SUSIE
She came into Primary late with her head down, her long,
light brown hair covering her face. She was a beautiful child.
Susie was eight. Everything about her said she was not happy
to be here. She took the seat at the end of the row and sat sideways on her
chair, her back to the rest of us.
I went to her, welcomed her, and ask if she would like to
join the seven year old class where Hannah, a happy friend from her school
class was sitting. She did not reply. I told her that she had a choice but that
I would love to have her in my class today. Her eyes said everything she
couldn’t.
When it came time to separate for classes she followed us
into our classroom. My usual class has one student, Paige, but this day we had two visitors, Jonathan, an outgoing boy
who quickly told me he liked to be called Johnny and Susie.
We sat around a small rectangular table facing one another
in our classroom. Susie on my left, Paige facing me and Johnny on my right.
Wanting to know about my new children I asked them where
they lived and if they went to Primary each week. Susie became very talkative and said that her
parents were divorced. Johnny's hand
shot up and he said "my parents are divorced too." Susie continued
with a story of her father marrying her mother's best friend and her mother
married someone else and is now pregnant and maybe they were going to live in
Seattle where her father lived or maybe not. As she went on, the story became
more and more confusing and yes, she went to primary when she was with her mom
but not when she was with her dad.
Johnny said that he went to primary when he was with his dad but not
when he was with his mom.
Very quickly my heart was full of love and empathy for these
two young children. To Susie I said "that must be very hard for you."
Looking down, she whispered "yes".
As Susie poured out her story, it was obvious that she
struggled with all of this adult dysfunction. Both children had step siblings
and step parents and a very unsettled life.
Their knowledge of the gospel was wanting.
I abandoned my lesson for a time and told them of the love
of Heavenly Father; that He knew them. That He knew where they lived, how they
felt, their names, even the number of hairs on their heads and that He was
always there for them, watching over them. I testified of His concern and help for each of us and that
when things are not going well at home or at school that they could pray to Him
and He would give them comfort. I
believe that Susie felt the truth and wonder of it.
By this time we were all comfortable together and I said that we needed to have some catch up
of the lessons before so that today's lesson would be meaningful. I asked if
they knew about Joseph Smith. Johnny said he had never heard of Joseph Smith
but he knew of a Dan Smith from a story he had read. Susie said she kind of
knew…maybe.
Paige, who is usually quiet, raised her hand and ask if she
could tell the story. To my surprise,
she began with Joseph Smith's family, and continued with the confusion and
fighting among the churches, Joseph's prayer, the first vision including
Satan's part, Moroni
We played a game to illustrate the difficulty of printing
the Book of Mormon translation.
We folded a paper to show how things had to be printed
upside down and right side up etc. then the lesson was over.
Johnny, who had given the opening prayer, also gave the
closing prayer. I asked if I would see them next week but it was to be Johnny's
turn with mom and Susie wasn't sure.
Class concluded, the children left the classroom to find
their parents.
Feeling successful I gathered my things and upon leaving, I
saw that Susie had found her mom and siblings in the hallway. She saw me and
came running, threw her arms around me and said. "I can come back next
week!'
Two more names were added this day to my prayer list.
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