1/7/2014
First thing that happened:
I taught false doctrine to a less active.
How this occurred:
I do not speak Cambodian well. I try, like, a lot, but I'm
not particularly gifted in language ability. Also, I accidentally prayed to be
humbled. DISCLAIMER- if you are considering offering such a prayer, do not do
so without thinking very hard about it first. It will be answered. God is happy
to answer prayers for humility and patience. I learned this nugget of truth
when we were giving a lesson to this less-active family, the Ys. Cambodians
love to talk about their health problems, so first off, as we sit down the
grandma, she is pointing to different parts of her body and saying 'chu' which
means pain or sick. After about 20 minutes of this, she moved on to tell us
about the rest of the family and their medical hardships. They actually had had
a real rough time of it lately, like several heart surgeries and broken bones
among them. When she finished, we wanted to transition into a gospel message
without completely disregarding all of the health issues she'd just told us
about. So, I thought it would be good to testify that everything, even our
bodies, will be made whole through Jesus Christ.
I told them that in the resurrection, we're promised bodies
that won't suffer the same ails as our earthly ones do. The trials that we
endure in this life will all be made up to us, and despite our unworthiness,
we're able to eventually become whole spiritually and physically through the
atonement of Christ. Anyway, this is what I thought I said. But as I got to the
end of it, the Y family is just looking way perplexed. So I turn the lesson
over to my greenies, who each bare testimony of some other unrelated aspect of
the gospel. Then we close with a prayer. At the end, this grandma had tears in
her eyes, and thanked us for coming. She said that even though she hadn't been
to church in almost 10 years, she'd never forgotten what she learned and how
the spirit felt. She thanked us for bringing the spirit into her home and for
visiting with them.
I was feeling pretty good about all this, until after we
left the lesson and started our discussion as a companionship about what went
well, what we could do better next time, etc. It was at this point that one of
my greenies spoke up and asked what exactly I'd taught about. I repeated to her
pretty much what I said here, taking this as a teaching opportunity to talk
about the needs of the family and why I felt that particular gospel principle
would resonate with them at this time. My dear, dear greenies politely informed
me that I'd accidentally said the word restoration instead of
resurrection.
So: All the while I thought I was testifying about one
thing, I was actually teaching this sweet family that in the restoration of the
gospel, we're all going to be given perfected bodies. I recall that the grandma
had said something to the effect of, "yes, the resurrection was a wonderful
gift from which we're all blessed" to which I responded, "well, yeah,
it hasn't happened yet, but it's going to be a blessing to us. Great faith,
Grandma.". Pretty much as my girls told me, they had no idea what I was
talking about, and when I asked them to say something, they were like,
"well gee, how are we supposed to follow that?" which is why they
ended up each saying something unrelated like, "I know the scriptures are
from God" and then closing.
In summary: I prayed to be humbled, was reminded how little
of the Cambodian language I really know, and taught and testified of false
doctrine to a less active family. But they were still able to feel the spirit
once my companions spoke, even to the point of moving them to tears. Which
shows that no matter what you say, God makes it work to reach the people who
are ready for the message.
A valuable lesson. I love my greenies. They're so patient
with me.
I've been in the WA-TAC 32 weeks, and the church (minus the
stuff I accidentally taught) is true here too!
-Sister McQuivey
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