Rising before the sun, Mormon teens build a foundation for their beliefs with daily lessons that start at 5:45 a.m.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published October 27, 2004
ST. PETERSBURG - Pillows, blankets, curtains and autumn decorations bring a touch of coziness to the classroom in the quiet church building.
Outside, darkness envelops nearby homes and hardly a thing stirs.
Inside the church this weekday morning, though, the day is beginning.
Teenagers arrive, one, two at a time, to squat on the floor, at times hugging well-worn blankets to their chins against the chill of the air-conditioned room. Though it's not yet dawn, these young members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) are here for scripture lessons. Others across Pinellas and southern Pasco counties will do the same this morning. Offered worldwide, the religious instruction for high school students, or seminary as it's better known, is a four-year rite of passage for Mormon youth.
For students at the St. Petersburg meeting house, 570 62nd Ave. N, the weekday class begins at 5:45 a.m. This is Randy Frisco's third year of early rising.
"It's something I choose to do," the 16-year-old Northeast High School student said.
"It kind of gets you off on the right foot," said classmate Nathan Fulton, who attends Admiral Farragut.
Matthew Pavone, a student at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School, has to be out of bed by 5 a.m.
"It's actually easy, once you get used to it," he said.
"There's really no hard aspect about seminary. The teacher involves us in the lessons and makes them fun. She actually doesn't just talk to us. She gets us involved in the lessons. Kind of wakes us up."
"I feel it is their lesson," said Maureen Hesse, the teacher, who is an assistant supervisor at Raymond James.
"I try to involve them as much as I can, doing group activities, board work."
Hesse, who travels from her Pinellas Park home for the class, is in her fifth year as volunteer teacher at the St. Petersburg Ward or meeting house.
"I have gone through it as a teenager myself," she said of the program during which students study the King James version of Bible, the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants, which includes the church history.
"I really enjoy the youth and just basically seeing them grow and mature as adults and just seeing them grasp the doctrine and teachings and the scripture."
The studies go beyond theory, said Hesse, who spends about two to three hours preparing each day's lesson.
"It is something applicable for them in the world," she said.
Matthew, 15, agreed.
"It just helps with just regular things that might tempt you at school," he said.
Doctrine and Covenants, for example, teaches that Mormons should not drink coffee and tea. Tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs also are forbidden.
"A lot of students grow up with that knowledge," Hesse said. "Their parents reinforce that... We are commanded that our bodies are a temple."
Not only do the early morning classes teach church doctrine, they also build important friendships and help shield against peer pressure, parent Susan Fulton said.
"You want to have friends that have the same standards ... and it'll help keep you on the right path," said Mrs. Fulton, who is Nathan's mother.
"I attended early morning seminary. Actually in the same building. I know that it helped me growing up, starting the day off on a spiritual note and it helped me with the decisions that I made during the day and hopefully it's doing the same for him," she said.
With four children, Nathan, 15, Mary, 12, Matthew, 8, and Michael, 6, Mrs. Fulton laughingly said she'll be involved in the seminary program for years to come.
In some parts of the country, such as heavily Mormon Utah and Idaho, students participate in the program during school hours. In such cases, said Tonia Fuller, public affairs assistant for the St. Petersburg Ward, the church usually constructs a building near the high school for students to attend classes during "release time" for religious education.
In the St. Petersburg Stake, a jurisdiction that includes the St. Petersburg Ward and other congregations in Pinellas and southern Pasco County, the religious program has an enrollment of 188.
One recent morning, Hesse used the Bible and Mormon scriptures to illustrate the importance of obedience to laws imposed by governments.
"We need laws to protect us for the good and safety of society," she said.
During an interview, Hesse, whose parents, Ken and Carol Hesse, converted to the faith when she was 3 1/2, talked about the beliefs of her church.
Founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who saw visions of God and Jesus as a 14-year-old boy, the faith is Christian, she said.
"We believe in the Christian way of life, in helping your fellow man, in marriage for all eternity and we do have a living prophet. Our church is set up just as Christ's church was set up when he was on Earth, with prophets and apostles," she said.
"It's basically a way of living. The truthfulness of the gospel is very near and dear to us. We know where we came from, why we're here and where we're going. We believe in life after death and that the spirit goes on living."
Students in her classes volunteer at the Orlando temple, one of more than 130 worldwide where ceremonies open only to church members are conducted, she said. One such ceremony is baptism by proxy for people who have died without becoming members of the church, Hesse said.
Being Mormon is important to the teenagers in her class, she said. It's the reason Sarah Beck, 15, and her brother, Michael, 17, rise at 4:30 a.m. and Laura Fielder, a criminal justice student at Pinellas Park High School, gets her dad to drive her to seminary every morning.
Mathew Stanfield and his sister, Kimberly, come from Pinellas Park.
"It's worth going, to learn the lessons," Mathew said.
And what do his non-Mormon friends think of his commitment?
"They say that I'm crazy for getting up that early," he said.
