Seminary

This will be the first I am sure of many blog posts about Seminary. I am now teaching the Juniors and Seniors in our area. I have done this calling in the past and taught for nearly nine years. I have missed teaching the youth but I have had some amazing callings in between time. I have grown a lot and I know that everywhere I have served the Lord has blessed me. All that said I want to tell about an experience we had this morning.

Getting youth to do devotionals is about impossible. I have tried many things to help motivate them and inspire them to do more than just stand up and read a scripture mastery. I have to say I have an amazing group of youth to teach at this time. They are so ready to learn and model all that they see. We talked about what I wanted from devotionals this year and then did the devotionals last week to show them. My gal this morning did one of the best devotionals I have ever witness in all my years working with the youth! I truly felt that we had been taught and I could not add any more to what she taught us. The spirit was amazing and I had tears in my eyes as I listen to a very heartfelt experience that she shared with us. First off, she had been in her scriptures the night before. Second, she had prayed for the right thought to come to her to share with us. Nothing was coming to her she explained but she did have a thought that she needed to invite a friend of hers to church. So while she was reading she decided to text him and invite him to church. She said it was weird but that she felt that she needed to explain to him that she had a prompting to share this with him and wanted to know if he would come to church with her on Sunday. After she was done with that she opened her scriptures and the verse that stood out to her had to to with sharing the gospel and when the spirit prompts you act on it! She told us it was not one that was already marked and she knows that she was led to it and was supposed to share with us her experience. Then she went one step further and reminded us that it was fast and testimony meeting this Sunday and could we as a group - especially the ones in our ward - fast for the spirit to be there so the young man she invited would feel it and then as if that was not enough she added I should say pleaded with the youth to please bear their testimonies! WOW! Can I just say I had a hard time starting my lesson - This sweet young lady like the other youth in my class have had experiences with the spirit and are recognizing it! Not only recognizing it but acting on it! I was really the one taught today and have thought about this all morning long.

The feeling we started with stayed with us through our lesson and when we were at the end of time and they still had questions - and I might add very good questions - they did not realize that our time was already over with. I know that not every morning will go like this but I hope that tomorrow as I start class and remind them of what they felt today they will want to "Choose To Rise" as they start their day under the protection that the gospel can bring.