At first I was a little disappointed to only have one student attend the Advanced English class on Tuesday night. The one student was Marcella and Tuesday evening was the first time I had met her. She had originally come to the US from Viet Nam and her English was very good.
Our lesson centered around vocabulary and phrases commonly used when going out to eat at a restaurant. The dialogue proved no problem for Marcella.
Near the end of class, Tom challenged her and the two young elders with a couple of American idioms. Rather than presenting the two we had planned that went with out theme for the night (ie. "bite off more than you can chew" and "a piece of cake") he offered "rode hard and put away wet." Of course we discussed together what that referred to and its common meaning as an expression. Then I inquired if Marcella had ever felt like she had been ridden hard and put away wet. She immediatley began to cry.
Elder Lee handed her a tissue and she commenced to tell us how she had been unfairly fired from work. As she opened up, there was a warmth and feeling of commpassion for her that was felt by us all. Elder Chan spoke to her in Mandarin for quite some time. Although Tom and I couldn't understand what was being said, we could feel the gentle, loving spirit that was there. When they were through conversing, Marcella wrote her phone number in Elder Chan's planner and asked him and his companion to teach her the gospel. I don't believe that ever would have happened if the normal number of students had been attending that evening. All the other nights we just talk about English and have fun together in the class with the vocabulary and activities. It turned out to be a very special evening. We all feel great warmth for Marcella and we desire to lift the burdens she has felt. We're anxious to share with her the gospel which will bless her life.
