Appearance of Obedience

This one time on my mission..My companion and I locked ourselves out of our apartment. Luckily we were in the giant metropolis of Gillette, Wyoming. All joking aside at least there was another set of missionaries in the city (not typical of the mission). However, we discovered we were locked out close to curfew, and had to walk a few miles to the other missionaries' apartment. Arriving late, knowing the apartment's policy to get a spare key was to visit the office during business hours; we crashed with our brethren that night. Due to the circumstances and late night the next morning we over slept, waking up just before a surprise visit from the 1st councilor to the Mission President, who worked for CES and was always on the road. Since my companion and I had slept in our clothes, we appeared to be up and productive; while the residents of the apartment were still half ready for the day.  1st Councilor hears our story and offers to drive us to get our spare key, after laying down a solid rebuking upon the other two missionaries. 1st Councilor treated us to breakfast before taking us to get the key. He spent the time together regaling us on our example and begging us not to judge the other Elder's.  Teaching us a valuable lesson: Obedience is good, but the appearance of obedience is always better. 

Elder Hoyle
South Dakota Rapid City
1998-2000