Making assumptions

I have been guilty of making the wrong assumptions about people twice in the last few months and I have learned, hopefully a really good lesson even though I did no harm. First, was a Sister that I visit teach. At first, she was just a letter because she was moving around a lot and had her address here. She came back in October and I made an effort to get to know her as I knew she would be traveling again soon. My assumptions: Her family goes from Renaissance Festival to Festival and her husband is not a member. I assumed that she was uneducated and inactive and probably some others too. I found out that she is very well educated, comes from a Pioneer stock family of the Church and is as active as her life style will let her be. I also found out last Wednesday that she has a Temple Recommend and so must have taken out her Endowments. I feel very judgmental and am humbled that I could have been so wrong about such a nice person.

Second assumption - (This is a little harder to follow) - In Mandy's dance class there is a little girl named Hannah. I met Hannah's Grandmother (Elaine) first as she was bringing Hannah to dance. I like Elaine, we are about the same age and she has three grown children and several grandchildren. Elaine is not a member of the Church but Amanda , her daughter is. Amanda is now bringing Hannah to dance as she bay-sits her during the day - Hannah lives with her Dad and he is divorced. Mom is not a desirable influence _ Elaine was the person that told me in a round about way that Amanda was LDS. She and her brother joined as teenagers and she is now married to a return Missionary and they have a little girl named Jillian. Here is where the assumption came in- Elaine was talking about Amanda's wedding and that Bishop Stutz (my Bishop) married them. Ok- so being me I put 1 & 1 together and figured that they couldn't get married in the Temple and were less active. Wrong assumption again. I was talking to Amanda the other day and she talked about the fact that both of their parents were either nonmembers or less active and couldn't come to the Temple so, they prayed and decided that for them, in this particular case they would marry civilly and then wait the year and be sealed in the Temple and they did.

So, as I try to learn my lesson I thought I would share this one with everyone. In both instance, I did no harm - I befriended my Visiting teachee and it has been rewarding for both of us and I never said anything to Amanda and accepted her for who she was but I could have done damage and I have repented of the thought processes that I went through. So, hopefully for me this is a lesson learned and I won't repeat it.

Have a great day-Oh, by the way, it was not my fault that I couldn't put the pictures in - my computer refused to do it and I finally had to get Jason to post on his computer and so we are trying to find out what setting on my computer will not let me post to my blog??????