November 19, 2017

Greg and I woke up bright and early for a seven a.m. meeting at the Stake Center.  It was cold outside  as we walked arm and arm into the building.  We had a great training meeting put on by our Stake Presidency all about the new Relief Society and Priesthood Curriculum for the new year.  It was great, and I felt motivated and inspired with lots of ideas.

Once at home, the kids were just waking up.  I made them a hot breakfast, and Greg got them all excited about putting up our Christmas decorations.  I wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving, but apparently my vote didn't count for much.  I had to leave for ward council, so they were left to their own devices anyway!  Ha!

I love my cute boys!

I enjoyed ward council so much.  It was spiritual and emotional and funny and informative.  We live in such a fantastic ward!  By the time I came out, Julia was waiting in the hall for Bishop's Youth Council.  She surprised me sitting there!

Greg and the kids had been busy at home!  They had Christmas music playing and the whole tree up and ready to go.  I helped them a little bit and then cleaned up and got all the kids ready for church.

We had a fantastic time at church.  But I felt a bit frazzled when Relief Society started.  I just didn't feel very confident.  I didn't know how I should act, or who I should say hi to.  I suddenly felt overwhelmed with doubts about myself.  After church I realized that the adversary would want nothing more than to cripple me with self doubts.  He would welcome my insecurities and hope I developed even more of them.  I took a deep breath and decided to just keep trying and not think too much about how much I lack.

We had a really yummy chicken and sweet potato stew (thanks to my freezer dinner stockpile).  We also ate thick, buttered slices of the homemade banana bread I whipped up this morning.  I am such a sucker for banana bread.  Yum!  It felt good to eat and visit with my family.  It was already dark and glow of the Christmas tree added such a warmth to the room.  I wanted to kick off my church shoes and pull on my pajamas and sit by the fire, but I had one more meeting to attend.

It was a stake meeting with all of the Relief Society Presidents and Elder's Quorum Presidents.  We met with the High Councilors over the young single adults in our stake, as well as the YSA representatives from the YSA stake at the university.  Our stake president has decided to turn over the YSA responsibilities to the RS presidents and EQ presidents.  This is a new thing in our stake.  As we talked and pondered about how to best find and reach out to all of the lost young single adults in our area, I couldn't help but think of mom and dad on their mission to Missouri.  They spent days and days searching out many young single adults.  They had a list of 500 people they were supposed to find.  I'm so proud of and inspired by my parents.  They finished the entire list by Christmas, only a few months after they first got their assignment.  And they brought back into activity quite a few of those precious souls, including a baptism, a wedding, and a trip to the temple.  They followed the Savior's example by going out after the lost sheep, leaving the ninety and nine to find the one.

I walked out into the dark night feeling the weight of this new assignment.  All I could think about was how they told us that when Elder Ballard came to our area, the local leaders asked him, "What keeps you up at night?"  After thinking about that for a bit, he responded, "The young single adults.  It keeps us all up at night.  We just don't want to lose them."  And I kept thinking about the high councilman saying, "This is a list.  But these are real people.  Real individuals with individual needs."  I loved that thought.

Finally I could fall into bed, after a really long day.  I've been loving my time listening to "Jesus The Christ" as I work around the house.  It has filled me with the spirit so much.  When the Savior healed a man on the Sabbath Day, the pharisees were all upset about it.  They thought he was "working" on this holy day.  The Savior, through a bunch of fantastic questions, shows them the flaws in their thinking, and that there was nothing wrong with what He had done.  He said, "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days."

That thought has stayed with me.  It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath day, and that might look really busy and hard.  But this is the Lord's day.  And we should be doing the Lord's work.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve.

Bless Greg's heart, he had the kids in bed, and the house put to order.  We are in this mess together!! I'm so grateful for my family.  I'm so grateful that they all love and support me.  I hope I can stand confident and do many good things...