Sorry; this one is going to be a long one.
Recently, my home ward has split with my seminary teacher called as Bishop of our new ward. Brother Bauserman will be really great in his new calling--especially with his insight into the youth--however, this news left me reeling a bit. I found it little hard to believe at first (although I had been freaking out a little bit about it before), especially because he had only been teaching seminary here for about 3 years. I am sad for those in his current class who won’t get to finish their seminary experience with him, most especially for my sister who only had him for about 3 months. I thought that with all this change and reflection, now would be a good time to recap things.
Brother Bauserman changed my life. Aside from my family, mainly just my parents, there are probably 5-10 people who I feel REALLY get me. Yes, other family members and leaders care for me, want me to succeed, and love me. However, I very few people TRULY ‘get me’. I feel as though when I get super excited about the Gospel, even members wish I would chill out, or stop ‘vying for attention’. Also, I have been fortunate enough to have heard from many inspiring people and have been able to apply things I’ve learned from them into my own life. However, in the top 5 most influential people in my life (aside from family, of course), Brother Bauserman is #1. Absolutely. All the way. No doubt. Although my upbringing definitely had massive impact on the [good] choices I’ve made in life, when I look back at who I was the beginning of my sophomore year of high school (my interests, what I liked to do, how I acted), I am so, so, SO very different than I am now. There is no doubt in my mind that I am who I am now because I was in Brother B’s seminary. Spiritually, I matured, making the lines drawn by the standards less blurry, my faith grew stronger, and my desire to be righteous has become much greater. I LOVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I LOVE Him, and I LOVE my Father in Heaven. The Gospel excites me more than movies (difficulty level: nearly impossible)! I am currently a Gospel Doctrine teacher in my ward and I look at what Brother Bauserman did to guide my teaching methods. Plus, I have a stash of brilliant handouts that I can use forever. If I pursue a Graduate Degree, it’d be in Religious Education. I’ve NEVER wanted to teach, but I do have a desire to teach teenagers the Gospel. Look at what one amazing teacher did for me. When I began seminary, I was a pretty average LDS teen, with unique potential, yes, but pretty much like most LDS teens. Now, when I get talking about the Gospel, especially what I learned in seminary, it’s hard to shut me up. Also, I hear from my [amazing] Book of Mormon professor, Brother Parker, that his class is way harder than seminary because you have to do more than just show up. I was so blessed to have been tested on the seminary material. Book of Mormon is my best class. Here’s a little bit about seminary with Brother Bauserman:
First off, Brother B is the best. End of story. Bye bye; see you later (Shrek...). He was always so excited about the material he was teaching; it was infectious. Nearly every time he ended class, he’d say we’d pick up “with the rest of the story” or tell us we’d discover what would happen to our hero the next day. Cliff hanger! Drove me nuts sometimes, but made me VERY anxious to get to seminary the next day...surely, I wasn’t the only one. Also, I could see that he really knew each student and worked with them in an individual way. Very cool. He challenged us and I grew. I felt bad because everyone else in the world who couldn’t learn from him too, but not enough to want to trade! Brother Bauserman challenged us to memorize our Scripture Masteries, and knowing those scriptures by heart has blessed my life (plus it’s fun when someone’s giving a talk and starts to say a scripture I know...I like to try and get through it before they do.....).
Honestly, when I was 15, I really didn’t like the Bible. That sounds kind of bad, but it was true. During Old Testament year in Seminary, however, Brother Bauserman brought the characters of the Bible to life! He had a way of ‘translating’ what they said into terms that I could understand and relate to. To this day, I have a great love and appreciation for people mentioned in the Bible. For New Testament year, I enjoyed learning about the Savior in a more in depth way, and I discovered a lot that I never knew before. Also, NT year, the Saint John Challenge was super fun: you say all the John Scripture Masteries, in order, as fast as you can in front of the class. Until about the last month, I had the fastest time. Book of Mormon year was the BEST year. My testimony grew in absolutely humongous leaps and bounds that year. That year, about a year ago now, was when I really, really, really gained a strong testimony. I also loved ‘diving beneath the iceberg’ to uncover doctrinal truths. That year was the year I decided to get 100% scripture reading for the year. I missed 1 day during vacation and was so crushed that I cried about it. Yeah.....However, I found out, once Seminary started back up again, that the vacation days didn’t count, so I ended up with 100% scripture reading. I also love the people in the Book of Mormon! Studying Ammon and his mission to the Laminates, I began to really start to gain a love for the Book of Mormon, and I think that learning more about Ammon in Seminary was quite possibly the start of my massive testimony journey that year. I could go on, and on, and on...and on, but you’d probably prefer that I didn’t. Finally, I remember the first year Brother B taught, he made the class--individually--pinky promise him that we’d get married in the temple. I thought that was really cool. I don’t break pinky promises anymore--it’s like life and death thing now because I was serious when I pinky promised Brother B, and if I break another pinky promise, that would almost make the temple one null and void, so I don’t do that.
So this was a really, really, REALLY long post, and it just scratched the surface. If you think my scripture-dorky-ness is a little strange, now you at least know why I’m this way. I cannot image who I’d be today if I wasn’t in Brother Bauserman’s seminary for those 3 years, and I consider it to be one of the greatest blessings I’ve received.
