After graduating from high school, Mathew sets out to do a two-year missionary service like everyone else his age.
Mathew thought that his only problem would be him adjusting to the city as someone who's lived in a farming town all his life. he didn...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Mathew." I turned at the sound of my name that had been called over the noisy crowd. I was surprised to find a counselor smiling at me. He was a man with greying hair and tired looking eyes. I stopped in my tracks, pointing at myself, and he nodded. I walked over to him, wondering why he had called out to me.
"Yes, sir?"
Church service had just ended, and the halls were a bit rowdy as people left for their rooms or to the activity rooms. I had to talk to someone later today with Sam and another brother.
"I heard you've been meeting up with the town's local mechanic. Nathan, was it?" I felt my blood drain out of my face at his words. So, people knew. I nodded, and I watched as his lips thinned out.
"Alone?" he asked, and I nodded again.
"Stop meeting up with him," the man said, before reaching out to hold my shoulder. "It's for your own good. If you must, take someone along with you." The smile he gave me afterward didn't seem friendly, and I was left standing in the middle of the hallway when he walked past me. I bit my bottom lip, letting out a sigh before I turned and headed in the direction of our wards. I met up with Sam upstairs and got ready. He went on about a book he was reading, and I listened to him, chiming in to comment from time to time. I was trying to get the counselor's words out of my head. I didn't want to think too much about it.
We headed downstairs to the room, waiting for the person to get there. Sam got up, heading outside for a bit so that he could make a phone call. It took a while, but he came back with the lady that had promised to come. She looked somewhere in her early twenties. She had light brown hair and piercing blue eyes. She apologized for getting here late before taking a seat on the empty sofa.
"Would you like to start off with an opening prayer for us, if you don't mind?" Sam asked her. She looked like she was thinking about it for a bit before she eventually agreed. She said a short prayer, chopped and round about like the type you'd expect from someone who felt it was weird — she probably did, and that was okay. She was learning, and it was fine.
"So, today we're going to talk to you about..." Sam trailed off as he flipped through the little teaching guide. The sound of his action filling the room. "The Word of Wisdom," he said with a smile before placing the book on the table.
"You still have the book we gave you, right?" James, who had come with us for this meeting asked the lady. She blinked, muttering a small 'oh' before fishing for the pamphlet in her bag and flipping to the page we were on.
"So, the Word of Wisdom is a law of health revealed by the Lord for the physical and spiritual benefit of His children," I started, and I watched as the lady nodded in understanding. "The Lord revealed which foods are good for us to eat and which substances are not good for the human body. He also promised health, protection, knowledge, and wisdom to those who obey the Word of Wisdom."
The room went silent for a bit and we all watched as the lady nodded, looking down at the pamphlet in her hands.
"Would you like to read that out?" I asked, and she looked up at me, smiling before she nodded.
