Chapter 87

"Guess what girls? We have a special treat today! Sister Anderson is going to teach our lesson! Let's all be respectful and give her our attention," Megan Campbell said to her class of Beehives. She took a seat in the back of the class while Maria set her scriptures and notes on the small table under the chalkboard and sat down on the metal folding chair.

She looked at the six girls in the class, ranging in age from Stephanie Simmons, who would turn fourteen this week, to Abby Nesbitt, who turned twelve three months ago. She gave them a smile that portrayed more confidence than she felt. Despite her prayers and pondering, she still hadn't felt any flash of inspiration that would help her meld the law of chastity to the healing power of the Atonement.

Talking to Brian hadn't helped much. Essentially, he'd told her that the law of chastity was a guilt trip and he didn't connect it to the healing process he was going through right now. "Mostly the law of chastity was a reminder of how badly I'd been messed up, and how I was continuing to mess up," he'd said, "Christ's Atonement has a lot more hope and healing in it than the law of chastity."

In the end, Maria had prepared a lesson on the healing power of the Atonement, still without any idea of how to override the cupcake lesson from last week. An object lesson was a lot more likely to stick in their memories than a lesson full of lecture and scripture reading.

Her daughter, Ruth, pulled a face at her and giggled. Maria smiled back at her, and the object lesson she needed dropped into her mind. Maria stood up. "Sister Campbell, I forgot to get something from the library. I'll be right back." She dashed out the door, and nearly collided with Tracy Nesbitt.

"Am I late?" Tracy asked.

"Go right in," Maria told her. "I need to make a quick dash to the library."

At the library, Brother Hollis boomed at her, "what can I do for you?"

"I need pictures of the temples," Maria said.

"What?" Brother Hollis asked, cupping his hand around his ear.

"Temples!" Maria shouted.

"Temples! Got a whole stack of them," Brother Hollis said, pulling a two-inch stack of pictures out of a cubbyhole and smacking them down on the counter. "Which one do you need?"

"This will work fine," Maria said, snatching the top half-inch of pictures. She grabbed a black Sharpie and a popsicle stick wrapped in tape out of the bin on the counter and race-walked back to class.

"Sorry about that," Maria said as she entered the room.

"That's like forgetting to turn in your homework, huh mom?" Ruth said.

"Exactly," Maria said, putting the stack of temple pictures face down on the table. "Now, last week you got a treat in class. What was it?"

"Cupcakes," Celia sang out.

"You're supposed to raise your hand," JaNiece said.

"That's right, you got cupcakes. You girls are as sweet as cupcakes. Today we're going to talk about something else that's even more like you," Maria said. She put a row of temple pictures in the chalk tray, then taped more temple pictures to the wall and door. She kept the second copy of the picture of the Salt Lake Temple face down on the table.

"Temples!" Celia shouted.

"That's right, Celia. Tell me about the temple. Who do they belong to?" Maria said.

"Heavenly Father," Stephanie said.

"That's right. Temples are called the House of the Lord, and they belong to Heavenly Father," Maria said.

"You get sealed to your family in the temple," Emily said.

"Temples are really special," Abby Nesbitt said.

"We did baptisms for the dead in the temple," Ruth said.

"Did you all go do baptisms? How did you feel while you were there?" Maria asked.

"Like I didn't want to fight with my brother anymore," Celia said.

JaNiece raised her hand and waited to be called on. "I could feel the Holy Ghost really strong."

"I forgot all the other things I was worried about," Stephanie said.

"I felt like praying," Ruth said.

"When I go to the temple, I feel like Heavenly Father loves me and wants to help me with my struggles. I feel peace and happiness," Maria said. "What about you, Sister Campbell?"

"I feel the spirit really strongly too. I know Heavenly Father wants us to go to the temple often so he can teach us. That's why it's so important to stay worthy and prepare to enter the temple someday," Sister Campbell said.

"Yes, that's right," Maria said. "The temple is so special that we need to prepare to go inside. Now, we talked about how we feel about the temple. How do you think Heavenly Father feels about the temple?"

Dead silence.

"We don't think about it very often, do we?" Maria said.

JaNiece raised her hand. "Heavenly Father loves the temple and thinks it's really special."

"He does. He loves the temples. The temples are the House of the Lord, and he sends his spirit to dwell in the temples," Maria said.

"Heavenly Father thinks they're the most special places on earth," Stephanie said.

"He inspires the builders to make them beautiful," Ruth said.

"That's right, girls. Now, how are you like a temple?" Maria asked.

"Heavenly Father loves us too," Abby said.

"Yes," said Maria. "Let's read a scripture. Turn to First Corinthians, chapter one, verse 19."

Celia read, "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

"Thanks, Celia. Did you girls hear that? Your body is a temple because the Holy Ghost dwells in you, just like in the temple. We can feel the spirit strongly in the temple, and each of us also has the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our bodies are temples; we are temples," Maria said.

Stephanie raised her hand and Maria called on her. "That's why if a boy wants you to do something bad, you should tell him that your body is a temple and he doesn't have a recommend."

"You're right. Just like Sister Campbell taught you last week, you shouldn't let boys touch the private parts of your body, or take each others' clothes off, or things like that," Maria said, willing herself not to blush.

An uncomfortable silence descended on the class as the girls looked self-consciously at the floor, punctuated by a nervous giggle or two.

"How does the Lord feel about you?" Maria asked. "We talked about how Heavenly Father loves the temple and sends his spirit to the temple. Does he do that for us?"

"Heavenly Father loves us too, and we should feel the spirit all the time when we're righteous," Emily said.

"Yes, Heavenly Father loves each of you very much. And just like with a temple building, Heavenly Father sends his spirit to dwell in your hearts," Maria said.

"But we have to be worthy," Stephanie said.

"Actually, Heavenly Father loves us no matter what we do," Maria said. "We have to be worthy if we want to hear the promptings of the Holy Ghost, but even if we're not worthy, Heavenly Father still loves us just as much."

"Now, tell me how Heavenly Father would feel if someone did something like this," Maria continued.

Maria took a picture of the Salt Lake Temple and scrawled 'I HATE YOU' across it with the black Sharpie. When she held it up, a few of the girls audibly gasped. No one said anything.

"Would Heavenly Father be mad at the temple?" Maria asked.

The girls shook their heads.

"Would he love the temple any less because someone did something terrible to the temple?"

"He'd be really mad at the person who did that to the temple," Ruth said.

"He would," Maria said. "Would he be mad at the temple?"

The girls shook their heads.

"Can the spirit still be in the temple, even if someone vandalized it?" Maria asked.

"Heavenly Father should send his spirit even stronger, because the temple probably feels bad that someone tried to ruin it," Abby said.

"That's a very good idea, Abby," Maria said. "We talked about how you are a temple; your body is a temple. Like Sister Campbell taught you last week, you should decide to keep your body sacred, and stay morally clean. But sometimes even a temple can be attacked and hurt. There are wicked people in the world, who may try to trick you or force you to do things you don't want to do. If something like that happens to you or to someone you know, it's important to know that Heavenly Father still loves you as much as he loves the temple. He isn't mad at you; he's mad at the person who hurt you."

Maria paused for a second, and met the serious glances the girls aimed back at her. In the back of the room, Maria saw Tracy Nesbitt's eyes glistening with tears.

"If someone spray paints terrible things on the temple, should we clean it up, or pretend nothing happened?"

"Clean it up," came a mumble from several parts of the room.

"That's right. We can't just pretend nothing happened. We need to clean up the temple. This takes time, and it takes help from other people. The temple can't clean itself. If someone does hurt you or a friend like this, it's important to ask for help. If a girl wants to take her clothes off or let a boy touch her, we tell her she needs to repent. The Atonement helps her become clean and pure again. When a person gets hurt like this when she doesn't want it, then we call it healing instead of repentance. Healing is the way the Atonement helps a girl who has been hurt to feel happy and peaceful again."

Maria pulled out the notes for the lesson she'd written about healing. She only had a few minutes left before class ended. Instead of trying to read all the scriptures and General Authority quotes, she only read one.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away," Maria read from Revelation.

"A girl who is tricked or forced by someone who wants to touch her or use her body will have lots of tears. She'll be very scared and confused, and might even feel guilty about what happened to her. Heavenly Father loves her so much that he wants to personally wipe away her tears, and promise that she can heal until there isn't any more sorrow or pain," said Maria.

Maria took the second, unmarked picture of the Salt Lake Temple and set it over the vandalized picture. "Heavenly Father loves you more than he loves any building. No matter what you do, or what someone else does to you, Heavenly Father loves you. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

"Amen," the girls chorused back to her.

"Emily, could you say the closing prayer?" Maria asked.

Emily said the closing prayer. The typical chatter was more subdued than usual as the girls folded up their chairs and got ready to leave.

"Mom? Are you going to get in trouble for writing on the picture?" Ruth asked.

"We'll go to the Distribution Center and buy a replacement this week," Maria said.

The girls were drifting out of the room as Tracy Nesbitt came up to her. "Was that all right?" Maria asked her.

Tracy enveloped her in a hug. Tracy was at least four inches taller than Maria, and quite a bit bigger. Maria recalled the suffocating, surrounded feeling of being smother-hugged by an aunt when she was a little girl.

"It was perfect," Tracy whispered fiercely to Maria.

When she let Maria go, she saw a few tears on Tracy's cheeks, tracing glistening tracks down to the corners of her smile. With a final pat on her arm, Tracy and Abby left.

Bemused, Maria packed up her scriptures and notebook. It was funny – the things you didn't know about your neighbors.

"That was really good. I'm glad you taught it," Megan Campbell said.

"Thanks for being so gracious about it. I only needed to add a few things to what you taught last week," Maria said.

"I needed to hear it," Megan Campbell said.

---

Ruth walked out of class with Celia, tuning out her chatter. Her mom had been talking about Hannah today. This lesson made the way Lee hurt Hannah more real to Ruth. Usually, Hannah was just the whiney kid sister. But now she was the vandalized temple. Heavenly Father wanted to personally help Hannah feel better. Ruth decided she should find a way to help Hannah too.

---

Stephanie walked away alone. That was a weird lesson. Everyone knew that if you were righteous enough, bad things didn't happen to you. Why else would you keep the commandments if not to be more blessed than disobedient people? Heavenly Father protected temples. That's why Danna, who was wicked and rebellious, got attacked, while she, Stephanie, was still as pure and virtuous as she knew she should be.

---

"Did you like this lesson better than last week's lesson?" Tracy asked her daughter, Abby.

"I've never seen anyone scribble on a temple picture before," Abby said. "That was pretty wild."

"That's all?" Tracy asked.

Abby gave her an uncertain look, wondering what her mother wanted her to say.

"Never mind," Tracy said. It was sweet that her daughter was so innocent that she had no idea how much that lesson had meant to her mother.