Game day

Today I went early for ward council. I am not a formal member, but as the ward Self-Reliance Specialist the bishop asks me to come once per month when they address welfare concerns. I received the assignment to lead the fifth Sunday meeting that the Area Presidency has instructed all the units to present. Ours will be in June. I still need to look at the materials.

Last week I spent five or six hours helping one person apply for one job, in two different sessions. This week I will help someone else review a resume and practice interview skills.

I saw Ben and Amelia walk into the building. Ben moved to be in between me and Amelia as they walked past. I am not saying it was intentional, but it could have been. I looked at Amelia and said, "Good morning!" Amelia ignored me. Ben said, "hello," in a certain tone, something between suspicion and disdain.

The sacrament meeting talks today on trusting in the Lord and on hope were good. Rick Olson gave the second one. I felt a little disappointed he was short on time. He managed to be effective anyway. He is a person of grace. I ran around during the first part of Primary trying to figure out what was really going on with the stake Self-Reliance meeting that had been announced but didn't quite make sense to me. Instead of rescheduling the introductory devotional that was cancelled earlier this month, they are simply starting a Personal Finance group in a couple of Thursdays from now. When I was done running around and bringing the missionary meal calendar into Primary, I sat with the Sunbeam class as a companion to their teacher. That's always a good time. Primary goes by so quickly now. It seems like just enough time.

After church I spoke with the seminary teacher about Tom's attendance. He hasn't been for a couple of weeks. I don't know what that's about, but I don't think it's about anything that did or didn't happen at seminary. A few minutes later I saw her talking with Ben, so I think she probably checked in there, too. I am grateful for leaders who will contact both of us. I know it's a pain, but it is not ideal for me to have to relay information to Ben, or for me to rely on Ben to relay information to me. It doesn't work very well.

Noah and Anna came over after church. We made lunch. Tina joined us. Afterward we played several games: Bananagrams, Splendor, Codenames, Password, 10 Days in Africa. They stayed so long I fed them soup and grilled cheese before they left for their D&D appointment. They are good company. it was a nice day. Between food prep (tacos), dinner and dessert, we managed to use a lot of dishes. I am glad for a dishwasher, which I think I will go reload now.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My daughter did not go to church today

We had a remarkable sacrament meeting today. The youth speaker did a lovely job talking about how prayer has brought her comfort and peace. Makayla, a woman who recently joined our ward, gave a beautiful talk about being of good cheer. It turns out, it isn't so much about being happy as having courage. She shared stories of her grandmothers and her mother that showed their different ways of having courage and the confidence that can come to us through faith in Jesus Christ. Then we sang, "I Am a Child of God." Isaac gave the last talk, with similar motifs. He made a point at the end to say that having challenges and feeling bad are not synonymous with being out of favor with God. The Relief Society discussion topic was on Becky Craven's talk "Careful vs. Casual" and Pr. Oaks's talk "Where Will This Lead?" It was good for me to revisit Sis. Craven's talk and find that it was less annoying than I perceived in its delivery the first time aro...
Read more

60-minute testimony meeting

Today was our first Sunday with 2-hour church. I went to church at 9:00 a.m. and got home before noon, even though I spent a long time chatting with people after the meetings. It was nice! Sacrament meeting went by quickly. I didn't miss those extra ten minutes. Our bishop has been practicing for going without them for the past couple of weeks. There were 6 males and 5 females who bore their testimonies, which is about as close to balanced as we get in our ward. One of the males was the bishop, who conducted the meeting. It bodes well as a start to the new year. About three years ago I noticed that it seemed like more men bore their testimony than women in our ward. I expressed on the ward sisters' Facebook group a desire to hear from more women, for myself and for my sons and daughters. Since we have a fair number of young families, and one parent is sometimes called away for work, I offered to hold children or take them out in the hall if that would help anyone out. Since...
Read more

A day late

I arrived a few minutes early for ward council. As the other people arrived, I felt a thrill at the four women in attendance: me (Self-Reliance Specialist) and the three female auxiliary presidents. We were a full third of the people in the room. We had sacrament meeting talks by a graduating senior, the stake patriarch, and a high council visitor. The youth talk was the best one. Relief Society made me a little nervous. The teacher told us how she is used to lecturing and being an authority, but that's not what we're meant to do in Relief Society. Often when people make such assertions, they disappoint. This one didn't. She actually entertained numerous comments, including responses to the comments of others. We spent a few minutes in groups discussing questions after the initial general discussion. She even wrapped up pretty close to on time, in spite of having the groups report a little on their discussions. We had a linger longer at the pavilion after church. A lo...
Read more