I Love my Calling

When I moved into the Havana ward I got called as the gospel principles teacher.  I was excited to finally get a teaching calling, but I had no idea how much I would love it.  It's my favorite.  Words cannot express.  I was so sad last week when we didn't have enough people in my class to really make it worth while, because the lesson was on Charity and I was excited about it.  Luckily though, my co-teacher was out of town this week, so I got to give my lesson anyway!  It was wonderful for many reasons, the subject matter obviously, class participation, but the spirit was undeniable!  Here's what the spirit taught me today:

• Charity really is the greatest virtue.  Besides the fact that it is plastered all over the scriptures as being such. If you read 1 Corinthians chapter 13, you realize that it encompasses everything about the gospel and everything that we are supposed to strive for.  I asked the class if any of them thought they possessed all of those qualities, a few people laughed.  I asked if they knew anyone personally other than Christ that came close to having "real charity".  This prompted an awesome share from Rachel who mentioned her MTC teacher who really loved her, and believed in her abilities to fulfill the calling of a missionary.  She said that through her mission when she would get down, she would think of that teacher and how he believed in her, and it helped her believe in herself.  That hit me hard.  That teacher will never know the impact his love had on her life, and he was thousands of miles away when it helped her the most.  And isn't that the point?  To be witnesses of Christ and to be his true followers, we are here to do his work, and the most effective way to do that is to help Heavenly Father's children feel of their own worth, and to feel the pure love He has for us.  That MTC teacher did that.  And he was just a man. 
• If you take a good look at the 10 commandments, you can see that the first 4 commandments are to prove that we "Love God" (we wouldn't worship anything else, we wouldn't curse his name) and the last 6 are to prove that we "Love our Neighboor" (of course we wouldn't steal or lie).  So if we truly possessed charity, we wouldn't need these other commandments, we would already do those things, we would already posses those characteristics, charity is the higher law. 
• The story of the Good Samaritan is about learning to love our enemies.  I love the verses in Luke 6:27-28, 32-35.  If you love those that love you, who cares?!?!  Do you love those who hate you?  Do you pray for them?  Do you try to serve and love them?  Who doesn't struggle with this principle?
• 4 steps to developing charity:
• study the life of Christ and keep his commandments.
• pray to have charity.  Hello Moroni 7 ;)
• love ourselves - learning not to focus inward, but focusing outward
• don't think we are better than other people.

I wish I could always feel the spirit I felt in that class today. It reminded me of the impact love can have on somebody, and how much I need to work to develop it more....especially with upcoming events in my life. 
It also reminded me of the experience I had in 歸仁 (Guiren) my last area, where I never felt love between members in that struggling ward.  Everyone, it seemed, was offended by someone else at church.  The less-active members supported each other better than the active members did.  We tried something to change it, "the circle of love". 
It was simple - the member writes a simple note to the first person they think of.  The missionaries deliver the note, and ask that member to do the same for someone else. 
I can't believe the impact it had.  There was not one sister who was not touched by the fact that someone else in the ward was thinking about them, that someone loved them, that someone appreciated them, that someone believed in them. This is one of my biggest pet peeves about the Taiwanese people, their lack of expressing love to each other.  It's taboo there, and it's why no one felt love in that ward.  I know of at least 4 families that came back to full activity within the next few months after starting that project.  I won't take responsibility for that, it was the sisters, it was the spirit.  It was the Lord and his gospel that reminded us all of the power of love!