A Tale of Early Morning Seminary

Tuesday night I was in the church kitchen cleaning up after our ward's Young Women Evening in Excellence. It had been a wonderful father-daughter night of "fine dining," dancing, and a very entertaining skit but I was tired and ready to go home.

Suddenly, two young men burst through the kitchen doors. They were probably in search of "free food." They saw me and their eyes lit up.

"We hear you are going to teach our seminary class next week!" one of them said.

"Yes, I am. I get to teach your class four times next week!" I replied.

"Cool! We're so excited!" the other one replied.

I just grinned ear to ear. That made me feel so good! As the "new kid on the block" in this ward, I am trying so hard to get to know the adults and the youth. I'm glad that I've made a favorable impression on at least a couple of kids.

Now, let's back up a few weeks to see how this all started....

Sunday, October 17

We had Daniel, Shauna and their two daughters over for dinner. The phone was ringing off the hook that evening--an unusual occurrence in our home right now. The phone rang again. It was for me. A Brother Dickson from the High Counsel wanted to meet with me that evening. I had just been called to serve as the ward Young Women secretary a week earlier so I wondered what it could be about. Since Daniel is on the High Counsel, I asked him what Brother Dickson's assignment was .

He answered, "There are two Brother Dickson's on the High Counsel. One is over Facilities and one is over Seminary. It's highly unlikely that you are going to be called to work in Facilities."

I was shocked. The school and seminary year had already started. Why would they need a new seminary teacher?

About two hours later, Ron and I sat across the table from Brother Dickson as he called me to serve as an "on-call substitute teacher." I could end up subbing for any of the four classes in our building. Of course I said, "Yes." I was excited, but a little nervous, too. He asked me to call the seminary principal the next day and let her know I accepted.

The following day I called a very nice woman and she told me how grateful she was that I said "yes." Then she asked me to substitute for her on Election Day because she is a poll worker and four more days in November when she and her husband would be going out of town.

She then told me, "I have a very challenging class. But, maybe they'll be OK for you."

Great. She has a challenging class. I don't know many of the youth. How would they treat an unknown person? Now I was really nervous.

I spoke to the Mia Maid Counselor in my ward and asked about the young woman this age.

"Oh," she said. "You have some real challenges in this age group."

Now, I was really scared!

I carefully prepared my lesson, said a lot of prayers, and hoped for the best.

Tuesday, November 2.

I tossed and turned all night--dreading the morning. I woke up at 1:00 am but was finally able to go back to sleep. When I woke up at 2:00 am, I laid awake until it was time to get out of bed at 5:00. My stomach was churning. I really, really wondered how it was going to go.

Before leaving for church, I read a chapter in the Book of Mormon to help put me in the right spirit and said my prayers. Then, it was time to face this "challenging class."

As each student arrived, I greeted them, asked them their name and which high school and ward they attended. We started a little late because of the late drifters. After the devotional, I opened up with a story about Lucy Mack Smith praying with a group of saints that the ice would break so they could travel on a barge down a frozen canal from New York to Ohio. If there is one thing I am good at, it's telling a story. They listened to me.

The rest of the morning flew by. Before I knew it, it was time for the closing prayer. As they filed out they said things like "We learned something today!" "Thanks for being our teacher!"

It was the positive reinforcement I needed.

But the cherry on the top was definitely a week later when two freshman boys told me they were excited about me teaching seminary the following week. I hope I don't let them down! And I am so grateful that prayers were answered and I was given divine help.