We love working with the Bennions and the elders and sisters through out our mission. We also spend a good deal of time and energy with the Young Single Adults and Singles here. But the part of our calling that is the most challenging, time consuming, and rewarding for us is preparing for and teaching our institute classes each week. We are so grateful for each one of our devoted students who bring such diversity to our classes. We have grown to love them and appreciate the fact that most of them are very new to the gospel, and each varies in his or her level of knowledge. All have a desire to learn, and so we feel the weight of this responsibility and want to do our very best, with the Lord's help. Friday we were called to a special Church Education System, or since we have been here, Seminary and Institute meeting. None of us knew why, including our coordinator, Pres. Cory Bangerter. When we arrived, we met Brother Randy Daybell, who is from the Area Office in Virginia. He works as the Assistant to the Director, and described himself as "a home teacher for CES teachers, who travels around making home visits, checking to see how we are doing." We talked about where we were serving and our assignments. It was like a home teaching visit warm and friendly.
Then Brother Daybell began to teach us.
He talked about forts that surrounded Washington DC, built to protect the city from attacks from the South. He also mentioned empty silos, once filled with missiles to protect East Coast Cities. Then he reminded us that President Faust talked about temples, "sentinels of refuge and protection," that are across our country. We were asked to open our Bibles to Zechariah 3 and 4. He assured us that "we would own these two chapters when we finished that day." I thought to myself, I remember teaching Zechariah last winter, I also remember teaching that Zechariah was a contemporary of the Prophet Haggai and also that he prophesied that the Savior would come, riding on a donkey. Brother Daybell challenged us to look at these scriptures with a visual perspective and then had us read just a few verses, and asked us questions, having us quickly fill in the blanks from the verses we'd read. Next we discussed the symbolism, of the menorah, the olive trees, pipes, bowl, and the oil. What did it all mean? We discussed Joshua, the High Priest, and King Zerubbabel, and it was so interesting, and I was wondering, "Have I ever read this before?" We talked about "tapping into others," and others "tapping into us", and about the woman in Luke 8 who "tapped into" the Savior. He explained that we never know when someone else is "tapping into us". Even when the youth seem uninterested in what we are teaching, they are "tapping into our oil". Brother Daybell shared some important things he learned about this in his teenage years, during his mission, and while serving as a Bishop. By the time he finished we were completely thrilled by what we had learned. It was so powerful and meaningful to us. We did own it and have thought, and discussed it ever since. We want to be teachers who truly teach by the Spirit. We are so grateful for the lesson he taught us, not only the material, but what he gave of himself. Through him, the Spirit testified of the truths that were taught and we were all edified. It was a choice experience.
(above L to R) Elder and Sister West, Sister and Elder dePaula, Sister and Elder Smith and Brother Randy Daybell. Picture taken by President Bangerter.
