A fellow at worked criticized naming children after values, like Destiny, and it reminded of a story from my mission. Then, over the weekend, bad kid names were once again brought up, and Chasity was mentioned. It was then that I knew that this story needed to be told.
I had just entered a new area and we were teaching this girl who lived in a trailer (as a large portion of the town of Slave Lake did and likely still does). It was the first time I had met her. Her name was Chastity and we were giving her a brief review of what she had been taught the time before, the Law of Chastity. I was young, and was trying to impress my new companion or her or maybe just myself by mentioning things like, “this is your law, Chastity”.
Finally, after like three references, she condescendingly said, “It’s Chasity.”
I didn’t quite get it, and said, “I’m sorry, did I accidentally call you ‘Charity’ or something? Because sometimes I get the two names mixed up.”
I’m so dumb.
“No, my name is ‘Chasity,’” she said.
“Oh, so I got it right?” I said. Dumb.
“No.”
“Oh...um....” I quickly glanced at my companion, who was just looking at her. “So...I don’t get it,” was all I could think of to respond with.
“It’s Chasity, not Chastity,” she said.
“Um...those both sound the same. Can you spell it?” or I spelled it first -- with a ‘t’ after the ‘s’ and before the ‘i’, of course -- I can’t remember exactly.
Her face joined her voice in irritation. “C-H-A-S-I-T-Y.”
I paused to consider it, and it took me a few seconds to figure it out.
“Oh...Ohhhh...Chassssity.” I really held out the ‘s’ sound. “I apologize,” I said. I followed it up with, “Honest mistake, though, eh?” or some other phrase like that that essentially offered forgiveness to myself.
My companion finally stepped in and said, “Is there a time we can come back?”
She wouldn’t commit to a date, though, and we never saw her again.
