I really love my calling! The sisters are awesome! They are so engaged in the lesson, they participate, ask questions, many of them read the lesson before class, tell of their own experiences and share their testimonies. No one sits there with a glazed over look on their face (like I was used to with my massage students ha ha ha). Its how every ward should be! I love my calling because it is helping me get to know the other sisters in the ward. When they announce over the pulpit "so and so had her baby, or so and so is in the hospital" I actually know who they are talking about. Knowing them, makes it easier to love them and want to serve them. I always felt so disconnected to the Relief Society in our other ward, being in the YW, I never knew anyone and they didn't know me, and I had no clue as to what was going on one week to the next. While I still miss being in the YW, I am really glad to be teaching the Relief Society sisters. Mostly, and most selfishly, I love my calling because of how much I learn! I teach out of the Gospel Principles manual, which can be a little dry and very plain. So I always try to "beef" it up a little with additional quotes and stories. Its fun! I always stay within the bounds of the lesson, and never include "twinkies" as we called them on the mission (stories passed down with no factual evidence, just mormon folk lore that won't really help your spirit grow, like a twinkie! They taste good, but no nutrients to help you physically grow).
Todays lesson was on the spirit world. The lesson was so short in the book, only 2 pages long, so I definitely needed to help it out a little bit. That was tricky, since its the spirit world, its not like there are a ton of personal accounts/testimonies about the spirit world like there are about tithing, word of wisdom, sabbath day etc. But I was able to come up with a few things. I started the lesson with a story of the Smith family (reason 962 why I am glad I served a mission, random Smith stories swimming in my head. And who doesn't like a Smith story. I love it, cause I like to include stories but don't always want to talk about me and my experience or in this case, I didn't have a story that would relate.) I told the story of the death of Joseph's oldest brother Alvin. He was young, engaged to be married and building a big beautiful home for his future family and also for his parents to live as well. He wanted to ease their burdens and make them more comfortable . On his dying bed, he said good bye to the kids one by one, and to Joseph told him to take care of their parents and to do all he could to obtain the ancient record. He died of gangrene in his stomach, due to a lodged dose of calomel administered by the doctor. Much later, Joseph received D&C 76 as revelation to the after world that gave him comfort to know that anyone who did not receive the gospel on the earth, but would have accepted it had it been available, will inherit the Celestial kingdom. After the story, to start the lesson I posed the question, what happened to Alvin after he died?
We talked about the spirit world, what its for, what we do there, where it is located, what the spirits look like and the 2 divisions there.
I used D&C 138 especially while talking about spirit paradise. This is a very cool section. It was a vision Joseph F Smith had, and then gave as his talk for General Conference. Shortly there after, the 12 and patriarch decided it was revelation and added it as scripture. He sees the spirit world as Christ is there visiting the righteous after his crucifixion. Christ basically organized the righteous to do missionary work to those in prison. What I never realized before (and its kinda a duh, I guess I just never thought about it) is that missionary work on the other side did not exist until Christ's death. Christ had to bridge the gap between the 2 different places. Can you imagine how many people where in prison from Adam to the time Christ died? WOW!
Smith mentions how the righteous gathered to get started on the work. He specifically mentions several of the righteous who were there. Adam and Eve, and their worthy children. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Moses, Noah, Daniel, Ezekiel... Wow, imagine that gathering of saints. And imagine your missionary is the senior couple Adam and Eve, or you get Abraham and Moses showing up to preach the gospel to you.
Dave and I wondered if there is a prophet on the other side?( I definitely did not bring this up in class) Who knows? What I do know is the same organization that exists here, is there as well. The same priesthood callings exist as well. If that is the case who would the prophet be? And how long has he been serving? Prophets here are done serving when they are dead...ha ha ha Poor Adam, he's been at it a long time. Ha Ha Ha. That is totally me making speculation!!! And getting into my "What if" doctrine that I will never know the answer to in this life. But it's still fun to think a little deeper and go out side the box a little to look for answers.
I love learning about the gospel. There are so many layers to the church, that it is perfect for everyone no matter where they are in life or in their knowledge of the doctrine.
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