Description
The Visiting Teacher
In commemoration of the organization of the RS, on March 17, 1842, I would like to share a story.
The year was 1973, and Susan was living in a cabin on a dirt road in the San Bernardino National Forest with three small sons and no visible means of support. She had no money, no prospects, and no idea what to do next. She had had several visiting teachers but none had come to her back woods locations until there was Janice. Janice came faithfully and even saved Susan and her family a place in church.
One one of those visits, Janice however, seemed distracted. Finally Susan asked,
“Janice, is something wrong?”
“You’re the first person I’ve seen since my doctors’ visit this morning,” Janice said. “I just learned that I can’t have any more children.”
Janice then explained, through her tears, that yes, she already had 9 children, but her goal in life was to have 12.
“Have you ever had something you wanted and you didn’t get?” Janice asked.
It crossed Susan’s mind that being a single parent and living on a dirt road in the mountains with no plans for the future, there were some things that she had wanted but didn’t get. But she was wise enough not to say anything. Instead, she said:
“We need a new library in town. Our library is like a closet. I’ve read the books in the library, I’m sending for books via the interlibrary loan and I have to wait sometimes for weeks for the books to arrive.”
“Do you like books?” Janice asked.
“I love books.”
“Why don’t you go back to school?”
Susan told Janice she could probably afford to pay California state tuition, but she couldn’t pay tuition and also pay for someone to watch her three sons. By the time Janice left, she was still downhearted, but now so was Susan – her own woes having moved front and center in her mind.
That night, about 10 o’clock, the phone rang, it was Janice.
“Susan,” she said, “I’ve got the answer for you and I’ve got the answer for me. I want twelve children and I only have 9. You’ve got three children, that makes 12. Why don’t you go back to college one day a week and I’ll watch your children on that day. Then I’ll know what it’s like to have 12 children. And you’ll know what it’s like to be immersed in books.”
It was a deal. The boys went off to Janice’s and they loved it. She had far more amenities than Susan’s forest pad, and Susan went off to school. And notwithstanding she stuck out like Waldo because she was the oldest one there, she discovered she enjoyed it and she was good at it. And from there, from that humble service of a faithful visiting teacher, something wonderful happened.
Susan indeed went back to school and kept going until she had earned her doctorate. And then she went on to become a distinguished professor of church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. In fact, she’s one of their most popular and widely published professors: Doctor Susan Easton Black.
And the story doesn’t end there, each of those three sons has also earned his doctorate. In each of their homes, and Susan’s, hangs a portrait of Janice Staymire: the faithful visiting teacher.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Easton_Black
https://www.deseret.com/2008/11/10/20380489/byu-s-susan-easton-black-revels-in-teaching/
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1754046508317862 (35:50-41:00)
