Youth conference
I had my ministering brother's family over for lunch after church today. Well, actually, I made pancakes for them. And bacon, so it was really breakfast. Tom and Amelia didn't show up for lunch, but Tom came in as we were having a Come, Follow Me discussion. He loitered in the background, eating bacon, and eventually sat down with the group. Eean had been on youth conference in his role on the high council. He brought me the dvd of the Church history videos each ward made to watch on the bus, so we watched a couple of them. Tom and Amelia were in charge of editing the one for our ward. They did a good job. It was quirky and fun. As we wrapped up, I faded into the kitchen and let Tom visit with the Crawfords. I think they had been ready to go, but were happy to hang around a little bit to spend some time with Tommy. I was surprised to see that Tom was in church clothes. I don't know whether he attended our ward. Amelia didn't come to lead the opening hymn. She only did that once. The other young women have filled in for her, and the adult leaders have been helpfully matter-of-fact in having a backup plan.
Sunday school was a breath of fresh air today. It was the second time my friend Sonja taught, the first I'd been in attendance. She had some good questions to consider and was willing to let the discussion go wherever the people in the room took it. She did not talk the whole time. She was vulnerable in sharing her own experience, as were others.
Sacrament meeting was not bad. Four youth reported on their experiences at youth conference. I was especially touched by the testimony of one of my former Bear cub scouts. He talked about how the places they had visited were just places. What made them special was what happened in them. He realized that he could find his own quiet places where he could seek spiritual guidance. He also had voiced the sacrament prayer on the bread. I was moved by the pace, intention, and thought that was evident as he repeated the familiar words. He was a squirrelly 9-year-old who would spend a lot of time crouched on the windowsill or running away and hiding, a bit of an odd duck. I loved him them and I love him now. It's the redeeming thing about serving in Cub Scouts, the love that I feel whenever I see those boys.
The adult speaker was inoffensive. She did a lot of public speaking no-nos, like rattling off a list of numbers (church statistics, then and now, such as number of temples), and reading lengthy quotes from someone else's talk, and from a magazine article. But it was fine, and she didn't go past the allotted time, so yay for that.
Sunday school was a breath of fresh air today. It was the second time my friend Sonja taught, the first I'd been in attendance. She had some good questions to consider and was willing to let the discussion go wherever the people in the room took it. She did not talk the whole time. She was vulnerable in sharing her own experience, as were others.
Sacrament meeting was not bad. Four youth reported on their experiences at youth conference. I was especially touched by the testimony of one of my former Bear cub scouts. He talked about how the places they had visited were just places. What made them special was what happened in them. He realized that he could find his own quiet places where he could seek spiritual guidance. He also had voiced the sacrament prayer on the bread. I was moved by the pace, intention, and thought that was evident as he repeated the familiar words. He was a squirrelly 9-year-old who would spend a lot of time crouched on the windowsill or running away and hiding, a bit of an odd duck. I loved him them and I love him now. It's the redeeming thing about serving in Cub Scouts, the love that I feel whenever I see those boys.
The adult speaker was inoffensive. She did a lot of public speaking no-nos, like rattling off a list of numbers (church statistics, then and now, such as number of temples), and reading lengthy quotes from someone else's talk, and from a magazine article. But it was fine, and she didn't go past the allotted time, so yay for that.
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