Come Back

Shandy spoke today as part of the RS presidency in the YSA ward. When she was called to the presidency, one of the major focuses was to rescue the less active. She said, "When I first came to school, I left the church for a year and a half. Visiting teachers and ward members never gave up on me. Finally, I came back because I knew they cared about me." Then she told the following story:

When I lived in Provo, I taught kindergarten. Derrek was a repeat kindergarten student. He didn't have many friends and didn't feel comfortable in class. One day he was trying to cut out the sun for a picture. He kept cutting off the rays, so I told him I would cut it out for him. I had him get a cup of water to clean up the paint brushes between colors. As he got back to the desk, he spilled the water all over. As I was cleaning it up, I had him get a cup of paint. Instead of a small cup of paint, he brought over the gallon container. He tripped and spilled yellow paint all over himself and the carpet. He was devastated and ran from the classroom. I didn't know what to do. My classroom is a mess and one of my students has left. I felt I should call the office, but something told me just to find Derrek. I thought, "No, I cannot leave the class unattended, I need to get help." Again, I felt I should just go find Derrek. I lined the kids up against the window and said, "Watch for me, I'll be coming back. I'm going to find Derrek. He is missing."

I left and started looking for him. It really wasn't so hard, as he left a trail of yellow paint. I found him sitting behind the dumpster crying. He thought I would be mad at him because he kept messing up. I told him that I was not mad and wanted him to come back. He stood up and gave me a big hug - so now both of us are covered in yellow paint. As we walked back to the classroom, the kids saw us and started screaming, "You found him. You found him." They ran from the classroom and surrounded Derrek. When they saw he was crying, they all started crying. It was so tender.

I kept hoping no one would drive by and wonder why we were all outside in tears covered with paint.

She continues, "That touched my heart so much. There are always those who are waiting for us to come back. There are those who will share in our joys and our sorrows."

It was a sweet message.