospel.  Spencer got a bit of my feelings while we were staying with them.

They have actors, most of whom are members, come in and be investigators and I must say they are pretty good at it.  We have a 15 min "get to know you" or "assess what they learned the time before" if this is not a 1st lesson.  Followed by a 30-25 min lesson where we are to teach  a section of the Preach My Gospel lessons.

Yesterday, was at best painful, to say the least.  Weep, blubber, blubber, ask dad for a scripture reference.  Really poor!  So last night and this morning were not happy times.  We did do quite a bit more preparation as far as an outline and scriptures were concerned.  However, when we got in there it was just as it used to be 44 years ago, nothing goes as planned! Dad is a great teacher but he didn't do this type of teaching in his mission, it was full steam ahead on the lesson, and the investigator is only supposed to respond as it is written in the script of the "holy 6 lessons".  Then 44 years of intense gospel study has caused him to have trouble bringing it all down to "Sunbeam mentality" and, like most of us who know a lot, we want to open the investigators cranium and pour in all we know.  He had worked really hard on simplifying all his doctrinal points that he had amassed with Pres. Garner over the last year, into our outline.  He did ask some really good questions in tying to assess what the investigator had been taught the "week" before.  I on the other hand was a balloon with the air rushing out, all over the place.  Then Dad sort of slipped in one of his 32 oz. pieces of steak on the Plan of Salvation and I realized that we were into the 25 min teaching time and this thing was going no where.  I had been practicing "listening" to the investigator and the Spirit and 2N2 came into my mind and it just seemed to fit the questions about the Garden of Eden and the Fall she was asking so I found it on my iPad and slipped over to sit beside her on the bench to have her read it.  (It is one of the few I still remember because I think it is so clear on what the G of E was like.)  She read it and we talked about pre-exhistance,  Adam and Eve, agency, the Fall, what life was with out the Fall, the Atonement to remedy the fall, Spiritual Death, Temporal Death, etc.  It just sort of gets it all in there in a wonderful concise few verses.  With no parable, imagery, nothing but good old understandable English and the feeling in the meeting just cracked like a whip and the Spirit was there!   Then Dad talked about the cycle of Prophets (Dispensation), Gospel, Apostasy and the fact that the Savior was the last to bring the Gospel to the earth and what happened when the Apostles died and she got it quick," another Apostasy."    Then she said, "are you telling me that the Lord let people go for 2000 years with out a prophet?"  and looked down at her hands.  And it just came into my mind to say, "I sense your concern over all the people that lived on the earth between the Savior and the time of Joseph Smith." and she kind of snapped her head up and her body away from me and said, "How did you know that?"  She completely broke character and tears came to her eyes and she said, "how did you know that was what I was thinking about?"  I was of course blubbering and couldn't speak but Dad says, "she's a genealogist, she is thinking about those very people all the time!"  Then she got back in character and we finished the lesson, she even agreed to pray.  After we finished she broke character completely and said, "We must have some kind of a connection because I have never had that happen before.  Your words were the exact words forming in my mind."  Not me but the Holy Ghost. It was very cool.  Then she talked about the fact that she and her husband are hoping to go on a mission and it was fun.  The Sister Steed investigator from Wednesday was in the hall and we talked with her for a bit, so the whole thing had kind of a graceful, calming ending.

So enough stories, though maybe one really cool one at the end.  But here are the promised pictures

 Sister Hugie, she is headed to Chile, Pinon as the AMA for the missions in Chile.  She will be with us next week in SL  She is single and a nurse and will work under an Doc who will have several more missions under him.  We have at least two of these dear sisters and they make our job so much easier.  I don't know if the mission mothers where these nurses both women/men serve understand how blessed they really are.

These are the Warnock's.  The gentleman grew up in Farmington and Dad went to school with one of his brothers.  Elder Warnock worked in the Bountiful Temple and he and Dad have been saying hello to one another for about 3 years now.  They were surprised to  find themselves opposite one another at lunch the other day.  They are headed to Pittsburg, Penn.

 Elder Richard & Sister Lynda Smith.  They are headed to Guatemala City and then probably out to the "wilds" as Membership and leader support missionaries.  Sister Smith worked an over lapping shift at the FHL with Vicki and I.  She was lucky enough to be there for 5 years, I hope I get to do that again sometime.  Vicki and I knew that they were expecting a call.  It came about 3 weeks after ours. We have kept in touch through email.

 Dad's Spanish Tutor,  Brother West.  Dad is pretty stoked that they would let him have a private tutor.  He very much likes this young man.

 Okay, so one more story that the Lord is in charge and then I am off to bed.  We were relating experiences about letting the Spirit guide but felt "nutty" about what we were doing.  Sister Follich related an event when their family was in Disneyland many years ago, at the submarine ride (now  Finding Nemo ride).  The line was long and it was hot so she moved the whole family (eight of her own and at least one Indian Placement child) to a different ride which turned out to be just as long and hot.  After standing in that line for a period of time she felt to move them back to the Submarine, which was now even longer and the kids were really grousing.  She said that didn't go on for long as the whole family got involved with the lady in front of them.  She said to the woman, "Isn't this really just the happiest place on earth"? and the woman said back, "I will never be happy again."  So began the questions and the story.  The woman's 16 year old grand daughter (the light of her life) had died.  When the funeral was over the mother of the child said to the grandparents and the rest of the family, "if you want anything of Susie's come back to the house and get it now because tomorrow I will throw everything in the garbage.  She is gone and I want nothing to remind me of her.  Please do not ever mention her name in my hearing again."  The grand mother was of course devastated and and sort of cried out, "that can't be true.  She can't just be gone."  Well, the whole family starts the Plan of Salvation discussion and by the time she reaches her opportunity to get on the ride they have her ready to be baptized.  "I want to know more, how can I know more she said."  No one had any paper so they asked where she lived and she said the North Shore of Ohau"  "Do you know the Polynesian Cultural Center? was their reply.   Go there and asked for someone to tell you about what happens after death."  And she got on the ride and they never found out what happened to her.  Even the kids who had been groaning were some what mollified that their mother could possibly have been guided by the Spirit.

I will save this one for tomorrow.  Just a tease.  As I mentioned Monday Sisters Heath & Howell were assigned to San Joses CA and Tuesday they were called out of lunch and told their call was being changed and they would be told on Thursday.  So today we found out. I will let you know tomorrow.

I messed up on the "missing apostle contest".  Boyd K. Packer was so far to the left that we failed to include his picture.  He was there.  You will notice there is a space just to the left of the  1st Presidency big enough for a picture.  That is the one that is missing.  I think all the others are there.
Love you all,
MOM, Kathleen