Double the Pleasure...Double the Fun?

I taught early morning seminary again this week. I taught once yesterday and twice this morning. How do you teach two times in one morning? When your building has an early early morning seminary class and a plain early morning seminary class--that's how.

The teachers of both classes were wonderful--they said I didn't have to prepare two different lessons even though they were on a slightly different schedule. I spent most of yesterday preparing my lesson carefully. I was teaching Emily's and "the cousins'" class for the first time and I wanted to do well.

I was a little creeped about going to the church at 5:30 am to open up the building. I would be the first person there and what if there were scary people lurking in the parking lot? Or lurking in the Relief Society room? OR lurking under the stage?

I am not making this up--I was told by one of the seminary teachers that a homeless man was found living under the stage in a church building not too far from here. SHUDDER!

Ron was very sweet. He offered to go to the church before me and not only open the building, but turn on the lights and the heater and make sure that there were no homeless people lurking in the shadows.

I don't know if he ever checked under the stage. I forgot to remind him.

Emily and I showed up a few minutes later. My class soon arrived. The early early morning seminary class is the LARGEST in our building. About 28 students are enrolled. Despite their large size they were delightful, respectful, and a joy to teach. Emily said her class was TOO quiet this morning. I didn't mind.

We studied D&C 117 and 118 this morning. We talked about not coveting and what is most important in life. We talked about quarterbacks on a football team and how most of us won't be a quarterback in the figurative sense of the word, but every position in the Church is important. We read a quote by President Hunter where he said some of the greatest service would be in our own homes and serving as home and visiting teachers. We then talked about Oliver Granger--an amazing man in church history that isn't as well-known but yet served faithfully and earned the respect of non-members who lived in the Kirtland area. We talked about how even if we never receive worldly accolades, as long as Heavenly Father is pleased with our service, that should be enough.

We also talked about the Quorum of the Twelve serving a mission to England and how they were asked to leave from Far West, Missouri while tensions against the Mormons were very, very high. We talked about how sometimes we are asked to do hard things. We talked about my nephew serving his mission in El Salvador and how it's been a cultural shock for him but he's serving with his whole heart. It was a GREAT lesson. (At least I think so.)

And then, I repeated the lesson again to another group of students. One young man was a glutton for punishment and attended both the early early morning session and the later 6:45 am session. I apologized that he was going to have to hear the same lesson twice but he said he didn't mind.

Today was a great day teaching seminary! It truly was double the pleasure and double the fun.