RELIEF SOCIETY SISTERS LEARNING MORE ABOUT TEACHER THAN SCRIPTURES FROM HER THIRD LESSON ON SONG OF SOLOMON

Image of Love that Might Not Be Allegorical

MODESTO, CA—The sisters in the Modesto West ward seem to be learning more about Sister Wallace than the scriptures from her third lesson on the Old Testament book Song of Solomon. “After the first lesson,” reported Allison Lewis, “I thought that it was nice to hear about a book that we never talk about in Church.” Sister Lewis continued that “the second lesson, about allegories of love to illustrate God’s love for His children, was also informative, but when we showed up last Sunday for the third lesson I started to wonder if something else wasn’t up.”

Sister Lewis wasn’t alone in her curiosity about three lessons on a book that some do not take as scripture. Kaitlyn Millsap expressed similar surprise. Said Millsap, “[Sister Wallace] had some nice medieval prints for the second lesson, but some of those prints gave me the impression that this wasn’t just a spiritual allegory.” Millsap continued that, “by the third lesson, when she brought in all of those quotes from that book And They Were Not Ashamed, it was pretty clear that…well…more than just the spirit was involved.”

“Yah, by the third lesson it seemed like we were learning a bit more about Sister Wallace then we might have wanted,” concluded Maggie Baker, Relief Society Second Counselor. “We spent a lot of time talking about chapter 5 where the man is supposed to have abs like ‘bright ivory overlaid with sapphires’ and legs like ‘pillars of marble,’ but it was pretty clear that that doesn’t describe brother Wallace anymore.”

Alicia King also remarked that “it didn’t take much to see that, um, well, Brother Wallace is not as interested in going to the ‘mountain of myrrh’ or the ‘hill of frankincense’ as he apparently should be.” Sister King also added, “oh, and I will never look at two young roes or clusters of grapes or spikenard, whatever that is, the same way again.”