Joy Comes in the Morning--And for me that is 5:45 a.m.

One of the greatest, all encompassing, overwhelming and totally thrilling joys in my life this past year came at 5:45 in the morning----in the form of 22 14/15 year olds.

My seminary class.

This picture was taken in the beginning of the year and so they look much more grown up and mature now. :-)

This is my fourth year to teach and my eleventh year to be involved in the seminary program, and it just keeps getting better and better.

My class this year is perfect. Okay, so their attendance isn’t always perfect, and they don’t always come on time, and their singing is actually pretty awful most of the time, but you could travel the world from sea to sea, and not find a better, more fun, smarter group of teenagers than I am blessed to spend my mornings with. And I don’t say that just because my daughter is one of them and all her friends are in the class. I say it because it is true.

Sometimes they make me laugh. Like the morning we talked about the resurrection and one student asked if we would be able to eat in the next life. Haylee quickly added, “If I can’t have chocolate and crab, it won’t be Heaven.” I then said, “Let’s think about that for a moment. We know Christ ate with his apostles after his resurrection, so we know we will be able to eat. But will there be death in the next life?” Haylee immediately got a horrified look on her face and gasped, “You mean I will have to eat the crabs live?” Yes, Haylee. And they will stay alive all through your digestive system. :-) Yummmm.

And sometimes they make me cry like the day they shared experiences with receiving answers to prayers.

They came from 11 different elementary schools, three states and four different wards. Some are cheerleaders, others are in band or orchestra and some play basketball, soccer or swim. Some are too shy to say a word in class, and others are hard to keep quiet.

But they are all mine, and I have loved them. And every school day, despite their differences, for 45 minutes we have been united as we study, search and apply the teachings of the New Testament and the Life of Jesus Christ.


Here are pictures from a couple of our activities over the year. In this first one the kids were making oil lamps. Later in the year we went outside and lit the lamps and then had a testimony meeting. It was a very sweet experience and one I will always remember.

We also had a lot of fun playing scripture mastery games --although we didn't play as many of them as I am sure my class would have liked. This was a camel race relay where they were racing to match key words with their references. They are supposed to be riding the camels, but as you can see most of them just ran with them.

And this was the very fun fly swatter game. In this game we posted key words around the gym and then gave a scripture reference. The kids raced to be the first to swat the correct key word. This game got pretty crazy!!

Today was our last day of seminary for the year. That has made me feel so sad! I am going to miss them all terribly. But what a blessing each student has been in my life.

And what great . . . joy they have brought to my journey!