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| "The Church is not an automobile showroom, it is more like a service station" - Pres. Uchtdorf |
In typical form, he was able to get a lot of class participation (even from those that couldn't attend in person) by doing some coordination with quorum members in advance. He texted several members independently to ask, "Are there any examples of genuine love/service/testimony/anything that you can share?" We were able to draw out some great stories in the class. Below are some excerpts.
- An anonymous testimony was submitted recounting a story of a quorum member who, when he was a youth, stayed out too late one Saturday night with his friends and took a substance he shouldn't have, and which was detected by his parents when he got home. The next day on the LONG ride to church the father waited for the rest of the family to head out of the parked car and then, unorthodoxically, told the son that he wanted him to stand in front of his fellow priesthood youth and tell them what he did and ask them to forgive him. (Wow!) [I'm not sure what I would have done in that situation either as the father or the son.] So this young man stood up and explained what he did and then said he immediately felt the overpowering love and acceptance of his fellow friends.
- Abraham S. shared a short story from his youth about finally pushing back on his father who he felt was pressuring him too much and the father sort of cracked and broke down a bit and said, "I'm sorry, son. I guess I've never been the father of a 14-year old boy before.", and how this instance both showed him how genuinely hard his father had been trying, and improved their relationship greatly ever since.
- Skyler S. shared a fantastic story which I'll call the parable of the 3 priesthood friends, Stu, Trevor, and Skyler. One boy, Stu, was the son of the stake president, and everything came naturally to him. Sklyer started to grow tired of everyone saying how great Stu was, and he complained to his mom, "Mom - this guy's not actually that great. I know. I'm the one showing up on time to prepare the sacrament. I'm the one collecting fast offerings every month." His mom responded, "Skyler, are you serious?! Look at Trevor. He's doing all the things you are doing, and more, AND he's not asking for any recognition." And then a few days later Skyler actually found Trevor at a street near his house and said, "Hey man, what are you doing here?" to which Trevor sheepishly responded, "Oh... yeah... I mean... I just kind of come here sometimes and just help someone out with something." When Skyler pressed further he came to learn that this guy, Trevor, was actually doing repeat visits to a widow's house to do her yardwork for her. Ha!
- Abele T. shared his appreciation for fellow quorum members who shine through as examples of genuineness for him by taking time out of their busy lives to help others in need and practice what they preach.
- Dan K. shared a story about how being a nursery teacher was actually quite difficult for him and his wife, and once when he slightly let on about it to his home teacher who happened to have a kid in nursery he was impressed that of all the preachy things the home teacher could have said, he simply said, "Thank you for helping in the nursery. It's nice that my wife and I can count on people as reliable as you and your wife to trust our kids with so we can attend our classes and be spiritually uplifted."
"Many of the things you can count, do not count. Many of the things you cannot count, really do count.” - attributed to Albert Einstein
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