New Callings

I got a calling in my new ward. I'm the Sunday School teacher for the 16-17 year olds. I've never been a Sunday School teacher before, but i'm quite excited. It's nice to have a steady, small group of people to custom tailor my lessons to. I love being entrusted with a stewardship to help develop the testimonies of others. Michelle got called to be a ward missionary. Last week we had our interviews, and this week we were going to be set apart, but the bishop and his councilors were booked and so it got pushed to next week. But that didn't stop me from sitting in on my class this week.

Story time: During the sacrament I was thinking about the hymn Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd. And then began thinking about the ninety and nine versus the one. So often we talk about the one, but feel like the ninety and nine. We haven't gone off the deep end and so it feels like no one is paying much attention to us. Anyway, I felt strongly that I should write this down. So I pulled out my journal and started writing. It turned into an outline for a talk, and then morphed into a lesson plan. Then some scriptures came to mind, and then the speaker (we were well into the second talk by now) said something that really caught my ear. She and her husband recently returned from a mission and she said that "the Lord sees us all as individuals." I was really impressed by that simple bit of truth. To the Lord, there is no ninety and nine. He never has to leave us to go after the one. He is always with us. We are all always the one to him. It was very comforting.

Well, after sacrament meeting was over, I walked over to the 2nd councilor to make sure I wasn't expected to teach today, cause i haven't received a manual or anything, much less prepared the lesson. He said no, someone else had been taking charge of the class while a new teacher was called and that they had the lesson today, but I was free to sit in on the class this week and see where they were in the manual etc. So when I found the classroom, I sat in the back row as students filed in. They got to chatting and I introduced myself to those I hadn't met yet and waited for the teacher to arrive. Eventually no one came and the students decided they could just play scripture hangman again this week. So I stood up and said, no, I have prepared a lesson and if it please the body, I will share it with everyone. So I taught the lesson I prepared in Sacrament meeting an hour before. It went well, students participated, I learned people’s names, the spirit was present and I had a wonderful opportunity to share my testimony and I know everyone was paying attention. They even laughed at a few parts of the lesson. It was pretty great. I'm so glad I had the inspiration to prepare the lesson I did. And even more glad I didn't ignore the prompting to write down my thoughts.

Hollis