As a
classroom teacher I always wanted to control the teaching/learning atmosphere as
much as possible. I would arrange the room, use the media well, and ensure that
the walls had appropriate things hung on them. I worked under the belief that
if the physical atmosphere was well managed then both the teaching and the
learning would be elevated.
Teaching
as a missionary brings a whole new dimension to the teaching atmosphere because a missionary can rarely control the physical aspect of it. You are invited into someone's home and you just go with what is there. Here are 3 experiences I had last
week. The first was in the evening. A mother and her teen-age son are studying
with us. We went for a lesson and she was trying to get dinner ready, keep her
other 3 younger daughters under control, keep the television off or at least
keep the volume down, answer the phone, and be engaged in the lesson. Not an ideal
situation.
That was
followed by a lesson with a single man who lives in a hotel. We taught him in
the lobby of the hotel. There were 2 chairs in the whole lobby. He sat in one,
I in the other, and the two young missionaries stood. People were coming in and
out, the desk clerk was right by us and there was the usual commotion
associated with a public place. Again, not ideal.
Two days
later we went at 10 a.m. to a home to teach a single woman. She lives in a
3-story, 6-unit building, the type that are so common in these parts. She couldn’t invite
us in because one of her roommates had started drinking earlier in the morning
and was well into his first six pack of the day and not in a good mood. So we
stood on the porch and taught – we in our white shirts and ties, she in her
bathrobe. We competed with her phone, the trash trucks, a fire engine, lots of
neighbors flowing in and out of the building, and the general noise of the street. Far,
far from the ideal.
All three
of these situations would never be considered excellent teaching venues, but
here is what happened. The first woman and her son were on their fourth discussion and it went well. She shared with us some experiences from her life
where she felt the Spirit but didn’t know what it was that kept guiding her
towards better things. We helped her see what it was and she was filled with
the Spirit again. The second man had already committed to baptism and this was
a little tune up lesson for him. He accepted it very well. He was edified as we all were.
The third woman was very agreeable to the message, accepted a Book of Mormon,
committed to read it each night, and invited us back.
What
made these lessons come alive and overcome very poor ‘classroom’ set ups? Of
course, it was the presence of the Holy Ghost. Nothing makes teaching too difficult
for Him. When we pray and invite His presence, real teaching and learning
occurs no matter what the setting and situation. Now, what will happen with these people and their relationship to the church only time and experience will tell. But I do know that on each of those particular occasions they were given the best opportunity to hear and accept the message because of the presence and active involvement of the Spirit in the teaching process
