Parable of the Snake

We were getting ready for bed when we received an hysterical call from the sister missionaries next door. "Elder Caycayon, there's a SNAKE in our apartment!" PANIC TIME!!!
I can handle a rat running through the room while teaching a lesson, a 7.2 earthquake and Super Typhoon Yolanda, but I don't do snakes. Goosebumpy yuck and double yuck!
Akong bana (my husband) grabbed a cleaver, a stick and a 10# dumb bell and I grabbed a flashlight and my quilt.  Quilt?!? you ask.  Why a quilt?  It was panic time and all that popped into my head were National Geographic specials I'd seen on how to catch a snake.  They always seem to have a gunny sack to stick the snake in.  I didn't have one of those but I had a quilt, it was kind of like a gunny sack, it was made of cotton.  (So who thinks clearly at a time like this.  Certainly not a girl from Kauai who has never seen a snake except on National Geographic or in a cage @a zoo)
Anyway we ran over with snake catching stuff.  No, that's not entirely true.  I  ran over there with my snake catching stuff but Elder Caycayon ran over with his weapons of destruction.  He was not going to catch the snake.  He was going to destroy it.  We rushed in and found the sisters up on their chairs.  They pointed @ the intruder.  It was slithering on the floor in the kitchen.  It was long and skinny and very snaky.

 My brave husband rushed toward it and his smart wife (me) ran away from it and joined the sisters up, up and away from it.

 Who in his right mind rushes towards a poisonous snake! (Testosterone, adrenalin filled males of course) My husband shouted, "Shine the light on it so I can see it."  I was shining the light but I guess the beam wasn't reaching from waaaaay across the room.  Sis. Sears grabbed the flashlight from me and lit up the snake while she snapped pictures @the same time. Sis. Clegg yelled, "Take a picture of him cutting off it's head!"  These are not faint-hearted sisters.  Of course I did my part too.  I kept yelling, "Don't get too close to it. It's poisonous! Stay away from the head. It's poisonous! Even though you cut off it's head, it's still moving and can bite you! Remember it's poisonous!"  By the third reminder that it was poisonous Sis. Sears turned around and said, "We get it already Sis. Caycayon.  We all know it's POISONOUS!" Of course I immediately forgave her rudeness because she was just reacting to a stressful condition.

Elder Caycayon beheaded the snake, then took him outside and threw him back into the bushes from whence he came.  Another exciting, unexpected adventure in our missionary life on Bohol!

I know he's little, but he's (say it with me) POISONOUS!
 

As Pres. Uchtdorf said in the April Ensign issue, "As I was contemplating  this scene, it occurred to me that if this wasn't an opportunity for a parable (then I've never danced the hula)."

We're not really sure how the snake got into the apartment.  We just know that he did. He slithered in quietly. He was little but still deadly.  He had enough poison in him to kill a person. We were grateful that the sisters saw him before he was close enough to do any harm.  And that they reacted correctly.  They moved as far away and to high ground as possible and then called the priesthood for help.

Are there things in our lives that are slithering into our homes quietly that we are not noticing? Small things that might not seem to be that big a deal but are really quite deadly if we don't take notice of them in time? Are we aware of them early enough to remove ourselves and our families as far away as possible from the poison that might kill us spiritually?  Are they things that we will need the help of the priesthood to get rid of?

One other thing that stood out to me...the sister missionaries were doing what they were supposed to be doing at the time this happened.  They were being obedient.

 "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say ye have no promise."
 D&C 82:10

I am sure their obedience protected them.  They were able to see the snake before it could harm them and then act to insure their safety. 

May we always be found doing what we are supposed to be doing. May we always be obedient in keeping the commandments. And may we reap the blessings of that obedience with the needed discernment to protect ourselves and our families from the small but deadly things that quietly infiltrate our homes.